What are Tolerances and how can they be used as a Freight Reseller

When reconciling carrier charges there will likely be a point where investigating and claiming the charge difference will cost your business more than the discrepancy itself. In order to enable your team to easily recognise this, MachShip has allowed for a customisable set of tolerances to be applied which will automatically set a consignment as Reconciled if the discrepancy is within the set tolerances. 

Tolerances can be automatically set against a Carrier Account or alternatively, they can be used to balance a carrier invoice. 

How to set Tolerances against a Carrier Account

Tolerances can be set against a carrier account either when you are creating the carrier account or alternatively by editing an existing carrier account.

To navigate to the carrier accounts section go to Admin > Carrier Accounts.

Then either select Create Carrier Account.

Or alternatively, if adding to an existing account search for the account through the Company, Carrier or the search bar. 

Then use the drop-down cog to select Edit Carrier Account.

To set the tolerances scroll down to the middle section of the creation or the edit page. 

The Reconciliation Tolerance types are: 

• Absorb Above and Below Ex Tax Total Tolerance: These are tested against total cost before taxes are applied and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
• Absorb Above and Below Fuel Tolerance: These tolerances are just tested against the fuel surcharge and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
• Pass on Total Cost Ex Tax: The Pass-on total is for brokers. Brokers offer transport rates from a portfolio of accounts which they have negotiated with the carriers. They then on-sell these accounts to clients at a charge and will manage the transport for that company. Brokers invoice out this transport and the above tolerance will immediately pass on, or on-charge any charge discrepancies to a client for which the tolerance applies. For non-broker customers, this amount can be left as zero.

The Type can be set to be either Dollar (this will be a tolerance on the difference between the 2 price figures) or Percentage (this will be a tolerance on the percentage difference between the 2 price figures).

How to balance with Tolerances against a Carrier Invoice

If you need to use a custom set of balance figures in order to balance a carrier invoice then you can set the tolerance through the Balance with Tolerances option. 

1. Navigate to the Manage Carrier Invoices Page.

Select Finance and View Carrier Invoices.

Using either the Company or the Carrier filters or alternatively via the search bar, find and select the desired Carrier Invoice. 

Once you have found the carrier invoice select the drop-down cog on the right-hand side and select Balance invoice with Tolerances.

This will prompt the Balance invoice with Tolerances modal to appear. The options for a user are:

1. Use Carrier Account Tolerances.

Though the invoice will have originally been balanced with the tolerances against the carrier account when importing, if you update a rate or change a fuel levy, then re-price the invoice, you can re-balance the consignments with the carrier accounts tolerances. 

To do this set the flag called User Carrier Account Tolerances to Yes.

Fill out the reason field. This will be the reason applied to the reconciliation charges on consignments which balance with these tolerances. If left blank, the system will set as check adjustment. If you aren't invoicing out of the system you can keep this field blank. 

Select Balance Carrier Invoice.

2. Set the Tolerances.

If you wish to set a series of custom tolerances then fill out the reconciliation tolerances table.

The Reconciliation Tolerance types are: 

• Absorb Above and Below Ex Tax Total Tolerance: These are tested against total cost before taxes are applied and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
• Absorb Above and Below Fuel Tolerance: These tolerances are just tested against the fuel surcharge and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
• Pass on Total Cost Ex Tax: The Pass-on total is for brokers. Brokers offer transport rates from a portfolio of accounts which they have negotiated with the carriers. They then on-sell these accounts to clients at a charge and will manage the transport for that company. Brokers invoice out this transport and the above tolerance will immediately pass on, or on-charge any charge discrepancies to a client for which the tolerance applies. For non-broker customers, this amount can be left as zero.

The Type can be set to be either Dollar (this will be a tolerance on the difference between the 2 price figures) or Percentage (this will be a tolerance on the percentage difference between the 2 price figures).

Fill out the reason field. This will be the reason applied to the reconciliation charges on consignments which balance with these tolerances. If left blank the system will set as check adjustment. If you aren't invoicing out of the system you can keep this field blank. 

Select Balance Carrier Invoice.