Freight margin rules that charge a remote delivery like one
Example: a flat $25.00 ex GST freight charge on a wardrobe that costs $45.52 ex GST to reach Townsville loses $20.52 ex GST. Ship 150 of those a month and that is $3,078.00 ex GST gone before anyone looks at the carrier invoice.
A flat rate has to be wrong somewhere. It overcharges your Brisbane customers and undercharges your Townsville ones, and only the second group costs you money.
How a price is built
Customer freight price = carrier cost ex GST x (1 + markup). The carrier cost is the base charge from your approved rate card, plus the fuel levy, plus any surcharges the rate card expects automatically and the fuel on them. GST is its own component on top.
Forensik takes the SKU's own setting first, then its category, then the global markup. A SKU uses a SKU markup or a postcode markup, never both.
Four rule types
- Global: every SKU without a rule of its own. Every organisation starts at 0%, which passes the carrier cost straight through.
- Category: every SKU in the category.
- SKU: one SKU, wherever it goes.
- Postcode: one SKU, with a markup per postcode or range. A postcode not in the table falls back to the category or global markup and is flagged, so you can see the gap.
Change a rule without rewriting history
Each change saves a new version with its own effective date. Prices already posted never move. Which rule applies? shows the rule chosen for any SKU and postcode, with the worked price.
Global and category rules are on every plan. SKU and postcode rules are on Growth and above.
Worked example, with example numbers
Example numbers: base charge $38.00 ex GST, fuel levy 19.8% ($7.52 ex GST), carrier cost $45.52 ex GST from Geebung to Townsville.
Global markup at 25%: $56.90 ex GST.
Category markup for furniture at 35%: $61.45 ex GST. It beats the global markup.
SKU markup at 40%: $63.73 ex GST. It beats the category.
Or a postcode markup on the same SKU, with 4800 to 4899 set at 45%: $66.00 ex GST for Townsville. A Brisbane row at its own markup prices Brisbane on Brisbane's carrier cost.
Questions
- Is a markup the same as a margin?
- No. Forensik uses markup on cost only: 25% on a $40.00 ex GST carrier cost is a $50.00 ex GST price. The freight margin calculator shows how the two differ.
- Can I set a target margin or a minimum customer charge?
- No. Rules are markups on cost, or free freight. There are no floor margins, target margins or minimum charges to the customer.
- How do I offer free freight?
- Switch it on for the business, a category or a SKU. The customer pays $0 and Forensik records the carrier cost as absorbed. A 0% markup is different: it still charges the carrier cost.
- What about an order with several SKUs?
- The consignment cost is shared across the lines by rated weight, and each share takes that line's own markup. The split is stored with the consignment.
See where your freight margin goes
Forensik prices every shipment from your own rate cards and checks every carrier invoice line against them.