A Rating System is composed of five elements that are used in conjunction with each other to define a rating scheme. Each element involves administrative setup. Listed below are each of these elements and a brief description of their purpose, arranged in suggested setup order.
Keep in mind that any number and combination these elements can be established; all are pieces that can be used interchangeably to define an overall rating scheme.
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Rates Element |
Description |
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Item Codes |
Defined when Mover’s Suite is initially installed, these codes determine which general ledger accounts are affected when rated items are created for an order or when rating information is imported from a van line. Item Codes work in conjunction with the Rate Plan to determine which Rates table is used when generating rated items, such as quotes. |
|
Rate Plan |
This value gets set at the order record level and is used along with the Item Code to direct the application to a rating scheme (Rates table). |
|
Rate Type |
Rate Types define the quantity type and invoice labels used for each of the rate quantity fields (“Men” and “Hours” in Figure 33 (below)).
Figure 33: Use of Rate Type fields in the Add Billing Item dialog A Divisor can also be defined to divide a quantity by a specified amount. The predefined Rate Type entitled 100-Weight, for example, can be set up to divide the Weight of an order by 100 prior to computing the rated amount.
Figure 34: 100-Weight Rate Type option example |
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Rates |
All the information needed to automatically compute a rate is stored within the Rates table. Information is retrieved from this table based on Rate Plan and Item Code settings. It contains the monetary rate, overtime rate (local services only), Rate Matrix, and effective dates to be used to automatically compute rates. Note: This information will not be referenced if the application does not find a match based on Item Code and Rate Plan. If no match is found, then the user will need to manually set the rate information. |
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Advanced Rating |
A Rates table can be directed to retrieve the rate based on a Rate Matrix. The Rate Matrix computes the rate based upon on a combination of order attributes, such as the weight, miles, cubic feet, etc. Note: When a Rates table links to a Rate Matrix, the Rate amount value from the Rates table is not entered. The Rate Type will need to match that of the ranges specified for the matrix. Note: The Rate Matrix can be designed to contain the 100-Weight Rate Type, if desired. |
A user has the ability to enter the rating information by hand at the time that the rated item is generated; therefore potentially by-passing all the above values, except for Item Codes.
At the most basic level, only an Item Code value is required to generate amounts for quotes, revenue entries, and recurring billing items. At the highest level, if all the rating elements are setup correctly, then the Rating System can be used to automatically generate a rate based on attributes of the order.
These elements are discussed in more detail in the following sections that cover their administrative setup.
The setup of a Rating System includes the following:
Administration Tool:
• Item Codes (Tools > Item Code Generation)
• Rate Plan Setup (AFS > Rates > Rate Plans)
• Rate Type Setup (AFS > Rates > Rate Types)
• Rates Setup (AFS > Rates > Rates)
Web Administration Tool:
• Advanced Rating Setup (Accounting Setup > Advanced Rating)
The following sections cover setting up all rating variables needed to implement a Rating System, except for Item Codes. Item Codes are typically defined at installation and will be documented in a separate topic. Further, since the Rate Matrix component of Advanced Ratings is complex, its setup is detailed along with its usage within the Advanced Rating Systems section.
Rate Plan Setup