6-1 Accessorial Invoice Overview
Accessorial Invoicing Overview
Table of Contents
Accessorial Invoicing Overview 2
Accessorial Invoicing Overview
Overview
During an accounting period, accessorial charges are levied as a result of standard business transactions. These charges are negotiated with the customer and rates are established during contract negotiations. Rates can be established for Bill of Lading production, stenciling charges, repackaging services, etc. The charges are typically associated with an outbound shipment, since the activities are often related to shipping the goods. In WDLS these are called special charges that are associated with each outbound shipment.
Other fees may be included in the contract that are not transaction based, such as equipment leases, square footage assessments, fixed service fees, software utilization fees, etc. These are entered as general invoices with an indication that they are to be accumulated on the accessorial invoice.
Depending on your account setup options, receiving charges for storage, handling, and special services can also be accumulated on the accessorial invoice. This allows for a single summary invoice that includes receiving, special fees, and shipping transaction charges for the account.
Accessorial charges are typically billed on a set periodic schedule. At the close of the period, the charges are accumulated and summarized, and an invoice is created. After the invoice is posted, the transactions are marked so that they will not re-appear on future invoices. Traditionally the invoice is posted on the ending date of the period.
Special Charges
The bulk of accessorial invoicing is accomplished by associating charges with orders for outbound shipments. In WDLS these are called special charges. There are three ways that special charges are entered - 1) auto-charges 2) conditional auto-charges 3) manual charges.
Auto-charges are established for the account during initial setup. If a task is marked as an outbound transaction auto-charge, it will be automatically associated with each order when it enters the WDLS application. The only time the charge will not be present on an order is when someone manually removes it.
Conditional auto-charges are established in the same way, but they have an associated constraint rule. The constraint matches the order attributes to a specified value. If the attribute matches, the charge is levied for the order during initial entry. This technique helps to ensure consistent application of charges for parcel shipment handling, EDI or non-electronic order processing fees, or freight charge responsibility.
Manual Charges. In addition, any service charge established for your company, or specifically for the account, can be manually added by customer service personnel. Although special charges are typically associated with orders upon order initiation, the charges are always re-calculated at shipment confirmation. This will re-extend the rate and basis based upon the actual items and quantities shipped.
The same capabilities for special charges can also be applied to product receipts. Although often receipt charges are invoiced on a per receipt invoice or a receiving summary invoice, you have the alternative of including receiving charges on the accessorial invoice.
General Invoices
The general invoice function is used to charge for any contractual fees and service fees that are not transaction based. Although typically a general invoice is entered and posted separately, WDLS functionality provides a mechanism for adding these charges to the accessorial invoice. By designating that the general invoice is for accessorial invoicing and not posting it through the general invoice processes, the accessorial process will pick up the charges. The result is a single invoice for all transactional and contractual fees.
Summarizing Receipts
One of the account setup options allows you to specify if the account is to be invoiced per receipt or if the receiving charges are to be summarized. If the latter is selected, the receiving charges are calculated at receipt confirmation, but no posting is done. When the accessorial invoice processing is run, it checks to determine if there are any un-posted, confirmed receipts. If any are encountered, the associated charges for handling, storage, and special charges are included in the accessorial invoice.
The Accessorial Period
Accessorial invoices are designed to run based upon accounting periods that are established during account setup. Typically, these periods coincide with the calendar month. These periods are also used by the recurring storage invoicing processes. Within a few days after a period close, an accessorial invoice is created for charges through the ending date of the prior period. A recurring storage invoice for the next period is generated and posted to the first day of the new period.
When accessorial invoices are generated the default cutoff date is the ending date of the last period, however any date can be supplied. This allows you to create summary invoices on whatever schedule is required, even though the recurring storage invoice will follow the periodic schedule. The date supplied is used as a cutoff date. All shipments, receipts, and general accessorial invoices prior to the cutoff are included on the invoice. The transactions are then marked when the invoice is posted.
WDLS uses this technique, rather than the period range, to insure that any transactions created after the prior accessorial invoice are posted and will be properly charged. This eliminates the case when a transaction was posted late and did not appear on the invoice where it normally would have been charged.