Companies may calculate their transport costs to their customers. There are few solutions in standard Dynamics 365 to support this process.
Charges
Charge is a feature in Dynamics 365 which can be applied to sales or purchase orders automatically or manually. The following setup is required to make use of charges.
1. First, a charge code needs to be configured.
Path: accounts receivable > setup > charges setup > charges code
2. With the function “Auto charge” you can configure whether Dynamics should automatically add the charge to an order for particular conditions such as a specific account, item, item group, or mode of delivery.
3. When you create a new sales order, Dynamics adds the charge (depending on the auto charge rule) to the order.
The parameter “keep” enables users to keep the charge on the order after creation of the invoice. This might be useful when re-using a charge for a new invoice, for instance in case of partial delivery.
A disadvantage of charges is the visibility. You always have to click the “charge button” in order to add or check the charge.
Service item
A service item is a product of a service type which does not track inventory. You can add this item to an order, modify the text, and add a price.
1. A released product of “service” needs to be configured first.
2. When creating a new order, you can add the service item to the order.
The benefit of service items is that it is always visible on the order and the packing slip. This is useful as some customers might prefer to know the transport costs in advance.
A disadvantage is that you always need to post the packing slip for a service item in order to include it on the invoice or to show the transport costs on the packing slip. When you post the packing slip via shipments, there are no possibilities to include service items.
In other words, if you want to add transport costs via service item, you need to post the packing slip again, once via the shipment and once via the order. An alternative solution is to always post the packing slip from the order, but that might be illogical when using shipments and/or packing processes.
Third solution
It would be helpful if Microsoft would develop and release a new feature that offers the possibility to include non-stocked items when generating the packing slip from the shipment or load.
Idea 1 “Packing slip from shipment”
Idea 2 “Posting packing slip for non-stocked items from a load”
Do not hesitate to vote for both ideas!
