Adding Shipment Types

Each shipping method employed by an organization should have its own Shipment Types record, which stores the method's pricing matrix or plug-in information (for calculating shipping charges) and the set of general ledger (GL) accounts to debit or credit when an order ships or a payment is applied.

Follow these steps to create a new Shipment Types record:

1. Open a new record from the Shipment Types service.
   • The Shipment Types service is in the Accounting application by default.
      
2. Enter a Name and Description for the shipping type.
3. Select the Calculation Type: Standard or Plug-In.
   • Select Standard to use Matrix records to determine the shipping changes for each order based on Ship To address, weight, and/or quantity.
   • Select Plug-In if a developer has written an object that implements -organization-specific logic to determine an order's shipping charges.
      
4. Enter the name of the shipping company in the Shipper field.
   • This field links to the Companies service.
     
     
5. Click the Accounting tab.
6. Select a Revenue Recognition method: Accrual or Cash.
   • With the Accrual method, the revenue from shipping charge is recognized at the time the order is shipped. In other words, the system credits the specified Income account at the order level.
   • With the Cash method, the revenue from the shipping charge is recognized at the time payment is received. In other words, the system credits the specified Income account at the payment level. In the Orders record, the system credits the shipping amount to the Unearned Revenue account, which is then reversed in the GL entries in the Payments record.
      
7. Configure the Shipping Type's GL Accounts. These fields display the GL accounts as configured in the GL Accounts service. See Determining GL Accounts for Order, Payment, and Scheduled Transactions for details.
   • Specify the shipping type's Income Account. The system credits this account with the amount of the shipping and handling charges when an order ships. This records the revenue earned from shipping and handling fees charged a customer.
   • Specify the shipping type's Expense Account. The system debits this account with the amount of the shipping cost when an order ships. This records the expense of shipping the order to a customer.
   • Specify the shipping type's A/P Account. The system credits this account with the amount of the shipping cost when an order ships. This records the Accounts Payable liability to the shipping company to pay for shipping the order to the customer.
   • If you selected the Cash as the Revenue Recognition method, specify the Unearned Account to record unearned revenue until payment is received. If you selected Accrual as the Revenue Recognition method, leave this field blank.
   • Specify the shipping type's A/R Account. This specifies the Accounts Receivable account that the Order Entry system debits at the order level and credits at the payment level in the amount of the shipping and handling fees charged to the customer.
     
     
8. Save the record.
9. Do one of the following:
   • If you specified Plug-In as the Calculation Type on the General tab, click the Plug-In tab and specify the assembly name, class, and object location for the plug-in object provided by a developer. Then, save and close the Shipment Types record.
   • A developer can write a plug-in for a particular Shipment Type if additional calculation logic is required to determine an order's shipping charges beyond what is provided by the standard shipping infrastructure.
   • To create a shipping type plug-in, a developer writes an object that implements the ICalculateShippingCost interface. See the Aptify Software Developer Kit (SDK) for details.
   • If you specified Standard as the Calculation Type on the General tab, create Matrix and Groupings records as necessary to configure the logic that the Order Entry system will use to determine an order's Shipping Charge, Shipping Cost, and Handling Fee.
   • See Adding Matrix Records for information on how to add one or more Matrix records to a Shipment Type. A Matrix record specifies the shipping and handling charges to apply to an order under a particular set of conditions. Each Shipment Type that uses the Standard calculation method should have at least one Matrix record.

   • See Creating Shipment Type Groupings for information how to add one or more Groupings records to a Shipment Type. Under some circumstances, an organization may want to calculate shipping charges for certain products on an order independently. In this case, an organization can use Groupings records to specify these conditions.
     
     

     The fields on the Shipment Types record's Web tab are reserved for future use.