Transportation Charge Management (SAP Transportation Management)

Transportation charge management in SAP TM is captured in three important types of agreements.

1) Freight Agreement- Freight agreement is for carrier means it is between shipper and carrier for transportation services.

2)Forwarding Agreement- It is for customer’s means if we are LSP /Carriers and doing agreement with customer (Shipper) then there will be forwarding agreement.

3)Internal Agreement- These agreements are like intercompany transfers when there is transportation between two company codes for one organization then this type of agreements will come in picture.

All TM process for charge management will be covered by these three agreements and and there is different way for looking at them for settlements like internal settlement for internal agreements, freight settlement for freight agreements and forwarding settlements for forwarding agreements.

Transportation charge management will have below components-

1) Agreements- Explained above.

2) Calculation sheets- It is a master data and consist of all the charges and it is like pricing procedure.

3) Charges – These are various charge types we can configure like loading charge, fuel charge , retention charge etc. and it is similar as pricing condition types.

4)Rate tables – Rate tables are like condition records, where we define amount of charges for charge types.

5)Scales- Scales are like access sequence having multidimensional attributes with multiple things we can include here like, source to destination location combination with weight, volume and minimum charges can be there and and have any of these combination and we can add more attributes as well.

Freight Agreements - It will have multiple things and multiple tabs.

For checking existing freight agreements in the system or creating new we need to select-

Charge management work list tile in Fiori.

Create new or copy existing and fill required details inside-

Different tab details in freight agreement-

General data- This tab will show Freight agreement name, description , validity, purchasing org and carrier details. We can create weight profile based on gross weight /net weight and assign here also we can create calculation sheet templates.

External agreement number- Agreement number from carrier we can store here.

Agreement status- While creating the agreement , status will be in process and after releasing only It will be available.

Shipping type, transportation mode – This will be applicable in case of LSP scenario.

Items Level

Calculation sheets-

Items level will show calculation sheets and it is nothing but master data of charges which we will utilize here and we can create it in master data and attach here or we can directly create in agreement itself.

Freight agreement can have multiple calculation sheets based on modes of transport and for different stages (Pre-carriage, main-carriage, post-carriage) After entering one calculation sheet , we have to add different types charges like basic freight, fuel surcharge.

Charge type first needs to create in background through configuration so we can select charge types here.

We also can add rate table determination condition so it will determine the rate tables automatic.

Precondition- This will give option to select the calculation sheet by system so here we can add conditions manually or can create a precondition rule.

Other tabs in calculation sheet - Details, dimensions, capacities, custom codes, notes, attachment, business share, Default route in case of specific locations.

Business partner- This tab will have carrier details for freight agreement. One agreement can have multiple carriers.

Output management- Since his is legal document between shipper and carrier it needs to send to carrier and get approved from them so there is output management and output can be sent by email or xml file

Excel integration – This is used for downloading or uploading the agreements in the system and used in case of mass upload/download.

Capacities- Here it refers to agreement capacities.

Rate Tables-

For checking existing rate tables in the system or creating new we need to select-

Charge management work list.

There are two types of rate tables

Index- Index rate tables are used when there is frequent change in the rate monthly, fortnightly or daily as per regulation by country government or organization policies like exchange rate so the values/charges will change accordingly from these tables.

Local – These are like specifically for that particular agreement and these are like condition tables stored in local object. So these rate tables are applicable for particular freight agreement only.

We can create new rate table by maintaining organizational data , scales ,charge type, value type as shown in below screen shot.

Rate table tabs-

General data- Most important part and needs to select scales here like source location postal code , destination location postal code, weight and after selecting combination we need to put the values and so based on his combination system will determine the charges.

Dates and values- Same conditions but multiple validity in case of index tables.

Excel integration- We can just download the excel template and upload after filling the sheet with required data.

Charges customization-

Path - SPRO== >>IMG== >>Transportation management== >>Basic functions== >>Charge calculation== >> Basic settings == >>Define charge categories

Here we can define categories like basic freight, additional charges, we can also define subcategories of charges like loading, unloading charges, forklift, fuel charges.

Define charge types- This is similar to condition types and we define various attributes with respect to specific charge types and these charge types then assigned to charges subcategories.

We define certain things in the charge types – What is category of charges , its description , subcategory of charges, positive value or negative, value type (percentage value, relative or absolute), whether it is tax , leading charge , inactive charge.

Calculation base-What is base value for calculation for ex. Distance, volume, weight.

Rounding profile- Rounding rule for these values.

Charge type grouping- When we want these charges can be applicable for certain group like materials, shipment, customers.

Assign incoterms- We can maintain different incoterms and who is the payer for that and according It will be charges.

Assign freight terms- Freight terms are about only freight as such and incoterms are about overall charges. So here we will maintain specific freight charges and payer.

Scales-

Scale base can be seen in rate table and needs to define here-

Path- SPRO== >>IMG== >>Transportation management== >>Basic functions== >>Charge calculation== >> Data source binding== >>Define scale bases

Define calculation bases- These bases defined so the system will do the calculations.

Rate tables-

Rate table types also needs configuration to determine in the calculation sheets.

Path- SPRO== >>IMG== >>Transportation management== >>Master data == >>Rate tables== >> Define rate table types.

And we can maintain details in the rate table type like whether it is default type or local table, Number ranges , approval workflow required or not etc.