Skip to content

Contracts and rates

What this screen is for

Contracts holds your commercial agreements with customers: which agreement applies, what each service costs, and the service levels you promised. Every price on an order, settlement and invoice traces back to a contract here. The screen title reads Contracts, rate cards & SLA.

Who can see it

Organisation staff signed in to the Control Tower. This screen does not have a separate permission of its own.

Where to find it

In the left-hand menu, under COMMERCIAL, select Contracts & rates.

What you see

Figure cards (top).

Card What it shows
Contracts in force Contracts that are Active or inside their renewal notice period, with the total number of versions on file underneath.
Inside notice period Contracts where a renewal decision is due.
Customers with no contract Customers whose orders are being priced off the standard card. Red when above zero.
SLA floors breached Customers whose delivery performance has fallen below the floor in their contract, so a rebate applies.
Exposure at risk The money at stake from those breaches, calculated from measured on-time-in-full performance.

Tabs and the New contract button. Five tabs: Repository, Rate cards & pricing, SLA tracking, Alerts and Services. + New contract is always beside them.

Repository

A table with CONTRACT, CUSTOMER, STATUS, EFFECTIVE, EXPIRES, TERMS, OTIF (the on-time-in-full target) and VERSIONS ("v2 of 3"). The expiry turns red within 30 days and shows the days left within 90. A contract is never overwritten: each revision becomes a new version, so the terms an old order was sold under are kept.

Status chips: Active, Renewal due, Pending, Draft, Expired, Superseded and Terminated. See Statuses and stages.

Select a row to see it in the panel on the right (the first contract is opened for you). The panel shows the customer, owner, effective dates, currency, payment terms, tax, notice period (and whether it renews automatically), who signed it, how many rate cards it has and the uploaded document. Underneath are PAYMENT & CREDIT TERMS (payment mode, billing frequency, whether credit is allowed and, if so, the limit, period and hold threshold), then any remarks, the reason for the latest revision or termination, SERVICE LEVELS, CONTRACTUAL SURCHARGES, VERSION HISTORY and the AUDIT TRAIL.

Rate cards & pricing

Chips at the top pick which contract you are looking at. Underneath, the contract's prices are grouped by service. Select a service to expand it and see its rate slabs (a price for a vehicle type and lane, or for a band of distance, weight, volume or quantity) and its SLAs. On the right is the Rate tester.

Rate tester. Choose a Customer and Service, optionally an Origin zone and Destination, and enter Weight kg, Pallets and Waiting min. Select Resolve the rate. It shows the charge lines and the total (with tax), the contract and version used, and a HOW THIS RESOLVED explanation of why those lines were chosen. This is the same calculation orders and settlements use, so you can check a price before relying on it. If no rate applies, it says so: the order cannot be priced until a rate line or default card exists.

SLA tracking

A table of each customer measured against their own contract: CUSTOMER, CONTRACT, TARGET, MEASURED, PERFORMANCE, DELIVERED and EXPOSURE. The performance chip reads Meeting, Below target or Floor breached.

Alerts

A list of contracts that need a decision, with a severity dot, the reason (for example a contract about to lapse or a customer with no contract) and, where relevant, the revenue involved. If nothing needs attention the tab says so.

Services

The service catalogue: CODE, NAME, DESCRIPTION, TYPE, APPLICABLE VEHICLE TYPES, STATUS (Active or Inactive) and ACTIONS (Edit, Delete).

What you can do

  • Create a contract. Select + New contract, fill in the pop-up and select Create contract.
  • Revise a contract. In the Repository panel select Edit; this opens the next version rather than changing the current one. Give the reason for the revision and select Save revision.
  • End a contract. Select Terminate in the panel (not offered for a contract that is already Superseded, Expired or Terminated), give a reason and confirm.
  • Add a rate slab or SLA. On Rate cards & pricing, select + Rate slab (needs the contract to have a rate card) or + SLA. Each row has Edit and Delete.
  • Add or change a service. On Services, + New service, or Edit / Delete on a row. Delete is refused while a rate slab still prices that service.
  • Check a price. Use the Rate tester.

Removing a rate slab, an SLA definition or a service asks for confirmation first ("This cannot be undone" or an explanation of why it may be refused). Select Remove to confirm, or Cancel.

Popups and panels

Contract editor

Opens from + New contract (title New contract) or Edit (title Revise followed by the contract number). Select the ? in its header for help.

  • Customer (chosen for a new contract, fixed for a revision), Contract type, and for a new contract the Contract name.
  • Start date (New terms start for a revision), End date and Currency.
  • Reason for revision – required for a revision; it goes in the audit trail.
  • Contract document – upload the signed contract if you have one. Remarks.
  • Payment terms – Payment mode, Billing frequency, an Advance amount when the mode is advance, and Display terms (free text shown on invoices, such as "Net 30").
  • Credit terms – tick Credit allowed to enter Credit limit, Credit currency, Credit period (days) and Hold threshold. Credit status is Active or Suspended.
  • Tax %, Renewal notice (days), Signed by and Auto-renew.

Create contract needs a customer, a name, a start and an end date. Save revision needs a start date and a reason. Terms you do not change carry forward from the version you are revising.

Terminate contract

Ends an agreement outright; it is not a revision. Select the ? in its header for help. Enter the Termination reason (required, recorded in the audit trail) and select Terminate contract.

Rate slab editor

Adds or changes one price on a contract. Select the ? in its header for help.

  • Service type (or Any service), Vehicle type (blank means any vehicle).
  • Origin zone, Destination zone (or Any) and Basis – what the price is measured against, such as per trip, per km, per tonne, per pallet or per cubic metre.
  • Rate and Minimum charge.
  • Tick Range Type slab to price a band instead: Range type (distance, weight, volume or quantity), Range from, Range to, Rate UOM, and optional Effective from and Effective to dates.
  • Note.

Select Add rate slab or Save changes.

SLA editor

Defines the service level promised. Select the ? in its header for help.

  • Service code – use * to apply to the whole contract.
  • Pickup SLA (lead hours), Delivery SLA (window tolerance, min), Response SLA (claim response, h) and Permitted delay (minutes).
  • OTIF target % and Measurement window (days).
  • Rebate floor % (optional – a rebate applies if performance falls below it) and Breach penalty %.
  • Note.

Service editor

Adds or changes a service in the catalogue. Select the ? in its header for help.

  • Service code (short, unique; cannot be changed later) and Service name.
  • Service description.
  • Service type (Distribution, Freight, Warehousing or Specialised) and Temperature (Ambient, Chilled or Reefer).
  • Default vehicle type and Applicable vehicle types (comma-separated).
  • Requires a contract and Status (Active or Inactive).

Tips

  • "Why is an order not priced?" The customer's contract has no rate that matches the service, vehicle and lane. Use the Rate tester to see exactly why, then add a rate slab.
  • Edit does not change what is there. It creates the next version. The old version stays in VERSION HISTORY.
  • The + Rate slab button is greyed out. The selected contract version has no rate card yet.
  • Customers with no contract are priced off the organisation's standard card, and every quote says so.