Calculating Freight Charges on Sales Invoice

Freight charges can be entered manually on a sales invoice or can be automatically calculated by EBMS when the invoice is entered. The Ship via setting is used to determine if an order is being shipped or not.

Manual Freight Entry

If you wish to manually add a freight charge to a sales invoice, enter the S&H amount on the bottom of the invoice. The freight income will be posted to the Freight Charges general ledger account entered in the View > Advanced Options dialog accessed from the invoice menu.

Automatic Freight Calculation

Freight costs are calculated within the sales order using the following factors:

  1. Ship Via setting: A sale is identified as being shipped rather than being a pickup (FOB) sale by the Ship Via setting within the sales order. If the Ship Via setting is configured as a Customer Pickup, no shipping charges are calculated. See the Creating Shipping Methods section for details on Ship Via options. The Ship Via field defaults to the Default Shipping Method within the customer's terms tab.
  2. Weight and dimensions: The total weight or dimensional weight of the package may be a factor in the freight cost. The weight may be determined from the Gross Weight value within the inventory item or the package weight or dimensions in the optional Shipping tab of the inventory item. Review the Calculating Total Weight section for more details.
  3. Shipping Rates: Rates can be determined by a formula or combination of formulas set within the following settings:
    1. Ship Via setting: Review the Creating Shipping Methods section for details.
    2. Customer setting: Review the Entering a Shipping Rate for a Customer section for more details.
    3. The shipping company’s rate table: This rate table is often accessed online to keep the rates current. Review the Connecting directly to UPS WorldShip or FedEx rate tables section for examples of online rate tables.
  4. Ship To Address: Many rate tables are determine by the destination. The Ship To address may be defaulted to by the customer record. Review the Terms tab details within the Customers > Changing Customer Information section for more details.

Click on the Est. S&H button to the left of the freight field as shown below:

If the optional EBMS Shipping Manager module is installed, EBMS allows the user to differentiate between Shipping and Handling fees. The user is able to specify per detail line which should be included in the Shipping calculation and what the Handling fee per line is. Review the Shipping Settings within an Inventory Item section to learn more.

The sales order will include a Shipping tab on the upper right corner as shown above. This tab will only appear if the optional EBMS Shipping Manager is installed. Set the following settings:

  1. Enable the Residential Delivery option if the shipping carrier requires the shipment to be noted if it is delivered to a residential address.
  2. Enter the Insured Value percentage.  
  3. Enter the contact Phone number associated with the shipment.
  4. Enter the shipment Notification Email address.
  5. The Shipments table will list the packages that have been created using the UPS WorldShip or FedEx Shipping Manager software.
  6. Click on the New button to add to the list of shipments. The Total Shipping value will reflect the total shipping costs of the shipments listed in the Shipments table.  
  7. Click on the Apply as Freight button to copy the Total Shipping amount to the Freight field at the bottom of the sales order. This button is useful when the actual shipping cost is added to the invoice rather than an estimated freight cost.

The EBMS Shipping Manager module also includes a Shipment document per Sales Order. This allows a user to input shipment and package information that can be read by the shipping software through an ODBC connection. Contact your UPS rep, FedEx rep, or EBMS technical support for assistance on the setup process.

The Shipping tab reflects the shipping details and history from the various shipping software. Use the Track button to access the tracking information for individual shipments.

Review the Invoices > Entering a Sales Invoice section for more information about the sales order entry and process.