Overview of Hitrak's Pricing and Finance functions
Hitrak supports a number of methods to price consignments, to meet your preferred pricing structures and allow flexibility based on customer freight and service types. This article provides an overview of a consignment's journey from initial pricing to invoicing, and an introduction to Hitrak's Pricing and Invoicing functionality.
For detailed instructions on setting up Rate Cards, configuring customer pricing and using Hitrak's Invoicing functions, see the user guides in the Pricing, Rating and Invoicing section of our Knowledge Base.
In this article:
Rating Consignments and Creating Invoices
Pricing and Invoicing Overview
Hitrak supports the automatic pricing of consignments based on the rates and pricing setup configured for an Organisation.
Pricing is triggered when a consignment is Delivered, but the system uses the rates applicable on the date it was Staged, i.e. when the customer requested pickup. This rule exists to preserve any quotes or estimates provided to customers, and is applied consistently across all charge components.
Touchpoints in the consignment pricing and invoicing journey are outlined below:
- Consignment is Staged by the customer, via API integration, Freightmaster, or manual contact with their freight provider. The system calculates a freight price estimate based on the sender, receiver and current freight details.
- Consignment is Delivered by a driver, using the Hitrak Driver App. The system calculates and applies the total Freight, Delivery Extras & Surcharges pricing, using the rates effective on the consignment's Staged date.
- Pricing is confirmed by the system or an individual. The consignment can now be added to an Invoice.
- Consignment is added to Invoice in the Hitrak Admin Portal.
- Invoice is sent to the customer for payment, directly from the Admin portal or via an external Finance system.
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Pricing Functionality
Hitrak facilitates flexible customer pricing by providing versatile rate cards, multiple charge types and three distinct pricing models.
This section provides an overview of the supported:
Rate Cards
Correct configuration of rates in Hitrak is essential for accurate consignment pricing. The Hitrak team provides support with the initial configuration of Rate Cards and any future changes required, to ensure users are set up for success.
Rate Card options include, but are not limited to:
→ Rate variations by Service Type, Charge Type, and Date Range.
→ Rate bands, to enable pricing based on a unit quantity or range.
→ Minimum and Maximum priced units.
→ Charge Type priorities.
→ Unlimited Delivery Extras and Surcharges.
For full details on Rate Cards and the requirements specific to each pricing model, see the relevant article link below:
Zone Pricing Rate Cards I Site Group Pricing Rate Cards I Distance Pricing Rate Cards
Tip 💡 We recommend planning ahead for Rate Card changes where possible, as rates cannot be backdated in Hitrak. Adjusted rates are only applicable to consignments staged the day after the adjustment is loaded, or later.
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Charge Types
The following charge types are supported within all Hitrak pricing models:
Cubage: Charged by the consignment's total volume in cubic metres.
Weight: Charged by the consignment's total weight in kg.
Per Unit: Charged by unit price x quantity of units.
Flat rate: A flat rate for deliveries.
It is possible to apply more than one charge type to a customer's consignments, and set a preference for one over the other.
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Pricing Models
Hitrak offers three pricing models to suit various freight types and pricing arrangements. Different Organisations can use different pricing models if required, but each Organisation can only use one model at a time.
Zone Pricing
Zone Pricing enables consignments to be priced on a tiered basis, using zones defined by their proximity to a central point. To enable Zone Pricing in Hitrak:
- A list of the delivery cities or regions being serviced must be provided. These are referred to in Hitrak as Pricing Areas.
- Zones and a list of their corresponding suburbs must be defined for each Pricing Area.
- Each of a customer's Requesting Sites must belong to a Pricing Area.
Zone Pricing - Freight Price calculation:
On Delivery, the system applies rates based on the consignment's:
→ Service Type
→ Charge Type
→ Requesting Site Pricing Area
→ Receiver suburb Zone within the Area
Site Group Pricing
The Site Group Pricing model is useful for freight service providers with a 'point to point' pricing structure. Site Group pricing allows for additional complexity in rates, by enabling different configuration for when a Site is the sender or receiver of freight.
To facilitate Site Group pricing:
- Both the Sender and Receiver locations for the customer consignments must be configured as Sites in Hitrak.
- Each Site must belong to a Site Group for Collection and/or Delivery.
Site Group Pricing - Freight Price calculation:
On Delivery, the system applies rates based on the consignment's:
→ Service Type
→ Charge Type
→ Sending Site Site Group
→ Receiving Site Site Group
For more information on Site Group Pricing, including full details on setup, see Using Site Group Pricing.
Distance Pricing
Distance Pricing is applied on a per km, per charge type unit basis, using the distance either directly between a consignment's Collection and Delivery locations (P2P), or the distance between Collection and Delivery locations and their respective closest depots (D2D). This model suits operators who provide delivery services within a limited area, close to where their fleet is based.
On Delivery, the system applies rates based on the consignment's:
→ Service Type
→ Charge Type
→ Calculated Distance in Kms, using the defined calculation method.
Distance Pricing - Freight Price calculation:
For more information on Distance Pricing, including full details on setup, see Using Distance Pricing.
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Rating Consignments and Creating Invoices
When a customer's rates and pricing setup are configured correctly, the system prices their consignments automatically at the time of Delivery, based on the rates available on the date the consignment was Staged.
Before consignments can be added to an Invoice, their pricing must be confirmed. This process is referred to in Hitrak as Rating.
Rating can be completed:
→ Manually, by an Admin Portal user.
→ Automatically, using Hitrak's Auto-Rate feature to confirm pricing as soon as it has been applied. This is an optional setting, which can be configured at a system or customer level.
For users who prefer to confirm pricing manually, this can be managed in bulk using the Rating page.
The consignment page Pricing and Rating tab enables rating of individual consignments, with the additional feature of manual price overrides.
In this section:
Rating and Creating Invoices in Bulk
Rating Individual Consignments
Rating Page
The Rating page provides a list of Delivered consignments, organised into 3 tabs based on their stage in the rating process.
→ The Unrated tab displays consignments with unconfirmed pricing, and those with no pricing.
→ The Rated tab displays consignments with confirmed pricing.
→ The Invoiced tab displays rated consignments which have been added to an Invoice.
See the video below for a brief walkthrough of the Rating page.
Rating and Creating Invoices in Bulk
Each tab in the Rating page enables different functions, as follows:
Unrated tab
→ Pricing is confirmed to prepare consignments for Invoicing.
→ Consignments can be repriced, in the case of setup changes which impact pricing.
Rated tab
→ Pricing can be unconfirmed, in the case of a rating error.
→ New Invoices are created, and consignments are added to existing Invoices. The system supports automatic and manual invoice creation.
- Automatic Invoicing matches consignments to their Customer and Invoice Accounts, generating multiple customer Invoices simultaneously.
- Manual Invoicing enables Invoices to be generated for one customer Invoice Account at a time.
Invoiced tab
→ No rating functions are available here, but Invoices can be accessed via the hyperlink on each consignment row.
The video below provides a step-by-step guide for using the Rating page functions.
Rating Individual Consignments
The Pricing and Rating tab on a consignment page provides all of its pricing-related information. Prior to the consignment being added to an Invoice, pricing can be refreshed, confirmed or unconfirmed here.
If the consignment should have a special rate applied, or could not be priced as there was no current rate available for one or more components, the Set Price button can be used to override any or all of the calculated Freight, Delivery Extras or Surcharge pricing.
See the video below for a guide to using the Price Override feature.
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Invoicing Overview
As above, Invoices are created in the Rating page. Once created, they are managed in the Invoices page.
Hitrak invoicing setup will depend on your preferences and which Finance System you use. The chosen Invoicing model for your system is set up during onboarding and can be changed if required, with support from the Hitrak team.
In this section:
Invoicing Models
At this time, Hitrak provides three options for Invoicing, with additional Finance system integrations expected in the future.
Direct Invoicing
Hitrak Direct Invoicing allows Invoices to be sent directly from the Admin Portal. Payment allocation must still be handled externally, but Hitrak supports the reconciliation process by enabling different GL Code allocation within the system for Freight, individual Delivery Extras and Surcharges as required.
With Direct Invoicing, customer Invoices can be confirmed and emailed from Hitrak in bulk along with their Schedules, as soon as they are ready.
Xero Integration
For businesses using Xero, our integration enables the seamless management of Invoices between the two systems. With this model, Hitrak Organisation Invoice Accounts are linked to Contacts in Xero. Hitrak data is automatically sent to Xero when an Invoice has been marked as Pending in the Admin Portal.
Invoices can then be emailed from Xero, with Hitrak Invoice Schedules attached.
Manual Invoicing
Invoices can be managed manually within your chosen system, using Hitrak's detailed data extracts to support your existing processes.
Understanding Invoices
The Invoices page provides a list of Invoices created within a selected date range, with columns summarising their data.
Invoices can be further filtered here by Customer, Invoice Account, Invoice Number and Status. The Invoices page also enables bulk actions, such as Invoice Date changes, Reference changes and Status updates. The bulk actions available depend on which Invoicing model is in use.
When viewing an individual Invoice, users can see:
→ Invoice Lines and associated GL codes.
→ A timeline of Invoice Status updates.
→ Any Annotations.
→ A list of its Consignments, with a breakdown of the charges for their corresponding Freight, Delivery Extras and Surcharges.
Data Extracts
A pdf and csv version of the Schedule document are generated for each Invoice. These are sent to a customer as part of the invoicing process, but can also be downloaded from the Invoice page at any time via the Invoice Actions menu.
To facilitate reconciliation in Finance Systems, Hitrak also provides several pricing and invoicing related extracts.
On the Invoices page, the Export button enables the bulk export of Invoice schedules, and a summary of the Invoice details on screen.
Additional Pricing and Revenue related extracts are accessible in the Consignment Extracts page.
For more detail on Invoicing with Hitrak, see Creating and Managing Invoices, or get in touch with our team using the Hitrak Helpdesk.
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