Blue Freight Calculator App

User Manual

General Information

Blue Freight Calculator App is an app for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This app allows you to calculate freight for sales quotes and orders based on registered goods information (as packages, boxes, pallets e.g.) with its parameters (like size, weight, and other parameters).

To register goods information, you need the Blue Goods – app (More information: https://www.bluesoftware.no/produkter/dynamics-365-business-central-apps/en-us/blue-goods/user-manual/index/#howtouse).

When you are dealing with several carriers/forwarders you easily can choose the one which fits best into your expectations for the shipment, this can for instance be after the best price principles or fastest delivery.

You can also let the app automatically create a freight line for your quote/order for price from the chosen carrier/forwarder.

Blue Freight Calculator is integrated with single carriers (as for instance Bring) and multi carrier shipping solutions (as for instance nShift and Logistra/Cargonizer).

Don’t you use any carrier/forwarder or multi carrier shipping solution? Please, contact sales@bluesoftware.no. We will help you to find the correct solution.

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How to install the app

On cloud

If you are currently using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on cloud, you can find and install Blue Freight Calculator from App Source Marketplace.

In Business Central search tool, type “Extension Marketplace”. This will open the marketplace from Microsoft App Source. You can find Blue Freight Calculator app there and install it to your Business Central tenant. Please contact us through the Buy a License request form and we will provide you a license key.

On-Premise

If you are using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises, then you will receive an App file. This file must be published by your Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner into your Dynamics 365 Business Central server instance.

Blue Software team is available to assist you in case you need help during the installation of this app.

Permissions

If you are using an account without SUPER permission set, you need to add the Blue Freight Calculator permission set to your account. This can be done from the user list. Make sure all users who are going to use the app has the right permission set.

Assisted Setup –  Set up Blue Freight Integrations

After the app is installed, you can use the Assisted Setup for Blue Freight Calculator:

Alternatively, you can set up freight parameters manually by using Freight Integration Setup. Be aware about that the setup may differ depending on the provider.

Assisted Setup – Set up Blue Freight Integrations

We highly recommend setting up Freight Calculator by using the Assisted Setup.

The first you must do is to add your provider[s], which are the carrier[s] you want to use. You need the credentials (username, license keys or password) to fulfill the provider setup.

A provider can be:

The mentioned carrier and multi carrier have different requirements when it comes to setup. There are also more requirements for the delivery of goods abroad. The individual setups are described in the following chapters.

Remember that you can always change the setup later (Freight Integration Setup). Not all the setups are required but when you define the most of it you will be rewarded with being able to work smoothly.

Choose Add Provider.

Set up Blue Goods (if necessary)

Blue Freight Calculator is based on another app, Blue Goods. If you didn’t complete the setup for Blue Goods you should do it before you can go further. You would receive this message if the Blue Goods Assisted Setup is not completed:

For more information how to set up Blue Goods, please visit our website or download the user manual.

When you are done with Blue Goods setup, you can start to define the freight providers of your choice which are described in the following chapters.

Don’t you find you carrier/forwarder in Blue Freight Calculator? Please, contact sales@bluesoftware.no.

Set up carrier Bring

Choose your Bring from the list.

Fill in necessary credentials.

You can choose in this step if this will be your default integration. The default freight integration will be selected automatically in the delivery.

In the next step you select the freight services for the areas by using Select your services for this integration:

In our example we activate the B2B services for parcels and cargo to business:

In the next step you can select additional services your Provider offers, choose Activate Additional Services:

In our example we active the following additional services:

The next steps are described in chapter common setup, please, switch to this chapter to proceed.

Set up multi carrier Cargonizer

For this setup you need to create an account for Cargonizer: https://logistra.no/01-produkter/om-cargonizer.html.

Choose Cargonizer (Multi-carrier) from the list.

Fill in necessary credentials.

You can choose in this step if this will be your default integration. The default freight integration will be selected automatically in the delivery.

When you, as a company, is located on different places in your country or abroad, and you want to send packages from all of them to your customers, you must define these places in Cargonizer with an own Freight Integration Sender. Freight Integration Sender corresponds to location in 365 Business Central.

For Cargonizer you can assign a Freight Integration Sender to a location in 365 Business Central.

Note: You must assign a sender no. to each of your locations (in addition to Main Sender No.) when you use locations. If the locations are in different geographical places, Cargonizer requires to set up different Sender No., one for each geographical place.

Ensure that your locations are set up with a complete and valid address.

In the next step select the freight services for the areas by using Select services:

Because Cargonizer offers over 1000 carriers you can choose in between of all the carriers you signed in for. In our example we activate some of the services for PostNord, DB Schenker and DHL:

In the next step you must map you goods units in 365 Business Central with the once the carries provide and choose the additional services you are going to use.

We will show you how to map existing goods units:

Choose Map Carrier Goods Units for each standard goods unit you have defined and assign the correct carrier unit. This can look like this:

We have now assigned 3 carrier goods units to our BOX_L:

If you haven’t any standard goods unit created already or you want to add new, we recommend you create new goods units based on the carrier units:

Choose Create, which will create new standard goods units automatically. You must fulfill the setup of your standard goods (Length, Width…) units with the missing parameters if needed:

You can select additional services your carriers offer, choose Activate Additional Services:

The next steps are described in chapter common setup, please, switch to this chapter to proceed.

Set up multi carrier nShift

For this setup you need to create an account for nShift: https://nshift.com/solutions/delivery-management.

Choose nShift (Multi-carrier) from the list.

Fill in necessary credentials.

You can choose in this step if this will be your default integration. The default freight integration will be selected automatically in the delivery.

In the next step select the freight services for the areas by using Select services:

Because nShift offers over 1000 carriers you can choose in between of all the carriers you signed in for. In our example we activate some of the services for DSV Norge, Generic Sweden and DHL Express:

In the next step you must map you goods units in 365 Business Central with the once the carries provide and choose the additional services you are going to use.

We will show you how to map existing goods units:

Choose Map Carrier Goods Units for each standard goods unit you have defined and assign the correct carrier unit. This can look like this:

We have now assigned 1 carrier goods units to our BOX_L.

If you haven’t any standard goods unit created already or you want to add new, we recommend you create new goods units based on the carrier units:

Choose Create, which will create new standard goods units automatically. You must fulfill the setup of you standard goods units with the missing parameters (Length, Width…) if needed:

You can select additional services your carriers offer, choose Activate Additional Services:

The next steps are described in chapter common setup, please, switch to this chapter to proceed.

Common Setup (for Bring and multi carriers)

The following setup is equal for all providers.

You can assign the Shipping Agent and Shipping Agent Service in 365 Business Central to your provider services. This will automatically fill in Shipping Agent information on your sales document when you choose a provider.

In the next step you can decide if you want to create a freight line in your sales documents automatically, based on the estimated cost from the freight calculation. In our example we decide to create a freight line of type Charge (Item). Additionally, we choose to apply the estimated cost to Unit Price:

By using Open Supplement Charge you can assign extra charges to your freight line (both cost and sales price).

In Freight Supplement Charges you can define extra charges for both unit cost and unit price by defining fix amounts (in local currency) or percentages. Let’s say we want to put an extra charge on both unit cost and unit price on our sales document defined by these supplement charges:

Example:

If we receive an estimated Freight Cost of 600 LCY the following cost and price will be calculated:

  • Unit Cost = 600 + 100 = 700 LCY
  • Sales Price = 600 + 120 (=20 % of 600) = 720 LCY (because we decided to apply the estimated cost to the sales price)

The last step for your provider integration is to activate it:

Congratulation, you are done with your provider setup.

You will come back to the overview where you can modify, add a new provider or following the rest of the setup (Next):

Press next to define common information which are used for you goods units, as unit of measures, measure conversion, shipment methods etc. Adding a new or other provider is described in the next chapters.

For more information, please read Units of measures and conversions.

Please map your Shipment Methods in 365 Business Central with the ones from your carrier by Open Shipment Methods:

In the last step you will be asked to Create One Delivery per location:

You should activate this option if you have set up different locations and you will ship your goods from each of them. It’s important for the freight calculation to know from which place you send your goods. If you don’t use locations, this option is not of interest for you. If you are not sure what to do, you can always activate this option afterwards on Goods/Delivery Setup or specific for you quote/order.

Now you have finished your freight integration setup 😊

Units of measures and conversions

Your provider needs the right measurements (length in centimeter, weight in kilogram, volume in cm3) to calculate freight.

Open Units of Measure to verify that you have defined the codes for centimeter, kilogram and cm3 and applied the correct International Standard Codes. If you use other length or weight codes, you must define them as well with the right International Standard codes.

In case you use other measures than centimeter and kilogram our Unit of Measure Conversions table will help to calculate into the provider measures. This table is automatically initiated with the following conversions during the setup of Blue Goods:

Measurements will be used from all providers and are not individual for each.

Locations

If you are using locations in 365 Business Central you location must be set up with correct address, especially Post Code and Country are important information for the freight calculation:

If you not using locations, the “from” – shipping address information is taken from Company Information – Shipping address.

Freight Integration Setup

Search for Freight Integration Setup. From here you can change, delete and add anything related to your carrier / multi – carrier you have set up.

You are also able to update data from your provider, for instance if your provider extends service codes, goods units and additional services.

If you, for instance, want to activate several freight services for your provider you can do this as shown below:

How to use

How to calculate freight on Sales Documents

You can calculate estimate freight on the following sales documents:

  • Sales Quotes
  • Sales Orders

Freight calculations needs information about the packages (goods units) you want to send to your customer. You can do this manually by assigning goods to your quote/order by using Actions -> Delivery Management -> Goods Registration or very easily use our Handle Goods Wizard which automatically starts if you didn’t define any goods units:

Press Next and define your goods unit[s]. If you choose an existing unit, you have pre-defined with dimensions and volume you only must fill inn Goods Content and weight. If you have several locations to ship from, you must choose the right Location Code:

You can add more units, otherwise finish your setup. The Blue Freight Calculator starts now to find possible carriers.

The results are presented, and you can choose a carrier. In our example we choose to use Nor Lines with car by marking the line and pressing Apply.

Because we decided in our setup to create a freight line (of type Charge Item) automatically and assign both estimated cost and calculate the unit price, a freight line is created:

Based on our Freight Supplement Charges setup the unit cost is calculated to be 100 NOK more and the unit price is calculated with a surcharge of 20 % and the carrier is assigned automatically as Shipping Agent.

If you have Shipping Agent / Shipping Agent Service assigned to your carriers this information will be transferred to:

  • Your sales lines if you are using Shipping Advice = Partial on your quote/order.
  • Your sales header if you are using Shipping Advice = Complete on your quote/order. The lines will be updated from the header

How to handle several locations

If you have a quote/order with several physical locations, you probably will ship your goods from each location. In such a case you should mark the quote/order with Create One Delivery per Location:

When you define goods units per location and are going to calculate estimated freight you must choose for which location to calculate freight:

Prerequisites for calculating freight

You may get errors when you start to use the Blue Freight Calculator. This can be because all carriers/forwarders require parameters to be able to estimate freight cost. In this chapter we give you a short overview what’s need.

The prerequisites for calculating freight are:

  • Goods to send is/are registered.

You have goods registered with its necessary parameters as for instance Freight Calculation Weight and dimensions.

  • Correct send – from address.

Your address you want to ship from must have correct information as Post Code and Country. If you use locations this information has to be correct set up on location address. If you don’t use locations, the address from Company Information is used.

  • Correct send – to address.

Your address you want to ship to must have correct information as Post Code and Country. For countries not using Post Code the correct City must be used.

  • Correct Shipment Date.

The most carriers don’t support a Shipment Date far in the future, therefor be aware about this date.

How to request a new license

You can request a new license from the Blue Base Setup using Buy a license before your free trial license expires.

This will open a request form you have to fill inn and send to us.

You will receive a valid license key within 3 workdays.

Important: You need an own license key for each company that will use this app.

Check your licensee

Search after Blue Base Setup to check if you have a valid license under Actions -> Check License:

More information about Blue Software Apps

You can find more information about Blue Software Apps in www.bluesoftware.no or from the links in the Blue Base Setup page under Related -> Read more.

Upgrade

A list of changes will be published on this website. If you have an installation “On-premises” your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner must unpublish the current version and publish the new version for you. The customers using the cloud version will be upgraded automatically when a new version is released.

Uninstall

It is possible to uninstall and unpublish the app at any moment. You can perform these actions from the Extension Management page.

If you decide to install the app again later, all settings and configurations will be restored as they were previously. If you decide to remove the extension data under uninstallation, all data related to this app will be removed and it cannot be recovered later.