Users of the TCG Pricing/CIS Auto-Rating module are
prompted, at the beginning of the costing process, if they wish to auto-rate the
file. Revenues calculated from this
process are attached only to the cost output, and are not saved in
the original shipment file. Users
do, however, have another rating option called pre-rating, activated by
that button on the far right side of the tool bar on the CIS shipment entry screen.
This button runs the Auto-Rating without costing the file, storing the results in the shipment file itself by populating the Tariff Revenue field in the Rate window. If the Tariff Revenue returned by the rating represents a minimum charge, that box will be checked so that the separate minimum charge discount will properly apply.
When Pre-Rating is selected, the system may first
prompt for the file to be named, if it is a new shipment file.
The Auto-Rating prompt then appears and the user can select the Tariff to
be used to rate the shipments in the file.
After the rating, the user can edit the file if a review of the resulting
Tariff revenues is desired. Otherwise,
the file can be selected for costing, where the prompt to rate will not appear,
since the shipment records already contain the Tariff Revenue from the
Pre-Rating.
Pre-Rating should be used in situations where the
user anticipates costing a file multiple times, perhaps to change
shipment or movement characteristics or to try various discount alternatives,
thus avoiding the time required to rate the shipments with each costing.
However, the option should not be used if the intention is to cost
a file multiple times in order to re-rate it with different Tariffs or using
different classes.
Care should be taken whenever modifying a pre-rated file, that the changes being made to the file will not affect the rating, such as correcting a ZIP Code or changing shipment weight. If such a change is made, a zero must be entered for Tariff Revenue, in the Rate window, either for the particular shipment or via the Template for the entire file, and the file must then be either pre-rated again, or rated when costed.
Whether
rating or pre-rating a shipment file, the rating will not over-write an
existing entry in either the main Revenue field or the Tariff Revenue field in
the Rate window.