Contracts and tariffs are standing rate agreements. They exist so that repeat traffic is priced from an agreement rather than from memory, and so that a rate change is made once rather than on every quotation from then on.
There are three kinds, and they answer three different questions.
| Answers | Holds | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | What do we charge this customer? | Cost lines and charge lines |
| Agent tariff | What does this agent charge us at the other end? | Charge lines, per port pair |
| Warehouse tariff | What does this warehouse cost, and what do we bill for it? | Cost lines and charge lines |
Customer contracts
A contract is a named rate agreement scoped by:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Company | The customer it applies to. |
| Customer profile | Narrows it to one of that customer's arrangements. |
| Shipping type | Import or export. |
| Load type | FCL, LCL, air. |
| Default | Marks the fallback contract used when no more specific one matches. |
| Status | Active or Disabled. |
| Apply in quotation | Whether this contract is offered to pricing automatically. |
| Terms and conditions, Note | Text carried through, and internal commentary. |
Inside it are cost lines and charge lines in exactly the form the pricing screen uses — same units, currencies, minimum charges and conditions. See Pricing a quotation.
Port pairs
Beyond the header lines, a contract holds contract ports: a from and a to, each with their own cost and charge lines. This is how one agreement covers a trade lane network — a general rate at the header, and specific rates for the lanes that were negotiated individually.
When a quotation is priced, the port-pair lines for that origin and destination are used where they exist, and the header lines otherwise.
How a contract is matched
Pricing looks for a contract matching the quotation's company, customer profile, shipping type, load type and port pair. If no such contract exists, it falls back to a match on company, profile, shipping type and load type alone.
Two consequences worth knowing:
- A quotation raised against the wrong customer profile finds the wrong contract, silently, and prices the job on someone else's rates. Getting the profile right on the quotation matters more than it looks.
- A disabled contract, or one with apply in quotation unticked, is skipped. If a quotation comes up unpriced when you expected rates, check those two flags before assuming the contract is missing.
Editing a contract
Contract changes apply to quotations priced after the change. Quotations already priced keep the rates they were given — they are offers that were made, not live queries. To reprice an existing quotation on new rates, edit it and recalculate.
Agent tariffs
An agent tariff records what an overseas agent charges you, as charge lines, optionally broken down by port pair in the same way as contracts.
Agent tariffs are what let a quotation include the destination-end costs without someone emailing the agent for every enquiry. Keep them current: an out-of-date agent tariff produces a quotation that looks profitable and is not.
Agents themselves are maintained in the catalog — see Reference data.
Warehouse tariffs
A warehouse tariff covers storage and handling at a specific warehouse, and unlike agent tariffs it carries both cost and charge lines — what the warehouse bills you, and what you bill the customer.
It is scoped by warehouse, and optionally by company and customer profile, so a customer with negotiated storage rates can have their own.
Warehouse tariffs are where the time-based units earn their keep: CBMxDays, WMCieldxDays and their relatives exist precisely because storage is charged per volume per day, often with the volume rounded up. Pick the unit that matches the warehouse's own basis of charge, or the recharge will not reconcile against their invoice.
Keeping rates honest
- Set an owner per agreement. Contracts with no-one responsible drift out of date quietly.
- Disable rather than delete an expired agreement. History stays explicable.
- Check the default contract. It is the one used when nothing more specific matches, so it is the one that quietly prices business you had not thought about.
- Review agent tariffs on a schedule. They change without your involvement, which is exactly why they are forgotten.
Last updated 9 September 2026