Grace period discount rules in carrier agreements

February 11, 2025

CAO, grace

Merchants

The intent of this article is to guide you through the function and components of the Grace Period Discount rules in carrier agreements. This information is intended for any user with a PDF agreement that needs to be loaded into the Agreement Management System.

Organization of rules

Rules are ordered by class type in the following order:

Data Transformer

DIM Divisors

Earner Discount

Fuel Surcharge Discounts

Service Period Discount by Region

Grace Period Discounts

Minimum Net Charge

Multipiece Minimum Weight Qualifier

Service Discount

Service Discount by Region

Service Net Rates

Surcharge Net Rates

Surcharges Discounts

It’s important to note that rules are executed from top to bottom according to the position of the rule among all other agreement rules. In other words, rules at the bottom are executed after the rules above and can overwrite the rules where overlap exists.overwrite the rules where overlap exists.

Grace period discount rule

The Grace Period Discount rule calculates the amount of grace period discount applied for each shipment.

Effective Start Date

Relevant for expiration terms on earned discount incentives.

Default: Null
Format: mm/dd/yyyy
Common mistake: Effective Start Date is entered on a date that is after the analysis period date range within CAO View. Ensure that the Effective Start Date does not affect the service discount being applied to the date range of analysis.

Pro tip: These dates relate to the start and stop dates of Earned Discount Rules that are also in the agreement.

Effective Stop Date

Relevant for expiration terms on earned discount incentives.

Default: Null
Format: mm/dd/yyyy
Common mistake: Effective Start Date is entered on a date that is after the analysis period date range within CAO View. Ensure that the Effective Start Date does not affect the service discount being applied to the date range of analysis.

Pro tip: These dates relate to the start and stop dates of Earned Discount Rules that are also in the agreement.

Services

Create a row for each service type where the earned discount applies.

Skip Earned Discount

This option overwrites voids all Earned Discounts billed where a Grace Period Discount is observed.

Note: It’s common to enable this feature.

Packaging Type

Carrier-specific packaging (e.g. UPS® Express Letter/Envelope) has a list rate and incentive specific to that package type. Discounts and incentives for such packaging types are managed as separate service type rules.

Default: All Packages
Options: Carrier-specific. Check the agreement page for a given carrier for a full list.
Common mistake: Given the organization of rules within an agreement, the ideal order of rules is to put all packages first, then build secondary rules for each carrier-specific packaging type section. In other words, the general rule that targets All Packages is above the carrier-specific package type rule. This way, the discounts related to a given carrier-specific packaging type overwrites the general rule targeting All Packages.

Directions

Overview: Domestic service types are managed as a single rule on Service Discounts. Service Discounts on international shipments, in contrast, are managed as separate rules by direction. Export and Import.

Default: All enabled by default

Options:

Import
Export
Domestic

Common issue: Carriers commonly invoice customers for domestic service types for international ship from or ship to locations. This problem can be overcome by the selection of All enabled by default for domestic service types.

Discounts

Min Rolling Average – The lower bound on the revenue band.
Max Rolling Average – The upper bound on the revenue band.
Discount – Amount of the Earned Discount.

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