Rate Maintenance Process Flow

The Rate Maintenance pages are available via Sourcing > Rate Maintenance.

Note: By default, all Rate Maintenance UI pages now use an enhanced UI and an enhanced workbench. Although it is not recommended, you can use the pre-23A Rate Maintenance UI pages. See How to Switch to Legacy Rate Maintenance UIs.

At a high-level, the rate maintenance process is:

1. Defining the structure: Create and edit your rate load definitions.
2. Downloading: Download your rate load definition as an Excel spreadsheet which can include thousands of rates.
3. Entering data: Populate and/or modify the Excel spreadsheet with rate information.
4. Uploading rates: Upload the edited Excel spreadsheet and view upload history.
5. Approval process: Review (via version history and view differences) and approve your new/changed rates. Then, finalize your new/changed rates making the rates available for use in shipment planning.

Let's review the rate maintenance process flow in detail in the remainder of this topic.

1. Define the Structure

Since the number of attributes required for rates vary by mode, carrier, contract, accessorials, etc., it is not possible to create a standard spreadsheet for all rates. Therefore, the first step of the rate maintenance process is to determine the format of the spreadsheet via a rate load definition. The rate load definition is used to define the way the rates should be loaded into Oracle Transportation Management.

Following are the parts to this step:

1. Create or identify a rate offering that will server as your template rate offering.
2. Create a new rate load definition and select a template rate offering from step one.
3. Review assigned rate offering and rate record structures.
4. Specify involved parties on the rate load definition.
5. Format attribute columns on the rate offering and rate record structures. You can include/exclude columns, edit column display names, etc.

Notes:

In general, Rate Maintenance supports the following:

• Rate offerings and rate records, including stop-off charges, accessorials, special services, remarks, reference numbers, involved parties, SMC discounts, and NMFC class ranges.
• Some columns are not currently editable via Rate Maintenance so they will be excluded from the download. For columns not available on the rate offering, see Rate Load Definition - Rate Offering Structure Tab. For the columns not available on the rate record, see Rate Load Definition - Rate Record Structure Tabs.
• Certain functionality is not supported such as rate offering comments, rules and terms, and continuous move data. For details, see Rate Load Definition - Rate Offering Structure Tab and Rate Load Definition - Rate Record Structure Tabs.

Considerations:

Note that different values can dynamically require a different set of attributes, and therefore a different structure. A common goal should be to minimize the number of different structures in your database as this will:

1. Standardize your rates. This will make your rates more predictable and easier to manage.
2. Minimize the number of different rate load definitions and associated rate record structures needed. This will simplify downloading, editing, and uploading your rates.

Some general rules to think about when deciding whether or not a rate offering or rate record structure is unique:

• If one record populates an attribute or column while another record does not, these are different structures. Examples would be one rate populating the maximum weight column, additional rate costs, additional accessorials while another rate does not.
• Sometimes both records have the same attribute or column populated but they contain different values. In general this means they have the same structure. However, if values dynamically require different sets of attributes or columns, these would be different structures. Examples would be a unit-based RBI versus a flat RBI on a rate record rate cost or selecting truckload versus LTL for transport mode on a rate offering.

Once the rate load definition is set up, you are ready to download the spreadsheet.

2. Download the Spreadsheet

Next, you download either a blank spreadsheet or a spreadsheet containing existing rates. The content and formatting of the downloaded spreadsheet is based on the rate load definition created in step 1.

You can either download a blank spreadsheet or a spreadsheet containing rates. Either method can be used to create new rates. Two common reasons to download a spreadsheet containing rates are:

• You will be updating a subset of your rates due to an annual increase. Rather than recreate these rates from scratch you can select them in OTM, download them to a spreadsheet, edit each rate, and upload new versions of these rates for the new contract.
• You will be creating new rates but you would like to have a sample row in your spreadsheet to guide you as you complete the rest of the spreadsheet. In this case, you can select a representative rate in OTM, download it to a spreadsheet, and use it as a guide.

You can download rates using these actions:

• Multiple structure rate download action allows you to download more than 1,000 rates based on the results of a saved search.
• Download without rates action allows you to download a blank spreadsheet in a single step.

Notes:

• Rates are not validated on download. If a rate uses a structure different than what is present on the rate load definition, some data may not be included in the spreadsheet.
• While Rate Maintenance does not perform validation on download, the idea is that, through use of the tool, rates over time will become more standardized. Through this there will be less need for validation.

Once the spreadsheet is downloaded with all of the correct columns, you are ready to edit the spreadsheet.

3. Enter Data

You either populate the blank spreadsheet or edit the spreadsheet containing downloaded rates.

Here are some pointers when editing the downloaded spreadsheet:

• Each rate offering and rate record structure appears as a separate tab. For information on what information might appear in the downloaded spreadsheet along with download and upload notes, see Downloaded Spreadsheet and Downloaded Rate Costs, Accessorials, and Special Services.
• The spreadsheet is a Microsoft Office 2007 file with the extension .xlsx. If using a newer version of Microsoft Office, you must save the file as Excel Workbook (*xlsx) format. The file format .xls is not supported for rate maintenance.
• Columns which are marked Read Only are shaded and commented. You should not edit data in Read Only columns. If you do edit values in Ready Only columns, the changes are ignored upon upload.
• Do not reorder the columns in the spreadsheet.
• Do not add or delete any columns from the spreadsheet because this will cause errors upon upload.
• When you create a new row in a downloaded spreadsheet, cells, such as postal codes, which require specific formatting will not work. For example, with postal codes, the leading 0 is removed. You need to change the cell formatting from general to text so that the leading 0 is not automatically removed by Excel. To change the formatting, copy the format (using the format painter) from the cell above.
• Operational rates (rate offerings or rate records with the Active option selected) cannot be updated. You can add new rate records to existing, active rate offerings.

Once you edit the spreadsheet so that it contains the new/updated rates that you want to upload, you are ready to start uploading!

4. Upload the Edited Spreadsheet

Next, you upload the edited spreadsheet into Oracle Transportation Management via Sourcing > Rate Maintenance > Upload Rates.

You must specify a rate load group, which is free form text used to group the rates being loaded against a rate load definition.

Once the spreadsheet uploads or fails to upload, you view the Upload History to see a history of all uploads performed against a specific rate load group/rate load definition combination. Let's call this combination an approval summary. You use the approval summary during the approval process later.

From the Upload History page, you can research any upload errors by downloading the failed rates spreadsheet. You can review the failed rates spreadsheet for errors, correct the errors, and upload the corrected rates. The uploaded rates are inactive and read only.

5. Approval Process

Once rates are reviewed, you can start the approval process. The approval process allows you to review the rates before they become operational. An operational rate offering or rate record can be used for Oracle Transportation Management shipment planning purposes. When rates are active, they are considered to be operational.

The approval process contains the following steps:

1. Review uploaded rates
2. Approve or reject those rates
3. Finalize the rates

You can approve or reject rates from either the approval summary level or the approval details level. The approval summary page allows you to manage all rates as a group, while the approval summaries detail workbench allows you manage approval summaries and rates at either the rate offering and/or the rate record level.

Note: You can test your uploaded rates using rate inquiry. Since the rates are not active, specify either the Rate Offering ID or Rate Record ID on the Rate Inquiry page.

Approval Summary

On the Approval Summary page, you see all rates uploaded for each approval summary (rate load group/rate load definition combination). At this level, you can complete the following actions for all rate offerings and rate records uploaded against a specific approval summary:

• Approve All
• Approve Only New
• Reject All
• Undo All
• Finalize All

Note: Once a rate offering or rate record is approved or rejected and you upload a spreadsheet that contains an update, the status of the rate offering or rate record changes to NEW and you need to start the approval process again for that rate offering or rate record.

Approval Summaries Detail Workbench

On the Approval Summaires Detail Workbench, you see all rates uploaded for the selected approval summary. At this level, you can complete the following actions for any rate offerings and rate records uploaded against a specific approval summary:

• In the Rate Offering section, you can select a rate offering and run the following actions which change the status of the selected rate offering and associated rate records:
• • Approve All
  • Approve only New
  • Reject All
  • Undo All
  • View Version History
• In the Rate Record section, you can select a rate record and run the following actions which change the status of the selected rate record:
• • Approve
  • Reject
  • Undo
  • View Version History

Note: If you only want to reject a few rates, you can select and reject them one at a time on the Approval Details page, then approve all of the remaining rate records on the Approval Summary page with the Approve Only New action.

Finalizing Rate Maintenance Rates

Finalizing the rates is the last step of the approval process.

Rates are inactive and read-only in the rate manager (Contract and Rate Management > Contract Management > Rate Offering or Rate Record) screens until they are approved and finalized. Once you finalize the approved rates, Oracle Transportation Management selects the Active option and deselects the Read Only option. This means you can edit them through the rate manager and they can be used for shipment planning.

Some notes about finalizing the rates:

• The Finalize All action is only available from the Approval Summary page.
• For the action to run, all rate offerings and rate records uploaded for an approval summary must have a status of APPROVED or REJECTED.
• The Finalize all action, does the following:
• • Selects the Active option. You can use the rates for shipment planning.
  • Deselects the Read Only option. You can edit the rates via the rate offering and rate record managers.
• When a rate offering or rate record is approved and finalized, any accessorial costs attached to the rates are also made active and can be used in planning.
• As a result of the Finalize All action, rejected rates remain as inactive and read only.