UPS shipping cost utility

Altaireon is pleased to announce the UPS Shipping Cost Utility for Order Manager and the trial is ready for immediate download.  The production version is scheduled to be released on October 26, 2009.

Everyone knows the original estimated charge in Order Manager is more often not the same as the actual charges you receive from UPS once the package is delivered and the bill is sent.  Between the fuel surcharge, residential delivery charge, address correction charge, actual vs. rated weight price adjustments, etc., your final charge can be significantly different than the estimated charge in Order Manager. 

Occasionally, UPS will make adjustments to shipments already charged.  Sometimes you get a credit for over paying and at other times you get a debit for under paying on a shipment.  How do you identify these adjustments to your shipments in Order Manger?

The UPS Shipping Cost Utility automates the process of updating your actual shipping charges with your tracking table in Order Manager.

This utility will provides the following benefits:

1. Reads the data in your UPS data file and puts it into a easy to understand report.  The report is automatically generated in PDF format so you can print or review the data anytime.

2. Updates the estimated costs in the OM's tracking table with the actual charges from UPS.

3. Updates the package's weight data to the Tracking table.

4. Optionally generate a report only to review the data before posting to your database.

5. Use the update options to control which tracking numbers are updated.

6. Apply adjustments automatically to your tracking table in Order Manager

At present there is no automated way to update Order Manager with the actual charges from UPS unless you are willing to spend countless hours manually entering in this data.  Our UPS Shipping Cost Utility is the answer to this problem.

You can not get a true net profit or cost of goods sold with out having accurate shipping costs in your Order Manager database.

You can contact sales for more info about this utility.

Sample Report in PDF format

the trial version

The trial version for the UPS Shipping Cost Utility is fully functional and will generate a report for each UPS data file it processes.  The only limitation with the trial is it will not post any data to your Order Manager database and you are limited to the first page of the report.  Only the registered production version will be able to post data to your Order Manager database and output all of the pages of the report.

purchasing the UPS shipping cost utility

The introductory price of $125 is good until November 15, 2009.  Starting November 16, 2009 the regular price of $195 will be in effect.  Use the buy it now button to get your copy of this amazing tool for the introductory price and save $70.  Pre-orders are being taken now with the official release set for October 26, 2009.

Custom Utility programming

We are a full service software development company.  We can create any sort of utility you need to help with data clean up, automating tasks, unattended processing, client or server side automation, etc.  If you are in need of these services, please contact us.  We are happy to discuss your requirements and provide you with a solution.

installation & quick start

The installation for the UPS Shipping Cost Utility is quite simple and straight forward.  You can press the Cancel button anytime to abort installing it on your computer.  The following steps will guide you through the installation:

• Download the installation file UPSSetup.exe* from our website.

• Navigate to the folder where you saved the downloaded UPSSetup.exe* file and run it.

• When the setup program is displayed you may begin installing the utility.

• While at the welcome screen, click the Next button to process with the installation

• While at the license agreement screen, read the license agreement.  Accept the license and then press the Next button, or decline the license agreement and press the Cancel button.

• While at the Start Menu Folder, you can accept the default menu folder name, or change it to whatever you like.  When you are done, press the Next button to continue with the installation.

• When you arrive at the Select Additional Tasks screen, you can choose to have a desktop icon/short cut placed on your desktop for easy access to the utility.  You can also choose to create a Quick Launch icon for the Quick Launch toolbar.

• The Ready to Install screen displays the previous choices you've made.  Click on the install button to install the utility.

• When the installation is complete a finish button will be displayed.  Click on the finish button to finish installing the utility.

Now that you have finished installing the UPS Shipping Cost Utility on your computer, it is ready for you to run.  If you choose to have a desktop icon placed on your desktop, or a quick start icon placed on your quick start toolbar then you can click on either one to start the utility.  If you did not choose those options then you will need to go to the start menu button for Windows XP or Windows Vista and find the program group and start the utility from there.

Selecting the Database

File Type, Report, Data and Update Options

File Type:  Choose between the standard UPS data file or Billing Analysis Tool data file.  Each file type has it particulars, but is supported by the UPS Shipping Cost Utility.

Report Options:  Choose to generate a report only.  This will give you an opportunity to review the report before any updates are made to your database.

Data Options:  The "Update All" option will update all matching tracking number in your database with the actual charge in the UPS data file.  The "0 or Missing Only" option will only update the actual charges from the UPS data file if the shipping cost in your database is either 0 or there is no value at all.  It will not update any tracking records which do not meet this criteria.

Update Options: The "Update Weight Data" option determines if the weight data in your UPS data file is also updated to your database.  The "Apply Adjustments" options will update your shipping costs with the adjusted amounts reported by UPS.

UPS data and Report Files

Select the desired UPS data file:

1. Select the edit button located in the UPS Data File edit box.

2. Navigate to the desired UPS data file and select it.

3. The UPS data file edit box should now be filled in with the data file name and path.  Additionally, the Report File edit box will automatically be filled in with the name and path for the report.  The name and path will be identical to the UPS data file except the report file will have a *.pdf extension.  The report will be saved to the same directory where the UPS data file resides.

Updating the Shipping Cost Data to Order Manager

Once you've selected all of the options, the Update button will be enabled. To start the update process, click on the Update button.  When the process is complete, click on the Done button to close the utility.  If you need to process more than 1 file, select another UPS data file, and reselect your options if necessary.  If you do not wish to process a the data file then press the cancel button.  Once the process has begun, you will have to wait until it's complete.

The UPS Shipping Cost Report

The report will be saved as an Adobe Acrobat file (*.pdf) so you will need Adobe Acrobat in order to view the report.  You can take a look at the sample  to see the report.

The report divided into 4 sections:

1. Shipments:  This section will list all of the UPS shipments processed from the data file you selected.  The shipments with the Diff column highlighted in red are shipments whose actual charge are higher than the estimated cost found in your database.  Those in green mean the  actual charge is less than the estimated charge in your database.  Those in black mean the estimated and actual charges are the same.

2. Missing Orders:  Shipments found in this section of the report can mean 1 of 2 things.  You have a data entry problem with your database and the tracking number was not found, or you've been charged for a shipment that is not yours (a UPS mistake or someone is using your account).

3. Returns:  Shipments listed in this section represent merchant returns.  You requested UPS to pickup and return a previous shipment.  Normally, you will not find these shipments or tracking numbers in Order Manager.  You may need to manually check Order Manager to verify the return.

4. Adjustments:  UPS will make adjustments to your bill.  These adjustments are normally due to the rerating of previous shipments or adjustments for other surcharges.  The adjustments section of the report will list all of the adjustments made to your account during the billing cycle.  You can optionally apply these adjustments to Order Manager.

Note:  If you update your Order Manager database with the "Apply adjustments" option selected, do not rerun the same UPS data file ever again through the UPS Shipping Cost Utility.  Some adjustment transactions in the current UPS data file will adjust shipments from previous billing periods.  Rerunning the same data file will cause previous shipments not listed in the current data file to be continually be adjusted incorrectly after the first run.  There is no way for us to know whether the adjustment has already been applied to the shipment.  If you need to make changes to the shipment after you've run the UPS data file through the UPS Shipping Costs Utility then do so manually.

You can contact sales for more info about this utility or tech support for any technical assistance.