Rate card

The rate card page shows one rate card: its details, its versions and the lines of each version, and tabs for its terms, uploads, feeds and history. You change the card’s rates in a draft, then publish them from a date. For what rate cards are and how TrakIT uses them, see Rate management.

To open a card, select its code or name on the Rate cards tab, or Open the rate card in an expiry or feed email. ◄ Back to Rate Cards returns to the list. If you leave the card with unsaved line changes, TrakIT asks you to confirm.

The card

The heading shows the card’s name and status: Live, Expiring, Scheduled, Draft only, Expired or Inactive. Below it:

Field	Shows
Code	The card’s code.
Type	The card type, with Sell or Buy.
Customer or Vendor	Who the card is with. A customer group is marked (group).
Company	The company, or All companies.
Mode	The mode of transport, and how the prices are laid out.
Currency	The card’s currency.
Chargeable weight	The volume ratio and the rounding step, if set.
All-in	Yes if the prices include surcharges.
Priority	The card’s priority, if it is not 0.
Reference, Workflow	If set.
Notify	The user group told about expiry and feeds.
Volume commitment	The quantity, unit and period, followed in the Commitments report.
Created	When and by whom.

Button	What it does
Edit details	Changes the card’s details.
Copy	Creates a new card from one of this card’s versions.
Blank template	Downloads an empty Excel file in the layout of the card’s draft, or of its latest version, to type rates into and upload.
Deactivate, Reactivate	An inactive card’s rates are no longer offered, and it cannot be changed. Its versions and history are kept. TrakIT asks you to confirm before it deactivates a card.
Delete	Deletes a card that was never published, with its draft, after you confirm. A card with published versions cannot be deleted: deactivate it instead.

Edit details

1. Select Edit details.
2. Change the fields. They are the same as when the card was created: see Create a rate card.
3. Select Save.

The Code cannot change. Once a version has been published, the type, the side, the customer, group or vendor, the company, the mode and the price layout cannot change either: copy the card instead. Equipment types or Weight breaks (kg) here are for new drafts; a draft’s own columns are under Dates & columns.

If someone else changed the card after you opened it, TrakIT asks you to reload the page.

Copy a card

A copy is a new card with its own draft, holding the lines of the version you choose: for example, a customer contract made from your selling tariff, a few percent lower.

1. Select Copy.
2. Enter the Name.
3. Choose the Type and the Company. A copy stays on the same side: buy rates copy to buying cards, sell rates to selling cards.
4. Choose the Customer or Vendor, if the type has one. A card for a customer group stays for that group unless you choose a customer.
5. In Copy version, choose the version to copy. Withdrawn versions are not listed.
6. To change the prices, enter a percentage in Change prices by %, more than -100 and up to 1,000: for example, -5 for 5% less. Percentage lines keep their value.
7. Choose the date the copy Starts.
8. Select Create copy.

TrakIT opens the new card. It gets a new code, and the original’s mode, layout, currency, terms, notes and other settings, but not its reference or volume commitment. When you copy to another company, a line keeps its charge only if that company has an active charge of the same name, and TrakIT says how many lines were left out.

Versions

A card’s prices are kept in versions, numbered v1, v2 and so on. A card has at most one draft. Published versions never change and never overlap.

State	Meaning
Draft	Being prepared. Its rates are not used until it is published.
Scheduled	Published, and starts later.
Live	Published, and in use today.
Superseded	Ended, and a newer version is published.
Expired	Ended, with no newer version.
Withdrawn	Taken out of use, and kept on record.

Under Versions, each version shows its state and, once published, the date it starts; point to one for its dates and number of lines. Select a version to show its lines. The card opens on its draft if you can change the card, and otherwise on the live version, if there is one.

Below the versions, a banner describes the version shown: its dates, who published or withdrew it and when, and the reason for the change, with the buttons for that version.

Change the rates

1. Show the latest published version and select Edit. TrakIT opens a draft with a copy of its lines. If a draft is open already, select Go to draft vn instead.
2. Change the lines on the Lines tab, with Bulk change, or by uploading a file.
3. Set the dates in Dates & columns, or when you publish.
4. Publish the draft.

A new draft starts today, or the day after the latest published version starts if that is later. A new card starts with an empty draft.

To go back to an older version, show it and select Restore as draft: its lines are copied into a new draft. This needs the card to have no open draft.

Dates & columns

1. On the draft, select Dates & columns.
2. Enter the date it Starts, and the date it Ends. Leave Ends blank to run until a newer version replaces it.
3. Change the Equipment types or Weight breaks (kg) if needed.
4. Enter the Reason for the change, for example a general rate increase, up to 300 characters.
5. Select Save.

Removing a price column deletes its prices in the draft: TrakIT says how many and asks you to confirm.

Publish a draft

Publishing puts the draft’s rates in use from a date. Save or undo any line changes first.

1. On the draft, select Publish.
2. Check the dates In use from and Until. Leave Until blank to run until a newer version replaces it.
3. Check the Reason for the change.
4. Check what changes against the latest published version: the lines added, changed, removed and the same. See them opens Compare versions.
5. Select Publish.

• The draft needs at least one line.
• It must start after every published version of the card starts. To replace a version from its first day, withdraw that version first.
• The published version before it now ends the day before the new one starts, unless it ends earlier already.

Withdraw a version

Withdrawing takes a published version out of use: its rates are no longer offered. It stays on record, and the version before it is not brought back.

1. Show the version and select Withdraw.
2. Enter why, under Why?.
3. Select Withdraw.

Discard a draft

Select Discard draft, then confirm. The draft and all its lines are deleted, and this cannot be undone. If the card was never published, it is then left with no version: delete it and create it again.

Compare versions

1. Select Compare versions. It appears when the card has more than one version.
2. Choose the two versions, after From and to.

TrakIT counts the lines added, changed, removed and the same, and lists up to 500 of the differences, with each line and its prices in the two versions. Lines are matched by their leg, places, charge, detail, conditions, weights and dates.

Lines tab

The Lines tab lists the lines of the version shown, 100 to a page, with their number on the tab. To narrow it, type part of a place, charge, detail or note and select Search, or choose a leg instead of All legs. Clear removes the search.

Column	Shows
Leg	Pre-carriage, Origin, Freight, Destination or On-carriage.
From, To	The place codes; point to one for its name. Any means anywhere. Origin and destination charges have one place, in From.
Charge	The charge, with its detail.
Basis	The basis, and for a percentage, the charge it is a percentage of.
Curr	The currency of the line’s prices.
Price columns	One for each equipment type or weight break of the version, or Rate for one price. Weight breaks are headed -45 for the first band (below 45 kg) and +45 for the band from 45 kg.
Min	The minimum charge.
Conditions	The rest, in short: routing, maximum charge, cargo types, services, job types, weights, volume ratio, dates, transit and free days, and notes.

Change the lines of a draft

On a draft, the lines can be changed in the grid if you can change the card.

1. Type in the grid, or select Add line for a new row. To see all of a line’s fields, select the three dots on its row: see Line details.
2. To delete a line, select its cross; select the arrow to keep it after all. To delete several, tick them and select delete them below the list.
3. Select Save changes in the bar that counts the unsaved changes, or Undo to drop them.

TrakIT checks every changed row and saves all of them or none. A row with a problem shows the reason in red below it: fix it and save again. You can save up to 5,000 rows at a time. If you change page or version with unsaved changes, TrakIT asks you first.

When you type a line:

• Places are codes: a place’s own code, a UN/LOCODE such as NLRTM, or an exact name that only one place has. Blank means anywhere. Origin and destination charges use From only.
• The charge is its name as in the charge master, or a code that only that charge has. On a company’s card, it must be an active charge of that company for the card’s side: an income or disbursement charge on a selling card, an expense or disbursement charge on a buying card. On a card for all companies, it must be a charge name that some company has.
• A blank leg is Freight, a blank basis is the mode’s usual one, and a blank currency is the card’s.
• Numbers can use a point or a comma for decimals. Dates can be written as yyyy-mm-dd, dd/mm/yyyy or dd mmm yyyy.
• Every line needs at least one price.
• Two lines cannot price the same leg, places, charge, detail and conditions for weights and dates that overlap.

You can also copy rows from Excel and paste them into any cell. With their heading row, as in the file from Excel, the columns are matched by name, and a row with an ID updates its line. Without headings, the cells fill the grid’s columns from the cell you are in, in the order Leg, From, To, Charge, Basis, Curr, the prices and Min, from its row down; rows past the last are added. Then select Save changes.

Line details

Select the three dots on a row to see all of a line’s fields. On a draft, change them and select Done: the change goes into the grid, and Save changes keeps it. On a published version, the fields are read only; select Close.

Field	Notes
Leg	Pre-carriage (pickup to origin), Origin charges, Main freight, Destination charges or On-carriage (destination to delivery).
From (At for origin and destination charges), To	Any level: a country, a city, a port or a terminal. Blank means anywhere.
Via	The routing or transhipment port, for information. Not for origin and destination charges.
Charge	Required.
Detail	Shown with the charge on quotations and jobs, for example Peak season. Up to 300 characters.
Basis	Per shipment, Per container, Per TEU, Per kg (gross), Per chargeable kg, Per ton, Per CBM, Per W/M (ton or CBM, whichever is more), Per trip / load, % of another charge or Per unit (pallets, hours, km …).
% of charge	For a percentage: the charge it is a percentage of, not the line’s own charge. The percentage is from -100 to 1,000.
Currency	The currency of the line’s prices.
Price	One for each price column.
Minimum / maximum charge	The least and the most the line charges. The minimum cannot be negative.
Cargo types, Services, Job types	The line applies only to these. Blank means any.
Weight (kg)	The line applies from the first weight up to, but not including, the second.
Volume ratio	The kg per CBM for this line only, instead of the card’s: from 1 to 10,000.
Valid	Dates, only when the line is valid for less than its version, as a peak season surcharge is.
Transit / free days	Whole numbers of days, up to 999.
Notes	Up to 300 characters. They appear on the rate sheet.

Bulk change

Bulk change changes many lines of a draft at once: every line, or the lines that the search and the leg filter match. Search first to change fewer lines.

1. On the draft, select Bulk change.
2. Under Change, choose what to do:
   • Prices by a percentage: enter the percentage under By % (negative to lower), more than -100 and up to 1,000. To leave the minimum and maximum charges as they are, clear Change them by the same %.
   • Prices by an amount: enter the amount to Add (negative to take off).
   • Line validity: enter the dates under Lines valid. Blank dates follow the version’s.
   • Currency: enter the New currency. The prices are relabelled, not converted.
   • Delete the lines.
3. To change the prices of only some columns, tick them under Price columns. None ticked means all of them.
4. Select Preview. TrakIT says how many lines and prices change, with up to 10 lines as they are now and after.
5. Select Apply to n line(s).

Price changes leave percentage lines as they are. A validity change that would make two lines price the same thing for overlapping dates is refused.

Upload a file

You can upload rates into the draft from an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file. The easiest start is the file from Excel or Blank template, but a vendor’s own sheet works too: you match its columns once, and TrakIT remembers them.

1. On the draft, select Upload file.
2. Choose the file: up to 10 MB and 20,000 rows. Save an .xls file as .xlsx or .csv first.
3. To delete the draft’s lines that are not in the file, tick Replace all lines.
4. To check how TrakIT matches the file’s columns, tick Let me check how the columns are matched.
5. Select Upload.
6. If TrakIT cannot match the columns, or you asked to check them, choose what each Column in the file Means, or – ignore –. Keep Remember this ticked to read files of this layout the same way next time, for this card and for its customer’s or vendor’s other cards. Then select Continue.
7. Check the preview (below).
8. Select Write n change(s) into the draft.

How TrakIT reads the file:

• In a workbook, it reads the sheet named Rates, or else the first visible sheet. The heading row can be anywhere in the first 20 rows, below a title or a letterhead. A CSV file can be separated by commas, semicolons or tabs.
• Columns are matched by their heading: the headings of the downloaded file, and common ones such as POL, POD, Currency or Minimum. Price columns are matched by their equipment code or weight break, such as 20DV, -45 or +100, or for one price, by a heading such as Rate, Price or Amount. The file needs a charge column and at least one price column.
• A row updates the draft’s line with its ID, from a file downloaded from the draft. Otherwise it updates the line with the same leg, places, charge, detail, conditions, weights and dates. If the file has no columns for what tells lines apart, a row updates the only line of the same lane and charge. Fields the file has no column for keep their values. Other rows are added.

The preview counts the Rows, and those To add, To change, To delete, Unchanged and With problems. Choose whether to show the problems, the changes or every row. Each row shows what it Does: Add, Change, Delete, Unchanged or Problem, with the reason.

If any row has a problem, nothing can be written: fix the rows in the file and upload it again. Upload another file starts again. If the draft changed after the upload so that some rows no longer fit, TrakIT asks you to upload the file again.

Download the rates

• Excel and CSV download the version shown, in the layout an upload reads back: one row per line, with its ID first so that an edited file updates the lines it came from, and the price columns side by side. The grey columns, such as From name and Charge code, are for information only and are not read back. The Excel file has drop-down lists for the leg, the basis and the currency, and a Read me sheet that explains each column.
• Blank template, below the card’s details, downloads the same file with no rows.

Rate sheet

On a selling card, Rate sheet PDF and Rate sheet Excel lay out the version shown for the customer. There is no rate sheet for a withdrawn version.

The sheet shows the company (yours, for a card for all companies), the card’s name, who the rates are for, the reference, the version’s validity, the mode, the currency and the date it was issued. The lines are grouped by leg, with the places by name, the basis in words and the conditions in words: cargo types, services, job types, weights, dates and the line’s notes. The card’s terms come at the end. The sheet leaves out the line IDs and the card’s internal notes.

Terms & notes tab

• Terms: the inclusions, exclusions and conditions of the rates. When Get Rates applies the card’s rates to a quotation, its terms are added to the quotation’s terms. They also appear on the rate sheet.
• Internal notes: for your colleagues, up to 1,000 characters.

Change them and select Save.

Uploads tab

The Uploads tab appears when the card has recent uploads. It lists the latest 10, with the File, when it was Uploaded and By whom, its Rows and Problems, and its Status: In the draft, Has problems or Not committed. Select a file name to see its rows. Uploads are cleared after 30 days.

Feeds tab

Rates can also come in without opening the page: by email, from an SFTP folder or through the TrakIT API, depending on what your company has set up. Each file is read like an upload, and written into the draft only if every row is right. Publishing stays on this page.

To send rates by email:

1. Attach the file, .xlsx or .csv, to an email sent from your TrakIT user’s address.
2. Send it to your company’s TrakIT mailbox, which the tab shows if it is known, with the subject trakit rates followed by the card’s code, for example trakit rates VR-0012. To delete the draft’s lines that the file does not have, add replace to the subject.

TrakIT replies with the result, and a workbook listing every row and what came of it. You need permission to upload to the card. The file’s columns are matched as remembered for the card or its customer or vendor: upload a file of a new layout once on this page with Remember this ticked. For the rules that apply to every email sent to TrakIT, see Updating TrakIT by email.

If your company reads rates from an SFTP folder, the tab says how to name the files: after the card’s code, such as VR-0012.xlsx or VR-0012 November.xlsx. TrakIT reads the folder every 30 minutes.

The list shows the latest 50 feeds:

Column	Shows
Received	When the rates came in.
From	Email, SFTP or API, the sender, and the TrakIT user the rates were read as.
File	The file. Select it to see its rows, while they are kept.
Result	Written into the draft, Has problems - nothing written or Not read, with the reason.
Rows, Added, Changed, Deleted, Problems	The counts.

When a feed writes new rates into the draft, the card’s notify group is emailed, except for the sender. Feed records are kept for a year.

Expiry alerts

Once a day, TrakIT emails the card’s notify group (Tell in Edit details, shown as Notify), or else whoever published the version, when the last published version of an active card is about to end with no newer version to follow it: 30 days before, again 7 days before, and once in the week after it ended. The email says whether a draft is open, and links to the card.

History tab

The History tab lists what happened to the card, newest first, up to 500 entries: When, Who, the Version, What and the Detail. It records, for example, the card being created, changed, copied, deactivated or reactivated; drafts opened, changed and discarded; lines saved and deleted, bulk changes, files uploaded and rates received; versions published and withdrawn; and rates applied to quotations and jobs. The history is kept for good.

Who can use this page

Your role needs these permissions in the Rate Management section:

Permission	Allows you to
Read	Open a card of the companies you have access to, or for all companies, and see its versions, lines and tabs.
View Buy Rates	See, create and change buying cards: vendor rates, and spot rates and surcharges for buying.
Update	Edit the card’s details, terms and notes; open, change and discard drafts; deactivate and reactivate the card.
Publish	Publish and withdraw versions.
Import	Upload files, and send rates by email or SFTP.
Export	Download the Excel and CSV files, the blank template and rate sheets.
Create	Copy the card.
Delete	Delete a card that was never published.
Global Cards	Change cards for all companies, with the permissions above.

Publish, Import and Delete work only with Update too. The role editor turns on what a permission needs: for example, Publish turns on Update.