The Noviship system comprises a customer facing shipping interface as well as a financial back-office system for billing and reconciliation. When a customer requests a quote and receives prices there are many processes involved in that calculation. The cost of the shipment is calculated by rating with a specific carrier account while the price displayed to the customer is based on some agreed formula. Later on an invoice can be created to charge that customer for the shipment, credited to the account holder.
Noviship provides two types of billing: Customer and Cost.
Cost billing provides a means for the account holder to charge the billing entity (the entity that manages the customer accounts) for shipments on their accounts. Cost billing is always in the same currency as the shipment cost and the base price for each shipment is precisely the cost from the carrier. Markups and service fees are charged separately to make reconciliation with carrier bills easier.
Customer billing is based on offers made to the customer account. Offers set the markup or discount for each service offered by the carrier. In addition customer billing can be in a different currency from the cost with currency markups applied.
The steps between knowing the cost and charging the customer have become more elaborate as the system has evolved and prior to the Reseller Model it was this:
In the above illustration the Partner charges the billing entity using Cost billing and and that entity charges the customer using Customer billing.
This model has changed to allow both a reseller and the customer to be billed (using Customer billing) for the same shipment. The reseller is billed based on what they would have been charged for the shipment (i.e. using their offers). In making this change we now call the billing entity the “Associate”.
In the above illustration there are now two Customer bills for a shipment. Note that it is the Reseller that issues the Customer Invoice to the Customer. More specifically, it is the Reseller’s logo and billing information that appears on the invoice.
The settings are configured in the customer account (Administration | Customers and use the Edit button).
An Identity is the combination of logo, name, contact details, tax numbers and so on visible to the customer. A customer’s Identity appears on each page when they are logged in and generally represents their billing entity. It is important to set a Reseller’s identity as this will be used on their customer invoices.
Invoices are issued the same way as they were prior to the Reseller model but now a separate invoice is issued to both the Reseller and the Customer.
