From In-Portal User Manual

Current revision

Table of costs

This tab contains the table of shipping costs for this amount. The table has three variables – zone, bracket and cost. Each combination of a zone and a bracket can have a specific cost. The table is designed for working with significant amounts of data, and while it might seem complicated, we have tried to provide all of the tools for quick and efficient data entry.
The toolbar action buttons perform the following operations:

• Flip – rotates the table by 90 degrees. If you started with brackets on the left, designating rows, and zones at the top, designating columns, you will end up with brackets at the top, designating columns, and zones on the left, designating rows. This can be confusing and cause data entry errors, so we do not recommend using this feature unless you are comfortable with it. However, it can come in very handy if you have a lot more brackets than zones, or visa versa. It is generally a lot more convenient to scroll up/down in any browser, than it is to scroll left/right, so you will find it easier to designate the larger set as rows. The position of the table is saved from visit to visit, so you will not have to flip it every time you edit the shipping type.
• Clear All – clears all cells in the table. This operation is reversible only by canceling the entire shipping type edit, which will restore your cost table to the previous state, but will cancel all other edits you may have made.
• Modify – this button allows you to perform a bulk arithmetical operation on one or more rows or columns in the table. To do this, select the desired rows or columns, hit the Modify button, and then choose the operation type and enter the amount. This is useful, for example, when shipping costs increase for an entire zone or multiple zones by the same amount. Instead of re-entering many cells of information, simply check the zones in question, hit Modify, and then add the amount to all of them at once. Hint: if you have combined costs in all cells (see below for an explanation of what combined cost is), but you only need to modify one of the components, simply change the type (this will disable but preserve the other component), apply the operation, and then change the type again.

The fields in the table are explained below:

• Cost type – this specifies what information is entered in each cell of the table. The costs can be Flat, meaning a fixed amount for any orders that fall in the bracket, or Per Unit, meaning an amount for each base unit of the bracket, or Combined, meaning Flat plus Per Unit. An example of Flat price structure would be a setup, where for any orders under 5 items the shipping cost is a flat $4 (let’s say, for music CDs), and any orders over 5 but under 10 items it’s $6, and you don’t ship more than 10 items in one order. An example of Per Unit pricing would be any shipping by weight, where each pound or kilogram counts, however on orders under 10 pounds, let’s say, the rate is $1 per pound, and over 10 pounds it’s $1.50 per pound.
• Empty Cells Are – this radio button specifies how the empty cells are handled – as free shipping, or as impossible shipping.
• Precision – in order to save room in the table, and to align all cells for easy reading, the system will display the numbers in the specified format – fixed number of digits for the number, and fixed number of decimals. The format is specified by the two dropdowns here.
• In the table itself, the “$” box represents the Flat cost, and “%” the Per Unit cost. The labels do not necessarily mean that the flat cost is in dollars, and that the Per Unit cost is a percentage.