Home > Chartering > Advanced Pricing

With Advanced Pricing, you can price Cargo contracts based on many variables in addition to load and discharge ports. You can create configurable rules containing relevant variables, conditions, and results. These rules will determine the value of various attributes of the contract, such as freight and Extra Freight Terms.

Workflow

1. On the Pricing tab of a COA, Cargo/VC In, Bulk Cargo Update, or CP Terms Details form, select the Advanced check box.

   • If any Pricing Templates exist, and there are no existing Rules, you are prompted to choose a template.

   • To switch back to the current pricing matrix functionality, clear the Advanced check box.

2. Complete the Pricing Rule form by adding Conditions or Groups of Conditions, and corresponding Results, to fit the contract. Many Rules can be created for a single contract.

3. When you exit the Pricing Rule form, all Rules appear in a grid that replaces the current Pricing grid.

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   • Rules will be read in sequence. To change the sequence, right-click a Rule and then click Move Up or Move Down.

   • To open the Pricing Rule form again to view a Rule, right-click a Rule and then click Details.

   • To add another Rule, click the last row in the grid; the Pricing Rule form opens again.

   • Values applied by Advanced Pricing can be overridden. Overridden values turn blue and are no longer populated by the Advanced Pricing table.

     • To resume populating an overridden field from the Advanced Pricing table, clear the field. However, the Bunker Surcharge field cannot be cleared. Instead, right-click it and then click Revert to Adv Pricing Result.

     • Extra Freight Terms that are manually added to a contract that uses Advanced Pricing are blue when entered and are not deleted when the table is run. 

     • Extra Freight Terms inserted by Advanced Pricing that are manually deleted are added again when the table is run. To remove them, set their value to 0 rather than deleting.

     • On a Cargo COA, you can undo overrides:

       1. The Advanced Pricing Overrides button includes the number of overrides that exist. Click .

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       2. Clear the check boxes of any overrides you want to undo and then close the form.

   • For an Estimate Only Result, the text in the contract and throughout the Platform is dark red. When creating an invoice that includes an Estimate Only Result, if you set the invoice status to Actual, you are prompted to finalize the values or set the invoice status back to Pending. You can either manually overwrite the values in the contract or click Estimate Only again in the Pricing Rule form to clear it.

   • Otherwise Rules: One or more Rules with no Conditions can be added to the end of the list of Rules. These will be used on the contract should none of the other Rules evaluate to true.

4. To print a report about the Rules table from the contract it is used on, click Report ▼ (or, on a Cargo Booking or VC In Booking, click Advanced Pricing ▼) and then click Advanced Pricing. It shows Rules that evaluate to true, a full list of Rules, and Rules that cannot be evaluated, as well as any warnings on the contract.
   You must have the Cargo Module Right selected.

Because Pricing table Results from Rules evaluating to true are saved directly to the Cargo, VC In, Cargo COA, and VC In COA, there are minimal changes to the invoicing process. The P&L also remains unchanged, and the way that the Trading P&L is calculated is not affected. The calculations remain the same, although the values that go into the calculations might change as a result of a more accurate Pricing table.

To access the Pricing Rule form after rules have been created, do one of the following:

• On the Pricing tab of a contract, right-click a rule in the grid and then click Details.

• On a Cargo Booking or VC In Booking linked to a COA, click COA Advanced Pricing.

Application of Rules

These contract items can be populated by the Advanced Pricing table:

• Allowed Laytime

• BAF or Bunker Surcharge (depending on the setting of CFGUseSymmetricalBAF)

• Counterparty Option Tolerance

• Demurrage/Despatch

• Extra Freight Terms

• Freight

• VAT

For all but Extra Freight Terms, only one instance is available. As the Rules run, these fields fill with the Results from the first Rule that evaluates to true. The next Rule is then evaluated. Once the next Rule evaluates to true, empty fields fill with Results.

For example, if three Rules in an Advanced Pricing table all evaluated to true and all included only Freight as a Result, the Freight from the first Rule would be used, and nothing would be used from the second and third Rules. If the second Rule additionally had a value for Demurrage/Despatch plus an Extra Freight Term, and the third Rule had a different Extra Freight term, the Freight would be used from the first Rule, the Demurrage/Despatch rates and the Extra Freight Term would be used from the second Rule, and the different Extra Freight Term would be used from the third Rule. The Advanced Pricing Report is a useful tool for understanding which Results from which Rules are being applied to the contract, and why.

Advanced Pricing Simulator

In the Advanced Pricing Simulator, you can enter hypothetical scenarios and see how they affect your contract.

To use the the Advanced Pricing Simulator:

1. Click Report ▼ (or, on a Cargo Booking or VC In Booking, click Advanced Pricing ▼) and then click Advanced Pricing Simulator.

2. The setup form for this report includes any Variables that were used as Conditions in at least one Rule of the contract (except those used only in expressions). The Value column displays the current value of this Variable, if it is available. Do any of the following:

   • Change Values from the contract, which appear on this form.

   • Enter Values for other Variables in the table, using Operations and contract details where available.

   • Click the last row to add another Condition.

   • For a Multiple Cargo Booking, click < or > to see the Simulator for the previous or next Cargo. The Cargo number appears in the Title bar.

3. Click Report. The Advanced Pricing Rules Report shows the Results with these values applied.

   • If Values are blank, those Rules will not be evaluated.

   • You can modify the Values and run the report again.