Billing and Payments
This section details how billing and payments are managed by fulfilmentcrowd
Introduction
At fulfilmentcrowd we work hard to make your life simple and hassle-free. Our pricing, discounts and terms are standardised whilst billing and payments are fully automated. Please read this document to understand the accounting process, your obligations and available remedies on the rare occasion when things go wrong
Tariffs
All fulfilmentcrowd clients are billed for services based on the prevailing service and shipping tariffs. The latest rates applicable to services from all centres can be viewed in Settings > Our Tariffs and Agreements on the fulfilmentcrowd platform.
Payment terms
Due to the way in which we account for and reconcile our input costs, in some cases we may apply specific billing and payment terms to different charges. The majority of services rendered including receipting, storage, pick/pack and rework are invoiced weekly in arrears with payment collected within 7 days by Direct Debit. However, some shipping services may be provided on prepaid terms, whereby charges are decremented from a credit balance as they are confirmed by the carrier. This process is described in detail below and necessitated by volumetric adjustments and surcharges that may be levied by carriers, but can only be identified upon completion of our monthly reconciliation process.
You will not be assigned a credit limit. For whatever reason, should your account fall into debit balance, all services may be placed on stop with immediate effect.
Billing period
Charges for fulfilment, consumables and storage are calculated weekly, in arrears, for the period Monday 00.00 to Sunday 23.59. Activity such as receipting a large delivery that straddles two periods will be apportioned across both. However, an authorised works order would be invoiced in the period during which it was completed.
Your invoice and statement
fulfilmentcrowd invoices are fully itemised and correlate to the prevailing Universal Tariff. They are raised weekly in arrears and sent to you via email no later than noon on the following Tuesday. Each invoice will have a unique reference number and the ‘other reference’ field details the service (e.g. Fulfilment) and date of the week commencing period (e.g. 22nd January 2021). All itemised charges are quoted exclusive of VAT and if you are any international client, the invoice may include multiple VAT rates, depending on the service provided and applicable tax regime. For example, dispatching a parcel on behalf of a US client from a UK centre will be exempt from UK VAT, but storage will be subject to UK VAT.
As we receive payments into funds weekly via direct debit, you will also receive a statement of account detailing the allocation to invoice(s).
Billing Items
Pick, Pack & Dispatch First Item On Order - Standard Per Order Charge.
Pick, Pack & Dispatch Additional Items - A charge levied against all but the first line on each order dispatched. I.e. where an order contains 3 items, the first will be included within the per order charge, whilst items 2 and 3 will incur the Additional Item Charge.
Facility Fee - this charge includes the first 5 cubic metres of standard short-term storage at the prevailing tariff rate.
Fulfilment Storage Per M3 - Storage charges are levied per cubic metre and based on the number and size of bin location used to store your stock.
Packaging Surcharge Mini / Midi / Maxi Box - As per Universal Tariff, this surcharge is based on the expected time / motion for packing small, medium and large items / orders.
Custom Box / Bag - Where using custom packaging for your orders, this surcharge covers the expected time / motion for packaging your items and managing stock of your packaging.
Dispatch Notes - charge applies for the addition of dispatch notes, commercial invoices or packing notes to consignments.
Packaging Charges - fulfilmentcrowd records the packaging items used for each order dispatched. Charges for these packaging items are displayed within the universal tariff.
Shipping - itemised by service, the parcel quantity dispatched by service in the previous week is detailed in brackets after service description.
Fusion - This is the middleware developed and supported by fulfilmentcrowd for integrating with websites, marketplaces and carriers. The basic orders download is provided free of charge, however the advanced version (including stock updates) is charged weekly, per channel.
Payments
During the onboarding process you will setup a Direct Debit (UK), SEPA (EU) or ACH (USA) mandate through our online portal; all such payments are processed by GoCardless Ltd (UK company registration number 07495895) who are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (registration number 597190) for the provision of payment services. Our finance team place instruction to collect Direct Debit payment by close of business every Tuesday. A forward-dated cash posting is made on your sales ledger account at the same time, allocated against the open invoices. The payment value will be equal to the outstanding amount on the account which means it will always be in balance (zero).
Querying your account
Invoices may be queried by raising a Support Ticket within 7 days of the transaction date. This query will be acknowledged on our platform within 16 working hours and you should expect a response within 40 working hours. This response may include a full or partial credit as agreed by the Shared Services Manager. In certain cases, your query may be referred to our commercial team for remedy e.g. a billing correction. Credits are posted (but not allocated) to the account and decremented from the next scheduled statement and direct debit payment.
Shipping
If a claim for consignment loss or goods damaged in transit is raised on your behalf and this is subsequently settled by the carrier, you will be issued a reciprocal credit note, posted to your sales ledger account.
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