Billing and Payments
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
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 on the fulfilmentcrowd platform.
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.
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.
fulfilmentcrowd invoices are fully itemised and correlate to the prevailing Universal Tariff. They are raised weekly in arrears and sent 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 week commencing period (e.g. 16th July 2018). 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 HMRC guidelines. For example, dispatching a parcel on behalf a US client will be exempt from UK VAT but storage will be VATable. Presently, shipping charges for the following carriers will be included on your weekly invoice:
Royal Mail
Secured Mail
All other carriers will be subject to prepaid terms as explained below.
As we receive payments into funds weekly via direct debit, you will also receive a statement of account detailing the allocation to invoice(s).
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.
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 - Sending Dispatch Notes with you orders is an optional extra and is becoming more and more uncommon due to the way in which orders / returns are managed on online platforms.
Packaging Charges - fulfilmentcrowd records the packaging items used for each order dispatched. Charges for these packaging items are displayed within the universal tariff.
Fusion - This is the middleware developed and supported by fulfilmentcrowd for integrating with websites and marketplaces. Simple order download via Fusion would not normally incur a charge, however should you use Fusion to update stock on your channels, a weekly charge is incurred per channel .
During the onboarding process you will setup a Direct Debit mandate through our online portal; all such payments are processed by GoCardless Ltd (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).
Invoices may be queried by raising a Support Ticket within 7 days of 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 tariff switch. Credits are posted (but not allocated) to the account and decremented from the next scheduled statement and direct debit payment.
Other than the carrier services that are subject to weekly billing (listed above), we operate separate terms for shipping through domestic and international courier services. For these services, you will be required to deposit a lump sum, which is invoiced and paid in advance then credited to a separate, prepaid carriage account. As services are consumed the estimated charges are decremented from the balance and further invoices are raised as and when necessary, dependent on the rate of consumption. Due to the disparate invoicing arrangements of our contracted partners, we reconcile the charges [to you] on a monthly basis and adjust billing where necessary. Every month (around the end of second week), you will receive a detailed breakdown of all shipments, applied charges and the credit balance remaining on your account:
If you are issued a credit for carriage costs, no credit note will be raised but it is instead added to your carriage account. However, if you are issued a credit for loss or damages, this will be posted to your sales ledger account.