Calculating Freight Charges as a

Percentage of Order Amount in

Oracle Advanced Pricing
An Oracle White Paper
March, 2003

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order

Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 1

INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 1
BUSINESS SCENARIO..................................................................................................... 1
Functional Issue................................................................................................................ 1
Solution Background................................................................................................... 1
Solution.......................................................................................................................... 1
Attribute Management ................................................................................................ 2
Create a Pricing Attribute........................................................................................... 2
Use the pricing attribute in a pricing formula ......................................................... 4
Define Modifier............................................................................................................ 5
Build Attribute Sourcing............................................................................................. 6
A WORD OF CAUTION.................................................................................................. 6
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................... 6

ii

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order

Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Businesses that charge their customers for freight and other special charges often
need to calculate those charges in a variety of ways. Oracle Advanced Pricing
provides the functionality and the flexibility to tailor the calculation of freight and
special charges to specific business needs.
INTRODUCTION

This paper steps the reader through setting up freight charges as both a lump sum
based upon a range of total order amounts, and also as a percentage of the order
amount. This paper is written for the 11i.8 version of Advanced Pricing. The
functionality is the same in earlier versions, the navigation and setup forms are
different.
BUSINESS SCENARIO
An enterprise charges its customer for freight based on a tier, a flat rate lump sum
for certain amount tiers, followed by a percentage of order amount above a certain
tier.
Example:
Order Amount (in dollars, currency unit is immaterial)
Freight Charge
1
100
15
101 200
20
201 300
25
over
300
6 % of order amount
Functional Issue

Oracle Advanced Pricing only supports Lumpsum order level freight charges.
Solution Background

Oracle Advanced Pricing (QP) provides a seeded Qualifier of Order Volume. QP

also provides the ability to define formulas to calculate the value of a modifier, e.g.
freight and special charges. Formulas have elements that include Numeric Constants
and Pricing Attributes.
Solution

Define a Pricing Attribute for Order Amount, create a pricing formula with the
formula 1 * 2 where 1 is the pricing attribute Order Amount and 2 is the numeric
constant (0.06 in this example). Since there is a seeded Qualifier Attribute for

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

Order Amount, the following steps will outline how to copy the existing mapping
rules to create the pricing attribute and formula:
Attribute Management

Using Attribute Management, locate the attribute mapping for the qualifier context
Volume, attribute Order Amount.

Responsibility: Pricing Manager

Navigation: SetupAttribute MappingContext and Attributes

Find Qualifier Context: Volume, Attribute Order Amount

Create a Pricing Attribute

Create a Pricing Attribute Context of OrderVolume, attribute Order Amount

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

Copy the Pl/SQL API information from the Qualifier attribute to the
Pricing Attribute

Navigation: SetupAttribute ManagementAttribute Linking and

Mapping: Find Pricing Transaction Entity Order Fulfillment, Context
Type Qualifier

Click on Volume code, and click the button Link Attributes.

Select Order Amount, and click on Attribute Mapping

Select the User Value String for the header level, and Ctrl-C to copy

Return to the Attribute Mapping screen, Find Pricing Transaction Entity

Order Fulfillment, Context Type Pricing

Click on your new code, and click the button Link Attributes.

Enter level, either Order, Line or Both; Attribute Mapping Method of

Attribute Mapping

Click on Attribute Mapping

Enter Oracle Pricing as the application name for request type ONT
(you will need to map the other entities as well if you wish to use this
attribute in Contracts or Quoting, etc.) Select Header Level, User
Source Type (if you are mapping an attribute for Order or Both), and
paste the User Value String from earlier. Return to the mapping form
for the qualifier context Order Amount, and repeat the steps, copying
to the Line Level value string (if you are mapping a qualifier for Line or
Both).

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

This creates the Attribute Mapping for your new Pricing Attribute of
Order Amount. After you use this attribute in a modifier or formula, you
will have to run the Build Attribute Mapping Rules concurrent program,
detailed later in this procedure.

Use the pricing attribute in a pricing formula

Use the pricing attribute in a pricing formula

Create a formula that calculates a value that is a percentage of the order

amount.

Navigation: Pricing FormulasFormula Setup

Give your formula a name, description and effective dates (if desired)

Enter the formula as NVL ((1*2),3). Using NVL (Null Value) ensures that
if for some reason the pricing engine encounters a null value in one of the
formula steps, it will return a value, not an error. In this example, factor 3 is
a numeric constant, value 0.

In Formula Lines, line 1, choose Formula type Pricing Attribute

Choose Pricing Attribute Context your context defined previously

Choose Pricing Attribute your amount attribute defined previously

Enter Step value 1

Formula Line 2, choose Type Numeric Constant

Enter your desired percentage as the Component, expressed in numbers,

not percentages.

Enter Step value 2

Formula Line 3, Type Numeric Constant. This is the value you want
returned if the pricing engine encounters a Null value. In this example we
chose zero (0)

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

This example will return a value of 6% of the Order Amount. Now we

must use this in a Pricing Modifier. A formula could use a Factor List if
the percentage varies based on Order Amount. The setup for Factor Lists
will not be addressed in this paper.

Define Modifier

Define a Modifier using the formula

Navigation: ModifiersModifier Setup

Type: Freight and Special Charges

Assign a number and name, description of desired (recommended)

Ensure the Automatic checkbox is enabled

Click on Qualifiers to assign any list level qualifiers, if desired (e.g. specific
customers, customer classes, order types)

Click in Modifier Summary zone

Assign a line number, or accept the default. This modifier will assign a
lump sum freight charge of 15 for order amounts from 1 to 100

Level: Order

Modifier Type: Freight/Special Charge

Pricing Phase: Header Level Charges

Choose Incompatibility Group (if desired)

Click on Discounts and Charges tab, enter Charge name

Application Lumpsum, Value 15

Click on Line Qualifiers, click OK in Qualifier Groups window (if it pops)

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

Select Qualifier Context: Volume, Qualifier Attribute Order Amount

Enter Operator Between, Value From = 1, Value To 100. Click on OK.

Repeat this process for the other lines that are a lump sum for an amount
range, as illustrated in the business example above.

Create a line for the percent based freight repeat setup steps from above
until you click on the Discounts and Charges tab. Choose your Charge
name.

In the Formula field, enter the name of your formula.

Application Lumpsum

Click on Line Charges, enter Volume and Order Amount as before,

operator Between, Value From 301 (for this example), Value To 9999999

Click OK.

Build Attribute Sourcing

Run the Build Attribute Sourcing concurrent program

There are two ways to run this program, via Reports, Single Request, or
from the Tools menu in the Attribute Mapping form.

A WORD OF CAUTION

In the 11.5.8 release (Family Pack H) and earlier, this method may produce
undesired results if an order line is split, or order lines do not ship together. Until
this issue is resolved by development, this method works best with an order type
which has Header Level Invoicing.

CONCLUSION

In order to meet changing and challenging competitive environments, businesses

today must be able to quickly and flexibly define pricing rules to support their
business goals. Using the inherent capabilities of Advanced Pricing, a business can
adapt their pricing capabilities to their business needs, often leveraging the seeded
data provided with the applications, without customization.

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

Calculating Freight Charges as a Percentage of Order Amount in Oracle Advanced Pricing

March 2003
Author: Douglas Visscher
Contributing Authors: Joshua Saffren
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