Busy all year, and not sure why the numbers are thin
The depot is full every night. Turnover looks healthy. Yet at year end the margin is thinner than it should be, and nobody can say where it went. The biggest customer is also the most demanding. Is it profitable? The sales manager thinks so. The depot manager is not sure.
Answering properly would mean taking every consignment, the price you charged, the network's charges for it on the statement, any re-weigh or service failure adjustment, and a fair share of collection time, then adding it up by customer. Nobody has time for that, so decisions about rates and accounts are made on instinct.
Revenue and cost live in different places
Each side of the margin sits in its own system, keyed differently and arriving at different times.
- Your sell price is on your invoices, in Xero, Sage or a transport system.
- Network charges come on the member statement, per consignment, weeks later.
- Adjustments for re-weighs, claims and failures appear in later periods.
- Collection cost depends on vehicles, drivers and how many stops a customer needs.
Put together, these give a clear picture. Kept apart, they give a turnover figure and a feeling.
Deciding without the figures
Without margin by customer, rate reviews are guesswork. Some customers are kept on rates that no longer cover their cost, while others are pushed on price when they are already your best accounts.
The same applies to lanes and services. A zone where you win lots of work may be one where the network's charge leaves little behind. A premium service you promote may earn less than you think once failures are counted.
And when the network changes its tariff, you cannot tell quickly which accounts are affected most.
How we build the margin view
- We read your invoice lines and match them to consignments.
- The network's charges and adjustments from the member statement are matched to the same consignments, including later adjustments.
- Collection costs are allocated using rules you agree, such as cost per stop and per pallet, based on your vehicle and driver costs.
- Each consignment ends up with a sell price, a network cost, adjustments, a local cost and a margin.
- A dashboard groups margin by customer, zone, size band, service and month, with the detail one click away.
- When a new network tariff arrives, it can be applied to last quarter's consignments to show which customers it affects most.
| View | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| By customer | Which accounts earn most and least per pallet? |
| By zone | Where does the network charge leave least? |
| By size band | Are quarters and halves priced right? |
| By service | Do premium services earn their keep after failures? |
The allocation rules are yours, and we show them openly so nobody mistakes an estimate for an exact figure. We do not tell you what to charge.
Rate reviews with figures behind them
When a rate card comes up for review, you open the customer's margin by month and by lane. When a customer asks for a discount, you know what it would leave. The depot manager and the sales manager look at the same numbers instead of arguing from impressions.
Most depots find a few accounts and lanes that surprise them, in both directions.
Sales conversations change too. A salesperson chasing a new account can see what similar customers earn on similar lanes, and knows before the meeting what a sensible opening rate looks like.
Could you answer these today?
- You know turnover by customer but not margin.
- Rate reviews are based on feel.
- Network charges are never matched to customer invoices.
- Tariff changes are applied without knowing who they hit.
- Nobody can say which zones are least profitable.