Freight and Shipping Tools
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Calculating Total Weight

The total weight of a sales order is calculated by multiplying the Unit Weight by the Shipped or Ordered quantities. The recommended method is to calculate weight based on the Shipped quantity similar to the extended price of each detail line. Review the Calculating and Comparing Freight Charges section to Calculate based on the ordered amount option.

The Unit Weight is calculated by copying the Gross Weight within the inventory item's General tab or by the package Weight found within the optional Shipping tab of the inventory item. See graphic below. The Unit Weight can be edited within the sales order.

The total weight of an invoice is often used to calculate shipping charges for shipping methods such as UPS or Fedex shipping. Review the Creating Shipping Methods section for more details on configuring shipping rates. Total weight is also useful when printing shipping documents such as a Bill of Lading.  

Inventory item

The Unit Weight can be present using the following 2 inventory item settings:

  1. The Gross Weight setting within the General tab as shown below:

    Enter the Gross Weight based on the main unit of measure. Review the Inventory > Tracking Counts > Unit of Measure section for more information on the Main Unit of measure.

  2. The packaging Weight column within the Shipping tab as shown below:

    Review the Freight and Shipping Calculations section for more details on the optional package weight settings.

Defaulting the Gross Weight

Enter or maintaining the individual weight of each inventory item may be a daunting task. A convenient way to default or set the gross weight for an entire folder group may be a time saving option if the weight of the items are similar. Often the weight of a sales order is only used to calculate shipping and does not require exact weights. Review the Inventory Items > Changing Inventory Defaults section of the Inventory documentation for more details.

Entering Weight on a Sales Order

Open a sales order to view the weight columns and weight totals as shown below:

The Unit Weight amount can be changed by the user within the sales order. The total Weight and the total number of Items show at the bottom of the sales order as shown above. Note that the window may need to be stretched larger to show this information.

Review the Calculating and Comparing Freight Charges section for details on how the Weight fields are used to calculate freight costs.