Automatically Apply Weight Overage Fees to Invoices

If your roll-off business charges customers for going over weight limits, you no longer have to calculate and add those fees manually. With weight overage fee automation, ServiceCore makes it easy to apply extra charges, like for additional tonnage, directly to invoices based on job details.

Set it up once and let ServiceCore handle the calculations! This helps save time, reduce billing errors, and ensure customers are billed accurately every time.

Before You Start

Here are a few things to know before you continue:

• This article covers several features in ServiceCore. If you are new to any of them, we suggest reviewing the linked article for more details. 
  • Add Services
  • Create a Job
  • Create an Invoice
  • Create a Price Book
• To see if you have access to these features in ServiceCore, please check out this article on user permission levels.

How it Works

You’ll set a rule that follows something along the lines of:

•  “If the weight of the dumpster I haul is greater than the weight allowance I gave to my customer, then charge the customer for the additional weight.”

Once the rule and related information are configured, ServiceCore will automatically calculate and add the overage line item to your invoices!

This works for single invoices when you bring the related job into the invoice or in your batch billing process.

Adding Services

You’ll need two services for your weight overage fee automation:

1. Trigger service that starts the automation (e.g., Pickup or Exchange.)
2. Overage line item that appears on invoices when the overage occurs (eg. Weight Overage Fee).

If you have been using ServiceCore for a while, you will most likely have trigger services already created and might also have overage line item services already set-up. 

To add a trigger or overage line item service:

1. Go to “Settings.”
2. Click “Accounting.”
3. Select “Services.”

4. Click the “Add Service” button. 
    

   

5. Enter important information about the service, including Name, Short Code, and Billing Period, and Rate. 
6. Click “Save.” 

Please Note: For overage line item services for invoices, feel free to leave the Billing Period and Rate as they appear as they will be overwritten by the rate set on the automation.

Creating the Overage Fee Automation

Now that your services are set up, you can create an automation rule to apply overage fees when jobs exceed weight limits.

1. Go to “Settings.”
2. Select “Automations.”

3. Click the “+ Create New” button
    

   
    

4. Select “Weight Fee” for Automation Variable. 
5. Enter Automation Name (e.g. 30 Yard, 2 Ton Overage.)
6. Under Trigger Line Items, search and select the service(s) that you would like to trigger this rule. 
   • You can select more than one service to trigger your overage fee automation. 
7.  Enter a Weight Allowance for your automation.
   • This is how much weight is allowed for the service before the automation is triggered. 
8. Select a Unit of Measure. This is the way you measure weight (e.g. tons.)
   • Please Note: The Unit of Measure must match the unit used on the associated haul job for the automation to work.
9. Enter a Rate. This is the amount you’ll charge for the overage (e.g. $200)
   • This rate will override the rate that you have associated with the overage line item service.
10. Select Overage Rounding for your automation. This is how you would like to charge customers. 
    • Exact: Charges exactly for the overage (e.g., Overage of 1.5 tons = 1.5 x $200)
    • Rounded Up: Rounds up to the nearest whole number (e.g. Overage of 1.5 tons = 2 x $200)
11.  Add the Overage Line Item service that you would like to appear on invoices for the overage fee.
12.  Click “Save.”

In the example shown, we have created an automation to charge customers for weights above 2 tons at a pro-rated rate of $200 per ton.

Creating a Job and Including Weight Overage Fee Automation

In order for your weight overage fee automation to work, you will need to make sure your job includes the trigger service that you used in your automation.

Completing a Job with Overage Fee Automation

Now let’s say you had a 30 yard dumpster pickup that was completed where the total weight ended up being 3.5 tons which is above the 2 ton allotment for a 30 yard dumpster. 

In most cases, completing the job and adding total weight will be added by a driver, but you can add it yourself by completing the job.

Invoice with Overage Fee Automation Added

When creating your next invoice for the customer that includes your completed job that contains the trigger service and requires a weight overage fee, you will see that the overage line item will appear on the invoice. 

The overage line item would also appear if the invoice was generated during the recurring billing process.

Please Note: The total weight will not display on the invoice if the invoice includes multiple jobs with weights. Additionally, the automation will only work for jobs where the service line item quantity is 1 (e.g. a single pick up, a single exchange, etc.)

Using the Price Book to Customize Overage Fee Automation

In some cases, you might want to create customer, territory, or customer/site type specific pricing for this automation. 

To use a Price Book for customizing automation settings:

1. Go to “Settings.”
2. Select “Price Books.”

3. Click the “Add Price Book” button.
    

   

4. Enter a Name.
5. Select Category. 
6. Select Sub-Category. This will either be a customer name, territory, or one of your created Customer/Site Types. 
7. Click the “Add Services” button. 
8. Find the service for your fee. 
9. Add Adjusted Rate information. 
   • You can make the Adjusted Rate either higher or lower than you created for your overage fee automation. 
10.  Click “Save.”

As an example, we could have the automation be $200 per ton over 2 tons for all customers, but could have it be $180 for a specific customer. After adding the overage fee automation to a job for this customer, we can see that the Weight Overage Fee is now 180 per ton on the invoice  instead of the 200 per ton on the invoice example shown earlier in the article.
 

If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the chat widget on the bottom of this page or by sending an email to support@servicecore.com!