Harvest - Surcharge Management for Food - Setup
Set Up Surcharges in
Harvest - Surcharge Management for Food
Overview
Use Harvest - Surcharge Management for Food to create surcharge rules that automatically apply freight, customs, handling, fuel, or other recurring charges to sales documents in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
This article explains how to set up surcharge rules, define when they apply, and activate them on a sales order or sales invoice.
Before you start
Before setting up surcharges, make sure:
- Your Business Central environment is running version 28.0 or higher and the Harvest - Surcharge Management for Food extension is installed.
- You have the required setup permission: HFSSCG - Admin or HFSSCG - Edit.
- Your finance or operations team has identified the surcharge purpose, amount, effective dates, and whether it should apply once per document or on each invoice.
- The required G/L accounts or item charges have already been created for surcharge posting.
- Customer Surcharge Groups and Item Surcharge Groups have been created and assigned if your surcharge rules will use groups.
- Items have the required master data for the calculation, such as gross weight for weight-based surcharges.
How to set up surcharges
Follow these steps to create and activate a surcharge rule.
1. Configure Surcharge Management Setup
- Use Search (Alt+Q) and open Surcharge Management Setup.
- Select the Surcharge Nos. number series used to assign surcharge IDs.
- Turn on Calculate Surcharge On Release if surcharges should recalculate automatically when a sales order or sales invoice is released.
- Select OK or close the page to save.
2. Create surcharge groups, if needed
Surcharge groups are optional, but they make it easier to apply the same surcharge rules to multiple customers or items.
- Open Customer Surcharge Groups to create customer groupings such as DOMESTIC, EXPORT, WHOLESALE, RETAIL, or VIP.
- Open Item Surcharge Groups to create item groupings such as FROZEN, REFRIGERATED, BULK, or OVERSIZED.
- Open the Customer Card and assign the Customer Surcharge Group Code on the Invoicing FastTab.
- Open the Item Card and assign the Item Surcharge Group on the Sales FastTab.
3. Create a new surcharge rule
- Use Search (Alt+Q) and open Surcharges.
- Select New. The No. field will populate from the configured number series if number series setup is complete.
- Confirm the surcharge is in Draft status. Draft surcharges can be edited; active surcharges are used for calculation.
4. Enter general
surcharge information
Field | What to enter |
Description | Enter a clear surcharge name, such as Fuel Surcharge - Ground Shipping. |
Starting Date | Enter the date the surcharge becomes valid. This is required. |
Ending Date | Enter an end date if the surcharge should expire, or leave blank for no end date. |
Currency Code | Leave blank for local currency, or enter a currency if the surcharge applies only to a specific currency. |
5. Configure calculation settings
Use the calculation settings to define what the surcharge applies to, how the amount is calculated, and where the charge posts.
Field | Purpose |
Applies To | Choose Document for one surcharge based on the whole document, or Item for surcharges that apply to qualifying item lines. |
Calculation Type | Choose Flat Rate, Percentage of Sales, Weight, or Unit of Measure. |
Calculation Value | Enter the fixed amount, percentage, or rate per weight unit. For percentages, enter the whole number, such as 5 for 5%. |
Line Type | Choose G/L Account to post directly to a G/L account, or Item Charge to use Business Central item charge handling. |
Line Value | Enter the G/L Account No. or Item Charge No. based on the selected Line Type. |
Item Charge Allocation Type | If Line Type is Item Charge, choose how to allocate the charge, such as equally, by amount, by weight, or by volume. |
Frequency | Choose Each Invoice for partial invoicing scenarios where the charge should apply each time, or Once Per Document when it should apply only once. |
Include in Unit Price | For item-level surcharges, select this if the surcharge should be included in the item unit price instead of shown as a separate line. |
6. Define when the surcharge applies
Use surcharge filters to define the customer, location, shipping, and item conditions that must be met before the surcharge is calculated.
Filter area | How it is used |
Customers | Use All Customers, a specific customer, ship-to address, customer surcharge group, customer price group, or customer discount group. |
Locations | Use All Locations or a specific location code. |
Shipment Methods | Use All Shipment Methods or a specific shipment method, such as ground or air. |
Shipping Agents | Use All Shipping Agents or a specific shipping agent and, if needed, service code. |
Items | For item-level surcharges, use All Items, a specific item, variant, unit of measure, item surcharge group, or item discount group. |
7. Activate the surcharge
- Review the surcharge setup for accuracy.
- Change the Status from Draft to Active.
- Confirm the activation message if prompted.
Only active surcharges are calculated on sales documents. Once a surcharge is active, some setup fields become read-only. To make changes later, return the surcharge to Draft, edit it, and activate it again.
Common setup examples
- Simple fuel surcharge: Applies to Document, uses a Flat Rate such as $25.00, posts to a G/L Account, runs Once Per Document, and can be filtered to a shipment method such as Ground.
- Environmental fee on frozen items: Applies to Item, uses Percentage of Sales Amount such as 2%, posts as an Item Charge, runs Each Invoice, and can be filtered to Item Surcharge Group = Frozen.
- Oversized freight surcharge: Applies to Item, uses Weight Based calculation such as $0.50 per lb, posts as an Item Charge, runs Each Invoice, and can be filtered to Item Surcharge Group = Oversized and a specific Shipping Agent.
What happens next?
- Business Central evaluates active surcharge rules against the sales document date, currency, customer, location, shipping, and item information.
- If Calculate Surcharge On Release is enabled, surcharges recalculate when the sales document is released. If it is not enabled, users can calculate manually and active surcharges can still calculate during posting.
- A matching document-level surcharge creates a surcharge for the whole document. A matching item-level surcharge applies to qualifying item lines.
- G/L account surcharges post to the selected G/L account. Item charge surcharges use the selected item charge and allocation method.
- If partial shipments or invoices are used, the Frequency setting controls whether the surcharge is applied on each invoice or only once per document.
- If a posted invoice is corrected or reversed, surcharge entries follow the standard Business Central correction and reversal process.
Things to know
- Starting Date is required. Ending Date is optional, but if entered it must be after the Starting Date.
- Only active surcharges calculate. Draft surcharges are not applied to sales documents.
- Document-level surcharges apply to the whole document. Item-level surcharges apply to qualifying item lines and may create separate surcharge lines for each related line.
- Percent values are entered as whole percentages. For example, enter 5 for 5%, not 0.05.
- Weight-based surcharges require item weight data. If weight is missing or incorrect, the surcharge amount may be wrong.
- Item charge allocation by weight or volume depends on item master data being populated.
- If Include in Unit Price is selected for an item-level surcharge, the surcharge may not appear as a separate customer-facing line.
- Use Exclude from Surcharges on the document or line when a surcharge should not apply according to your company policy.
- Avoid manually editing surcharge lines unless your company process allows it. Recalculate or update the surcharge setup instead.
Troubleshooting
Issue | What to check |
I cannot see the setup pages | Confirm the extension is installed and you have HFSSCG - Admin or HFSSCG - Edit permission. |
The surcharge number is not assigned | Confirm Surcharge Nos. is populated and the related number series exists in No. Series setup. |
I cannot activate the surcharge | Check that required fields are complete, including Description, Starting Date, Applies To, Calculation Type, Calculation Value, Line Type, Line Value, and any required allocation settings. |
The surcharge is not calculating | Confirm Status = Active, the document date is within the surcharge date range, currency matches, filters match the document, and Exclude from Surcharges is not blocking the charge. |
The wrong amount calculated | Check the calculation type and value, confirm percentages are entered as whole numbers, and verify item quantity, line amount, gross weight, or other source values. |
The surcharge did not apply to a partial invoice | Check the Frequency setting. Each Invoice applies on every invoice; Once Per Document applies only once for the document. |
The item charge is not allocating correctly | Check the Item Charge Allocation Type and confirm item amount, weight, or volume data is populated for the selected allocation method. |
I cannot edit an active surcharge | Change the surcharge back to Draft, make the update, then activate it again. Draft surcharges do not calculate while inactive. |
I made a mistake on a posted document | Use the standard Business Central correction or credit process. Posted surcharge entries reverse with the posted document correction process. |
Related articles
- Harvest - Surcharge Management for Food
Need more help?
Contact your support team, help desk, customer success representative, or internal Business Central administrator for assistance.
For Harvest support, visit care.harvestfoodsolutions.com or the Harvest Food Solutions knowledge base.
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