Configure shipping carrier interfaces with Dynamics AX

Introduction

The shipping carrier interface feature allows Microsoft Dynamics AX customers to integrate with shipping software. The shipping software packages can pull information from Microsoft Dynamics AX, process packages, and then move their information into Microsoft Dynamics AX, eliminating manual entry and improving tracking visibility.

Shipping Carrier Feature Concepts

The feature is designed to support carrier software that can read information from Microsoft Dynamics AX and write information back into Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Setup

The Shipping Carrier Interface feature is controlled by a Trade configuration key called Shipping Carrier. This configuration key is shipped as active with the default installation. The feature requires additional setup steps to be taken using the following forms to activate the process

• Carrier Interface
• Carrier Companies
• Carrier IDs
• Modes of Delivery
• Terms of Delivery
• Customers
• Return address 

Install and configure shipping carrier software

Very first step is to install shipping carrier software (AX supported) which is provided by consultant

For detailed instructions, consult the documentation provided with the shipping carrier software you are using.

Enable the shipping carrier feature

1. Click System administration > Setup > Licensing > License configuration.
2. Expand the Trade list.
3. Select the Shipping carrier configuration key.
4. Click OK, and then restart the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.

Specify the return address for sales documents

Select the return address that will be printed on packing slips and invoices.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Inventory and warehouse management parameters.
2. In the Return to field, select the return address to use for shipping documents from the following options:
• Company – Use the legal entity address that is specified in the Legal entities form.
• Warehouse – Use the address of the warehouse from which the shipment is sent.
• Site – Use the address of the site from which the shipment is sent.

Set up miscellaneous charges codes for shipping carriers

You can use existing miscellaneous charges codes or create new ones to use for shipping charges that are transferred from the shipping carrier software. If necessary, create miscellaneous charges codes for the following types of shipping charges:

• Core freight charges – Used for shipping charges that are based on the weight of the shipment.
• Ancillary charges – Used for ancillary charges that are applied to a shipment.
• Handling – Used for handling charges that are applied to a shipment, such as COD. fees.
• Fuel surcharges – Used for surcharges that are related to the price of fuel and are typically applied to an entire shipment.

For more information, see Charges code (form).

1. Click Accounts receivable > Setup > Charges > Charges code.
2. Select or create a miscellaneous charges code.
3. Click the Posting FastTab.
4. Select the Customer/Vendor debit type.
5. Select the Ledger account credit type and the Order, freight posting type, and then select a credit posting account.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for the remaining miscellaneous charges codes that you will use for shipping charges.

Set up carrier company information for shipping carriers

Set up a code to represent the carrier company and account information for each of the warehouses or other locations from which you ship goods. Later, you can assign an account code to a mode of delivery that represents shipments from each warehouse. For more information, see Carrier company (form).

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Shipping carrier > Carrier company.
2. Select a carrier and enter a tracking number URL.
3. Select the vendor account for the shipping carrier.
4. On the General FastTab, select a miscellaneous charges code for each of the fields.
5. On the Accounts FastTab, enter an account code and select a carrier company.
6. In the Carrier account number field, enter the number that is used by the carrier to bill your organization.
7. In the Currency field, enter the currency code that represents the currency that is used by the carrier software. This currency is assigned to all charges that are received from the carrier software for this account when the packing slip is posted.
8. If you are using the Kewill Clippership shipping carrier software interface, in the Ship via company field, enter the index number that corresponds to the shipping company that will be used.

Set up carrier service IDs for shipping carriers

Specify an identifier for each type of service that you use. Set up the codes that are required by the shipping carrier interface. Later, you can assign a carrier ID to a mode of delivery that represents a type of service, such as Ground or 2-Day Air.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Shipping carrier > Carrier IDs.
2. In the Carrier ID field, enter the carrier ID, such as FO6A, that is required by the carrier interface that you use.
3. Enter a description of the carrier service, and select a carrier company and a carrier interface ID.
4. Press CTRL+N and repeat steps 2 and 3 for the remaining carrier services that you use.

Set up modes of delivery for shipping carriers

Specify shipping carrier information for each mode of delivery that requires a shipping carrier.

1. Click Sales and marketing > Setup > Distribution > Modes of delivery.
2. Select a mode of delivery.
3. On the Setup FastTab, select the type of shipping service that is used for the selected mode of delivery. This information is used to sort information on reports.
4. Select a carrier ID. This information is used by the shipping carrier software to process the shipment.
5. If the mode of delivery originates from a specific warehouse or shipping location, select a carrier account code. For more information, see Carrier company (form).
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for the remaining modes of delivery.

Set up terms of delivery for shipping carriers

Set up terms of delivery that can be assigned to sales orders to determine which types of shipping charges are passed on to your customers as miscellaneous charges.

1. Click Sales and marketing > Setup > Distribution > Terms of delivery.
2. Select a terms of delivery record.
3. On the Setup FastTab, select the types of freight charges to move from the shipping carrier software to miscellaneous charges for the selected delivery terms:
• Not applicable – The customer is not charged for freight.
• N/A - third party/collect – The customer is not charged for freight on the invoice. To bill a third party, you must enter a third-party account and a third-party address. To bill the customer using their own shipping carrier account (collect), you must enter an account.
• Core – The customer is charged only for basic freight charges from the shipping carrier software.
• Ancillary and handling – The customer is charged only for additional charges from the shipping carrier software that are designated as ancillary or handling.
• Core, ancillary, and handling – The customer is charged for all charges from the shipping carrier software.
4. To waive the shipping charges if the invoice amount exceeds a certain amount, select the Apply free minimum check box and enter the minimum sales invoice amount in the Apply free minimum field. This is the sales amount before taxes, freight, and miscellaneous charges.

Set up customer information for shipping carriers

You can specify default shipping information for each customer account.

1. Click Accounts receivable > Common > Customers > All customers.
2. Double-click a customer account and then click the Addresses FastTab.
3. Select an address and then click Edit.
4. If a third party is billed for freight directly by the shipping carrier, select Third-party shipping address in the Purpose field and enter information on theAddress FastTab for the third party's billing address for freight charges. This information is transferred to the shipping carrier software when sales orders for the customer are processed.
5. Click the Delivery FastTab and then select a mode of delivery.
6. If you do not want a return address to appear on documents, select the Blind shipment check box. Your legal entity or warehouse return address information will not be printed on the packing slip or invoice for this customer.
7. If the address is located in a residential area, select the Residential destination check box. The shipping carrier might use a different schedule for delivery to a residential destination.
8. You can enter the customer's account number for the shipping carrier that is associated with the carrier ID. The carrier ID and carrier account number are copied to sales orders when they are created.
9. Click OK.
10. If the customer should be charged a fuel surcharge, click the Invoice and delivery FastTab in the Customers form, and then select the Charge fuel surcharge check box.

Activate shipping carrier interfaces

When you have completed the other setup tasks, activate the shipping carrier interfaces that you use.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Shipping carrier > Carrier interface.
2. Select the Enabled check box for each shipping carrier that you use.
3. Select the Test mode check box for each shipping carrier that you use. When you have confirmed that the setup is correct, clear this check box.

Create Sales Order

After configuring the shipping carrier, now create new sales order.

1. Click Account Receivable > Common > All sales orders.
2. Create new sales order and select the customer who is configure for shipping carrier.

  

3. After you generate the packing slip, test mode form will be open (As below), enter the detail for ship tracking and click Ok.

Hope this will help everyone to integrate shipping carrier with  AX.

Best Regards,

Pir Mohammad Rana

FEATURES THAT ARE EXPECTED TO APPEAR IN DYNAMICS AX 7

      As tablets and other mobile devices begin to take the place of the traditional office desktop, employees are increasingly using mobile devices to access data, offer sales quotes, check inventory and financial data and more. So it’s no surprise that enhancements to improve cloud access and mobility will be heavily featured in Microsoft’s upcoming Dynamics AX 7 release.

   Also known as Dynamics AX 2015 and Rainier, this is already a much anticipated release.

      Dynamics AX is Microsoft’s most robust enterprise resource planning software. With simple integration tools and high levels of flexibility, AX is a popular platform among developers, VARs and ISVs for extending greater industry functionality and customizing processes inside AX. In Dynamics AX 7, there will be further enhancements that started in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 to make AX more customizable in the cloud with smoother integration.

Delivery through the Cloud

Microsoft has announced that Dynamics AX 7 is going to be a cloud-first application. This follows a trend that we have seen amongst other Microsoft flagship products. The latest update take full advantage of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Windows Server and the Microsoft Cloud OS. In fact, Microsoft has said that AX 7 2015 will initially launch on Azure only and won’t appear for on premise deployments until 6 months later.

Moving Dynamics onto Azure and into the cloud provides a wider range of benefits. It will be easier to integrate the system with other cloud-based Microsoft products like Office 365. It also makes it easier to use Dynamics globally across multiple devices. Cloud deployment can also make Dynamics more accessible to businesses without an extensive information technology infrastructure.

A Focus on Mobile Access

It is also expected that Dynamics AX 7 is going to be available across a wide range of mobile devices, making it operational on nearly any modern smartphone or tablet. This becomes increasingly necessary as the business world becomes hooked on cloud and wants all operations and business data to be available at any time and from any location. Having access to real-time data from Dynamics through a mobile device will provide employees and business owners with better information to make informed decisions on the go, without having to get back to an office or a main workstation.  

Best-in-Class Lifecycle Services Management

Expect to see best-in-class lifecycle services management with Dynamics AX 7. It is predicted that Microsoft is going to maintain and expand on the Lifecycle Services that are already in place. This type of management is available to anyone using the latest upgrade of Dynamics whether it is deployed on local systems or across the cloud. Best-in-class lifecycle services management means improving the reliability and quality of the Dynamics implementation used by any given business. It will also make rolling out new custom features less of a hassle. SaaS plaza is a member of the Microsoft LCS TAP program for AX7 and is providing technical input to match our AX on Azure services with Microsoft LCS for the new AX version.

 New Web-Based Client

Another change coming is that Dynamics AX 7 is will be accessible through a web-based client instead of a Windows desktop client. This means any shared in user will be able to access the Dynamics database through a basic web browser instead of needing to install customized applications on every system and device. Thus Web-based clients allow anyone in any location to access the different Dynamics modules. Having common web-based clients can improve productivity and facilitate business-wide collaboration on projects online regardless of location.

Streamlined HTML5 User Experience

The user experience in Dynamics AX 7 is based on the same framework used in Windows 8, and being improved upon in Windows 10. This interface uses the hypertext markup language version 5 (HTML5) as a base. The HTML5 interface is designed to be lightweight and intuitive. It is context sensitive and the AX redesign is a dramatic departure from the normally bland windows and menus that have been found in previous versions of Dynamics AX. The new environment brings Dynamics in line with many other current Microsoft products. It will also make it easier to use Dynamics on mobile devices without a mouse or keyboard.

 Incremental Updates Instead Of Versioned Releases

Following the pattern that has been adopted by many other cloud-first software developers, Microsoft will end version-based releases of Dynamics similar to what was done with Office 365. Replacing the strict versioning system will be an approach based on the deployment platform. Each Dynamics platform will receive updates whenever necessary instead of re-releasing the entire software suite. This will make it easier to stay current since compatibility problems will no longer be an issue with incremental upgrades.

Subscription-Based Licensing

Another feature that is likely coming to Dynamics AX 7 is a more flexible licensing scheme based on subscriptions. The traditional Microsoft licensing model was sometimes cumbersome especially for businesses that had seasonal fluctuations in volume. Buying extra licenses that might never be used is impractical. The new model is more flexible allowing businesses to buy subscriptions to use Dynamics as needed and then cancel them later. Check out the current Microsoft Dynamics Subscription Licensing.

Reference link:

http://tcomtech.com.ua/en/component/k2/dynamics-ax-7-release-to-go-big-on-going-cloud