Set Up Business Days To Calculate Order-To-Delivery Time
Plans: All users
Optimize your business day by configuring settings for your warehouse location and carriers. This enables precise calculations for processing, pickup, and transit times based on business days. This optimization enhances operational control, streamlines workflow, and ensures adherence to your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to meet and exceed customer expectations.
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss:
Steps to set up business days
Steps to configure location business days
Steps to configure carrier business days
Order-to-delivery time calculation
To calculate order-to-delivery time, the operating days of carriers fulfilling the orders and the location from where the orders are shipped play a crucial role.
Carrier business days refer to the operational days of the carrier responsible for delivering the package to the end customer.
Example: If a carrier operates for 5 business days a week (Monday-Friday), and an order is placed on a Friday, the first day of transit may begin on the next business day (Monday), which impacts the estimated delivery date.
The Ship-from location business days refer to the operational days and time of the warehouse or distribution center from which the product is being shipped excluding holidays.
Example: If an order is placed at 3:00 PM on Friday, but the warehouse only processes orders before 2:00 PM and operates for 5 business days a week (Monday-Friday) while a carrier might work 6 days, the order may not begin shipping until Monday, even if the carrier starts their transit the next business day.
Log in to your AfterShip Tracking account.
Go to Settings > Ship-from locations and rules > Add locations and configure the locations' business days and time.
To configure the business days and public holidays of carriers your business frequently use, go to Settings > Carrier business days > Set up carrier business days
Platforms: Shopify, Tracking API
Check this help article for more details on configuring location business days.
Note: Location-specific rules hold priority over default rules. If no location-specific rules are specified, the default rules will be applied.
Platforms: All platforms
The default rule applies to all carriers and services not specified in carrier-specific or service-specific settings. By default, Monday to Sunday are considered business days, including public holidays. However, you can customize these rules to suit your needs.
Click Add carrier and choose the carrier to create a general rule
Tailor the business days by customizing weekdays for the selected carrier
Optionally, you can exclude public holidays. By default, all regional public holidays worldwide are excluded.
Customize holidays for the carrier by country/region by selecting Manage regional holidays, choosing the region, and unchecking unwanted holidays.
Simultaneously, if you want to exclude certain custom holidays from the business days for the carrier of that particular region, you can add custom holidays. Click + Add date to add specific dates.
Click Save to confirm the changes.
Once default business days are configured for a carrier, proceed to set business days for specific service types.
Click the Add service type button for the specific carrier you are working with.
Select the service type. For example, DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE. Click Save.
Customize the weekdays according to the specific service type.
Customize holidays for the carrier's service type country/region by selecting Manage regional holidays, choosing the region, and unchecking unwanted holidays.
Simultaneously, if you want to exclude certain custom holidays from the business days of that specific carrier service type of that particular region, you can add custom holidays. Click + Add date to add specific dates.
Click Save to confirm the changes.
These rules follow a hierarchy of priority as follows: Service-specific rules take precedence over Carrier-specific rules, and Carrier-specific rules, in turn, supersede the Default rule.
Service-specific rules > Carrier-specific rules > Default rule
The custom dates you add will become effective every year on the same date and you can add up to 25 carrier-specific or service-specific rules for a single carrier.
Efficiently calculate your shipment lead time with our business days settings, encompassing processing time, pickup time, and transit time while exclusive to business days.
Our processing time calculation seamlessly incorporates business days and your warehouse location's cut-off time.
For shipments imported with a matching location ID, the specific location's business days setting governs processing time.
If there is a default location, the processing time calculation will use the default location settings for shipments without a location ID.
If neither condition applies, processing time is calculated based on calendar days.
The order date is counted as a processing day only when placed before the cut-off time; otherwise, the following business day is designated as the processing day.
Important :
If there's a time zone difference between the order time and the cut-off time, the order time will be converted to your location settings' time zone for accurate comparison.
The new rule will only apply to new data. Historical data will not be updated. For example, when calculating processing time, the new location rules will only affect shipments that have not been fulfilled.
Pickup time and transit time take into account the business days of the carriers. When shipments are associated with a carrier or service that matches the one in your settings, the business days of that specific carrier or service will be used to calculate the pickup time and transit time for that shipment.
Holiday considerations are region-specific, impacting shipments in those particular areas. Two scenarios apply:
1. Domestic Shipments:
In cases where the origin and destination country/region are the same, the operating country/region's holidays are applied during transit on holidays.
2. International Shipments:
Holidays of the origin country/region apply from pickup until the first checkpoint in the destination country. Subsequently, holidays of the destination country/region are considered until delivery.
Important :
The new rule will only apply to new data. Historical data will not be updated. For example, when calculating pickup time, the new carrier business day rules will only affect shipments that have not been picked up yet.
In cases where the Pickup date or Delivered date falls outside of the defined business days, those dates will still be considered business days.
If you have any queries, feel free to connect with our support team for quick assistance.
Overview
Optimize your business day by configuring settings for your warehouse location and carriers. This enables precise calculations for processing, pickup, and transit times based on business days. This optimization enhances operational control, streamlines workflow, and ensures adherence to your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to meet and exceed customer expectations.
What you’ll learn
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss:
Steps to set up business days
Steps to configure location business days
Steps to configure carrier business days
Order-to-delivery time calculation
Role of business days in order-to-delivery time calculation
To calculate order-to-delivery time, the operating days of carriers fulfilling the orders and the location from where the orders are shipped play a crucial role.
Carrier business days refer to the operational days of the carrier responsible for delivering the package to the end customer.
Example: If a carrier operates for 5 business days a week (Monday-Friday), and an order is placed on a Friday, the first day of transit may begin on the next business day (Monday), which impacts the estimated delivery date.
The Ship-from location business days refer to the operational days and time of the warehouse or distribution center from which the product is being shipped excluding holidays.
Example: If an order is placed at 3:00 PM on Friday, but the warehouse only processes orders before 2:00 PM and operates for 5 business days a week (Monday-Friday) while a carrier might work 6 days, the order may not begin shipping until Monday, even if the carrier starts their transit the next business day.
Steps to set up business days
Log in to your AfterShip Tracking account.
Go to Settings > Ship-from locations and rules > Add locations and configure the locations' business days and time.
To configure the business days and public holidays of carriers your business frequently use, go to Settings > Carrier business days > Set up carrier business days
Steps to configure ship-from location business days
Platforms: Shopify, Tracking API
Check this help article for more details on configuring location business days.
Note: Location-specific rules hold priority over default rules. If no location-specific rules are specified, the default rules will be applied.
Steps to configure carrier business days
Platforms: All platforms
Default rule
The default rule applies to all carriers and services not specified in carrier-specific or service-specific settings. By default, Monday to Sunday are considered business days, including public holidays. However, you can customize these rules to suit your needs.
Add carrier-specific rules
Click Add carrier and choose the carrier to create a general rule
Tailor the business days by customizing weekdays for the selected carrier
Optionally, you can exclude public holidays. By default, all regional public holidays worldwide are excluded.
Customize holidays for the carrier by country/region by selecting Manage regional holidays, choosing the region, and unchecking unwanted holidays.
Simultaneously, if you want to exclude certain custom holidays from the business days for the carrier of that particular region, you can add custom holidays. Click + Add date to add specific dates.
Click Save to confirm the changes.
Once default business days are configured for a carrier, proceed to set business days for specific service types.
Add service-specific rules
Click the Add service type button for the specific carrier you are working with.
Select the service type. For example, DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE. Click Save.
Customize the weekdays according to the specific service type.
Customize holidays for the carrier's service type country/region by selecting Manage regional holidays, choosing the region, and unchecking unwanted holidays.
Simultaneously, if you want to exclude certain custom holidays from the business days of that specific carrier service type of that particular region, you can add custom holidays. Click + Add date to add specific dates.
Click Save to confirm the changes.
These rules follow a hierarchy of priority as follows: Service-specific rules take precedence over Carrier-specific rules, and Carrier-specific rules, in turn, supersede the Default rule.
Service-specific rules > Carrier-specific rules > Default rule
The custom dates you add will become effective every year on the same date and you can add up to 25 carrier-specific or service-specific rules for a single carrier.
Order-to-delivery time calculation
Efficiently calculate your shipment lead time with our business days settings, encompassing processing time, pickup time, and transit time while exclusive to business days.
Processing time calculation
Our processing time calculation seamlessly incorporates business days and your warehouse location's cut-off time.
For shipments imported with a matching location ID, the specific location's business days setting governs processing time.
If there is a default location, the processing time calculation will use the default location settings for shipments without a location ID.
If neither condition applies, processing time is calculated based on calendar days.
The order date is counted as a processing day only when placed before the cut-off time; otherwise, the following business day is designated as the processing day.
Important :
If there's a time zone difference between the order time and the cut-off time, the order time will be converted to your location settings' time zone for accurate comparison.
The new rule will only apply to new data. Historical data will not be updated. For example, when calculating processing time, the new location rules will only affect shipments that have not been fulfilled.
Pickup and Transit time calculation
Pickup time and transit time take into account the business days of the carriers. When shipments are associated with a carrier or service that matches the one in your settings, the business days of that specific carrier or service will be used to calculate the pickup time and transit time for that shipment.
Holiday considerations are region-specific, impacting shipments in those particular areas. Two scenarios apply:
1. Domestic Shipments:
In cases where the origin and destination country/region are the same, the operating country/region's holidays are applied during transit on holidays.
2. International Shipments:
Holidays of the origin country/region apply from pickup until the first checkpoint in the destination country. Subsequently, holidays of the destination country/region are considered until delivery.
Important :
The new rule will only apply to new data. Historical data will not be updated. For example, when calculating pickup time, the new carrier business day rules will only affect shipments that have not been picked up yet.
In cases where the Pickup date or Delivered date falls outside of the defined business days, those dates will still be considered business days.
If you have any queries, feel free to connect with our support team for quick assistance.
Updated on: 08/11/2024
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