Despatch Orders

Despatch orders (also known as 'dispatch orders' or 'shipping orders') are the link between the sales or purchase contract and the despatch (or 'shipment').

The contract defines the buyer, seller, product and many other details. The contract also defines the pricing; however, you can override the pricing and many other contract terms for each despatch order if required. The despatch (by rail, truck, barge or vessel) defines the route. Loading transactions and sample values are entered per despatch.

The current state of a despatch order; that is, the quantity, quality and expected invoice values, display in the despatch order snapshot. MineMarket recalculates this snapshot every time you save relevant data.

The Despatch Order Explorer is used to locate, create or delete despatch orders, and to show the quality and contributor details for the selected despatch order.

Limit the Despatch Orders to Only Those That Belong to Specific Organisations

Domains can be used to limit the objects that can be seen by a user. Using this functionality, specific organisations can be made viewable, and all other organisations non-viewable for a domain. The domain is then assigned to a user group. When a user who is a member of that user group views despatch orders, only those that belong to the viewable organisations can be seen.

Impact of Transport Locations and Routes

A planned loading location and planned unloading location can be specified for despatch orders. If the despatch order is associated with a despatch, information from the despatch is used in invoice calculations for the despatch order. For example, the quantity of material that was loaded supersedes the despatch order's required quantity, and quality data from samples on the despatch supersede the despatch order specifications. By default, the loading location and unloading location in the despatch route also supersede the planned loading location and planned unloading location (only if there are transactions at those route points). These locations may impact invoice calculations, by determining applicable demurrage and despatch conditions, service and freight calculations, parities and contract charges.

For MineMarket implementations with a large number of locations, it may not be practical to set up a route for every possible combination of origin and destination, with bulk material process flows or discrete unit movement flows to support those routes. A simpler configuration is to set up a generic loading location and unloading location for each required transport type. The generic route will not have useful travel times between the route points; however, itinerary dates and times may be entered for each despatch or imported from other systems. If using generic routes, it is essential to configure despatch orders to assume generic loading and unloading locations. See Enter Default CDO Settings for a Sales or Purchase Contract. The locations entered on the despatch order can then be used for invoice calculations, instead of the despatch route points.

Despatch Fulfilment Type

Invoicing can occur before or after despatch orders have been fulfilled. The despatch orders attached to contracts link to the despatch used to deliver the material. The despatch order contains the method of determining the location in the despatch route at which weights are to be measured for invoicing. Although there are various normal situations for materials (for example, at loading port for coal and refined metals, at discharge port for concentrates), every contract may be different. When the final weights and/or assays are to be taken at a location different to the loading port or discharge port, and the values for loading port or discharge port are known before the final values, a provisional invoice can be raised with the values at that location. The final invoice will only be issued when all final values are known (and other final conditions; for example, final quotation period (QP) or final assay exchange, depending on the material).

The key that links the sales process to the logistics process and that actually triggers all financial transactions is the Default Fulfilment Type setting on the contract, that is, when the contract is deemed to be fulfilled. The Despatch Fulfilment Type can be modified for individual despatch orders. The process of contract fulfilment, which is the fulfilment of despatch orders so that contracts can be invoiced, involves:

  1. Adding a despatch order to the despatch.
  2. Loading the despatch, and associating the loading transactions with the despatch order.
  3. Satisfying the fulfilment type conditions (for example, unloading the despatch, or arriving at the destination).
  4. Optionally completing the certificate details for the despatch, at the applicable route point, depending upon the fulfilment type conditions (that is, whether the condition is based upon source or destination information). Refer to the time of fulfilment information below.

Also important is the Final Assay Location in the assay rules of the applicable contract terms. See Assay Rules. If analyte settlement rules are configured, a final assay location can be specified for each analyte. If no assay exchange is required, the Default Final Assay Location determines the location at which final analyte values are to be recorded.

Time of Despatch Order Fulfilment

The default fulfilment type specified for a material contract indicates the point in the logistics process that needs to be reached to fulfil the contract.

The despatch fulfilment type for the despatch order determines which quantity is used to populate the final quantity. The final dry quantity is calculated using the best total moisture result, if that analyte result is available.

Note: By default, the final quantity of the source despatch order is used to determine the final quantity of linked despatch orders. Linked contract configuration includes a setting to control whether the despatch fulfilment type of the linked despatch order is considered (and editable). See Linked Contracts.

When the final quantity is available, the final analyte results can also be viewed. Contract fulfilment can be:

  1. By Loading Transactions:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when the despatch loading is complete.
    • Final Quantity—Set to the quantity in the loading transactions, and may be back calculated in a draft survey or tonnage correction.
    • Final Quantity Date—Defaults to the Actual End Loading date or else the first available date out of the Planned End Loading, Actual Start Loading or Planned Start Loading of associated despatches.
    • Final Quantity Location—Defaults to the location where the product was loaded.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the best result type sample for the loading transactions, or assumed to be the source stockpile values if no samples exist.
  2. By Unloading Transactions:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when the despatch unloading is complete.
    • Final Quantity—Set to the quantity in the unloading transactions, or blank if no unloading transactions exist.
    • Final Quantity Date—Defaults to the Actual End Unloading date or else the Planned End Unloading date of associated despatches.
    • Final Quantity Location—Defaults to the location where the product was unloaded, or blank if no unloading transactions exist.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the best result type sample for the unloading transactions, or assumed to be the source despatch values if no samples exist.
  3. By Split Quantity:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when fulfilment split quantities are entered for the shipment. Split quantities can be used if there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the bulk loading transactions and the despatch orders. For example, if a single loading transaction is recorded per vessel hatch, but the quantity is used to fulfil multiple despatch orders.
    • Final Quantity—For each despatch order, except the last one, assumed to be the despatch order required quantity. For the last despatch order, calculated as the quantity in the unloading transactions, minus the quantities assigned to all the other despatch orders. These quantities can be overridden. See Enter Shipment Fulfilment for Split Quantities.
    • Final Quantity Date—Defaults to the Actual End Unloading date or else the Planned End Unloading date of associated despatches.
    • Final Quantity Location—Defaults to the location where the product was unloaded.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the best result type sample for the unloading transactions, or assumed to be the source despatch values if no samples exist.
  4. At Border:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when the despatch crosses the international border, defined as a route point on the route used to transport the material.
    • Final Quantity—Set to the quantity recorded in a draft survey at that border point location, or if this is not available, then set to the quantity in the loading transactions, and may be back calculated in a draft survey or tonnage correction. If the amount surveyed is less than the total transaction quantity that was loaded, the difference is subtracted proportionally from the final quantity of each despatch order.
    • Final Quantity Date—No default.
    • Final Quantity Location—No default.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the best result type sample for the loading transactions, or assumed to be the source stockpile values if no samples exist.
  5. At Arrival At Destination:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when the despatch arrives at the destination location; that is, the material has not yet been unloaded.
    • Final Quantity—Set to the quantity in the loading transactions, and may be back calculated in a draft survey or tonnage correction.
    • Final Quantity Date—Defaults to the actual date of arrival at the destination location.
    • Final Quantity Location—Defaults to the destination location.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the best result type sample for the loading transactions, or assumed to be the source stockpile values if no samples exist.
  6. Average Of Loading And Unloading:
    • Contract fulfilment occurs when an average of the tonnage and quality at the loading and unloading location has been determined. For multiple unloading transactions, a weighted average is calculated. This option requires both loading and unloading transactions to be available.
    • Final Quantity—Set to the average of the quantities in the loading and unloading transactions, and may be back calculated in a draft survey or tonnage correction.
    • Final Quantity Date—Defaults to the Actual End Unloading date or else the Planned End Unloading date of associated despatches.
    • Final Quantity Location—Defaults to the location where the product was unloaded.
    • Analyte values—Determined from the latest best result type sample for the transactions, or assumed to be the source stockpile values if no samples exist.

When the materials have arrived at the specified point, the despatch order can be marked as fulfilled. This can be done manually, by checking Fulfilled for the despatch order, or can be configured on the contract product to be done automatically when the final quantity matches the required quantity, or is within a specified percentage of the required quantity.