Create an agreement manually (no file)

With Manual create, you type one buying agreement into a form in Freightools AI Studio, with no rate sheet to upload.

Use it for a single or spot rate quoted by phone or email. For a file with many lanes, see Add your rate sheet and choose how to load it. Each agreement is also saved as a template, so next time you only change the prices and dates.

No buying agreements are created in Freightools until you press Create agreement on the review screen.

Before you start

• The supplier must be an active partner set up as a supplier in Freightools.
• Know the ports by name, city or UN/LOCODE (the five-character UN location code, for example CNSHA).
• Manual create covers port-to-port rates. Door addresses can't be picked: for a door pickup or delivery, create the agreement in Freightools itself.

Open Manual create

1. Open your studio link (see Open your studio link and find your way around) and keep Buying selected.
2. Under Know what you want? Pick a method, click the Manual create card. An empty form opens.

Nothing is saved while you fill in the form: Back or a page reload loses what you typed. Clicking Manual create on a load's How should we load it? step leaves that load — your answers are kept if you go back to it, but you'll need to add the file again.

Fill in the details

1. Under Direction, keep Buying selected. Switching direction clears the supplier.
2. Under Freight type, click Ocean, Air or Road. Rail is grayed out — create a rail agreement in Freightools.
3. Click Supplier, type part of the supplier's name, and click the supplier in the list.
4. Optional: in Carrier — optional, type part of the carrier's name or code and pick it. Fill it in when the supplier quoted the rate for one carrier; leave it blank when the rate isn't tied to a carrier.
5. Check Validity date and Expiration date. They start as today and one month later; click a date to change it. Both are required.

Choose the ports

1. Click Address From. The Address From — choose the port(s) window opens.
2. In Search by name, city or code…, type at least two characters.
3. Click a result. It appears at the top as a green chip. To remove it, click × on the chip.
4. Click Use this port (or Use these 2 ports, and so on).
5. Do the same for Address To (required) and, if the rate goes via a port, Transshipment addresses.
6. Optional: type the Transit time (days) as a whole number of days.

• Several ports share one set of prices. For different prices per port, create one agreement per price set, or load the rate sheet.
• Sea port or airport. Some UN/LOCODEs cover both. The results aren't labeled sea or air, but their names differ, and the chip shows the code and the full name — read it before you click Use this port. To switch, remove the chip and add the other.

Add commercial and administrative details

All optional:

• Reference and Comment — your own labels for this agreement. Leave Reference blank and the studio fills in a short default.
• Free demurrage origin (days) and Free demurrage destination (days) — the free days the supplier allows.
• Opposite direction — the same prices also apply the other way round.
• Dangerous — the rate is for dangerous goods.
• Special (NAC) rate — the rate is a named-account rate agreed for one customer.
• Exclude from quotation — keep this rate out of quotations.

Add the activity and price lines

1. Under Activity & price details, type part of the activity name and pick the Activity that matches the rate you're loading — for a full-container ocean rate, an ocean FCL activity. Its standard charges appear as price lines.
2. On each line, pick the charge in Price detail…, and in Evaluation type… how the charge is counted — the basis the supplier quoted, such as per container or per shipment. A currency is already picked on each line: check it before you type the price.
3. Type the Price. Min and Max are optional: use them when the supplier quoted a smallest or largest amount for that charge, and leave them blank otherwise.
4. Delete lines you have no price for with the × at their end. A charge without a price blocks the review.
5. To add a line, click + Add price detail.

Note: Picking another activity doesn't change lines already filled in. If the charges that appear aren't the ones you were quoted, you picked the wrong activity: delete all lines first, then pick the right one.

Each line is one price. For a rate with several prices per container size or per weight break, load it as a rate sheet instead — see Add your rate sheet and choose how to load it.

Type prices as digits with a dot for decimals and no thousands separator: 1500.00.

Warning: 1.500 is read as 1.5 — check every price on the review screen.

Name the template (optional)

Under Save as template, type a name, or leave it blank to use the supplier and activity. You can start your next agreement from it.

Review the agreement

1. Click Review agreement. The Review the agreement screen opens.
2. Check the summary and the price table.
3. To change anything, click Back to the form. What you typed is kept.

If Review agreement is grayed out, an amber message next to it says what to fix:

Create the agreement

Warning: Create agreement writes a real buying agreement to Freightools straight away. The studio can't undo it; change or delete it in Freightools.

1. Click Create agreement. It takes a few seconds.
2. The Agreement created screen shows "Freightools agreement #" with the number, and the template's name. If no template name appears, the agreement was still created.
3. Click Back to the studio, or Create another for an empty form.

If the agreement is not created

A red message appears next to Create agreement.

Reuse a saved template

Templates appear on the home screen under Saved configurations.

1. Keep Buying selected. Under Recently used, or in View all configurations, click Open template. You can also search for the template by name.
2. The form opens filled in, with a "From template: …" chip next to the title.
3. Change what is different, usually the prices and dates.
4. Click Review agreement, then Create agreement. The template is updated.

Important: A template keeps the dates, Reference and Comment from last time. Change Validity date and Expiration date, or the new agreement gets the old dates.

Creating from a template updates that template. To keep a separate template, start again from the Manual create card. To rename or archive, see Saved configurations and loading a new file for a supplier.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• Open your studio link and find your way around
• Add your rate sheet and choose how to load it
• Create your agreements in Freightools
• Saved configurations and loading a new file for a supplier
• Troubleshooting and frequently asked questions