Courier, Brokerage & Freight Payments
All inquiries relating to brokerage and freight charges should be referred to Kuehne + Nagel, the University’s current outsourced brokerage services firm. To reach them, please call 905-502-5257 ext. 2265.
For specific processes for each of these types of payment, please refer to the sections below:
Courier Payments
Procurement Services has negotiated discounts off the standard tariff rates charged by non-contract couriers. The department contacts the courier company directly and opens an account to which the cost of couriers are either:
- charged directly to the departmental purchasing card, or
- Invoiced to the department for subsequent payment (refer to Certified Invoices)
Contact and other information for courier vendors can be found on the Procurement Services website.
Departmental records:
The copy of the bill of lading should be attached and reconciled to the courier invoice. Where courier charges are paid via the purchasing card, attach and reconcile the courier invoice to the departmental credit card statements on a monthly basis.
Brokerage Payments
A customs broker pays all border charges in respect to imported goods (e.g. duty, GST, delivery charges, etc.) and then collects the charges plus the broker’s fee from the end buyer.
The University has a contract for brokerage services with Import Customs Services Inc., a division of Kuehne + Nagel
Procedure:
The broker submits to the University an electronic file which includes billing details including the University accounts and the amount of charge to each. The single transmission of these many detailed charges generates one payment to the broker.
Brokerage charges appear on the Statement of Account with a description that begins with “Import” and includes the best available reference, e.g. purchase order number, shipper name, receiver name, department, or consignee telephone number.
Instructions to supplier:
To ensure that the broker has sufficient information to properly assign a charge for billing purposes, it is important to instruct the supplier to include the University purchase order number and/or University CF Centre number on the packing slip.
To avoid duplicate HST charges, the supplier should also be asked to include the invoice which identifies whether HST has been included in the invoice. When in doubt, our customs broker will collect the 5% GST and our automated billing program will self-assess the outstanding 8% PVAT portion of the HST.
FIS – CUSTOMS CHARGES:
Although the text of transactions is sometimes truncated on the monthly Fund Centre Detail Report, you can always view the full text for customs documents on-line using any of the usual on-line reports. The Cost Center Line Items report and all of the CC reports provide the full text with each document.
The text for a customs charge includes the original purchase order number (if it was provided by the broker), the vendor name and the description which is provided by the broker.
Freight Payments
When preparing a purchase order, the business officer may include shipping instructions, generally identifying the shipper of choice.
Freight refers to the transport of large shipments by land or air, by other than courier companies.
The department Invoice Create as a normal invoice in FIS.
Freight charges appear on the Statement of Account identified by the carrier name, invoice/bill number and amount.
Last revision: April 4, 2006