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Overview

North52's business rules engine and Decision Tables are a great solution for when you need complex pricing rules to generate quotes and invoices in Microsoft Dynamics 365. It can help with complex CPQ (Configure - Price  - Quote) scenarios - the following example demonstrates how North52 can be used in the shipping industry for port agents to generate quotes for the services surrounding a ship coming into port. 

This is example is based on the publicly published rates provided by the Port of Cork. 

 

 

Rules for Calculating Port Fees

Each port has its own unique set of rules for pricing services and these are often very complex. A sample of the Port of Cork's rules are shown below:

Rule # Description
1

Tonnage Charges rules sample:

Example Tonnage Charges Table
2

Port Services Charges rules sample:

Example Port Services Charges Table

 

North52 Decision Suite Solution

The North52 Decision Suite solution works like this:

  • A Formula is set up for the pricing rules associated with a Price List
  • When a Quote Product is added to the Quote, another Formula is triggered
    • This Formula then looks for the Price List associated with the Quote and checks to see if there is a Formula associated with the Price List
    • If found, the Price List Formula is processed and updates the Quote Product accordingly

Set up Price List and Formula 

Price List

The Price List has a lookup to the Formula - this determines which set of rules will apply when processing Quote Products:

Price List - North52 business rules engine Decision Table for Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform

Formula

The Formula is of the type Library Calculation - this means that it is executed as part of another Formula. The Decision Table sheets below show two examples of pricing rules for Tonnage rates and Tug charges.

Tonnage Rates

Tonnage Charges - North52 business rules engine Decision Table for Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform

Tug Charges

Tug Charges - North52 business rules engine Decision Table for Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform

Quote Product

The following animation shows a Quote Product being saved and the rules being applied to set the pricing, quantity and description (row 6 from above Tug Charges Decision Sheet is applied in this case):

Quote Product - North52 business rules engine Decision Table for Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform

 

Did you know?

TestShield enables effective test data management

Test data can be easily created from existing records in your system, generating a 'snapshot' of data that represents a valid (or invalid) scenario. This can be easily manipluated and variations created in the Test Data editor to cover valid or invalid test scenarios. Sensitive data can be masked, changed or removed. 

The saved test data is then available to be used when creating your automated tests. It can be reused many times over avoiding repeated effort and maximizing the value of the work done.

Learn more about TestShield

Keywords: Decision Table, DecisionTable, Formula Manager