Rate shopping helps you compare available carrier services before making your choice and creating a shipping label. The classic, more predictive way to evaluate a rate is to select a carrier and service level, then review the price and the carrier's maximum delivery-time commitment.

Rate Shopping checks multiple carrier services at the same time. You can compare all available options and select the rate that best meets your customer's delivery requirement.

How to Rate Shop

To retrieve and evaluate carrier shipping rates, first capture the package properties that affect pricing. These typically include the package's physical dimensions, total mass and insured amount.

1. Enter the package properties that affect pricing, such as dimensions, total mass, and insured amount.

2. Select a carrier service to retrieve its rate. To change the rate, select a different service level and Finale updates the rate.

3. To compare all options at once, click Browse rates to the right of the Service selection.

4. In the Rate Shopping window, review every carrier and service-level rate Finale returns.

The following screenshot shows package details with the rate shopping command.

Rate Shopping Window

All available rates appear in a list in the Rate Shopping window. You can view the list as one flat list or organize it by carrier account. Badges identify the cheapest rate and the fastest rate so you can quickly compare the available choices.

1. Sort the list by Price (lowest to highest) or by delivery time (fastest to slowest) using the Sort by list.

2. Select the rate you want.

3. Click Apply. Finale returns you to the package details with the selected service level and updated rate price.

Further Reading

For instructions on creating an individual carrier label, read FIN-N-785. To create carrier labels for multiple orders, read FIN-N-1455.

To configure rate shopping and choose the list of carrier services included during rate shopping, read How to configure rate shopping for Finale.