High Watermark Billing (Warehouse)

Storage Billing

The standard way Flexe bills for storage on fulfillment reservations is called high watermark. 

You can think of high watermark as the highest point storage reaches. Storage is calculated at the highest number of pallets (per SKU) reached during the month.

Terminology 

TixHi: Is referred to as the number of cartons stored on a layer, or tier (which is the Ti) and the number of layers that they will be stacked on the pallet (which is the Hi). Each SKU has a unique TixHi. 

Pallet Equivalent: The Flexe platform takes the total cartons on hand divided by the cartons per pallet in the item master data on a per SKU basis.

Example of a SKU for a monthly period:

SKU XSP-765R 

TixHI: 6 cartons per pallet

Inbound: 2000 cartons 

Outbound: 1300 cartons 

Inbound last day of month: 400 cartons 

In this case, the high watermark calculated from the Flexe system is 2000 cartons.

2000 / 6 = 333.3

It would bill for 334 pallet equivalents (333 full pallets and 1 partial pallet). This would then repeat for every SKU actively stored within the warehouse. 

Nightly Rounded Peak (most common): per SKU, round up to the nearest whole Pallet Equivalent (Ex. 2.2 pallets would round up to 3 pallets). ‘Nightly’ refers to Flexe capturing inventory levels every night; the highest daily total of pallets in a given billing month (for each SKU) will be used to calculate storage billing. 

Nightly Fractional Peak: per SKU, do not round (Ex. 2.2 pallets would stay at 2.2 pallets). 

Inventory Properties - Item Master Data

When an item is created in Flexe, customers will need to specify the number of eaches (sellable units) per master carton, and the number of cartons per pallet. 

Storage will be based on the data that customers enter within the item master in the above image, so it is critical that items are set up correctly. Warehouses should also call out any inaccuracies they spot with the item master once the inventory is in their facility.  

Billing Method to Calculate High Watermark

• For every day of the month, inventory levels are calculated at midnight UTC, with a few minutes leeway for processing time. Each SKU within a given facility will be calculated individually per day.   
• Within the calendar month, the max Pallet Equivalent value per SKU is determined.