3PL TechFlow

Rate it

RateFlow

Quoting and client management for regional 3PLs. You priced that account two years ago. Nothing has checked it since. RateFlow builds the quote, keeps the rates your client agreed to, and reads your invoices back in, so the deal you sold and the deal you got end up on the same screen.

The RateFlow dashboard for the demo company: active clients, trailing MRR, account health, billed activity and revenue mix
The dashboard: active clients, trailing MRR, account health, billed activity and revenue mix. Demo company data.

Four steps, and the fourth one is the reason for the other three

  1. 1

    Quote it

    Build off your own rate card: container unload, storage, pick & pack, B2B out, freight, minimums, the one-off line you always end up adding.

  2. 2

    Send it

    The client opens a portal, not a PDF. They move their own volumes and watch the sheet re-price.

  3. 3

    Freeze it

    They type their name and the rates they accepted become a snapshot, the version you can point at eighteen months later.

  4. 4

    Check it

    Your invoices come back in on their own and get held against what you quoted.

Quote it: a builder that already knows what you sell

The services a 3PL actually sells

Container unload, receiving, storage, pick & pack, B2B outbound, freight and parcel, returns, minimum monthly, custom lines. Sections in your order.

Freight and parcel rate tables

A full table on the quote: zones, weight breaks, per-shipment adders.

Minimum monthly, handled honestly

The sheet shows the activity required before the minimum stops applying.

Defaults you can override per quote

The template carries your standard rate. A quote can move off it for one account without editing the template.

Two scenarios, one quote

Move-in pricing and steady-state, or two volume assumptions, presented side by side.

Revisions keep their history

A revised quote is a new version linked to the one before it. A line priced at zero is a claim, not an absence.

Paste the email, get the volumes

Drop the prospect's email in and it extracts pallets, orders and SKUs. Ask for what is missing with a structured request for dimensions, case pack and monthly volume.

The client portal rate sheet: sections, per-unit rates, a monthly estimate, and the typed acceptance stamped at the top
Send it: the client portal rate sheet with per-unit rates by section, a monthly estimate and the typed acceptance stamped at the top.

Send it and freeze it: hand them the math instead of defending it

A portal, not an attachment

The client moves volumes against the same sheet and watches it re-price. Questions land on the quote, threaded, and you can ask them things too.

Accepted with a typed name

No e-signature seat required. They type their name and it is timestamped.

The portal does not expire on acceptance

It becomes the permanent account page. The accepted sheet is downloadable and identical to what they signed.

Agreements filed against the account

Searchable document storage per account. Accounts priced before RateFlow get a baseline so their history starts somewhere.

Review dates that surface themselves

Upcoming rate reviews show up on the dashboard and the calendar.

A client profitability tab: a month flagged under-priced, with quoted vs actual rows for billing, storage pallets, orders and containers, and a billing-variance chart above
Check it: a client's profitability tab with quoted versus actual rows and the month flagged under-priced.

Check it: the month you find out

You do not change one thing about how you bill

Send the invoice exactly the way you send it today, out of whatever you bill from. RateFlow reads the document: client, invoice number, period, line items, rates.

It files itself, or it asks

Once it has learned your billing codes, invoices sort to the right account on their own. Anything it is not confident about goes to a queue for you to assign.

Quoted vs actual, month by month

Storage, orders and containers beside the billing for the same month. Partial months are marked as partial.

Accounts that changed shape

Volume that outran billing, found by comparing against the median rather than a trailing average.

Rates that drifted off the card

Invoice lines that do not match the account's accepted rates are flagged.

What it cannot tell you

It does not calculate margin without your labour cost, it only knows the invoices it has received, and it suggests rather than changes anything.

The pipeline board: lead, prospect, quoting, negotiating and active columns with monthly billed totals and account health on each card
The pipeline board: lead through active, with monthly billed totals and account health on each card.
The calendar: tasks, rate review dates and quote follow-ups on one month view
The calendar: tasks, rate review dates and quote follow-ups on one month view.

The CRM around it, sized for a 3PL sales desk

  • Pipeline

    Lead through active, on a board or a list.

  • Email in one place

    Threaded client communication on the account.

  • Contacts and notes

    Multiple contacts per account, notes with an author and a date.

  • Tasks and follow-ups

    Due dates, overdue highlighting.

  • Calendar

    Tasks, rate review dates and quote follow-ups on one month view.

  • Import what you have

    CSV import with duplicate detection.

What it isn't

  • Not a WMS

    It does not run operations or inventory. That is ShipFlow.

  • Not a general CRM

    It knows what a 3PL sells and nothing else.

  • Not accounting

    You keep billing from whatever you bill from. RateFlow reads the result.

  • Not self-serve

    Accounts are set up by hand, on a call, with your rate card.

Built inside a 3PL, for regional operators who quote out of a spreadsheet and find out later: a sales desk of one to five people, accounts that have not been repriced in years, agreements that are hard to find, billing that goes out as a PDF.

Start with a conversation, not a signup form.

Tell us how you quote today and we will set RateFlow up with your rate card.