Impact Guide: What Happens When You Edit a Value
Every change you make in service configuration is written directly to the production database. There is no draft mode, no staging, no approval queue. The moment you click Save, the new values are live and affect every shipment that calculates its price after that point.
This page explains the chain of effects for each section so you know exactly what you're touching before you touch it.
The Pricing Chain
Understanding the chain is the key to understanding why a change in one place ripples into another:
Carrier Rate (Operational Costs)
↓
+ Taxes + Fuel Surcharge
↓
= Graduated Cost ← margin calculations happen here
↓
× Markup or + Fixed ← your pricing operator
↓
= Client Price (Price Book)
↓
× (1 − overlay %) ← freight discount (optional)
↓
= Net freight
↓
+ Applicable Surcharges ← Additional Charges (mandatory)
+ Client-Enabled Add-ons ← Additional Services (optional)
↓
= Total charged at checkoutEvery number a client sees at checkout traces back up this chain to a value you configured in this module.
Before You Edit
Direct database writes
There is no undo. Once saved, a change is live. If a price was wrong for 15 minutes before you caught it, every shipment created in that window used the wrong price.
Before changing any cost or price value:
- Know the affected zone and weight range. Check which carriers and services use similar configurations — a mistake is easier to catch if you know the scope.
- Check current margins first. Open the Price Book, review the color indicators. Know where you're starting from.
- Consider the plan types. If you use the Margin operator, changing costs recalculates prices for all configured plans automatically (including Special if it has values). If you use Flat, costs and prices are independent — changing costs does not update prices.
- Communicate if the change is material. A change to a high-volume service in zones 1–3 can affect thousands of shipments per day. Let the team know before and after.
- Validate after saving. Switch to the Price Book, check that margins still look healthy, and compare a few cells against your expected values.
Section-by-Section Impact
Operational Costs
What you're changing: The base cost matrix — what Envia pays the carrier per zone and weight range.
What it affects:
| Effect | When | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Graduated Cost updates | Immediately on save | Always |
| Margin indicators in Price Book update | Immediately on save | Always — margin is recalculated |
| Client prices update | Immediately on save | Only if the pricing operator is Margin |
| Client prices unchanged | — | If the pricing operator is Flat (price is a fixed number, not cost-derived) |
WARNING
If you use the Margin operator, changing operational costs immediately changes what clients pay. A cost increase with no adjustment to markup means clients pay more. A cost decrease means clients pay less — which may reduce profitability if not reviewed.
Rule of thumb: After any cost change, open the Price Book and verify the margin indicators. Red cells mean you're selling below the safe threshold.
Price Book (Tarifario de Precios)
What you're changing: The selling price per zone × weight range, for one or more plan types (Basic, Pro, Enterprise, Corporate).
What it affects:
| Effect | When |
|---|---|
| Client price changes | Immediately on save for the saved plan type(s) |
| Margin recalculates | Immediately — shown in the cell indicator |
| Other plan types unchanged | When using "Save Current Tab" instead of "Save All Tabs" |
DANGER
This is the most direct lever over client revenue. A typo (entering 100 instead of 1000, for example) will immediately charge clients 10× less. Always double-check cell values before saving.
Flat vs. Margin operator reminder:
- Flat: The value you enter is exactly what the client pays. Fast and predictable, but requires manual updates when costs change.
- Margin: The value is a markup %. Price is recalculated from graduated cost on every shipment. Costs and prices stay in sync automatically — but costs must be accurate for this to work correctly.
Volumetric Factor (Factor Volumétrico)
What you're changing: The divisor used to calculate dimensional weight: (L × W × H) / Factor.
What it affects:
| Effect | When |
|---|---|
| Dimensional weight of all future shipments on this service changes | Immediately on save |
| Which weight-range row a shipment falls into may change | On every shipment after save |
| Client price may change | If the new dimensional weight falls in a different cost/price row |
Example: A 30 × 30 × 30 cm package currently calculates to 5.4 kg with factor 5000. Changing to factor 6000 gives 4.5 kg — potentially a different (cheaper) weight range. That's a price change with no visible dollar-amount edit.
TIP
Volumetric factor changes are subtle. The price doesn't change visibly in the Price Book, but the effective price changes because shipments land in different weight rows. Test with a real package dimension before applying to a live service.
Default Rates (Tarifas por Defecto)
What you're changing: Which plan type (Basic, Pro, Enterprise, Corporate) is applied by default to each zone when no plan is explicitly negotiated.
What it affects:
| Effect | When |
|---|---|
| New shipments in affected zones use the new default plan | Immediately on save |
| Existing shipments already created are not affected | — |
| Price differences between plans in that zone start applying | For all new shipments |
If Basic and Corporate have significantly different prices in a zone, switching the default from Basic to Corporate is effectively a price change for all unassigned clients in that zone.
Additional Services (Servicios Adicionales)
What you're changing: Optional add-ons — insurance, signature, etc.
What it affects:
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Toggle Active → Inactive | The service stops appearing as an option for new shipments. Existing records preserved. |
| Toggle Inactive → Active | The service becomes available again immediately. |
| Edit price/operator | New rate applies to all future activations of this service. |
| Add a new service | Immediately available for selection in new shipments. |
Lower stakes than costs or prices — these are opt-in, so no client is surprised. Still, activating a zero-price service by mistake means free add-ons until you catch it.
Additional Charges (Cargos Adicionales)
What you're changing: Mandatory surcharges that fire automatically based on shipment conditions.
What it affects:
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Edit price | New price applies to every future shipment that triggers the condition. |
| Add/remove a condition | Changes which shipments trigger this charge — could exclude previously charged shipments, or start charging previously exempt ones. |
| Toggle Active → Inactive | Charge stops applying. Clients stop being charged this surcharge. |
| Toggle Inactive → Active | Charge resumes. Clients start seeing it again. |
WARNING
Additional Charges are the most operationally sensitive edits. A condition change can start charging (or stop charging) hundreds of shipments per day. Confirm with the operations team before editing conditions on high-volume services.
Additional Costs & Surcharge Costs
What you're changing: What Envia pays for an add-on or surcharge, not what the client is billed.
What it affects: Margin on that add-on. Client-facing additional prices stay on Additional Services & Charges unless you edit those too.
Freight Discount Overlay
What you're changing: A percent off freight, stored above the price book. Global (service + optional plan types) or company-service. Does not rewrite plan_definitions.
What it affects:
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Save a new percent | Future rate/generate for that service (and plan types / company) use the new percent. |
| Clear the overlay | Future quotes stop applying it. |
| Change after labels exist | Historical shipments keep the snapshot in shipment_discounts. Overweight uses that snapshot, not the live overlay. |
Company overlays win over global. They do not stack. Custom-key (rate type 3) quotes skip the overlay.
Quick Reference: Impact by Change Type
| What you changed | Client price change? | When? | Reversible? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operational Costs (Margin operator) | ✅ Yes | Immediately | Only by reverting the cost manually |
| Operational Costs (Flat operator) | ❌ No | — | — |
| Price Book (any cell) | ✅ Yes | Immediately | Only by re-entering the old value |
| Freight discount overlay | ✅ Yes (freight only) | Immediately for new quotes | Deactivate + insert a new version; history is snapshotted |
| Volumetric Factor | ⚠️ Indirect | Immediately | Only by reverting the factor |
| Default Rates | ✅ Yes (for unassigned clients) | Immediately | Only by reverting the assignment |
| Additional Service activated/deactivated | ⚠️ Opt-in only | Immediately | Toggle back |
| Additional Charge price edited | ✅ Yes (when triggered) | Immediately | Only by re-entering the old value |
| Additional Charge condition changed | ⚠️ Scope changes | Immediately | Only by reverting the condition |
If Something Goes Wrong
Wrong price was live for some time:
- Fix the value immediately.
- Note the time range when the wrong value was live.
- Escalate to the pricing / operations lead — shipments created in that window may need manual review or compensation.
- Check whether the operator is Flat or Margin. Flat means the fix only affects future shipments. Margin means costs changes already affected shipments — those can't be retroactively adjusted from this screen.
Margin indicators went red across the board: This usually means a cost was increased without adjusting prices (or the opposite). Use Upgrade Pricing to recalculate all prices proportionally from the new costs.
A charge is applying to shipments that shouldn't have it: Go to the Additional Charges section, find the charge, and check its conditions. A condition that is too broad (weight > 0, for example) catches everything. Tighten the condition or toggle the charge inactive while you investigate.
Related Pages
- Glossary — definitions for every term on this page
- Pricing & Costs — how to edit costs and the price book
- Additional Services & Charges — operators and conditions
- Additional Costs — carrier cost of add-ons
- Service Configuration Overview — all sections
- Carriers Overview — list and navigation