> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.bidright.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# How to Add a Bidding Customer
> How to create and configure a bidding customer in BidRight before pricing a bid.
## Summary
Before you can price a bid, the shipper must exist in BidRight as a bidding customer. The customer record holds the settings that turn your RPM into a shipper-specific rate: fuel surcharge program, payment terms, and mileage basis. Get this setup right and every bid for that customer calculates correctly. Get it wrong and every rate will be off.
This article walks you through creating a new bidding customer, screen by screen.
## Before you start
Have these pieces of information on hand. If you do not have them, pause and get them. It is easier than correcting a misconfigured customer later.
* **Parent customer and bidding customer name**: Every bidding customer rolls up to a parent for reporting.
* **Relationship type**: Direct, Managed Transportation, or Brokerage.
* **Industry**: The shipper's vertical.
* **Bill To codes in FreightMath**: So historical load data pulls in on bids.
* **Team assignments**: Who owns Sales, Pricing, Operations, and Review for this customer.
* **Fuel surcharge program**: Flat, DOE-based table, or lane-level. If it is DOE-based, have the full table. If it is lane-level, confirm the details.
* **Payment terms**: Days to pay (30, 45, 60, 90, 120).
* **Mileage basis**: Practical, shortest, or whatever the shipper specifies. Default to practical if unsure.
From anywhere in BidRight, click **Customers** on the left menu panel.
You land on the **Customers** page, which shows every bidding customer currently set up in your BidRight account.
Click **+ Add Customer** in the top right.
The **Add Customer** modal opens where you enter the customer's setup details.
In **Parent Customer**, search for the parent company this bidding customer rolls up to. If it does not exist yet, create it here.
Every bidding customer is tied to a parent customer for higher-level reporting. Think of the parent as the corporate entity and the bidding customer as the specific division or brand you price for. For example: **PepsiCo** is the parent, **Frito-Lay North America** is the bidding customer.
If you are only going to bid for one division of a company, the parent and bidding customer names can be the same. Still set them both so reporting stays consistent if you pick up more divisions later.
**Contract Specifier** defaults to **Main**. Leave it there unless you know you need something else.
The Contract Specifier distinguishes multiple contracts under the same bidding customer. For example, use it if you have a regional contract and a dedicated contract with the same shipper and need to price them separately.
You do not need to enter a bidding customer name manually.
In **Bill To Codes**, search for and select the Bill To codes in FreightMath that match this bidding customer.
This is what lets BidRight pull the customer's historical load data from FreightMath to help price bids. Without Bill To codes linked, you will not see historical OR, volume, or rate data on lanes for this customer.
If a customer's Bill To codes do not show up in search, they either have not synced from FreightMath yet or the customer is not in FreightMath. Check with KSMTA (`jordann@ksmta.com`) if you are stuck.
Under **Relationship**, select one:
* **Direct**: You contract directly with the shipper.
* **Managed Transportation**: A third-party logistics provider manages this shipper's transportation and brokered the contract to you.
* **Brokerage**: A brokerage books the freight with you on behalf of the shipper.
In **Industry**, search for the shipper's industry or create a new one if it is not in the list.
Industry is used for reporting and for comparing performance across shippers in the same vertical.
Use **Remarks** to capture anything important about this contract that the team needs to know: special terms, quirky bid processes, known lane constraints, and key contacts.
This is not a required field, but it is a good place to capture context you will want later.
Under **Assignments**, select the person responsible for each area. All four are required:
* **Sales**: Owns the commercial relationship with the shipper.
* **Pricing**: Owns the rate-setting work for bids from this customer.
* **Operations**: Owns day-to-day execution once freight is awarded.
* **Review**: Owns the final check on bids before they go out.
One person can appear in multiple roles if your team is small. Just make sure someone owns each role.
Click **Add Customer** at the bottom right of the modal.
The customer now appears in your customers list.
The **Add Customer** modal creates the customer record. The bid economics (fuel surcharge and mileage) are set on the customer's **Contract Details** page.
1. From the **Customers** list, click the customer you just created. You land on the customer detail page (breadcrumb: **Customers › Customer Name**).
2. Open the **Contract Details** section.
3. Under **Fuel and Mileage**, find the **Fuel Surcharge** card.
**Entering fuel surcharge**
The Fuel Surcharge card shows a row for each DOE price level the customer's FSC program references (for example, **FSC @ 3.00 DOE**, **FSC @ 4.00 DOE**, **FSC @ 5.00 DOE**). For each row, enter the cents per mile the customer pays at that DOE level.
For example, if the customer's program pays \*\*$0.42 per mile** when DOE is at $4.00, enter `0.42` in the **FSC @ 4.00 DOE** field.
Leave the rows at zero if the customer does not pay an FSC. This generates all-in rates for you in the bid.
**Reading the adjustment column**
To the right of each FSC input, BidRight shows an **Adjustment** value (for example, **+$0.05**, **+$0.08**, **+\$0.03**). That is the dollar-per-mile gap between the customer's FSC at that DOE level and your company's FSC peg. This amount gets added to or subtracted from your S-RPM at that fuel level to reflect fuel revenue on this customer's lanes.
Positive adjustments mean the customer's FSC pays you less than your peg at that DOE level. Negative adjustments mean more.
**Other Contract Details settings**
* **Mileage**: Coming soon - Track which mileage basis they use for future bidding insight.
* **Payment terms**: Coming soon - Track payment terms for automatic adjustments to your rates for longer pay cycles.
See [Fuel surcharge (FSC)](/concepts/fuel-surcharge) for the full explanation of how FSC programs work in BidRight, and [Lane-level fuel hedge (Breakthrough)](/concepts/lane-level-fuel-hedge-breakthrough) for customers on lane-level FSC programs.
Fuel setup matters. If these numbers are wrong, every adjustment in every bid for this customer is wrong.
## How to verify the setup
Before you price your first bid for this customer, open a test bid or an existing one and look at a few lanes in bid detail.
* **Check the FSC adjustment column**: If the customer has a different FSC program than your company peg and this column is `$0.00` across the board, something is misconfigured.
## What to watch for
* **Customer settings apply to every bid for that customer**: If the customer's FSC program or terms change later, update the customer record and it applies going forward. Existing bids keep their original settings unless you manually update them.
* **You can override at the bid level**: If a specific bid has different terms (special fuel arrangement or promotional payment terms), override the customer-level settings on that bid instead of changing the customer record.
## Related content
* [Fuel surcharge (FSC)](/concepts/fuel-surcharge): Deep dive into FSC programs and how they drive S-RPM.
* [Lane-level fuel hedge (Breakthrough)](/concepts/lane-level-fuel-hedge-breakthrough): How BidRight protects margin on lane-level FSC customers.
* [Your first bid](/start/your-first-bid): Creating a bid once the customer is set up.