Is Your D365 Shipping Workflow Costing You $150,000 a Year?
Most manufacturers and distributors running Dynamics 365 have a fully integrated ERP and a shipping process that still runs on manual effort. Here is what that gap is actually costing you.
The Blind Spot Inside an Otherwise Optimized Operation
If you run Dynamics 365, you have likely invested heavily in getting your operations connected. Inventory, purchasing, financials, production all flowing through one system.
But there is one area where most D365 environments still have a gap: shipping.
Despite everything else being integrated, the shipping process at most manufacturers and distributors still looks like this: open a carrier portal, look up rates, key data back into D365, print labels, then reconcile invoices weeks later hoping the numbers match.
It is one of the most common and costly gaps in an otherwise optimized operation.
What Manual Shipping Actually Costs You
The cost is not always obvious because it is spread across labor, errors, and invoice discrepancies rather than showing up as a single line item. But when you run the numbers, it is significant.
For a business shipping 30,000 orders per year:
Labor (10 plus minutes per shipment at $35/hr): $183,750
Shipment errors (approximately 2% of volume): $9,000
Unaudited carrier invoice discrepancies: $4,500
Total annual opportunity cost: $197,250
That is nearly $200,000 per year from a workflow problem, not a headcount problem or a technology investment gap. The ERP is already there. The missing piece is connecting it to your carriers.
What a D365-Native Shipping Solution Changes
A shipping solution built natively inside D365 eliminates the gap between your ERP and your carriers entirely. There is no portal to open, no data to re-enter, and no manual reconciliation process.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
Rates are shopped in real time from within D365, across all your carriers simultaneously. The best rate is selected based on your rules, not whoever you happen to call first.
Shipment data flows automatically from the sales order or transfer order into the shipment record. No copy-paste, no retyping, no transposition errors.
Labels, bills of lading, and tracking updates are generated and sent without leaving the platform. Your team never has to touch a separate system.
Invoices are reconciled automatically against the quoted rates. Discrepancies are flagged before they become losses.
The result: what used to take 10 to 12 minutes per shipment takes 90 seconds.
The ROI Is Straightforward
For that same 30,000-shipment operation, the math is clear:
Total annual savings: $197,250
SHP annual subscription: $40,000
Net annual savings: $157,250
Annual ROI: 393%
Payback period: approximately 2.4 months
For multi-location operations, those numbers scale with each facility added.
Every Operation Is Different. Run Your Own Numbers.
Shipment volume, carrier mix, labor costs, and how long your team currently spends per shipment all affect the outcome. We built a calculator so you can input your own numbers and see a realistic estimate in under two minutes.
Try it at frtforge.com.
If the numbers make sense for your operation, the next step is understanding what implementation looks like inside your specific D365 environment. That conversation typically takes about 30 minutes.
About SHP
SHP by FRT Forge is a D365-native shipping solution built for manufacturers and distributors. It connects directly to Dynamics 365 without middleware, third-party connectors, or custom development.