How to Set Your Target Gross Margins
Begin by selecting the Settings tab found on the left side of your AscendTMS screen
Locate the Company Settings section, then select Set Default Target Gross Margins
You’ll see three editable percentage fields, each representing a target margin.
Highest Booking Margin
This is your ideal scenario — the margin you aim for when market conditions are in your favor. Think of this as your best-case target.
Target Booking Margin
This is your go-to margin and the benchmark for most bookings. It represents the sweet spot between competitiveness and profitability and should reflect what you expect to achieve on the majority of your loads.
Lowest Acceptable Booking Margin
This is your floor — the minimum margin you’re willing to accept to win or keep a load. It’s typically used in tight markets, for strategic customers, or to keep freight moving, while still ensuring you don’t book loads at a loss.
There are two easy ways to dial these in:
Option 1: Type it in
Click directly into any percentage field and enter your desired value.
Option 2: Slide to set
Use the slider below the fields. It spans 0%–100% and includes three adjustable markers—one for each margin goal. Drag a marker to instantly fine-tune your target.
Posted Rate & Book Now Rate Settings
The final two dropdowns on this page control which rate AscendTMS uses when posting loads to external load boards.
Posted Rate
Select the rate you want used as the default posted rate when advertising loads on external load boards.
Book Now
For load boards that support instant booking, select the rate that should be used as the Book Now rate, allowing carriers to accept the load immediately at that price.
NOTE: These settings do not apply to the DAT Convoy Platform. Convoy may leverage multiple rates and real-time market data to dynamically price loads based on current conditions.
Once you’ve dialed in your desired margins, give that Save Settings button a click and you’re good to go!
Managing Target Gross Margins Per Load
You can also fine-tune your target margins on a per-load basis directly within the highlighted table (below).
To do so, click on Edit Target Rates. Make any necessary adjustments and click Save.
After saving your changes, the Gross Margin ($) column recalculates in real time, giving you immediate visibility into the financial impact of each change.
Default Target Margin:
Adjusted Target Margin:
If you prefer to limit which staff members have access to making these adjustments, a new user permission is available that controls whether users can edit the suggested target rates on load financials—giving you full control over who can make margin adjustments.
This new permission can be located by going to Settings
Locate the User and Branch / Department Management section, and select Add or Edit Permissions Groups there.
Within the Loads section, locate the permission there.
For additional information on creating and managing User Permission Groups within your account, please visit the Help Guide link below.