The problem
Shipping involves sales, logistics, forwarders, warehouses, customs brokers and finance. Typical problems:
- booking, stuffing and customs each have their own spreadsheet, and container numbers, seal numbers, packages, gross weight and volume are copied by hand in several places;
- the container plan changes but the packing list and declaration do not, and inconsistent documents lead to rejections or amendments;
- milestones for multi-leg transport sit in carriers’ systems, so finding the cargo means asking each carrier in turn;
- freight and local charges are totalled only afterwards, so order profit is inaccurate.
How Tranexio handles it
- Shipping plan: generate the shipping plan from the sales order, fixing the sailing and upstream deadlines such as the SI, port and customs cut-offs.
- Booking: request and compare forwarder quotes, then book; the booking advances through its state machine, and confirmed space is written back to the shipping plan.
- Stuffing and packing: start with a container plan, then generate the packing list after actual loading; the system compares the two, and the customs declaration is derived from the packing list.
- Space release, pick-up and sealing: a dispatch release gate checks warehouse readiness, compliance screening and payment conditions, and only then releases the shipment.
- In-transit tracking: milestones are recorded per leg using multimodal transport segmentation, and milestones such as departure and arrival can trigger downstream documents automatically; the platform supports connecting schedule and tracking data sources.
- Document preparation: commercial invoices, packing lists, bill of lading details and certificate of origin data are generated from the same shipping data, with attachments archived against the order.
Key controls
| Control | How it works |
|---|---|
| Release gate | Nothing is released until warehouse readiness, compliance screening and payment conditions are met |
| Single source for documents | Invoices, packing lists and declarations draw on the same shipping data, and manual edits leave a trail |
| Rescheduling trail | Rescheduling a milestone requires dual sign-off and records the reason and who bears the cost |
| Tracking data minimisation | Coordinates for overseas legs are reduced in precision, and driver and other personal data are discarded |
| Cost assignment | Freight, port charges and demurrage are assigned by order and flow into order P&L |
Multiple document views for complete-machine exports (per shipment, per container or per unit) are on the roadmap.