Booking Workflow and Scenarios

Operational Workflow

These seven steps keep bookings consistent from preparation to completion.

Step 1: Prepare the Shipment

Before clicking Booking, confirm the shipment already includes:

  1. Customer, shipper, and consignee details.

  2. Cargo information (packages or cargo lines).

  3. Route, locations, and estimated schedule.

  4. Selected carriers (per leg if multi-leg).

See also

Enter Detailed Shipment Information

Step 2: Create the Booking

  1. Open the shipment record.

  2. Click the Booking button.

  3. Viindoo creates the booking automatically using shipment data.

Booking button on the shipment form

Step 3: Review and Supplement

Inside the booking, double-check:

  • Carrier and service information.

  • ETD, ETA, and cutoff.

  • Cargo summary.

  • Responsible person and stakeholder list.

Booking form overview

Step 4: Send the Booking to the Carrier

Method 1 – Email directly from Viindoo

  1. Click Send Message.

  2. Pick an email template (optional).

  3. Enter recipients and send.

Method 2 – Export and send manually

  1. Use Print > Booking Request to generate a PDF.

  2. Send via your email client or the carrier’s portal.

Sending booking information to carrier

Step 5: Update After Carrier Response

Log the confirmation details:

  1. Booking Reference.

  2. MBL (when available).

  3. Vehicle information: vessel, voyage number, flight, truck, driver.

  4. Adjusted ETD/ETA if the carrier proposes changes.

Tip

Draft and Confirmed bookings both allow edits—keep the record accurate before you sync everything back to the shipment.

Step 6: Confirm the Booking

  1. Click Confirm.

  2. If you changed carriers, decide whether to notify stakeholders (sales, purchasing, shipment manager).

  3. Confirmation pushes carrier, schedule, and transport details back to the shipment (or individual route legs).

Warning

Once confirmed, do not override the booking drastically. Cancel and recreate a new booking if you must switch carriers completely.

Confirmed booking synchronizing data back to the shipment

Step 7: Track and Complete

  • Monitor shipment milestones.

  • Log departures, arrivals, and customs events.

  • Mark the booking Done when transportation finishes.

Monitor and Collaborate

Booking List Overview

Open Freight Forwarder > Operations > Bookings to track every reservation and see status colors at a glance.

Booking list overview with statuses

Search and Filter

Use the search bar and the Filters / Group By options to focus on urgent bookings (Draft, Confirmed, Multiple Leg, etc.) or to analyze workloads by carrier, responsible, or booking date.

Filter and group booking records for quick monitoring

Communication Tools

Within each booking, the chatter lets you send emails, log internal notes, and schedule activities so sales, purchasing, and operations stay aligned. For additional collaboration tips, see booking/management-and-faq.

Handling Common Situations

Changing Carrier After Creating Booking

Situation: You already created booking with Carrier A, but must change to Carrier B due to price or schedule reasons.

How to handle:

  1. Open current booking (in Draft or Confirmed status)

  2. Change Carrier field to Carrier B

  3. Click Confirm (if Draft) or Save (if Confirmed)

  4. System will display wizard asking: Want to notify related parties?

    • Choose Notify Stakeholders: Send internal message to sales staff, purchasing staff, shipment manager

    • Choose Proceed without action: Skip

  5. Why system asks: If there’s already a purchase order with Carrier A, changing to Carrier B needs coordination with multiple departments to cancel old PO and create new one.

Booking Rejected

Situation: Carrier rejects booking because no space available or cannot meet schedule.

How to handle:

Current system uses reuse booking method instead of creating new:

  1. Click Cancel to cancel current booking

    • Booking moves to Cancelled status

    • Record reason in Chatter: “Carrier rejected - no space available”

  2. Click Reset to Draft to return booking to draft status

    • This button only appears when booking is Cancelled

    • Booking returns to Draft status for editing

  3. Adjust booking information

    • Change Carrier: Choose different carrier

    • Update ETD/ETA/Cutoff: According to new schedule

    • Edit vehicle information: Vessel name, voyage number, etc.

    • Can add/remove packages if needed

  4. Click Confirm again to send to new carrier

    • Booking moves to Confirmed

    • Information syncs to shipment/route

Warning

Important Note About Purchase Order

If booking already created Purchase Order, resetting and confirming again may cause data conflict:

  • Old PO still exists with old carrier

  • New booking links to new carrier

  • Need manual handling: cancel old PO, create new PO

Improvement plan: Automatic checking and warning feature will be added in future version.

Note

Distinguish: Reject vs Additional

  • Rejected booking: Reuse old booking (Cancel → Reset → Adjust)

  • Additional container: Create new booking (see next section)

Cancel booking before resetting to draft

Adding Container After Booking

Common situation: Customer requests additional container after booking with shipping line is confirmed

Real example:

You already created booking for 1 container 40ft with Maersk and confirmed with shipping line. Near departure date, customer calls requesting to send 1 more container 20ft in the same shipment.

Handling process:

  1. Update Sale Order

    • Go to confirmed sales order

    • Add 1 new transport service line (quantity: 1 container 20ft)

    • Save order

  2. Add package to Shipment

    • Go to existing shipment from sales order

    • Tab Cargo → Click Add a line

    • Enter new container information (type, weight, cargo…)

    • Save shipment

  3. Allocate to route (if multi-leg)

    • If shipment is multi-leg: Tab Route Legs → Select new container

    • Assign container to appropriate route legs

    • System will calculate container’s booking_status = need_booking

  4. Create new booking for additional container

    • System automatically displays Booking button (because there are unbooked packages)

    • Click Booking → System automatically creates separate booking ONLY for new container

    • Note: Old booking is not affected, remains same status

  5. Confirm with carrier

    • Send new booking to shipping line to confirm additional space

    • If accepted → Confirm new booking

    • If rejected → Can try different shipping line or later voyage

Final result:

Shipment now has 2 independent bookings:

  • Booking-001: Container 40ft (confirmed with Maersk)

  • Booking-002: Container 20ft (newly created, waiting confirmation)

Tip

Why create a new booking?

The confirmed booking remains untouched, so:

  • Negotiations with the carrier stay clear.

  • Amendment fees are avoided.

  • You can track costs and acceptance per container or voyage.

Case of splitting containers to multiple voyages:

If shipment has 5 containers but can only book 3 containers for this voyage, remaining 2 containers must wait for next voyage:

  1. Create booking 1: Select 3 containers, confirm with voyage A (ETD 15/03)

  2. Create booking 2: Select remaining 2 containers, confirm with voyage B (ETD 20/03)

  3. Result: 1 shipment with 2 bookings, each booking has separate schedule

Want to Copy Booking

Situation: New shipment has similar information to old shipment, want to quickly create similar booking.

How to handle:

  1. Cannot duplicate booking directly

  2. Instead: Create new shipment with similar information (or duplicate old shipment)

  3. From new shipment, click Booking to automatically create booking

See also

  • Create Bookings – Review the wizard and prerequisites for creating bookings.

  • Booking Details – Understand every field you update throughout these workflows.

  • Booking for Shipments – Follow the shipment operator’s entry point and synchronization behavior.