Viindoo Freight Forwarding demo handbook
Export shipment and booking
Lesson 1. Run a full-container export shipment from start to finish
About 20 minutes. By the end of this lesson you will have gone through the whole life of a shipment, from the moment the request comes in to the moment delivery is finished.
Step 1 - Open the shipment list
Go to Freight Forwarding > Operations > All Shipments.
You should see: a list of more than six hundred shipments, one per row, with the columns Shipment Reference, Status, Direction, Main Transport, Shipment Type, Customer, Origin, Destination, ETD, ETA. Click the Shipment Reference column header twice to bring the newest shipment to the top.
Step 2 - Create a new shipment
Click the New button in the top left corner.
You should see: an empty record with the status Draft, and a button bar containing Confirm, Cancel, Log Tracking and From Template. You do not need to fill in anything yet.
Step 3 - Load the template
Click From Template on the button bar at the top.
You should see: the Apply Scenario Template dialog opens with exactly one field - Template - still empty. There is nothing to preview yet.
Step 4 - Choose the template and preview it
In the Template field, choose MẪU - FCL xuất khẩu đường biển (Hải Phòng - Busan) (the FCL sea export template for Hải Phòng - Busan).
You should see: as soon as you choose, the dialog widens and grows two preview tabs - Stages (the six workflow steps, open by default) and Charges (the charge lines, click across to see them). The two middle steps have English names on screen: Pre-Carriage (the leg before the main voyage) and On-Carriage (the leg after it). This is what will be copied into your shipment.
Step 5 - Apply the template
Click Apply.
You should see: the empty shipment from a moment ago now has six charge lines, six workflow steps, three route legs linking Hải Phòng and Busan, the shipment type automatically set to FCL, and 11 operational tasks (the Tasks stat button at the top of the record). The Cost Price and Vendor columns of the charge lines are still blank - Step 9 will fill them in. The screenshot shows the top of a draft shipment before any template content was loaded, so its Tasks button shows 0; yours will show the tasks.
Why this matters: a forwarder runs the same few dozen fixed routes again and again. Building a template for each route and then copying it is how the trade really works, not a decorative feature.
Step 6 - Fill in the shipment details
Fill in the main fields at the top of the record:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Customer | pick any company in the list |
| Shipper | usually the customer itself, for an export |
| Consignee | a foreign company |
| Carrier | pick a shipping line |
| Incoterm | a delivery term, for example CFR - it is required by the booking wizard (Step 9), so fill it in now |
| ETD/ETA | click the field, choose a departure date and an arrival date in the future, then click Apply |
You should see: the fields now hold values, and a Save button (cloud icon) appears at the top. Click Save.
Step 7 - Look at the schedule and the legs
Open the Schedule & Performance tab.
You should see: the Routes table with the three legs the template built - Pre-Carriage (pickup), Main Carriage (sea) and On-Carriage (delivery) - each with a pickup address, a delivery address, a transport mode and an ETD/ETA column; below it is the Route Map (with the Refresh Map button). The actual departure and arrival dates (ATD/ATA) of the whole shipment sit at the top of the record and are only filled in while the shipment runs (Step 11 and Step 15); the leg table has no actual-date columns yet. The screenshot shows a shipment whose legs have not been loaded, so the leg table is empty; on your shipment it holds the three legs.
The cut-off deadlines are not here. The SI, CY and VGM deadlines (SI Cutoff, CY Cutoff, VGM Cutoff) are entered on the booking form, not on the shipment record - because they are conditions the shipping line sets when it grants space. Lesson 2 goes into this, and it is also where you will meet the software's most notable time barrier.
Step 8 - Confirm the shipment
Click Confirm.
You should see: the status bar moves to Confirmed, the button bar gains Booking and Start Transit buttons, and the record gains the tabs Charges, Required Documents and Settings.
Step 9 - Enter the cost price and vendor for the charge lines
Open the Charges tab. For each line, choose a Vendor (for example the shipping line you picked) and enter a Cost Price - a suggested set of numbers is in Lesson 9, Step 2. Do this before looking at profit and loss or creating a vendor bill, because the template does not copy cost prices: left blank, the shipment's gross margin shows 100% and the vendor bill picks up the selling price by mistake. If you only want a quick pass through the shipment life cycle, skip this step.
Step 10 - Quick booking and entering the container
Click Booking, add a container line as in Lesson 2, Step 3, then click Create. Back on the shipment, open the Cargo & Packages tab: the Containers block appears only once the shipment has a container, and the container is created by the booking wizard. Click the Container Number and Seal Number cells of the container line to enter the container number and seal number, then click Save.
You should see: the container line (named CONT 01) with its Container Number, Seal Number and a group of action buttons on the line itself.
Step 11 - Run the container milestone chain
This is the part field staff click every day. On the container line, click in turn:
Empty Picked > Stuffed > Gate-in > Loaded
You should see: each click stamps a timestamp, the button you just clicked disappears and the next one appears in its place. After Loaded, the line has only the View button left.
For an import shipment, the container line has a different chain of buttons:
Arrived > Customs Cleared > Gate Out > Unstuffed > Empty Returned
The rule of the milestone chain: stamp in the right order and never back-date. The timestamps are the audit trail of the whole shipment.
Step 12 - Set the shipment running
Click Start Transit.
You should see: the status changes to In Transit, ATD (actual departure date) is recorded automatically, and the Set Done button appears.
Step 13 - Prepare documents
Open the Required Documents tab. Three document wizards live here, not on the button bar at the top: Prepare SI, Prepare Draft B/L and Prepare HBL.
Click Prepare HBL.
You should see: the Prepare House B/L dialog with the shipment and the Document Name already filled in; you enter HBL No., Request To, HBL Due Date and a note, then click Prepare HBL to create the document request for the shipment. Click Cancel if you only want to look.
Step 14 - Post a progress update the customer can see
Click Log Tracking. The dialog is titled Add Location Update: in the Title Template field choose a milestone (for example Departed), enter the Location, then click Save (or Send Update Email, where the dialog offers it, to notify the customer as well; Cancel to leave).
You should see: the shipment's Trackings stat button goes up by 1; the milestone you just recorded sits in the shipment's journey history and can be used by the customer portal in Lesson 11.
Step 15 - Complete
Click Set Done.
You should see: ATA (actual arrival date) is recorded, the status changes to Done, and the status-change buttons disappear (leaving Log Tracking, as in the screenshot, and Create Quotation if no quotation exists yet).
Note: a completed shipment cannot be reopened. The Reset to Draft button appears only for a cancelled shipment, not for a completed one. This is deliberate - completion is an event that has happened. If you want to try again, create a new shipment.
Lesson 2. Booking with the shipping line
About 12 minutes. Booking is the first thing the operations team does once a shipment is settled. Viindoo keeps it as a separate record with its own life cycle, because one booking form can serve several shipments. This lesson starts with a brand-new shipment of your own, so you can repeat it as often as you like without depending on anyone else's booking.
Step 1 - Create a new shipment and apply the template
Go to Freight Forwarding > Operations > All Shipments, click New, click From Template, choose MẪU - FCL xuất khẩu đường biển (Hải Phòng - Busan), and click Apply. These steps are the same as Step 2 to Step 5 of Lesson 1.
Then fill in these fields at the top of the record:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Customer | any company in the list |
| Shipper | usually the customer itself |
| Consignee | any company |
| Carrier | a shipping line |
| ETD/ETA | dates in the future |
| Incoterm | a delivery term, for example CFR |
You should see: the shipment record in the Draft status, already holding the charge lines, legs and stages from the template.
The Incoterm field is not required to save a shipment, but it is required by the booking wizard in Step 3. Fill it in from now on and the wizard will pick it up automatically.
Step 2 - Confirm the shipment
Click Confirm.
You should see: the status changes to Confirmed and the button bar has a Booking button.
The Booking button appears only when the shipment is Confirmed. A shipment still in Draft has nothing to book yet.
Step 3 - Create a booking form from your own shipment
Click Booking. A wizard opens, with the shipment, carrier, origin, destination, ETD and ETA already filled in from that shipment. In the Requested Details section, click Add a line and enter one container line: choose Container 40FT for Container Type, enter 1 for Container Qty, and fill in Volume and Commodity. (For an LCL or air shipment this table changes to Package Type, Quantity, Weight, Volume.) Click Create.
You should see: a new booking form opens in the Draft status, linked to the shipment. Back on the shipment, the stat button bar has a Bookings button showing 1 and a Containers button showing 1 (container CONT 01, created by the wizard). The screenshot was taken on a shipment that already had its container, so the container appears as a tag at the bottom of Requested Details; on a new shipment you add the line yourself.
Step 4 - Move the form through three statuses
The status bar of the form has the steps Draft, Requested, Confirmed, Cancelled; the image below was taken while the form was at the Requested step.
Click Mark as Requested, then click Mark as Confirmed.
You should see: the current step is highlighted and changes from Draft to Requested and then Confirmed. The form holds the carrier, the transport leg, the parties and the Route & Schedule group.
Why three steps: "the request has been sent to the carrier" is very different from "the carrier has given us space". Merging the two loses the ability to answer the everyday question "which shipments are waiting for the carrier to reply?".
Step 5 - Try to set an impossible cut-off deadline
This is the part most worth seeing for the head of documentation.
On your form, find the Route & Schedule group. The three fields CY Cutoff, SI Cutoff and VGM Cutoff are here.
Enter a CY Cutoff date and time after the ETD (for example one day later than the ETD) and save.
You should see: the system refuses to save and shows a Validation Error dialog (click Close to dismiss it) with text of the form:
CY Cutoff of Shipment SHP/... must be before
- ETD of leg Main Carriage - LEG/...
Now enter a CY Cutoff date and time before the ETD and save again: this time it saves.
Why it matters: the CY cutoff is the last moment a container can be delivered to the yard. Setting it after the vessel sails cannot happen in real life, and the software does not let you enter it. Staff do not have to remember or check it themselves.
These three cutoff fields appear only once the form is past Draft and the cargo is an export - imports have no cutoffs because the space was already booked by the overseas side.
Step 6 - Print the booking request to send to the carrier
Click Print Booking Request. This button appears only on sea forms.
You should see: the Prepare Booking Request dialog with the content for the shipping line already built. An air form replaces this button with Air Cargo Manifest; a road form has Cargo Manifest and Delivery Note in the same place.
Step 7 - From booking to purchase order
When the form is Confirmed and has no purchase order yet, the button bar shows a Create Purchase Orders button. Click it.
You should see: the Create Purchase Orders button disappears; a Purchase Orders stat button showing 1 appears on the form right away (the shipment also gets a Purchase Orders button). Click it to open a draft purchase order addressed to the carrier, built from the booking form itself. This order is only the cost frame: its total is zero until you enter the carrier's freight rate. It is the input for the shipment's cost, which you will meet again in Lesson 9.
Step 8 - Find the form again in the list
Go to Freight Forwarding > Bookings > All Bookings > Carrier Bookings and type your form number into the search box.
You should see: your form in the list (choose the search option Booking No), together with more than five hundred other forms once you remove the filter; each row has the form number, booking date, person in charge, shipment, carrier coverage, shipper and consignee.
