Operations Handbook

Risk-first operating picture for active LIVE files, exceptions, deadlines, workload, and next actions.

Start-of-day priorities plus a cross-device digest of shipment changes since the operator’s last review, including verified ETA and tracking signals.

Unified shipment, approval, issue, commercial, planning, billing, and management attention streams with deep links.

Searchable feature guidance, operating runbooks, guardrails, release visibility, and workflow reference.

Fast creation with duplicate checks and first-class file identity.

Structured entry plus extraction from copied operational text.

Reserve/generate file identity for pre-shipments and customer-created work using configured routing rules.

Customer-specific intake requirements with controlled creation and Customer Portal boundaries.

Remove accidental/cancelled work from active operations without destructive deletion.

Support multiple containers and multiple purchase orders while retaining shipment-level context.

Centralize ocean and air Contract, Spot, Agent, and Tariff buy rates with effective dates, source references, carrier/service context, equipment, transit/free-time data, and internal buy-cost components.

Rank current lane/equipment matches, compare total buy and service, apply customer-specific target margin or minimum-profit rules, and recommend sell pricing without auto-publishing it.

Select an internal procurement option while building a quote. CargoFlow keeps provider/buy details private, carries the estimated buy into an accepted quote, and preserves it for later Billing actual-vs-quote variance review.

Create and manage commercial work before a shipment is live, including quote status and conversion readiness.

Publish approved sell-side quotes to an active Customer Portal; customers can Accept or Decline without seeing internal cost data.

Supplier assignment, supplier reference, Cargo Ready / Supplier Confirmed / On Hold, cargo-ready/planned-ship dates, pieces, weight, and exceptions per PO.

Commercial Invoice and Packing List requirements with Missing / Received / Accepted / Waived states and secure planning-document intake.

Blocks live conversion when File ID, lane, PO readiness, dates, documents, supplier readiness, or quote state is incomplete.

Server-controlled conversion protects tenant scope, duplicates, File ID reservation, and source linkage.

Create Ocean or Air capacity options with provider/carrier, lane, service, vessel/voyage or flight, equipment, ETD/ETA, allocation size, remaining capacity, and source reference.

Track cargo cutoff, document cutoff, and VGM cutoff with attention signaling so missed or near-term deadlines surface before the booking is confirmed.

Link a booking plan to an active pre-shipment or live shipment, carry lane/customer context forward, record requested units, and optionally snapshot the selected procurement buy rate.

Manage Planning, Requested, Waitlisted, Confirmed, Rejected, and Cancelled states while keeping external carrier/agent submission explicit.

Confirmation checks remaining allocation before reserving capacity and uses concurrency protection so stale updates cannot silently overbook the same option.

Once a confirmed booking reference is recorded, CargoFlow writes it back to the linked active pre-shipment or shipment with audit history and stale-write protection.

CargoFlow records external booking requests today but does not pretend to transmit directly to a carrier or agent until a real approved provider integration is connected.

Movement Progress keeps ETD, ATD, ETA, and ATA together with every added Rail, CFS, Transload, and Drayage move. New route legs insert automatically in sequence and Final Delivery remains the last node.

Select a route movement from the main journey or Live Route to update movement type, From/To, provider, ETA/date, status, reference, IT number, notes, or remove the move. LFD, pickup, and empty return remain operational File Dates instead of cluttering the journey rail.

Source/confidence context, freshness windows, automatic checks, retry state, and manual-override visibility.

Verified ETA movements are surfaced with direction, amount, prior/new date, source, and severity.

Last-free-day, departure/arrival confirmation, tracking due dates, and custom tasks feed attention queues.

Per-user cross-device cursor shows meaningful shipment activity since the last review and links directly to the affected file.

Active Tracking, Exceptions, Moving, and Recently Delivered are real filter controls, not decorative totals. Selecting a card narrows the journey queue immediately, and selecting a shipment opens that file directly in Tracking & Routing.

Continue onboarding additional verified carrier adapters and status sources as provider access becomes available.

Delivery Center brings pickup, CFS, delivery appointment, delivery order, POD, empty-return, and final-mile attention into an action-first board instead of scattering the work across unrelated screens.

Prepare a shipment-linked tender with carrier contact, agreed rate, pickup/delivery details, dates, references, notes, and dispatch context, then track the tender lifecycle from Draft and Prepared through Sent, Accepted, Declined, and Completed.

Approved carrier partners can accept or decline a tender, provide driver, phone, truck, trailer, pickup/delivery confirmations, carrier notes, transit status, and POD reference. Responses synchronize back to the shipment while internal billing, margin, regulatory, and operations notes stay private.

When a carrier offer is assigned, CargoFlow prevents conflicting active tenders from remaining open on the same shipment and keeps response state, cancellation, and follow-up attention tied to the correct file.

Controlled document storage, document truth/readiness, quarantine/scanning gates, content hashes, customer-safe sharing, and preview/download workflows.

Drop email/file content onto the shipment, rename it before save, and preview supported documents inside CargoFlow.

Ocean shipment Documents can generate a CargoFlow-native House Bill of Lading. Routing, references, cargo, weight, and container data prefill from the file; shipper, consignee, notify, and issuing-party details remain reviewable before issue. Operators can preview a DRAFT, save the draft, issue versioned snapshots, reopen prior versions, and print or save PDF output.

Due dates, completion state, operational alerts, protected-change approvals, stale request protection, and review history.

File notes, teammate context, ownership, handoff attention, pickup/delivery/POD/document follow-up, and activity history.

Separate Internal Team and Customer Portal conversation channels, replies, @mentions, unread state, and strict privacy boundaries.

Closeout, completed records, activity/version context, and controlled reopening when work must resume.

Customer charges, expenses/costs, margin truth, readiness, billed/paid progression, and closeout controls.

Accepted customer quote sell lines are staged into Billing while actual cost data remains independently controlled.

Projected/final cost and margin variance, service-level deltas, unmatched cost visibility, and margin drivers.

Shared Consol cost/sell allocations stage to linked house Billing as Pending internal reviews instead of silently mutating finances.

Accepted allocations can be corrected using linked negative reversals, preserving source/reversal history and detach safety.

Tenant-scoped queue for Ready to Bill, Billed, and Paid files with duplicate-success protection and mapped outbound payloads.

The Consols workspace stays intentionally blank until an operator searches. Lookup covers Consol number, File ID, shipment reference, container, MBL, HBL, booking, buyer/customer, carrier, vessel/voyage, route, CFS, FIRMS, PO, and owner context, and each result explains which field matched.

Create shared Ocean LCL/groupage movements with master reference, vessel/voyage, route, container, ATD/ETA, and shared status.

Overview, House Shipments, Decon & Delivery, Financials, Documents, and History keep attach/detach work separate from release, pickup, financial, document, and audit work while each linked house retains its own operational identity.

CFS received, stripped, available, destination release dates, CFS last-free-day, and automatic shared status progression.

Equal, weight, pieces, and manual allocation methods with house-level review and privacy rules.

Share approved shipment data, milestones, release/delay status, and selected documents without internal billing, costs, staff, or private notes.

Customer-specific shipment intake and pre-shipment planning with File ID generation and configured information requirements.

Customers can accept or decline approved sell-side quotes inside their portal, with auditable status and guarded Billing handoff.

Customers can submit PO, booking confirmation, CI, PKL, and approved planning documents through the security-scanned submission pipeline.

Customer-safe active-shipment reports with scheduled delivery, manual Send Now, recipients/shipment counts, provider result, and delivery history.

Customer-visible shipment conversation stays separate from Internal Team discussion and internal operational data.

Suppliers see only purchase orders assigned to their supplier identity, with PO number, buyer/lane context, readiness state, and the required-document checklist.

Suppliers can move assigned POs through Pending Supplier, Supplier Confirmed, Cargo Ready, or On Hold and provide cargo-ready dates and supplier-facing notes.

Required files use size/type validation, chunked upload controls, malware scanning, content hashes, quarantine handling, and a clean-submission review state before operations accepts them.

Suppliers can submit documents but cannot approve or waive requirements. Accepted/Waived document decisions remain internal to CargoFlow operators and administrators.

Internal teams manage supplier identities, assign POs, review submitted documents, and control supplier access from a separate administration surface.

Accepted supplier documents and structured supplier readiness context carry into the live shipment when pre-shipment planning converts, preserving lineage without re-entry.

Store authority/control numbers with lane, customer/shipper, commodity, equipment, effective dates, rate rule, PSS/surcharge treatment, source, and compliance notes.

Compare a shipment/rate against real scope and rate terms. Auto-link only one exact eligible saved authority; ambiguous or blocked matches stay manual.

Prepare and track FMC, Cargo Release, PTT, and 7512/In-Bond workflows with broker/provider status history and shipment writeback controls.

Build a shipment-specific customs packet from the broker directory and Document Vault, with Commercial Invoice, Packing List, ISF, Master/House B/L, Arrival Notice, and CBP 7512 options, versioned packet history, stale-document warnings, secure links, and revocation.

Send the secure broker packet from CargoFlow using the configured production mail path instead of requiring a manual Outlook handoff. Delivery state and packet lineage remain tied to the shipment.

Broker acknowledgement, revision requests, filing progress, hold/exam signals, broker-reported release/PTT/in-bond responses, stale filing, and stale packet conditions synchronize into shipment attention while official release truth remains separately verified.

Saved Ocean files now expose a first-class Customs & Broker tab for secure broker packets, acknowledgement and revision tracking, filing/hold/release signals, PTT and 7512/In-Bond status, plus a front-page readiness summary for Customs, broker receipt, required broker documents and IT readiness.

Hourly engine can reuse eligible authority, create filing work, prevent duplicates/rejected retries, and wait for explicit returned FMC/control number.

Admin readiness center for secure provider endpoint, API credential presence, signed callback readiness, Integration Hub activation, and safe onboarding guidance without exposing secret values.

Requires an approved provider account, secure endpoint, credential, signed callback setup, Integration Hub activation, and live UAT.

CargoFlow’s provider bridge supports the controlled lane, but a real authorized ABI/EDI provider connection and end-to-end validation are required.

Tenant-scoped connection catalog for Dispatch/TMS, Accounting/ERP, custom webhooks/API, regulatory lanes, and controlled activation.

Versioned field mappings, transforms, mapping profiles, outbound previews, inbound allowlists, validation history, and connector-specific sync history.

Dedicated two-way HTTPS connector with outbound mappings, signed inbound callback, review queue, and independent sync history once configured.

Outbound mapped customer billing data with delivery safety, idempotency, retries, and export queue. No inbound accounting write path.

Partner callbacks are replay-limited, tenant-scoped, idempotently staged, uniquely matched, allowlisted, and human-reviewed before shipment mutation.

Prepare-only or controlled auto-send rules, per-run limits, circuit breakers, run journal, duplicate blocking, and automatic pause after repeated failures.

Dead-letter recovery for failed integration deliveries with retry, supersede/dismiss controls, audit notes, and current-payload rebuild.

Admin-only OAuth setup is built with tenant-scoped authorization state, encrypted refresh-token storage, connection validation, disconnect controls, and a production callback guide. Intuit app credentials and provider approval must be configured before connection.

After the provider is connected, CargoFlow can read the connected QuickBooks customer and product/service catalogs, compare them with current LIVE billable customers and charge labels, suggest exact-name matches, and save explicit tenant-scoped mappings with operator attribution.

Admins can run a read-only UAT against an eligible LIVE billable file. CargoFlow validates the provider connection, mapped customer and product/service targets, duplicate QuickBooks DocNumber risk, positive sell-side invoice lines, and the exact proposed invoice payload without creating or changing an invoice.

CargoFlow can prepare an exact invoice payload, store a payload hash, require per-file approval, re-run UAT immediately before send, and block transmission if billing changed. Server enablement, workspace enablement, tax validation, QuickBooks email behavior, currency behavior, and live UAT approval must all be true before a direct invoice can be created.

Sent CargoFlow invoices can be read back from QuickBooks to compare DocNumber, invoice total, open balance, due date, email status, and provider update time. Missing or mismatched provider records are surfaced without changing shipment billing automatically.

An administrator can apply verified QuickBooks Billed or Paid status back to the shipment only after an immediate provider refresh and exact File-ID confirmation. CargoFlow will not downgrade an existing Paid file and uses optimistic concurrency so intervening shipment changes are not overwritten.

Sent QuickBooks invoices are grouped into Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+ aging buckets using the latest reconciled provider due date and balance. The desk summarizes outstanding, past-due, due-next-7-days, paid, stale, and provider-exception totals while keeping collection notes internal.

Admins can record Follow Up, Promise to Pay, Disputed, Hold, or Resolved status, a next-follow-up date, and an internal note against a sent invoice. The desk does not send collection messages and does not change shipment billing automatically.

The controlled write path exists but remains locked unless the CargoFlow server transmission flag and every workspace validation gate are explicitly enabled. Nothing is sent automatically, and every invoice still requires a prepared payload plus File-ID approval.

Ranks critical/high shipment work, approvals, planning blockers, quote ageing/declines, Billing mismatches, Consol reviews, delivered-but-unbilled files, and open costs.

Manager-focused attention, ownership/workload visibility, escalation ageing, and direct navigation to the affected operational workspace.

Admin/operator/customer boundaries, tenant isolation, owner/HQ separation, scoped work visibility, and dedicated customer privacy protections.

Runtime health, security regression gates, write protection, API stability, visual/readability guards, bundle budgets, and production checks protect each release.

Active files, attention pressure, document readiness, billing readiness, and upcoming ETA/LFD operating picture.

Operational reporting surfaces separated from customer-safe scheduled reporting.

Searchable major-workflow guidance, when-to-use context, and guardrails for operators and administrators.

Capture tester/operator feedback, triage issues, manage retest loops, and monitor pilot readiness and insights.

Tracking checks, scheduled customer reports, safe integration deliveries, automation rules, FMC exact-match reuse, status calculations, alerts, and change detection.

Ambiguous FMC matches, inbound partner shipment mutations, protected changes, Consol house financial allocations, failed/rejected filing work, and consequential corrections require review or explicit state.

Connect a real approved FMC provider and authorized CBP/ABI path, complete callbacks, test filings, failure/recovery cases, and live-safe acceptance.

Expand carrier coverage and status-source depth while preserving verified/manual distinctions.

Build provider-specific accounting adapters, such as a future QuickBooks-native lane, on top of the current Accounting/ERP mapping and delivery architecture.

Shipments stays intentionally quiet until an operator searches. File ID, container, MBL, HBL, AWB, booking, customer, shipper, PO, POD, CFS, FIRMS, carrier, owner, commodity, and status can all find a file without loading an overwhelming wall of records.

The Command Center prioritizes urgent files, arrivals in the next 14 days, FMC/compliance attention, desk workload, next actions, and arrival-readiness gaps so the operator starts with what matters now.

Broker Handoff tracks secure packets, acknowledgement timing, revision requests, filing progress, broker-reported release/PTT/in-bond signals, and a separate verified Customs release safeguard before downstream execution.

The production release gate now keeps the printable handbook and public capability map aligned with major promoted CargoFlow capabilities.

The global Tracking workspace is now transportation-first: mode filters, verified/manual source context, current movement, next milestone, Original ETA versus current ETA, delay exceptions, and actionable summary cards all drill back into the shipment Tracking workspace.

Truck can be created as its own shipment mode with Load / PRO reference, Truck document rules, trucker/carrier readiness, Truck-specific milestones, and mode-aware Movement Progress without Ocean-only equipment or FMC defaults.

Signed-in users can install the CargoFlow web app from supported browsers for a standalone app experience. The same production host, authentication, workspace boundaries, and freight workflows remain in force.

Capacitor-based Android and iOS shells, native readiness checks, smoke-build workflows, Android API 36 validation, and a signed Google Play App Bundle pipeline are prepared. App-store distribution remains a separate controlled rollout step and is not implied by this status.

CargoFlow Signal can review the visible freight desk or an individual shipment, surface grounded risks and next actions, draft factual customer updates, and open the right Documents, Broker Handoff, Tracking, Billing, Activity, or Edit workspace. Signal remains read-only: the operator reviews and confirms every operational change.

What Changed now shows bounded field-level before → after context for meaningful shipment updates, keeps verified/recorded confidence visible, suppresses duplicate generic update noise, and routes directly into the affected Tracking, Documents, Billing, Tasks, customs/FMC, or exception workspace.

Air workflows identify the airline from the AWB prefix, normalize and validate AWB format and check digits, and keep the airwaybill connected to the shipment record.

Repeatable package dimensions can be entered in centimeters with inch conversion. CargoFlow calculates CBM and volumetric weight and shows suggested chargeable weight alongside the shipment gross weight for operator review.

CargoFlow HQ now opens with an owner-only operations overview showing customer workspaces, portal users, pending customer releases, open support items, urgent customer communications, My Queue, Message Center, Notifications, Release Center, and Support entry points without exposing HQ controls to dedicated customer builds.

The Back Office keeps external customer conversations, internal Message Center handoffs, Notifications, assignments, priority, reply, resolve, and support work connected while preserving tenant and customer-workspace boundaries.

CargoFlow now automatically compiles native shells when Capacitor, PWA, or native-readiness files change. The first certification produced a successful Android debug APK and iOS simulator app, and the iOS gate was corrected for Capacitor 8 Xcode-project generation. Store publication remains a separate controlled release step.

Issue Inbox now carries priority, owner, release context, status timestamps, Urgent and My Queue filters, and a Retest state so fixes stay owned through verification while tester My Reports access remains intact.

Internal team lists and assignment controls are scoped to the active CargoFlow workspace, with customer and supplier portal accounts excluded from internal assignment surfaces and owner preview behavior kept inside the selected workspace.

Release Center reads live System Health for the running HQ build, including deployment identity, core service/table readiness, open support issues, carrier credential readiness, and automatic tracking-watch state while keeping provider setup separate from the core release gate.

A build can only be registered or approved as Stable when the full 40-character commit SHA exactly matches the running HQ production deployment, the signed-in walkthrough is explicitly confirmed, and meaningful test notes are recorded. Approval rechecks the live SHA so a superseded build cannot be certified.

Signed-in users can start an auditable account-deletion request from Settings, complementing the public Data & Account Removal path while preserving required business-record retention and review controls.