Statuses and customs entries without live feeds
How the Logistics pack keeps shipment statuses and customs entry numbers accurate when people enter them, and why its home-page counts can be trusted.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Most small and mid-sized freight businesses already know where their loads are. The knowledge is just scattered: the driver's last message, the border agent's call, the clearing agent's e-mail with the customs entry number, the depot clerk who saw the truck leave. The difficulty is not finding out; it is getting what people know onto one record quickly enough that the next person to look at it sees the truth.
The Logistics & freight pack in Achekam's Industry CRM is built for that reality. It does not pretend to track trucks by satellite or read customs systems. People enter statuses and customs references on the shipment, and the pack makes those entries count. This article explains what is entered by hand, how to keep it reliable, and why the numbers on the home page can be trusted.
No feeds, by design
The Logistics pack has no live tracking feed, no carrier rate feed, no link to a customs system and no credit-bureau check. Statuses, rates and customs entry numbers are all entered by people.
That is worth stating plainly because it shapes everything else. If your trucks carry trackers, the tracker's own portal still tells you where they are; the pack will not read it. If your clearing agent works on the customs authority's system, the entry number reaches the shipment because someone types it in. The benefit is that the pack works the same way for an owner-operator with two trucks as for a forwarder with forty subcontractors, and that every entry on a shipment was put there by a named person who can be asked about it.
Statuses entered by people
In the pack, customers are Shippers, and each booked movement is a Shipment moved leg by leg. A shipment passes through five stages: Booked, Collected, In transit, At customs and Delivered.
Manual updates are only as good as the habits behind them. A few rules keep them honest:
- Update on evidence, not expectation. Move a shipment to Collected when the carrier or driver confirms the cargo is loaded, not when the truck was due.
- One owner per shipment. The person who books it updates it, or hands it over by name.
- Note the source. "Collected, confirmed by driver at depot gate" is far more useful than a bare stage change when a shipper calls.
- Agree when updates happen. For example, every stage change on the same day it happens, and every open shipment reviewed before close of business.
Where your pallets and cartons carry standard labels, use the label's reference in your notes so the record and the cargo can be tied together. GS1's page on the Serial Shipping Container Code explains how that code identifies a logistic unit such as a case, pallet or parcel so it can be tracked through shipping, receiving and delivery.
Customs entry numbers on the shipment
Cross-border loads spend their most expensive hours at customs. When a shipment reaches At customs, the customs entry number is the reference everyone will ask for: the shipper, the consignee, the clearing agent, and your own accounts team when the duties are recharged.
Make the entry number part of moving a shipment into or out of the customs stage. Practical habits:
- Ask the clearing agent to send the entry number in writing as soon as it is lodged.
- Record it on the shipment the same day, with the agent's name.
- If the entry is amended or a second entry is lodged, record that too rather than overwriting the first.
- Keep the release notice with the shipment before moving it on to In transit for the next leg.
A typed reference is only useful if it is typed correctly. Have whoever enters it copy it from the agent's message rather than from memory, and check it against the release document when it arrives.
Delivered needs a date and a signatory
The last stage is the one with a firm rule. A shipment can be marked Delivered only with a delivery date and the name of whoever signed the proof of delivery. A phone call saying "the truck has offloaded" is not enough to close it.
This protects you twice. Operationally, a shipment cannot drop off everyone's list while the paperwork is still on the road. Financially, the delivered stage is backed by the same evidence the shipper's payables team will ask for before paying the freight invoice. How the stages work end to end is covered in shipments leg by leg to signed proof of delivery.
Counts built from records
The Industry CRM's home page shows counts such as open records, records in each stage, overdue tasks, tasks due today and key dates coming up, along with pipeline value and revenue figures. Every one of them is built from records, tasks or the ledger; none is typed in by hand.
That has a useful consequence when statuses are entered by people. If a dispatcher forgets to update a shipment, it does not quietly vanish from the figures. It stays in its last stage and keeps that stage's count up, and a count that is higher than the team expects becomes the prompt to phone someone. The count cannot be tidied up by editing a dashboard; only updating the shipments changes it.
A morning check, in words
Each morning the operations lead looks at how many shipments sit in At customs. One has been there since last week with no entry number recorded. A call to the clearing agent reveals the entry was lodged but a document is missing. The lead records the entry number, adds a note about the missing invoice, and asks the shipper for it the same morning, before demurrage starts to build.
Making manual updates work
Write down who updates what and when, make the customs entry number a habit at the At customs stage, and review stuck shipments from the home-page counts every morning. When pricing needs the same discipline with carriers' rates, spot quotes with a margin approval rule applies it to quoting.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
