You can upload one or more documents to consignments and shipments via the TradeLens Shipment Manager.
In this article
Bulk upload
If you have permission to upload certain documents to consignment or a shipment, you can upload more than one document at a time through Shipment Manager.
If the shipment doesn’t exist and the user is uploading a shipment document, the following rules apply:
- The organization uploading the shipment document must be eligible for creating a shipment. Shipments can be created by the following organizations by type:
- Cargo Interest
- 3PL Agent
- Certificate Issuer
- You’ll need to provide at least one 'Shipment References'. The combination of 'Shipment Reference Type' and 'Reference Value' must be unique within the scope of a given reference owner.
- You’ll also need to provide the role of your organization in a particular shipment as "My Party Role" in Additional Shipment Details. Supported Roles:
- Seller
- Buyer
- Exporter
- Importer
- Origin 3PL Agent
- Destination 3PL Agent
- Certificate Issuer
If the shipment already exists for the given consignment, you can add more shipment references and parties to it.
The organization uploading a document must have permission for the Document Type based on their role in the consignment or shipment. Your role in the consignment or shipment is determined by the TradeLens Data Sharing Specification (DSS). To explore the DSS click here.
Example upload
In this example, we’ll upload shipment documents. The shipment doesn’t exist yet, so we’ll create it using the 'Shipment Reference Type' and 'Reference Value' that we provide on the upload.
If you want to upload a shipment document to an already existing shipment, navigate to the documents section of the shipment and complete the upload from there.
Upload to a consignment
From the Consignments page, click the Documents button on the consignment you’d like to upload a document to. Then click the 'Add' dropdown and then 'File Upload'.
We’ll now upload a Packing List and a Commercial Invoice for a shipment; the shipment will be created automatically since it doesn’t exist yet.
Select the consignment or shipment document type from the drop-down boxes. Add an optional document reference.
As both the Packing List and the Commercial Invoice in our example are shipment documents, scroll down and you’ll see Additional Shipment Details to fill in. In this example we’ve:
- Selected Seller as the My Party Role
- Added a unique reference under Shipment References – Purchase Order Number "Order_123"
- Provided a Goods Description (optional)
- Added Planned Delivery and Completion Dates (optional)
- Added an additional Shipment Party – the Buyer
Click the orange 'Add Document' button to start the document upload, and in this case shipment creation. Click OK on the pop-up box.
Check the results
Depending on the size of the documents, the process may take from 30 seconds to few minutes. Refresh the page.
If after refreshing the shipment or the documents do not appear, check the status of your transaction.
Go to the Notifications Inbox, then select the System tab. You’ll see the new notification listed. Confirm the Status column for this new notification has 'Succeded'. If for some reason it 'Failed' click on 'More Details' under the 'Action' column to understand the reason.
If you have email notifications or a webhook set up for system notifications, you’ll receive the additional details on the file/s you’ve uploaded.
For Successful uploads, click 'More Details' on the same line as the document you’ve uploaded to see additional document information and transaction details.
Read more about notifications here: Notifications
To confirm the Shipment has been created and the documents for the Shipment have been uploaded, click the 'Shipments' section in the left-hand menu bar, and the new shipment will appear as the first item in the list. Click on the 'Documents' tab and the shipment documents will be visible.
You can upload (or add) additional files to shipments and consignments from their respective documents sections.
