To easily keep track of your past eBL activities and extract results for monthly/quarterly reports that can be used for comparing your invoices, TradeLens now includes an eBL audit trail.

Purpose & Background 

The TradeLens eBL functionality allows the current titleholder to act upon the available eBLs visible in their “Active eBL” screen. Once the current owner of the eBL transfers it to another party, it is no longer visible in the “Active eBL” screen by design. A receipt of transactions may be needed for comparing invoices and this is now available within the eBL audit trail.

The eBL audit trail provides a list of past activities for eBLs and captures any eBL transfer initiated by you, or to you from another party. Using a filtered search result, you can define those transactions you will be charged for and export the results in a structured format as a CSV file. 

What information is included in the eBL audit trail?

The TradeLens eBL audit trail lists all past transactions for all your eBLs on TradeLens. Using the default setting, the “All eBL” tab option will be sorted by Transaction Date. The eBL number and carrier booking number are also provided for your reference. Additional references, such as the purchase order number, may also be available if originally included.

In the audit log, the type of eBL Transaction is also described. For example, what type of action was executed and from who to whom. These action types could be:

• Issued by orgX to orgY
• Surrendered by orgX to orgY
• Switched to Paper by orgX to orgY
• Transferred by orgX to orgY

(View “All eBL” is the default setting and shows all eBLs sorted by transaction date)

How to export the audit log to a CSV file.

To extract the list of past transactions as a CSV file, use the search filters to further refine your search.  The CSV export has a limit of 1000 transactions. The filter options make it easy to select eBLs transacted in a specific time period (Transaction Date) or by a specific Counter-Party. 

If you are looking for a particular eBL, you can also filter by eBL Number and/or Carrier Booking Number. You can also filter by the specific Action taken on the eBL(s), like Issued, Transferred, or Surrendered. 

The list of Additional Reference Numbers also filters the results you may want to review.  

Once you have filtered the audit trail, click on 'Export results to CSV' to start the download of your audit trail. 

(View of “All eBL” filtered search results by Transaction Date & Action.  There is also a button to export your results to a CSV)

How to compare your TradeLens invoice with the eBL audit trail?

To compare your TradeLens invoice with the eBL transactions managed on the TradeLens platform, simply specify the transaction timeframe that your invoice period is based on.

Using the filters explained above, you can limit the number of transactions listed per eBL by filtering on the main “Action” you perform in the transaction, e.g. 'Issued' if you are the shipper at the origin. Or 'Surrender', in surrendering the eBL back to the carrier at the destination.

Then compare their CSV extract with the invoice from TradeLens to confirm the number of eBLs you were charged for.