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September 23, 2022
Dealing with shipping documents in logistics is imminent. Yet, there aren’t measures taken to speed up the process. This article talks about how you can speed it up.
Shipping documents are essential to the logistics industry. They make sure that the consignment prepared or shipped are reaching the destination in due time. However, times have changed. Companies that are capable of providing a product faster are considered better in today’s competitive market. One portion of making this process faster is by making the preparation of shipping documents faster.
This is for the same reason we have created this article. In this article, we’ll explain to you the different types of documents used for shipping and how you can use VisionERA to prepare them faster.
These are some of the most common documents that are used around the world as shipping documents. Have a look:
A proforma invoice is a document that is created before the sale happens. It is the reason the document doesn’t exhibit any taxes. They are primarily created for the customer to smoothen the transaction between the two parties. Oftentimes, it is more or less equal to the final amount in the invoice.
Below are some of the entries that are used in a proforma invoice:
Commercial invoice is a document that is issued to the buyer after the sale has happened. It has no standard template since it is used generally for international trade. It often acts as a record for buyers that they use to fetch their consignment from the customs.
Below are the entries commonly seen in a commercial invoice:
Bill of Lading is a business term used to describe shipping invoice. It is meant for the carrier to provide them with all necessary information such as destination of the good, scheduled pick-up, etc. This piece of document is issued by the carrier to the customer.
These are primarily of three types depending upon the mode of transportation i.e:
Each of these documents mentioned above bears its own significance. It is because of the following entries or pieces of information mentioned below:
A customs declaration form is a list of goods that are either imported or exported from one location to another. During the customs process, it is required for the shipper and the customer to declare the goods they are importing or exporting. It is a crucial document and is utilized during every shipping process.
Below are the entries mentioned in a customs declaration form:
Certificates are significant to the process of shipping. It describes the types of cargo that is being shipped. These certificates are primarily of three types:
Packing list is a document commonly used during international shipping. It is created for exporters, freight forwarders, and the customer describing to them important information about the cargo such as dimension of the package, weight, numbers, logos, etc.
A packing list contains these following entries such as:
It is the set of instructions that are specified to the shipper to move and take the cargo across borders. Oftentimes, this document carries important information about the billing of the cargo and other charges.
Here are some of the entries that are used in an SLI (Shipper’s Letter of Instruction):
It is another document used during international trade. It specifies whether a consignment is obtained, shipped, manufactured, or processed in a particular geolocation.
It is a document that is certified by the banks to assure the payment between the buyer and seller. In this case, the bank acts as a beneficiary, and guarantees payment to the seller if the buyer fails to do so.
The different types of letter of credit are:
VisionERA IDP (Intelligent Document Processing) is an intermediary between the raw information stuck in your organization and the ERP system. Ideally in bigger organizations, ERP systems already have predefined templates that are used for preparing these documents.
The challenge in this task is the aggregation of information from raw data that is used within these forms. Also, the remaining information is auto-generated by the ERP system.
However, VisionERA exports the unstructured data within your organization, processes & validates them using triangulation logic (defined by you) and provides spreadsheets of data automatically.
It is also capable of storing the data directly into your ERP’s database. Below are steps taken by VisionERA to provide processed information. These are:
Step 1: Create a Custom Workflow
In this step, the user is required to enter the name of the workflow, country, documents for data extraction & verification, and primary document for matching (as a source of truth).
Step 2: Create Custom Documentation
Select the type of document, and the key attributes of data that needs to be processed and extracted.
Step 3: Upload Documents
Simply upload the documents to VisionERA, and it will automatically start working without any manual intervention.
Once these operations are finished, the system would automatically forward the information to the ERP system, which can be utilized for preparing the shipping documents.
One way of making the supply chain more optimized is by taking our redundant procedures and replacing them with automation capabilities. VisionERA exactly does that for organizations. It makes the work of processing documents easier, faster, efficient, and more standardized. This results in enhanced productivity, cost optimization, reduced TAT, and higher throughput for the organization.
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