FINS – Shipping and Freight Forwarding
CARGOMANAGEMENT (FREIGHT FORWARDING): The Cargo Management or the Freight forwarding module of FINS is a comprehensive module, integrated along with Finance and WHIMS. It takes care of different activities within the various departments of freight forwarding, such as Sales, Operations (Sea, Air and Land), Transportation, Documentation, Logistics and Finance. The flexibility in chart of accounts can make the system more informative.
Some of the salient features of this module include
- Sales module- Starts with the Enquiry / Quotation up to the finalization of the business
- Operations module- A comprehensive package that performs the booking, cargo delivery till final closing of the job. Each job of Sea / Air & Land operations, Clearance and delivery etc, is integrated to the finance module.
- Transport module- linked to the fixed asset module, takes care of the pickup and delivery of cargo.
- Documentation module- linked to the finance module, takes care of the documentation processing and its deposits etc.
- Data interchange between branches (Export from one branch can be easily converted to import for another branch without data entry)
- Multiple Schedules per origin and destination
- Container booking, allocation and tracking facility
- Flexible rates management module
- Warehouse operations can be recorded and tracked in the system.
- Transport management facility
- Documentation management facility
- Multiple routing facilities in job as well as in the quotations
- Transshipment cargo and Nominated cargo tracking
- Cargo Shutout tracking
- Automatic System Generated Email and Faxing
- EDI can be generated
- Profit analysis based on Volume, Weight, Sales person (cost method, sales method), agents, customer, shipper etc is possible.
- Various MIS reports can be generated from the system like the booking details, rates, nominated cargo details, transshipment cargo details, cost sheet etc.
Modules
Below listed are some of the vital modules available with the Fins cargo management system.
Quotations
Pre entered enquiries can be converted to quotations or quotations can be prepared using the quotation module. Quotation module is capable of querying the rates master to pick up appropriate rates for selected destinations and mode of operation. There are 3 different templates for quotation printing which all can be generated in html or pdf.
Import and Export Booking (Full container, Consolidation)
The Booking module is capable of handling sea, air related import and export full container or LCL bookings. Booking note and confirmation can be emailed or faxed to the customer directly from the booking module.
Rates
Rates module is capable of handling sea, air related import as well as export full container or LCL rates based on origin, destination, agent, route, weight etc. Rate information can be emailed from the module or this is available through the Fins portal as well.
Scheduler
This module manages the sea or air related schedules. This schedule is made available on the web through Fins portal. Schedule reports can be taken as well as mailed from the system.
Container Planner
Containers can be booked through this module and this module is capable of container allocation to available schedules. Container reference stored in this module helps to identify the number of container booked from a shipping line. Container related reports can be taken from this module.
Load list & Stuffing Wizard
Mostly used in the consolidation work; cargo on floor are planned for different container boxes and later from the warehouse tally the stuffing module uses these information to store the cargo physically into the containers, if both matches then the container can be closed for sailing. Load list as well as stuffing reports can be taken from these modules.
Job Wizard (Job Maintenance)
Job maintenance is the core of cargo management system. This module manages and stores much information once a booking is confirmed and the container is closed for sailing. The finance module and cargo management modules are bilaterally integrated. This module keeps track of many data as well as auditing for security purpose. Different kinds of jobs and reports can be generated and maintained using this module, so this module being called as the heart of Fins-cargo management application. Reports like Bill of Lading, Cargo Manifest, Annexure, Loading Report , Stuffing Report, Pre-Alert, Cargo Arrival Notice (formats: html, PDF, doc, text).
Project Cargo Manager
This module manages the projects cargo. The specialty in this module is that this consolidates all the cargo management operations in single module. This module is capable of creating different type of project cargo movement jobs which can be through sea, air, land or rail. Total projects jobs and its volume and profitability reports can be taken from this. Communication methods like email, fax and SMS are incorporated in this module.
Land Transport
Land transport is another module which only takes care of transportation jobs. The transportation jobs can be linked with any other jobs for the picking up and delivery or cargo to the warehouses as well as stand along transportations. Transportation module even includes the request, bundling or request, creating jobs and maintaining transport related job using the job job wizard. Many useful reports can be taken from this module for analysis purpose.
Cargo Delivery
This module has got its own individuality because of its nature of criticality. This module comes along with import operations but has got separate permission level to do the delivery tally sheet, since cargo delivery has to be taken care effectively for control measures. Delivery tally sheet and analysis reports can be taken from this module.
Salesperson wise Budgeting
Module helps the sales team to forecast their profitability / volume for analysis purpose. This module can be used for 3 levels of budgeting sales person monthly budgeting can again budgeted job type wise and this again can be budgeted port/region wise. Budget Vs actual profitability / volume reports can be taken.
Finance Facilities in Job Wizard
Cargo management module is tightly integrated with finance module, both the below operations can be done from the job wizard. There are certain controls put in the finance module which is also applicable in the job wizard invoice and credit notes modules. Cancellation of invoice and credit note will be audited and intimated to a finance manager or who ever is concerned, a parameter can be configured to manage this facility.
Invoice or Agent Credit note
The sales provision booked in the job can be invoiced to the customer using this module, Agent invoice has the same effect to job module but this can be done only through the finance module. Multiple invoices can be taken from single job, when the invoice option is requested the system will automatically include sales amounts in the invoice which the user can be customized and saved. Invoices can be taken in multiple currencies as well. Invoice reports and agent credit note slip reports as well as register reports can be taken.
Credit note Credit note is a document which is used to give credit to customers this can be used to cancel an invoice by putting the invoice reference number to it. Multiple credit notes can be taken from single job, when the credit note option is requested the system will automatically include cost provision amounts in the credit note which the user can be customized and saved. Credit notes can be taken in multiple currencies as well. Credit note slip report can be printed out from this module.
Auditing
Auditing module keeps track on the insertions, modifications and deletions in the job records. Many of the job auditing are customizable using parameters, many noncustomizable auditing are also available. Audit reports can be taken from the job wizard itself.
Report Facilities
Cost sheet summary reports: This report can be useful in analyzing total number of jobs, volume, sales person wise profitability, cost based job profitability analysis etc. There are many combination available in this report for filtration as well as report selection. Tues analysis: This report provides the total number of tues per month or over a specified period for any kind of job where containers are involved. Job Statistics analysis: The sales and cost statistics of job over a period and job type wise can be taken using this report. Transshipment Reports: Transshipment cargo related reports can be pulled out using this report facility. Budgeting reports: Sales and cost budget based reports can be pulled out using this facility. Project cargo Reports: Reports exclusively for project cargoes, its total volume, profit, agents contribution etc can be analyzed using this report. Other reports: Agent/Shipper/Consignee/Line wise weight/volume/profit analysis, salesperson wise outstanding report/analysis, control reports (job not invoiced, cargo aging, do not issued etc), register reports (quotation, booking, job, invoice etc).