Creating a New Brokerage Worksheet

Once your Sales and Purchase Orders have been created, you can begin staging loads as you receive notifications from your Customer requesting delivery. For each load or shipment of material, you will create one Worksheet. The Worksheet is used to record and track information about each shipment, including details about your Customer and Supplier, along with product and price specifications, received weights, logistics status, and any freight expenses associated with the trade. 

Worksheets can be created in two ways:

• as an individual shipment when a request is received from a Customer and/or Supplier; or
• as a batch of release numbers when you receive multiple delivery requests from your Customer, using the Create Releases feature.

We will first discuss the Worksheet in detail and how it may be created for a single load. Then we will discuss the benefits of using the Create Releases feature to enter multiple shipments at one time.

To stage a single load using the Worksheet:

1. Use the Quick Create button on the Brokerage tab to create a new Worksheet.

   

2. The Dept and Type fields are optional and can be used to track which department and sub-department (trade type) are responsible for this load. These fields allow you to compile sales and profit reports for distinct divisions of your company. The Dept field is required and, if you only have one department, will auto-populate for you.
3. The Order Date is an optional field that can be used to represent the date that the load was requested by your Customer. The Ship-Date is the expected shipping date of the load from your supplier. 
4. Use the Logistics drop-down menu to set the Shipping Status of this load. In the beginning, this load will likely be in Setup status. Once you have arranged transportation, you can update this status to Dispatched and finally, when you receive confirmation that the load has moved you can update the status to Shipped. The Arrived and Received shipping status' may also be useful, depending on the size of your operation.
5. The Posting Date will populate with the date when you generate an invoice for your Customer. 
6. The Posting Status field is used to indicate whether the Worksheet is in Work, Completed, Approved, Invoiced, Not Approved, or Cancelled status. This field can be used to indicate the status of the load at various stages of your workflow. Since you are first setting up the load, set this status to Work for now.
7. Enter the Customer's information in the Sold To section of the Worksheet. Use the Lookup button to select the appropriate Sales Order for this load. 

   The Payment Terms and Sales Rep will automatically populate from the Counterparty if they have been set and the Due-Date will calculate based on the Ship-Date and the Payment Terms selected. 

8. Enter the Supplier's information in the Purchased From section of the Worksheet. Use the Lookup button to select the appropriate Purchase Order for this Supplier. The Buy Rep will automatically populate from the Counterparty if a default has been set. 
9. Use the Shipping References section of the Worksheet to enter additional information as it is received, such as your Customer's Release No., a Mill-Receiving No. (an additional reference number), or a Pickup No. from your Supplier, as well as an Equipment No. and Seal No. once the load has shipped. 

   

10. To edit the product(s) that has been pulled in from the order, simply click the product line in the Products/Grades list. 

    

11. To add an additional product, click the Add Item button on the right side of the page. The New Item window will appear.

12. You may add a Description, which is used to mask the actual Product name for printed documentation. For example, your Customer may refer to the product as Old Corrugated Cardboard rather than the internal abbreviation OCC.
13. For now you may choose to leave the Packaging count and Quantity fields blank. You will return to this Worksheet later to fill in more information when it becomes available.
14. Click Save to close the item window and save your changes.

Expenses

The Expense section is used for adding additional expenses, such as the cost of freight. Once the expense is saved, the cost will factor into the profitability calculation on the Profit Snapshot found on the Shipping Worksheet.

To add expenses to this shipment, click the  Add Expense button provided in the Expenses section. 

Use the drop-down provided to select the  Vendor that will be invoicing for the expense. If the selected Vendor is a Freight Carrier, the checkbox will be populated.

Enter the anticipated Price and Price Unit of Measure (e.g., FLAT, per LBS) for this expense. If a per weight unit of measure is selected, the Price entered will be calculated off of the total quantity of your Inventory Items.

Once a Vendor is selected, the Vendor's default Expense Account will populate. If necessary, select the appropriate expense account based on the expense being entered.

The Description field can be used to record a short explanation for the expense, such as 'Freight' or 'Handling Charge', which may appear on some documentation.

Expenses can be added in multiple currencies.

Note: You can change the Remit to Address on the Worksheet level. If you would like to change the Remit to Address from the default Address, scroll down and select the relevant address from the drop down. 

In some instances you may prefer to quickly enter a range of loads into the system, possibly after receiving a block of Release Numbers from a mill. The Create Releases feature allows you to enter common attributes that will populate each Worksheet created.

To learn more about the Create Releases feature, please click here.

If you have additional questions, please contact the Support Team via email to  support@cietrade.net.