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Features

Freight forwarding software features

This page lists every module in Asian FFS as it runs today at forwarders in Australia, the UAE and New Zealand. India is coming soon. Operations, documents, receivables, payables, bank and tax reporting all work off one database.

Operations

Consolidation management

The consolidation is the top-level record. It holds the vessel, the ports, the agents, the master bill, and every house shipment and container under it. Both agent (AGT) and direct (DRT) consolidations are supported.

  • Each consolidation records the transport, container mode, first load and last discharge, and the load and discharge ports.
  • You pick the vessel and voyage from your vessel register, with its IMO number.
  • It holds the ETD, ETA, ATD and ATA, the cut-off date and time, and the BOL or master bill number.
  • It records the sending agent, receiving agent, carrier, carrier booking reference and agent reference.
  • CTO, CFS and container yard addresses are kept for departure.
  • Tabs show the containers, all shipments (colour-coded paid, unpaid, missing values and uninvoiced), documents, invoices and the audit log.
  • Its status is PENDING, ARRIVED or ARCHIVED, and it moves to ARRIVED automatically once the ATA has passed.
  • Fully paid consolidations are archived every quarter and stay searchable with "Include archived".
  • The Forwarding Instruction, Arrival Notice, Arrival Cartage Advice and Consol Pack are generated from the consolidation.
  • A recent consolidations list takes you straight back to what you were working on.

Operations

FCL container tracking with VGM

Containers are attached to the consolidation and allocated to house shipments. Container numbers are checked against the ISO 6346 check digit as you type them, which catches a transposed digit before it gets onto a manifest.

  • Each container has a number, seal number, type and mode.
  • It records tare, net and gross weight, the VGM method (Method 2: packages), and who verified the VGM and when.
  • PRA status and payment status are tracked per container.
  • "TBA" is accepted for containers that are not yet assigned.
  • A container register covers all consolidations, with client, consignee, origin, destination, HBL, packs, weight, volume, ETD and ETA, and customs entry number.
  • Asian FFS checks for a duplicate container when a shipment is saved.
  • Container details print on the bill of lading, manifest, cartage advices and forwarding instruction.

Operations

Shipments and house bills of lading

A house shipment carries the four parties, the routing, the cargo and the customs details, and is linked to its consolidation and containers. When you create a shipment, Asian FFS creates its tax invoice at the same time, and the consolidation's shipment tab colours any that are still uninvoiced.

  • Each shipment has a local client, consignor, consignee and notify party, each with a chosen address and business number.
  • It records the house bill number, origin and destination, Incoterm, ETD and ETA, and port transport.
  • Cargo details cover gross and net weight, volume, packs, inners, chargeable weight, packline and goods description.
  • Customs fields hold the entry details, customs entry number, release type, CAN, and issue and expiry dates.
  • Flags mark a SOC (shipper-owned container) and the door direction.
  • A vehicle identification number (VIN) that is already on another shipment is flagged before saving.
  • Tabs show receivable invoices, payable invoices (shipping line and transport), documents, the commercial invoice, revenue and the audit log.
  • The revenue tab shows receivable against payable per branch, with the exchange rate and the profit or loss.
  • The Bill of Lading, Departure Cartage Advice, Shipment Manifest, Packing List and Certificate of Origin come from the shipment.
  • The shipment list shows per-branch payment status, with filters and Excel export.

Documents

Shipping documents

Documents are generated from the record they belong to, with your company logo and signatory. They open in the built-in viewer, where you can print, download, email or WhatsApp them. Each send is written to the document log.

  • The Bill of Lading (express or copy) carries the shipper, consignee, notify party, ports, marks and numbers, containers and seals, and the full printed terms and conditions.
  • The Forwarding Instruction carries the bill of lading instructions, freight terms, originals and copies, container temperature and vent settings, and the VGM declaration.
  • The Sea Freight Manifest (consol pack) lists the ocean bill, agents, routing and every house shipment.
  • There is a Shipment Manifest and a Master Shipment Manifest.
  • The Arrival Notice shows where the goods are available, the release type, the clearing party and the estimated delivery.
  • The FCL Arrival Cartage Advice and FCL Departure Cartage Advice are addressed to the transport manager and cover both journeys.
  • The Commercial Invoice shows FOB totals, included and excluded charges and the exporter's declaration.
  • A Packing List and a Certificate of Origin are included.
  • Asian FFS writes the Sharjah Customs manifest file for UAE lodgement. ABF Integrated Cargo System clearance and 1-Stop PRA lodgement for Australia are under development.
  • Documents are stored on shipments, consolidations and parties by document type, with their own view, upload and delete privileges.

Accounts receivable

Tax invoices, receipts and statements

Invoice lines come from your item master, priced from the customer's own tariff where one exists. Posting locks the invoice. Amendments and cancellations are logged with who did them and the reason.

  • Line items carry a description, price, quantity, tax and totals excluding and including GST or VAT.
  • Each invoice has a clearance party, special notes, and the bank account whose EFT details it prints.
  • You can post an invoice, amend it (logged as amended by), cancel it with a reason, or delete it while it is unpaid.
  • Invoice statuses are PAID, PENDING, OVERDUE, CANCELLED, UNPAID and RECONCILED, and they are recalculated nightly.
  • Cancelled invoices print with a CANCELLED stamp.
  • Receipts are allocated across a party's unpaid invoices and posted, with a Receipt Advice PDF.
  • Match Transaction matches one or more receipts against invoices, with an automatic match and a zero-difference rule.
  • A Statement of Account is produced per party, by date range and branch, for all invoices or only unpaid ones.
  • The invoice list groups by party, type, date, status, consolidation or due date when you drag a column, shows summary totals, and downloads all invoices as a ZIP.
  • Direct Invoice Receivable covers sales that are not tied to a shipment.

Accounts payable

Supplier bills, apportionment and payments

A shipping line or transport invoice is entered once and apportioned across the shipments it covers. Each shipment then carries its share of the cost, and the revenue report works from those shares.

  • Payable invoices come in two types, shipping line and transport.
  • Each bill records the supplier invoice number, invoice, due and post dates, currency (with a warning if it differs from the bank currency), reference and attachment.
  • You apportion a bill across a consolidation, a container or a single shipment, split equally, GST inclusive or exclusive, and each row keeps its own exchange rate.
  • Total, unapportioned and final totals are shown as you go.
  • A payment settles one or more bills of the same supplier and currency, and each payment has a Remittance Advice PDF.
  • The payable list has an unpaid-only filter, grouping and summary totals.
  • Direct Invoice Payable covers overheads that are not tied to a shipment, coded to GL accounts.
  • Every bill and payment has an audit log.

Cash book

Cash book and internal transfers

There are five cash book types for money that moves without a shipment invoice behind it. All five are auto-numbered, locked once posted and audited, and each entry is badged Manual or Automation depending on how it was created.

  • A Direct Invoice Payable is a supplier bill with GL account lines.
  • A Direct Payment pays a party or a named payee with bank details, settles direct bills and prints a Payment PDF.
  • A Direct Receipt records money in from a party or payee, with GST or VAT lines, and can be matched to invoices.
  • A Direct Invoice Receivable is a stand-alone sales invoice with its own tax invoice PDF.
  • An Internal Transfer moves money from a sending bank, amount and currency to a receiving bank, amount and currency. It works across currencies and between branches.
  • Every entry has attachments and lines with account code, description, amount and tax.

Bank

Bank statement import and automatic matching

You upload the bank statement CSV for a branch, bank account and currency. Asian FFS reads the reference text on each line, looks for an invoice, bill, payment, consolidation or container number in it, and creates the receipt or payment if the amount and date agree.

  • The header row is validated, and dates that were already processed are skipped.
  • Asian FFS recognises invoice numbers (including amended variants), payable invoice numbers, payment and direct payment numbers, consolidation numbers and ISO 6346 container numbers in the description.
  • It creates receipts and payments automatically within a configurable date window.
  • On each line you can match, unmatch or process again, or create a direct receipt, receipt, direct payment, invoice payable or internal transfer straight from the statement.
  • You can delete the last import and look back through the upload logs and archived lines.
  • Payments recorded in MYOB are pulled into the same table nightly.

Bank

Bank reconciliation

Each bank account is reconciled to its statement. The screen lists the period's receipts, payments, direct payments and receipts, and internal transfers. You tick what has cleared and the summary shows the difference. You cannot post until it is zero.

  • You choose the branch, bank account and statement date, and enter the closing balance against the previous one.
  • The summary shows the uncleared cash book amount, uncleared statement amount, amended statement balance and reconciliation error.
  • You can search the loaded rows or the whole database.
  • Reconciled invoices take the RECONCILED status.

Reporting

GST, VAT, BAS and financial reporting

The tax reports read the same invoices, bills and cash book entries as everything else, which is why the BAS worksheet and the ledger agree. Every report comes out as a PDF, and most are also available as an Excel file.

  • The GST or VAT report shows tax paid against tax received by year, month or date, with a summary PDF.
  • The Australian GST Calculation Worksheet for BAS covers G1 to G20, 1A and 1B and the net GST payable or refundable, as PDF and Excel.
  • GST Analysis by Transaction Line shows input and output tax by ledger, as PDF and Excel.
  • The revenue report shows profit or loss per shipment, grouped by party, consolidation, origin, destination or date, with Excel export.
  • The trial balance, profit and loss (period, year to date and last year comparatives) and balance sheet come as PDF and Excel.
  • The shipment list exports to Excel with conditional formatting.
  • The financial dashboard shows shipments against invoices over time, shipment profit and loss, receivables against receipts, top customers, the highest overdue and unpaid amounts, and top ports.
  • The operations dashboard shows uninvoiced shipments and unpaid bills, and shipments by month, week or day.

Master data

Parties, tariffs and master data

One address book holds every organisation you deal with. A party can be a local client, consignor, consignee, agent, notify party, carrier, CFS, transport company or broker, and receivable or payable, in any combination.

  • Each party has an auto-generated code, company name, business number (ABN), payment terms, UNLOC and website.
  • A party can have several addresses with a default and a history, and phone numbers can be flagged as reachable on WhatsApp.
  • Emails are categorised as general, accounts or invoice, with a default used when sending documents.
  • A tariff holds the party's own prices per item, including consignee-specific prices.
  • Each party also has consignor and consignee relationships, a statement tab, document storage and a change log.
  • Items (charge codes) carry receivable and payable flags and a tax rate per branch.
  • Master data also covers account codes (general ledger), bank accounts, currencies with exchange rates, and payment terms.
  • Ports carry a UNLOC, country and province, and every vessel has a unique IMO.
  • Lookup lists cover commodity types, consolidation types, container modes and types, drop modes, entry details, Incoterms, release types, transports and units.
  • A party in use on a shipment or consolidation cannot be deleted.

Multi-branch

Branches, currencies and tax regimes

Several branches run in one installation, each with its own ports, bank accounts, currencies, tax labels and item prices. More than one branch can invoice the same shipment, and each branch keeps its own payment status on it.

  • Branch ports decide which shipments each branch sends and receives.
  • GST applies for Australia and New Zealand and VAT for the UAE, switched per user and branch.
  • Exchange rates refresh nightly, and every apportioned line and revenue row keeps its own rate.
  • Users can be assigned to several branches with one default.
  • Each branch has its own MYOB company file and WhatsApp number.
  • Each branch has its own SMTP settings for outgoing documents.

Users and security

Users, privileges, two-factor and audit

Access is set per branch and per module, down to create, read, delete and special actions. An operations clerk can be kept out of the bank reconciliation, and an accounts user out of the bill of lading.

  • The privilege levels are full access, account, admin and normal user, plus a per-module matrix (create, read, delete, special and posted delete).
  • Extra flags control amendment, downloading all invoices, deleting posted receipts and editing privileges.
  • Two-factor authentication comes with trusted devices and a device list showing IP, browser and location.
  • A field-level audit log records the old value, new value, who and when on shipments, consolidations, invoices, receipts, bills, the cash book and user changes.
  • Users reset their own password by email, and SMTP passwords are stored encrypted.
  • Files are stored per company and served only to users with the document privilege.

Communication

Email and WhatsApp from any record

You can send the document you have open without leaving it. The party's accounts and invoice email addresses are filled in already, you can drop extra attachments onto the dialog, and the send is logged.

  • To, CC, BCC and subject come pre-filled with the party's emails, and each document type has its own email template.
  • You can drag and drop attachments up to 20 MB alongside the generated PDF.
  • Sending is available from shipments, consolidations, containers, invoices, receipts, bills, payments, match transactions and direct receivables.
  • For WhatsApp Business you pick one of the party's WhatsApp-flagged numbers or type another.
  • Delivered and read receipts are recorded in the document log.
  • Gmail and Office 365 setup instructions come with a test button.
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