General Information
General Information
The first data section of the booking note. It records who is involved in the shipment and on what commercial terms.
Fields
| Field | Required | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipper | Yes | Participant search | The party sending the cargo |
| Shipper Reference | No | Selection | A reference belonging to the selected Shipper |
| Consignee | Yes | Participant search | The receiving party |
| Consignee Reference | No | Selection | A reference belonging to the selected Consignee |
| Notify Party | Yes | Participant search | Party to be notified about the shipment |
| Freight Forwarding Agent | Yes | Participant search | The agent who will review and handle the booking |
| Payment Terms | Yes | Dropdown | For example Collect |
| Incoterms | Yes | Dropdown | For example FOB |
| Order Type | Yes | Dropdown | For example FCL/FCL |
| Priority Shipment | No | Dropdown | Defaults to No |
| Place of Delivery | No | Text | Where the carrier's responsibility ends |
| Final Destination | No | Text | The ultimate destination of the cargo |
| Marks | No | Text | Marks and numbers identifying the cargo |
The four participants
Shipper, Consignee, Notify Party and Freight Forwarding Agent are the participants on the booking note. Each is an organization, selected from those available rather than typed in as free-text.
Two of them also determine how the booking note behaves. The Shipper and the Freight Forwarding Agent are the two sides of the working relationship: one is always the current organization and is filled in automatically, and the other is selected.
🧭 Role difference
As a Shipper: the Shipper field shows the current organization, grayed out and not editable. The Freight Forwarding Agent is selected — the organization the booking note is being submitted to. It is mandatory, and it determines who receives the booking note for review.
As a Freight Forwarder: the Freight Forwarding Agent field shows the current organization, grayed out. The Shipper is selected, from the shipper organizations available.
There is one exception. If a Shipper created and submitted the booking note through the portal, the Shipper field is locked for the Freight Forwarder too. This preserves who originated the booking note. The field is only editable on booking notes the Freight Forwarder created themselves.
Choosing the Freight Forwarding Agent is the step that decides where a submitted booking note goes. Where an organization works with more than one agent, this field should be checked before submitting.
Searching for a participant
Shipper, Consignee, Notify Party and Freight Forwarding Agent are search fields backed by the organizations available. Results appear from the first character typed, so a full name is rarely necessary.
If an expected organization does not appear in the results, it is not yet available to the account. Contact an administrator rather than entering the name as free text elsewhere on the form.
Participant references
Shipper Reference and Consignee Reference hold references belonging to the participant selected above them. Each becomes available once its participant is chosen, and shows No references available until then.
Both are optional. They are the fields most often used to match a booking note against records held elsewhere, so fill them in where a reference exists.
Commercial terms
Payment Terms, Incoterms and Order Type are all mandatory dropdowns and all carry a default. Defaults are a convenience, not a recommendation. Confirm all three against the actual agreement before submitting, particularly on a booking note created by extraction where the defaults may simply be what the form opened with.
Priority Shipment
Defaults to No. Set it to Yes only where the shipment genuinely needs prioritized handling, and follow whatever process has been agreed with the Freight Forwarding Agent. Marking a booking note as priority in the portal does not on its own change how it is handled.
Marks
A free text field for marks and numbers identifying the cargo. It also appears as a column in the Requests list, so it is searchable. See What Each Column Means.