Introduction
Booking Notes
The Booking Notes module is where booking notes are created, reviewed and approved in Open Nexus. One participant raises the booking note and another reviews it, and both work from the same live record instead of sending documents back and forth by email.
In freight shipping, a booking note is the document that sets up a shipment before it moves. It records who is involved, what is being shipped, where it is going and when it needs to travel. It is what turns an intention to ship into a confirmed booking with space reserved on a vessel.
A booking note can be created in three different ways: by filling in a blank form, by uploading an existing document, or by forwarding an email to a dedicated address. In the last two cases the system reads the source and fills in what it can, so the work becomes checking and completing rather than typing from scratch.
Where to start
New users should read these three pages in order:
- Key Concepts — the terms used throughout this documentation.
- Roles and Permissions — what each role can and cannot do.
- Navigating the Module — how the module is laid out.
What this documentation covers
| Topic | Pages |
|---|---|
| Getting started | Key Concepts, Roles and Permissions, Navigating the Module |
| Viewing booking notes | Overview Page, Requests List, Column Reference |
| Creating booking notes | Creating a Booking Note, Creating from a Blank Form, Uploading a Document, Creating by Email, Automatic Data Extraction |
| Booking Note Form | Form overview, General Information, Sailing Information, Containers and Cargo, Dangerous Goods, Field Reference |
| Review and approval | Statuses, Submitting a Booking Note, Reviewing and Approving, Errors and Warnings, Notifications |
| Help | Troubleshooting |
Common tasks
| Task | Page |
|---|---|
| Create a booking note from scratch | Creating from a Blank Form |
| Create one from an existing document | Uploading a Document |
| Let someone outside the portal submit a booking | Creating by Email |
| Look up what a field means | Field Reference |
| Look up what a status means | Statuses |
| Review, approve or reject | Reviewing and Approving |
| Find a booking note, or export data | Requests List |
| Work out why something failed | Troubleshooting |
Terms used across the wider platform are defined in the Global Glossary.
How to read this documentation
Most of the module works the same way for every role. Where behavior differs, the page says so at that point rather than at the top, so the pages can be read straight through.
Two symbols appear throughout:
🧭 Role difference — behavior that is not the same for every role.
⏳ Coming soon — planned, but not yet available.