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Getting Your Products into Shipping Solutions Export Software

On: October 18, 2016    |    By: Lisa Nemer Lisa Nemer    |    5 min. read

Getting Your Products into Shipping Solutions Export SoftwareThis week I continue my exploration of the various data-entry screens in the Shipping Solutions export documentation and compliance software. By entering data into these screens, exporters can quickly and accurately complete more than two dozen standard export forms.

Today let’s take a look at the Products screens.

Rather than requiring users to reenter the line items in a particular shipment directly on each of the export documents, Shipping Solutions allows you to enter the information once on the Product Detail screen on the EZ Start tab. These products then automatically appear in the correct format on the appropriate forms. By eliminating redundant data entry, Shipping Solutions allows you to more quickly create your export documents while also ensuring the information is consistent from one form to the next.

To allow you to save even more time, you can store your product information on the Products screen on the Databases tab. By entering or importing your product information into the product database, you can simply choose your products from a drop-down list for each shipment. This time-saving feature allows Shipping Solutions customers to create their export forms up to five-times faster than using standard Word or Excel templates.

Since most new Shipping Solutions software users start by populating the databases, let's start by taking a closer look at the Products screen on the Databases tab.

Databases Tab—Products Screen

There are several ways to populate the Products database.

You can click the Add New button and manually type in your product. This is a simple way to get started using Shipping Solutions and doesn't involve any IT support. For example, when you start a new shipment, simply add the products you will be using to the Databases-Products screen. That way they will be there for this shipment and any subsequent shipments that include these products.

You can also enter your products by importing them from a text file. If you have your products in an Excel spreadsheet, for example, you can save it as a tab-delimited text file and then upload it into Shipping Solutions by going to the Tools tab, Import Contact and Product Databases screen. (Watch the video to see how easy it is to import your products.)

When entering your data in the Products screen, enter as much information as you have. Not all the fields appear on all the documents, and no particular data fields are required. A grid at the bottom of the screen lets you search through the products entered.

EZ Start Tab—Product Detail Screen

Once you are ready to start working on a shipment, go to the EZ Start tab, start at the top of the screen and work your way down. So, the first thing you will do is enter the parties to your shipment on the Contacts screen, which was the topic of my previous blog post. The second thing you will do is enter the line items for the shipment on the Product Detail screen.

Click Add From Database to select the products that are in this shipment from what you previously loaded into the Products database. You can also click Add Product to manually type in a new product information. Once you have entered the new information, click Add To Database to add the new product to your database so that it is there the next time you need it. You can also update a product by clicking Add To Database. If it already finds that Product ID in your database, it will ask if you want to update it.

Another way to pull in the products for a specific shipment is by using the Shipping Solutions Data Exchange Manager (DXM). The DXM pulls in shipment records from your ERP system so that all the contact and product information for a particular shipment is automatically loaded. To learn more about the DXM, watch our four-part video series.

Product Fields

There are a lot of fields on the EZ Start-Product Detail screen! To simplify it a bit, the screen is divided into three tabs. The first tab is called Invoices/AES and has four sections. The top section includes basic information about the line item, such as the Product ID and Product Description. It also has one field that is not stored in the products database: Sales Quantity. Because that will change with every shipment, you need to enter it after pulling the item in from the products database. When you tab out of the Sales Quantity box, the Extended Price will be calculated. However, if you are using the DXM, you can send the Sales Quantity and Extended Price over with the rest of the shipment information.

The second section is labeled AES/EEI. Most of the information in this section is used for filing through AESDirect or providing a Shipper’s Letter of Instruction to your freight forwarder so they can file on your behalf. The first time you enter a Sales Quantity in the top section, it will be carried down to the AES Quantity 1 box for AES reporting. However, you should change it if your AES Unit of Measure is different than your Sales Unit of Measure. And, if you change the Sales Quantity, you will also need to adjust the AES quantities. Confused? See my blog post on the various ways quantities and units of measure need to be reported.

The third section is labeled Free Trade Agreements. This data is specific to the USMCA Certificate of Origin and other Free Trade Agreement Certificates of Origin. The fourth section includes data that appears on the Bills of Lading.

The top section of the second tab, which is labeled AES Vehicle and DDTC Info, is only needed if you ship items that are controlled by the U.S. State Department. The bottom section on the second tab only pertains to shipments of used vehicles.

The third tab is labeled Dangerous Goods and it is where you can store information related to the IATA and IMO Dangerous Goods Documents. Check out this article on how to create the Dangerous Goods documents.

For a detailed description of each field on the Product Details screen, see the Shipping Solutions User Guide.

Other Buttons and Boxes

At the top of the Product Detail screen there are six Display Product On boxes. These boxes determine if the item will appear on certain documents. All the boxes default to checked, so all your items will appear on all the forms. However, if you'd like to exclude an item from the USMCA Certificate of Origin, for example, you can uncheck the box next to FTA Certificates.

There are two helpful buttons at the top of the Product Detail screen: Search Line Items and Reorder Line Items. Check out my previous blog post to learn more about the functionality of these buttons.

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Lisa Nemer

About the Author: Lisa Nemer

Lisa Nemer leads the customer service and finance teams at Shipping Solutions, a software company that develops and sells export document and compliance software targeted specifically at small and mid-sized U.S. companies that export. If you have ever called Shipping Solutions with a question or problem you've probably talked to Lisa! Prior to joining Shipping Solutions, Lisa spent 14 years in finance and technology-related jobs for a Fortune 500 company in Minneapolis.

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