Expected Containers

Goal #

Record what your suppliers have agreed to send, weeks before a booking, an invoice or a container number exists. Then see what is coming, keep each supplier’s proforma with its container, and have Trackberry tie every expected container to its real shipment when the documents arrive.

Before you start #

• Nothing to configure. Expected containers are on for every organization. Open the user menu under your avatar and choose Expected containers.
• Any member except a Viewer can plan, edit, match and cancel. Viewers can read the list.
• An expected container is not a shipment. It is a line on a planning list. It is not tracked, it is not billed, and it does not appear in your shipments list until you match it to a shipment that exists.
• Email features start with your first container. Holding a supplier’s proforma and reading an order from an email both switch on once your organization has planned at least one expected container. Until then those emails behave as they always did.

Plan containers with the form #

1. Open Expected containers and choose Plan containers. The page opens as Plan expected containers.
2. Fill in what you know:
   • Supplier, Produce and Variety.
   • Origin and Destination, for example Callao, Peru and Rotterdam.
   • Pallets, pre-filled with 20, a full container.
   • Value per container and its currency (USD to start with). This is the value of the whole container, not of a box.
3. Under Schedule, choose the First ETD week and say how many: Loads per week for a Number of weeks. The ETD week is the week the container leaves the origin, shown by week number and dates.
4. Open More details (optional) to add an Order number, a Calibre, Boxes and Notes. The order number is the strongest key for matching, so add it whenever you have it.
5. Choose Plan containers.

Result: one line per container, each in its own ETD week, under the Planned tab. The line under the schedule shows the total as you type, for example = 29 containers · ETD 9 Nov 2026 – 24 Jan 2027.

A pace that changes #

Supply is rarely flat across a season. Choose + Add a change in pace to add a step: “3 loads a week for 6 weeks, then 8 a week for 10 weeks, then 2 a week for 4”. Each step starts the week after the one before it ends. A schedule has up to 6 steps, up to 50 loads a week and 52 weeks in a step, and up to 200 containers in all. For more, plan in two goes.

The ETA estimate #

When the origin and destination are on one of the published trade lanes, Trackberry shows ETA ≈ a range of weeks beside the schedule and on each planned row. It uses the typical transit time for that lane, not live data, because there is no vessel yet. When no lane covers your two places, nothing is shown rather than a guess.

Plan from a description #

If you would rather write what you agreed than fill in a form:

1. Choose Describe what you ordered.
2. Write it in your own words, in English or Spanish, up to 4,000 characters. For example: 5 containers of Hass avocado a week for the next five weeks from Agrícola Andes, order PO-4500123, 1,320 boxes each at USD 18/box.
3. Choose Propose containers. Trackberry reads the text for a few seconds and the page updates by itself.
4. On Review the proposed containers, check every row. You can change any field, Add a row, or remove one. Worth checking lists anything Trackberry was unsure of, such as a supplier name it could not place.
5. Choose Plan N containers. Nothing is created before this step. Discard drops the description and plans nothing.

Each row has a Price is choice: Per box, Per container or Total for the boxes. A total is converted to a price per box and needs the number of boxes. A per-container value stays as entered. The list shows the result as, for example, 18,000 USD for a per-container value or 18 USD / box.

Each person can describe up to 20 orders an hour, and that budget is shared with orders sent by email. Past it, plan by hand with the form. A description that asks for more than one request can hold is cut, and the page says so. Describe the rest in another description.

Send the order by email #

You can also email the order to your organization’s ordinary inbound address, the one under Inbound email address in the user menu. Write it in the body, in plain words, as above. Trackberry answers with a link, Review and plan them, to the same review page. Nothing is planned until you confirm there.

An email is read as an order only when all of these hold:

• It comes from your own address as a member who can plan (not a Viewer), and the email really came from that address.
• It has no document attached. A file means a shipment email, and attachments are not read as orders. If you attach something other than a document, the reply tells you it was not read.
• It starts a conversation. A forward counts; a reply does not. Out-of-office replies and list mail never count.
• The text has enough in it to be an order, and names no container, B/L, booking or air waybill number. An email that names one is an ordinary pre-alert.
• Your organization has already planned a container, and you are under the hourly limit.

Anything else takes the ordinary path and makes a shipment as it always did. While the order is being read, the email also makes its usual draft shipment. If the text was an order, that draft is removed once you plan the containers. If the draft has gained a container, a document, a reference or other emails in the meantime, it is kept and the page tells you why. If the text turns out not to be an order, you are told on the review page, and the draft stays as an ordinary shipment.

Proformas #

A supplier often emails a proforma invoice to ask for prepayment, long before any container exists. Trackberry does not turn that into a shipment. It keeps the file with the container it belongs to.

An email is treated as a proforma on its own when its processable attachments are all proforma invoices (by file name), it names no container, B/L or booking in the subject or body, and it comes from a sender Trackberry trusts. A file called “Invoice for proforma 45.pdf” is the final invoice, not a proforma, and takes the ordinary path.

Then:

• If the email names a planned container’s order number, in the subject, then the file name, then the body, the proforma is put on that container. Several containers on one order number count as one choice when they are identical, and the earliest takes it.
• If it names none, it waits under Proformas to place, a tab that shows how many are waiting. For each file you can choose Assign…, which opens Assign a proforma so you can pick a planned container, Plan a container from it, or Discard.

No shipment is made, nothing is billed, and the sender gets no reply. The email shows on the inbound email page as Proforma kept for a container. Files are scanned like any upload, and a blocked one is marked and cannot be opened.

To keep a proforma, or any other file, on a container by hand, choose Edit on its row and use Proforma and other files. When you match the container to a shipment, its files are copied onto the shipment as files. Trackberry does not read these copies. The originals stay on the container.

Matching to the shipment #

When a shipment’s documents have been read, Trackberry compares it with your planned containers on four things:

A container outside the window is never offered, because order numbers get reused from week to week.

• Matched automatically when nobody could reasonably choose differently: an order number inside the window with a compatible supplier, or the same supplier, produce and week for containers that are identical. Picking any of “five identical containers this week” gives the same result, so the earliest is taken. The row shows an Automatic badge.
• Suggested when it looks right but not surely so. Under the container you see Possible match: with the shipment and the clues that fit, and you choose Confirm or Dismiss. A dismissed suggestion stays dismissed. At most 5 are offered.
• Matched by hand with Match on the row: search by container, B/L, reference or supplier and pick the shipment. The badge reads Manual.

A shipment held for approval is only ever suggested, never matched automatically. A shipment with no ETD yet is only offered containers that share an order number. An archived shipment is skipped. A shipment takes as many expected containers as it carries containers.

On the shipment page, Expected container: shows the week and the match, with Unmatch. Unmatching puts the container back to planned and the copied files stay on the shipment. If a matched shipment is later rejected or deleted, its containers go back to planned by themselves.

Working the list #

The tabs show Planned, Matched, Canceled and Proformas to place, each with a count. You can filter by supplier, produce and ETD week.

• A planned container whose ETD week has passed shows Overdue, and a count appears beside the tabs. Suppliers slip more often than they leave early, so this is your list of containers to chase.
• Edit changes any field of one container. Cancel moves a planned container to Canceled, and Reopen brings it back.

FAQ #

Is an expected container billed? #

No. It is not a shipment. Billing starts when a real shipment exists, as it always has. See Billing.

Why was my order email made into a shipment instead? #

Usually because it had an attachment, was a reply, named a container or B/L number, came from an address that is not a member’s, or your organization had not planned a container yet. Plan the first one with the form or a description, and later orders can arrive by email.

The proforma landed under Proformas to place. Why? #

Its email did not name the order number of any planned container, or the order number sits on several containers that are not identical. Choose Assign… and pick the container.

A shipment was matched to the wrong container. #

Choose Unmatch on the shipment page or the list, then Match to the right one. Unmatching keeps the files already copied onto the shipment.

Can I match a container to a shipment that already holds one? #

Automatic matches and suggestions stop at the number of containers the shipment carries. Match by hand doesn’t check, so count them yourself.

Do I have to match each container myself? #

No. Most matches happen on their own as documents are read. Check the suggestions now and then, and the Overdue count.

Where do I put the order number? #

Under More details (optional) on the form, or in the review rows of a description. It is optional, but it is the clue that makes matching and proforma placement reliable.

For the paperwork that follows, see Receiving Documents by Email and Purchase Orders.