Shireburn Freight SystemDriving your freight business forward

www.shireburn.com/SFS

The freight industry is traditionally paper intensive and laborious. Significant resources are allocated to the creation of documentation like notices of arrival, delivery orders, shipment release documents, invoices/cash sales as well as compiling performance statistics and reports amongst others.

SFS is a complete integrated system providing facilities for processing of multi-modal import and export consignments related to containers, trailers, Ro-Ro and conventional vessels, container tracking facilities and container demurrage control, as well as handling freight forwarding operations.

All SFS modules may be linked to the Shireburn Financial Manager which in turn manages the entire financial accounting operation. In addition, integration with EDI systems, Transport Malta and eCustoms, streamlines operations further.

SFS is also able to handle multiple principals and multiple operating companies with opportunities for configuration to meet the specific needs of individual principals as well as full load and groupage consignments.

The leading SFS is built upon Shireburn’s experience implementing business solutions for the local freight industry. SFS is currently implemented at the majority of freight and forwarding agencies in Malta.

The Shireburn Freight Systems (SFS) addresses the complete range of business processes to meet the needs of a modern freight and/or forwarding agency, automating time consuming aspects and leaving your staff to concentrate on the more important aspects of business development.

SHIREBURN FREIGHT SYSTEM MODULES:

BOOKINGS

IMPORTS EXPORTS

TRANSHIPMENT CONTAINER CONTROL

DEMURRAGE DETENTIONS

TRANSPORT MALTA REPORTING eCUSTOMS

SALES &OPPORTUNITIES

SFS is modular, allowing implementation of just the modules relevant to your business.

Support for Multiple Quotation Options Since a consignment may be transported using different modes of transport e.g. trailer, container or air freight, the Opportunities module supports the creation of various options, for the different transport modes. Opportunities can also be cloned for quotations similar to a past quotation.

Pricing of Quotations Use the Opportunities module to facilitate calculation of quotations and to view profitability on each quotation.

Opportunity Follow Up The Opportunities module assists you in following up, by listing opportunities by status and by follow up date.

Follow up open opportunities, monitor lost business and record the cause of loss, so that you can improve your sales conversation ratio and profitability.

Statistics & Monitoring Measuring sales activity is the first step towards managing it. The Opportunities module allows you to monitor the number of opportunities, compare historical data and identify trends in your sales pipeline.

• Assess the conversion rate for different sales people, different transport routes and more.

• Assess the conversion rate of your trailer business compared to container or groupage with full loads and more.

Integrate Opportunities with Bookings Module Once a quotation is confirmed, automatically pull the quotation data into a booking in the SFS Bookings module to plan loading of the consignment.

Efficiently manage your sales process, converting more opportunities to sales.

Sales & Opportunities ModuleEffective management of the sales process leads to greater conversion of opportunities to sales. The Sales & Opportunities module assists you in achieving higher levels of performance, productivity and profits by bringing all sales information into one view, determining costs, creating quotations and enabling follow up.

Opportunity Details

• Capture all the details of a customer’s request and centrally share the information throughout the agency, allowing the sales department to really work as a team.

• Record consignment details such as commodity, weights, measurements, pick up location and routing.

Quotation Requests to Subcontractors

• Generate quotation requests, send these automatically to chosen subcontractors as PDF files through email, and maintain central records of all requests sent, those that are pending and more.

• Update subcontractor costs in the Opportunities module to allow determination of the sales quote to your customer. This shows profitability on the opportunity.

Maximise efficiency in the loading process.

Bookings ModuleThe Bookings module maximises efficiency of loading and prepares the data for onward integration to the Import and Export Manifest modules.

The Bookings module allows you to:

• Record your bookings, optionally transferring details from the Sales & Opportunities module, and visualise them against your planned voyages.

• See the list of bookings pending allocation and the list of available voyages, colour coded by type.

• Retain booking details such as pick-up address and instructions as well as all charges related to the booking.

• Drag and drop bookings onto a voyage, moving them from one voyage to another with great ease.

• Maintain address of shippers, pick-up address and special instructions for repeated use.

Visualise Workflow

The Bookings module allows you to visualise the status of each voyage and the allocation of bookings to voyages.

Voyages are colour coded to indicate whether they are trailers, groupage containers, air freight or container vessels and indicate the type and size as well as the number of bookings on that voyage.

Since the system knows the maximum weight and volume of each transport type, e.g. a DV20 or 40’ trailer, it shows visual gauges alongside each voyage indicating the portion of the maximum available weight and measurements of that transport type compared to the allocated bookings. This facilitates load planning.

Booking Confirmations

Generate Booking Confirmations confirming the details of the client’s booking and send via email directly to the client, and booking slips to agents.

Imports ModuleThe Imports module handles containers, trailers, general cargo including vehicles, trucks and more. Support for air freight and parcel post consignments is also available, as well as both full load and groupage consignments.

Each voyage is defined with its own voyage reference and data related to the transport type.

Manifest Processing

The import manifest is processed to allow the creation of the bill of lading, descriptions of the cargo and associated charges. Bill of lading information provides details of the shipper, consignee, notify party and invoice party, allowing invoicing to be effected to a 3rd party in whole or in part.

SFS supports both foreign and local charges, multiple currencies, pre-paid and collect charges throughout.

In addition, SFS also allows the definition of charges for each principal, for import and export consignments.

SFS provides facilities for the maintenance of standard rates for charges that are automatically applied to a bill of lading. Automatically applied charges can be modified and/or removed by the user if they are not applicable to this particular bill of lading.

SFS allows electronic integration with principals’ / agents’ manifests to automate the manifest data entry process.

Documentation

The main objective of entering manifest details into SFS is the creation of required documents, statistics and reports. SFS produces the following documentation and more.

• Notice of arrival

• Delivery order

• Invoices/cash sales – optionally linked to Shireburn Financial Manager’s voyage ledger

• Gate pass out

• Discharging list

• Import manifest

• Freight book - a report that allows analysis of charges per bill of lading on a selected voyage

• Charges audit trail - all charges included on all bills of lading of a selected voyage, also provided by port of loading

• Other administrative reports such as lists of consignees for a selected vessel, cargo receipts and port entry passes

Client Import Statistics

SFS provides facilities for the analysis and reporting of all shipment statistics, allowing you to analyse by company, port, or services, showing weight volumes and TEU’s where applicable.

INTEGRATION WITH OTHER MODULES

Link to Shireburn Financial Manager

Integrate all accounting data, including invoices and credit notes, directly into the Shireburn Financial Manager (SFM) for maximum efficiency.

Manage all freight accounting data in an account per voyage with SFM’s integrated voyage ledger. This allows better management of voyage accounting, improved controls and analysis as well as providing better accrual and prepayment accounting and profitability per voyage.

Link to Container Control

In the case of container shipments, data entered into the manifest process is automatically used as the basis for the Container Control module.

Links to Transport Malta

SFS provides the required links to automate the sending of shipping statistics to Transport Malta in electronic format.

Links to Customs

The Customs Department requires all consignment details to be loaded into their system to enable the processing of customs entries.

While these can be entered individually manually into their website, SFS provides the facility to generate an electronic file containing the details of all consignments in a voyage and upload this to the Customs Department.

Exports ModuleSFS allows the loading of charges for export, according to the needs of the export function. For container transport types relating to principals for whom container tracking is effected, SFS validates the existence of export containers within the container tracking system. Full support also exists for shipper owned containers.

Client export statistics are maintained in the same manner as import statistics. Facilities for the generation of the export manifest in EDI electronic format for onward submission to discharge agent and/or principal, are provided by means of the Manifest EDI module.

Documentation

Available documentation and reports include:

• Bill of lading – customised principal waybills

• Invoices / cash sales

• Freeport gate in

• Loading list

• Export manifest - with or without freights, with or without consignee/shipper details, in A3 and A4 format

• Freight book - a report that allows analysis of charges per bill of lading on a selected voyage

• Charges audit trail - this report shows a list of all charges included on all bills of lading of a selected voyage and can also be provided by port of loading

Transhipment ModuleContainer control for a shipping agency operating in a transhipment hub requires dedicated facilities to handle the needs of a transhipment operation.

It is imperative that systems to support this operation are fast to operate, so as to enable the agency to be highly responsive, interact with ports and lines electronically using standard based EDI formats, and provide the reporting and data analysis facilities to support the operation.

The Transhipment module is dedicated to the management and processing of transhipment stock. Maintenance of container stock is fed through a number of processes:

• Maintenance of container stock – container details including type, size, weight, B/L, hazardous cargo details, status, operator and more

• Importation of discharge lists from BAPLI or Microsoft Excel files for a particular discharging vessel

• Submission of discharge instructions to the port using the EDI COPRAR Discharge file format

• Processing of COARI Discharge confirmations received from the port to automate the status change of containers once discharged

• Planning of loading of containers onto a vessel including facilities for summarisation of selected containers, totalling TEUs by type and showing total weights, so as to aide in load planning

• Creation of COPRAR Loading instructions to port

• Processing of COARI confirmations to automate the status change of containers once loaded or discharged

• Support for processing of loading of empties collected at random by the port

• Maintenance of history of all container movements of the maximum available weight and measurements of that trasport type compared to the allocated bookings. This facilitates load planning.

Better manage your import and export process, automating the creation of required documentation.

Container ControlFor agents representing principals in container operations, the Container Control module provides facilities for recording of all container movements between ship, consignee, depot and shipper, and the generation of appropriate reports. A history of all movements is maintained and used for movement reporting.

Movements into depot, link with the Demurrage module for calculation of any demurrage amounts due by the consignee. The module provides a variety of reports at the click of a button.

DemurrageAgencies charging demurrage on containers involve themselves in maintaining a cumbersome manual system to keep track of amounts due and deposits. This module allows collection and recording of demurrage deposits, automatic calculation of demurrage amounts due by the client as well as by the agency to the principal, and effecting of refunds on demurrage deposits or charging for demurrage over and above the demurrage deposit.

The system allows recording of the demurrage rates that the agency will be charged by the principal as well as the standard demurrage charges and deposits levied on the client. These charges and deposit amounts can be specified per container type. Rates are able to be defined for different periods of days overdue as well as for the number of free days.

An exceptions file allows recording of those clients with whom special negotiated rates or conditions have been fixed.

Container movements into the depot within the Container Tracking module automatically result in the calculation of the demurrage amount chargeable to the client and the liability for demurrage incurred from the principal.

The system will then allow the generation of a refund of demurrage deposit in full or in part or the generation of a cash sale or invoice for the demurrage incurred. All appropriate accounting entries are automatically integrated to the Shireburn Financial Manager (SFM).

In addition, this module provides cash receipting functionality at the front-office to collect the charges due. This module allows the generation of a receipt to the customer and posting of the accounting entries to SFM. Cash reconciliation facilities are provided to manage cash movements. The Demurrage Module provides better automation combined with tight controls.

DetentionsSimilar to the Demurrage functions, SFS also fully manages the Detentions process, with the same automated functionality, whilst provided the flexibility to allow for exceptions and special rates/conditions.

Track container movements between ship, consignee, depot and shipper, and automate the calculation of demurrage.

Transport Malta ModuleThe Transport Malta module provides for the issuing of the required shipping reports and statistics to then be sent to Transport Malta in electronic format.

eCustoms ModuleThe Customs Department requires all consignment details to be loaded into their system to enable the processing of customs entries.

While these can be entered individually manually into their website, SFS provides the facility to generate an electronic file containing the details of all consignments in a voyage and uploaded this to the Customs Department.

This greatly reduces manual work and ensures accuracy and cosistency of data

Software SupportWe pride ourselves with offering leading levels of software support across all our business solutions. The reliability and stability of our solutions is crucial to us, and is backed by a team of technical, support and implementation staff who are here to assist you.

Get in touch for more information.

Shireburn Software Ltd SkyParks Business Centre, Malta International Airport, Luqa, LQA 4000, MALTA

T: +356 21319977 E: info@shireburn.com

www.shireburn.com/SFS

The integration with the eCustoms portal and the readily available reports required by Transport Malta save you time and effort, reducing the opportunity for error.