Every document automation we ship runs on Paperless - our own engine, also available on its own with a free tier.
Try Paperless free- Scan to fill
- Visual no-code editor
- REST API
- Batch from CSV
Every load your team moves comes with a pile of paperwork, and most of it still gets sorted, checked and re-typed by hand. We automate that whole chain, on top of the system you already run.
What it delivers
Paperwork lands, gets recognised and attaches itself to the right shipment on its own. Nobody forwards emails or renames files to keep a job together.
Documents get checked against each other automatically, so a declaration that used to take 45 minutes of typing becomes a 3-minute review - and mistakes surface in the office, not at the border.
Every document and every change is kept in order against its shipment, so when HMRC or a client asks for evidence you export it instead of digging through email for a week.
Business benefits
What changes once the workflow runs itself
Your mornings back
Paperwork arrives in the shared inbox and files itself against the right shipment. No one forwards emails, renames files or hunts through folders to work out which job something belongs to - quietly the biggest time sink in a forwarder's office, and it now runs on its own.
Book a free 30-minute auditMistakes caught before the border
The documents for a load get checked against each other as soon as they're all in, so a wrong weight or quantity is flagged at a desk in your office rather than by a customs officer with your truck already in the queue.
Book a free 30-minute auditEvery customer's format, no rebuild
Delivery notes and declarations come out in each customer's language and branding straight away, instead of someone rebuilding the same document by hand every time an account wants it their way.
Book a free 30-minute auditAudits answered in an hour
Everything that happened on a shipment stays together and in order, so a request for evidence from HMRC, a client or a bank is something you export - not something you spend a week reconstructing.
Book a free 30-minute auditChallenges solved
The problems this workflow actually solves
01
Where does a coordinator's morning actually go?
The challenge
Every load arrives with its own stack of paperwork, and someone has to open each file, work out which job it belongs to, rename it, file it and re-type the details into your system. It rarely appears on anyone's spreadsheet, but it is the biggest single drain on the day.
How we solve it
We watch the inbox and the shared drive for you. Each document is recognised on arrival and attached to the right shipment on its own, so nobody forwards or renames anything again.
02
How do you catch a wrong weight before customs does?
The challenge
The documents for a load rarely get compared with each other before a declaration goes in, so a mismatch in weight, quantity or value only turns up at the border - the most expensive place to find it.
How we solve it
As soon as the documents for a load are in, they are checked against each other automatically and anything that disagrees is flagged at a desk in your office, hours before the truck is due to move.
03
How do you give every customer their own format without rebuilding it?
The challenge
Each account wants its delivery notes in its own language and on its own branding, and building those by hand stops working the moment you have more than a handful of customers.
How we solve it
Finished paperwork comes out in the right language and branding automatically. Official forms are handled too - the CMR note is filled in for you in five language pairs rather than re-typed.
04
What happens when someone asks you to prove it?
The challenge
When HMRC, a client or a bank asks for evidence, the usual answer is a week spent going through email threads and shared drives trying to piece together what actually happened on a shipment.
How we solve it
Everything that touched a shipment stays together and in order, so proving what happened is an export rather than a week of reconstruction.
End-to-end document workflow
The freight forwarder document workflow, stage by stage
The same five steps we build for any business drowning in paperwork, applied to freight. The first one is where most of the hours quietly disappear.
It arrives
A document lands in your inbox or drive. We work out what it is and which load it belongs to, and file it there.
It gets read
The details you need are lifted off the page - even from a photo a driver took on his phone - with a pointer back to where each one came from.
It gets checked
The documents for a load are compared against each other, and anything that disagrees is flagged before the goods move.
It comes back out
Finished paperwork is produced in the right language and branding, official forms like the CMR note included.
It stays put
Everything stays together against its load, so you can show exactly what happened whenever someone asks.
FAQ
Common questions
Can you automate customs document routing from our shared inbox?
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Yes - that's stage 1 of every freight build. The workflow monitors your operations or customs inbox, classifies each attachment (invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate), matches it to the right job reference in your TMS and routes it into the shipment workspace. Nobody forwards emails or renames PDFs by hand.
Does this work with CargoWise?
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Yes. CargoWise stays the system of record; the document workflow sits on top, ingesting messy PDFs, validating them against the CW job and writing structured fields back via the eAdaptor / API. We also integrate with Descartes, Mandata and custom or spreadsheet-based TMS setups.
How is this different from your customs declarations service?
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The customs declarations workflow is the customs-heavy slice: portal-ready declaration data with an HMRC audit trail. This page covers the full freight forwarder document workflow - routing, validation and client paperwork for every consignment, whether or not it crosses a customs border. Most clients ship both as one build.
What if our documents are blurry scans or drivers' phone photos?
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That's exactly what our extraction pipeline is built for. It normalises orientation, locates fields and emits cited values - and anything below the confidence threshold is flagged for a human to confirm in seconds rather than silently guessed.
How long does a build take, and what does it cost?
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A routing + validation MVP for one trade lane typically ships in 4-6 weeks. Full builds with TMS integration, client-branded generation and the audit dashboard usually run 8-10 weeks. Build cost is typically £15-25k with an optional operate retainer.