Eleven steps, in the order the money leaves.
Forty reads run before the desk sits down. These are the eleven groups they land in, in the words the screen prints — and, on the right, what it costs to leave each one alone until tomorrow.
A short queue is not a quiet day.
When a read fails, its item disappears from the list. Nothing turns red; the morning looks lighter than it is, and a broken query reads exactly like good news. The first line of the queue is therefore the list of reads that failed, by name. One of the twenty rule checks (check_silent_errors) stops a release that draws a zero as if it were a fact.
Cut-offs
3 cut-offs are already past and not met
The earliest receiving date — the day the window opens — is counted on its own line, not folded into the day it closes. And the ones already past are the good news: they are still on the screen. A warning that only looks forward goes quiet on the day it matters.
ISF against the clock
2 import consolidations are past the ISF filing deadline with no filing number — 1 of them has already arrived
The arrived one sorts to the top, because it is the one that hurrying cannot fix. CBMGO builds the ISF-10 and ISF-5 records and runs the pre-check before they are sent; it does not transmit to CBP.
The two container clocks
4 containers are past free time — detention is accruing
1 container out with no VGM submitted
Demurrage runs while the box sits at the terminal; detention runs while the box is held and has not been returned. Different start, different counterparty — so they are two clocks, not one. A box pulled before the earliest receiving date is counted separately: detention is already running and it appears on no destination list.
Pre-alerts nobody linked
7 pre-alerts passed the arrival date without being linked to a consolidation — nothing has started on those shipments
The agent did his part. The document arrived and stopped there.
Arrival, then release
Consolidations whose ETA has passed with nothing recorded as arrived come first, then:
3 arrived imports with no customs release recorded
Arrival is the event every other clock hangs off. Until it is recorded, free time, storage and delivery are all being counted from a date nobody has confirmed.
Free storage runs out
3 shipments are past their free storage days with nothing billed Urgent
Free storage time ends today on 2 shipments Today
Free days are counted in business days and the charge in calendar days — two separate switches, because joining them either undercharges by about a third or shortens the free period that was promised. Weekends inside the free period are always free, and the minimum charge applies once, at the end. When a rule cannot work out an amount it says so instead of inventing one: this rule charges per revenue ton and there is no volume on file.
The truck that did not report
2 trucking orders passed the collection time with no word from the carrier
Hired trucking sits in the core, not in an extra — the company with no trucks of its own is the one that subcontracts most. Waiting time becomes a charge line on the same record.
The carrier’s own invoice
3 carrier demurrage invoices are still inside the 30-day window to dispute, the first closing in 4 days
46 CFR §541.8. The audit reads the carrier’s invoice against the twenty items §541.6 requires, by clause number, and applies them by direction — an export shipment is not asked for a port of discharge. If items are missing it drafts the letter: §541.5, “Failure to include the required information … eliminates any obligation of the billed party to pay.”
Screening, and the age of the list
14 shipments have named parties that have never been screened
The restricted-party list on file is 47 days old
Two different questions, kept apart: is the check old, and is the list old. The result reads No match, never clear — under the OFAC 50 per cent rule no screen can say safe. One hit and a person looks at it. The date of the list is printed on the screen.
Everything with an expiry date
Powers of attorney, the customs bond, the IAC certification, claim deadlines, driver licences and medical certificates, rate tables, and the links sent to customers.
Rate tables warn at 30, 14 and 7 days, and an expired table cannot be used to price anything — the system would rather stop than quote off a sheet that lapsed last month.
Work delivered, money not asked for
7 delivered shipments have been sitting unbilled for more than 45 days
12 shipments are marked delivered with no delivery date and no invoice, so they never show up in an ageing list
32 unpaid invoices are more than 30 days old — the customer has no credit terms set, so this system cannot say whether they are late
The middle line is the expensive one: those shipments are invisible to every report that starts from an invoice. The last line is the queue admitting a gap rather than assuming thirty days on the forwarder’s behalf.
Today — the morning queue on the demo company- Click the ISF line — 2 import consolidations past the deadline. It opens the ISF-10 with two elements empty.
- Go back to the queue.
- Click the container line — 4 past free time. It opens the free time board with the clocks running.
The queue folds itself.
Half of the eleven steps belong to systems and extensions that may never be switched on. The morning list does not go on asking for them.
The queue on the forwarder’s own numbers.
A copy of the spreadsheet sent before the call is run through the morning queue in the third ten minutes. Difficult lanes are welcome. The session ends with a written quotation.