Software for freight forwarders: from inquiry to carrier invoice
A forwarder sells a transport to a customer and buys it from a carrier. The inquiry comes by email and the order is typed in by hand. Weeks later the carrier's invoice and CMR arrive, and someone reads them all over again: which order they belong to, whether the goods were delivered where they were sold, whether the consignee signed, and whether the carrier charged what was agreed. Ezura's forwarding module does that work for you.
Inquiry: Kaunas → Hamburg, 4 Nov
Hello,
we need 33 euro pallets (about 18 t) moved from Kaunas to Hamburg.
Loading on 4 November in the morning. What would the price be?
- An inquiry email becomes an order draft: route, dates, cargo, LDM
- The customer is recognised from your companies; follow-ups join the same inquiry
- The carrier's invoice lands on its order by the order number printed on it
- The CMR is read even from a phone photo: number, unloading place, dates, consignee signature
- One check: agreed price, VAT, CMRs, unloading places, dates and signature
- Mismatches are shown, nothing is blocked: the forwarder decides
From an inquiry email to an order
A customer writes “33 euro pallets from Kaunas to Hamburg on 4 November”, or attaches a sheet with several loads. Ezura reads the email and its attachments – PDF, photos, Excel or CSV – and prepares an order draft for each load: loading and unloading places, dates, pallets, weight and LDM. Anything missing or unclear is marked “please check” next to its field.
The forwarder sees the email and the order form in one window, corrects what needs correcting and clicks “Create order”. A draft with nothing to check can be created from the list in one click. When the customer writes back with a correction, the email joins the same inquiry instead of becoming a new order.
The carrier's invoice finds its own order
Carriers put your order number on their invoice. Ezura finds it and puts the invoice on that order. When one invoice covers several orders, the amount is split by its lines, or equally when the lines do not say; you can change the split by hand. If the invoice arrived before you entered the order, it joins the order as soon as you do.
Invoices without an order number wait in an “Unassigned” list for you to place. If a carrier's earlier invoices were on orders and this one carries no number, Ezura warns you. Fuel, telecom or rent invoices raise no warnings.
The CMR is read, even from a phone photo
The CMR usually comes with the carrier's invoice, scanned or photographed. Ezura reads the CMR number, sender, consignee, unloading place, loading date and box 24: whether the consignee signed and stamped it. Handwritten fields are marked “please check”.
If box 24 holds only the carrier's own stamp, Ezura says so: that CMR does not prove anyone received the goods. A CMR joins an order through the invoice it came with, or through the CMR number entered on the order.
The check: what matches and what to review
For every order Ezura builds a table: what the order says, what the document says, and whether they match. The order list shows which orders lack a CMR or have mismatches. On the Check page the forwarder works through orders one by one: the document on the left, the table beside it, “Checked, next”.
- The order number on the carrier's invoice
- Net amount against the agreed carrier price, within an agreed tolerance; when it differs, the line that makes the difference is named
- Currency, VAT rate and VAT amount
- Whether every CMR has arrived – one per unloading place
- Unloading country and city
- Loading date
- Consignee signature in box 24
It warns, it does not block
A mismatch is not yet a mistake: the carrier may have rightly charged waiting time or an extra drop. So Ezura blocks nothing – it shows the difference and a person decides. The accountant sees the warning on the invoice too, and it disappears once everything matches.
From there the carrier's invoice goes the way all invoices do: the accountant reviews it and sends it to your accounting system – Rivile, Finvalda, Navision or another.
Who it is for
Forwarders that buy transport from carriers and sell it to customers, and companies that hire carriers themselves. Wherever inquiries are retyped into orders by hand today, and a forwarder or accountant checks carrier invoices against orders and CMRs every month.
Frequently asked questions
- Do we have to give up our transport management system?
- No. Orders can be entered in Ezura or created from inquiry emails. There is no automatic import of orders from another transport management system yet – tell us which one you use and we will discuss it.
- How do inquiries, invoices and CMRs get into Ezura?
- Carrier invoices with their CMRs are sent or forwarded to your Ezura invoice address, like any other invoice. Inquiries get an address of their own, to which you can route customer emails from your mailbox.
- Which inquiry attachments does Ezura read?
- PDF, photos, Excel (.xlsx) and CSV files. Not yet Word documents or the old Excel format (.xls) – those are listed as unread so you can open them yourself.
- Does Ezura check pallets, weight and truck plates on the CMR?
- Not yet. Those CMR fields are often handwritten, so comparing them would raise more false warnings than it saves. Price, VAT, the CMR count, unloading places, loading date and the consignee signature are checked.
- Who sees the forwarding part?
- Forwarders see orders, inquiries and the check together with the invoice and CMR documents, without access to all of the company's invoices. The accountant sees orders and can put documents on them.
- What does it cost?
- Forwarding is a separate Ezura module. Tell us how many orders and carrier invoices you handle a month and we will quote a price.
Other Ezura products
Invoice data entry
Incoming invoices are read, checked and passed into your accounting system — without manual data entry.
Invoice approval
An invoice is approved by the person responsible for the cost before it reaches the books. A second signature above a limit, and a record of who and when.
Virtual accountant
Incoming invoices enter themselves: read from email, VAT and dimensions assigned, exported to your accounting system.
Vehicle trip logs
The trip log fills itself from fuel invoices: fills, balance and norm are already there, the driver adds route and kilometres.
Business trips
From request to expense report: the order is generated, receipts are scanned on a phone, the report is a PDF with every receipt.
Invoicing
Automatic numbering, an instant PDF, overdue tracking and export — in the same system as your incoming invoices.
HR
Employee records, leave requests approved along the reporting line, an absence calendar and payroll calculation in one place.
Document management
Personnel documents from templates with a signing chain, invoices with their companion documents and approval, deal files — each with a record of who and when.
CRM and sales pipeline
A deal board with your own stages, weighted value and change history, plus budget, contacts and tasks — on the same company list your invoices use.
Public tender radar
Public tender notices from Lithuania, its neighbours, the EU and Ukraine — filtered by your CPV codes and keywords, each with the reason it matched.
Related pages
We will show you the forwarding module with your own inquiries, carriers and documents.