Ritzy Shipping • User Manual
Handle the container liner business — book Liner Import and Export jobs against a vessel and voyage, record their bills of lading, containers and charges, then follow every box from discharge to empty return with Container Tracking.
Liner covers the container shipping side of the business, where a shipment is defined by a vessel & voyage and moves in boxes. It has two sides:
The Liner module keeps its own Consignee/Shipper list, so liner parties are separate from the Cargo forwarding parties.
Open the Liner group and pick Liner Import or Liner Export under Transactions, then New. The pencil on a job’s row (or a double-click) opens it ready to edit; New on an open job starts a fresh, empty job in edit mode.
Shipping line — the Line picker lists the shipping lines; a line that isn’t there yet is added on the spot with the picker’s quick-add (Line Name, Code (SCAC), Full Name). Jobs keep only the first 3 characters of the code, so a code starting like another line’s is refused, and the message names that line. A line’s code prefix can’t change, nor can the line be deleted, once jobs use it.
The job’s status shows as a tag beside its number on the form and in the Status column of the job list.
| Status | What it means | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Open | A working job — edit it freely. | Every new job; a closed job after Reopen Job. |
| Finalized | Still open and editable, but its containers have been handed to Container Tracking. | Finalize to Tracking on a saved job: each container gets its first event (Discharged at the arrival date on an import job, Empty Pickup at the departure date on an export job). A job with no containers can’t be finalized. |
| Closed | Finished: read-only, and it can’t be finalized or cancelled. Its job number is closed in Job Control too. | Close Job, after a confirm. The job must have at least one invoice or cash memo, unless you are an administrator. Reopen Job on a closed job opens it again. |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn: kept in the list in red, read-only, and out of Container Tracking. | Cancel — see Can I delete a Liner job? |
Closing, reopening and cancelling need the delete right on the Liner job form.
A job is refused, with a message that says which line to fix, when:
Fields you don’t see on a screen are kept as they were when you save — an edit never blanks a B/L’s line, ports, DO number or posting links.
A job holds one or more Bills of Lading. The Bills of Lading grid lists them one row each — BL No, Shipper, Consignee, Line, Load Port, Disch. Port, Goods, Inv Value and B/L Status — with buttons for the rest:
The containers you enter here are what Container Tracking follows — you don’t re-key them.
While the job is being edited, Add BL (top right of the grid, beside Import B/Ls) opens a new B/L straight in B/L Details, already carrying the job’s line and currency, the next line no, FCL/FCL, the Import or Export nature, B/L type BL and status Original Bill. Cancel there drops the new B/L again. To change a B/L later, click its Edit or simply double-click its row.
B/L Details holds the whole B/L: line no, ship line, movement type, ports, goods receipt place, B/L nature, type and status (Original Bill or Seaway Bill), free days and validity date, then on Cargo details the shipper, consignee, notify party, goods description, commodity, HS code, UOM, storage location and VIN / chassis no, and on Others the currency, salesman, reefer requirements, hazardous IMO / UN codes, out-of-gauge dimensions, own container, max payload and verified gross mass. Update keeps the changes on the B/L; save the job to store them. Once the B/L is on a live invoice or cash memo its currency and exchange rate are locked — it was billed in them; hover the field to see which document to cancel first.
Deleting a B/L — the bin at the end of its row asks first, since its containers and charges go with it when you save. The bin is greyed out while the B/L is on a live invoice or cash memo, or while one of its charges is posted in Cost Allocation; hover it to see which document to cancel, or which purchase voucher the charge is posted to (a Cost Allocation posting is final).
The B/L’s Containers button opens a wide panel: Add Container adds a row with Cont No, Type, Seals, Pkgs, Gross Wt, Net Wt, Tare Wt, CBM and Origin (country code, e.g. BE). Every container needs a type. A gross or net weight below zero or above 60,000 kg (more than any container carries; usually a figure typed twice) is refused on save, naming the container and B/L. A stored weight you don’t change is not re-checked, so old data never blocks an unrelated edit. Saving a job again keeps each row’s original created by and date. Several container types can share one size code (22G1, say), so the Type picker shows each one’s size code, type, group and descriptions side by side (22G1 · …), so you can tell them apart; a missing type can be added from the picker. The grid scrolls sideways on a narrow screen; the bin to delete a container stays pinned at the right of each row and asks first.
A B/L’s charges are picked from the Liner charges (active charges applicable to Liner Import or Liner Export, §6) in the same Buy / Sell grid as the Cargo jobs: each charge’s Buy row (creditor, currency, exchange rate, quantity, unit, price and buying tax) over its Sell row, with the profit. Picking a charge brings its unit, sell price and tax code; a per-container unit (CN / CTN) takes the number of containers as its quantity.
Charges by container type — set each container type’s standard charges once in Masters › Container Type: open a type and, under Liner Charges, add the charges with their Buy Price (the cost, optional) and Sell Price on the Import tab (Liner Import jobs) and the Export tab (Liner Export jobs). On a job, the B/L’s charges then follow its containers automatically: adding, deleting or retyping a container refreshes them (typing a number or a weight does not). The same charge at the same prices is one line, its quantity being the number of containers that carry it; a per-shipment unit (Shp) stays at 1. A line you have already edited keeps your changes and only takes the new quantity, and charges you added by hand stay. Each line’s buying price is the container type’s Buy Price where one is set, otherwise the charge’s own buy amount; picking a charge by hand does the same.
Update Charges in the Charges panel rebuilds the list from scratch — it replaces the B/L’s charges with those of its containers’ types (it asks first when the B/L already has charges). Lines already invoiced or posted in Cost Allocation stay exactly as they are, both here and in the automatic refresh. You can still edit, add or remove the other lines afterwards; the invoice is generated from these lines.
Posting the cost — pick each charge’s creditor on its Buy row and save the job. In Cost Allocation (filter Liner Import or Liner Export, or All Jobs) the B/L charges appear beside the Cargo ones; posting them raises the creditor’s purchase voucher, debiting the job control account — the one set on the Liner Import / Export job series, else the Accrued Expense Account on the Cost Posting card of Liner Settings — with the job number, so the cost shows against the job in Job Control. A posted charge is locked on its buying side — creditor, currency and rate, quantity, unit, price and buying tax — and can’t be removed, nor its B/L, since a Cost Allocation posting is final; its narration and selling side stay open.
Billing a B/L — once the job is saved, open a B/L’s Charges: under the charges, Generate Invoice or Generate Cash Memo opens a document filled from that B/L — its selling charges, the party it is invoiced to, the job and B/L numbers, the packages and weight of its containers, and the Liner Import / Export sales account. Charges already on a live document are left out. A billed charge is locked on its selling side, can’t be removed from the job, and is left as it is by Update Charges, until that document is cancelled. The B/L’s documents are listed in the same place.
The Liner billing documents also have their own lists under Liner › Sales: Invoice, Cash Memo, Debit Note and Credit Note show only the documents of Liner jobs (the Cargo lists without a module filter show both, with a Module column). New there, or in Invoices / Cash Memos, lets you pick Liner Import or Liner Export as the department and choose the job and B/L. Users need the Liner (or Cargo) rights for these menu items, set in User Manager.
Liner Settings — Tools › Preferences › Liner Settings holds the Liner Import / Export job series (prefix, next number, department and accounts) and, above it, a Cost Posting card: the Accrued expense / cost-of-sales posting switch, the Cost of Sales Account and the Accrued Expense Account. These accounts are fallbacks: a charge’s own account comes first, then the job series’, and the card’s only where both are blank. The card is the same setting Cargo Settings shows, so in a company with both modules a change shows on both screens; a company without Cargo sets it here.
On a saved Liner Import job, when you are viewing it (not editing), the B/L’s DO No column offers:
The print uses the company’s own DO layout from Report Templates (the same one Sea / Air Import print) when there is one, otherwise a built-in Delivery Order with the DO, B/L and job numbers, shipper, consignee and notify party, vessel, voyage, ports, arrival date, line, manifest no and free days, the cargo (goods, packages, gross weight, CBM) and the container list.
Principals send the manifest for a vessel call as a spreadsheet, so a job’s B/Ls and containers don’t have to be keyed by hand. While the job is being edited (a new job, or after Edit), click Import B/Ls at the top right of the Bills of Lading grid and drop the file (.xlsx or .csv).
Export B/Ls (in the job’s toolbar while you are viewing it) writes a saved job’s B/Ls and containers back out in the same layout — handy for sending to the terminal or for checking against the principal’s copy.
Container Tracking turns the job’s containers into a live picture. A dashboard of vessel/voyage cards shows how many boxes are still out and how many are home; drilling into a voyage lets you stamp each event as it happens.
An import box moves through a fixed journey:
Discharged Gate Out Full With Consignee Return Empty Gate In Empty
A job’s containers get their first event when you click Finalize to Tracking on the job (§2). A cancelled job’s containers drop out of Container Tracking.
Carriers’ daily Gate Out and yard Stock reports can be imported straight from Excel — the system matches each container and stamps the event for you. A full walkthrough is in the separate Container Tracking manual.
Demurrage and detention are worked out from the container events and the free days you allow. Set the slab rates and free days once in the Tariff master; the system then computes the charge automatically as boxes run past their free time.
Under Masters: the Liner Consignee / Shipper list, Vessel, Container Type (with its Liner charges, §3), Charge and the demurrage Tariff. Keeping the liner parties separate means a liner customer never clutters the Cargo forwarding pickers, and vice-versa.
Charge — the Liner module’s own view of the shared charge list (the screen is titled Liner Charge). It lists only the charges whose Applicable To includes Liner Import or Liner Export, and a charge added here starts with both ticked. These are the charges a Liner B/L can pick; a charge must also be active. Cargo’s own Charge screen shows the Cargo charges, so tick a charge for both if both use it.
Shipping lines are added from the job’s Line picker (§2). Salesmen used on a Liner job or B/L (or anywhere else, such as Cargo jobs, invoices or quotations) can’t be deleted from the Salesman master; the message says where the salesman is used.
The consignee / shipper list and the vessels can be loaded from a spreadsheet with Import CSV on their screens, or from Tools → Import (CSV) — see Importing Masters from CSV.
New Liner jobs get their milestones from the job type’s template (Others → Milestone Template; the milestones themselves are under Others → Milestone), and the Milestones button on the job shows them. Saving the job or raising an invoice keeps them up to date, and you can share a tracking link with the customer. See the Milestone manual.
Export boxes follow a different sequence (Empty Pickup → Gate In Full → Loaded → Sailed). The colour meaning — done / pending / attention — is the same everywhere.
Safe — an event that is already stamped is skipped, so re-importing a gate report never double-counts.
No — jobs are cancelled, never deleted. An open job that won’t sail is withdrawn with the Cancel button on its row in the job list, or on the job itself while you are viewing it; it keeps its number and its B/Ls, stays in the list shown in red, and can no longer be edited. Once any of its containers has a real tracking event stamped (Gate Out, With Consignee and so on) the job can’t be cancelled: those events happened. The automatic Discharged stamp an import job puts on its boxes doesn’t count — it is removed with the cancel, so the containers leave Container Tracking. A job also can’t be cancelled while a live transaction uses its job number, such as a billing document or a voucher, drafts included: the message names it, so cancel that first. A closed job must be reopened before it can be cancelled.
No — each container keeps its tracking events and demurrage through an edit, matched by container number, so you can correct a B/L or add boxes freely. A container that already has a real tracking event (anything beyond the automatic Discharged stamp) or demurrage can’t be removed from the job; the save names it. Nor can a container of a B/L that is invoiced or has a charge posted in Cost Allocation (§3).
From each B/L’s Containers on the Liner job, keyed in or imported from the manifest — Container Tracking only adds the events, not the boxes.
Something already depends on it: a live invoice or cash memo (selling side of a charge, currency and rate, deleting the B/L or its containers) or a Cost Allocation posting (buying side of a charge, deleting the charge, B/L or its containers). Hover the control to see which document it is. Cancel an invoice or cash memo and it opens up again; a Cost Allocation posting is final.
They appear only while the job is being edited. Click Edit (closed and cancelled jobs can’t be edited; reopen a closed job first).