Introduction
The customer portal allows for a seamless order entry experience for customer submitted orders; however, some of the order parameters a customer is able to select are limited.
To ensure consistent order entry, it is possible to configure default or pre-filled order details, and to set the order status (Quote / To Plan) when new orders are submitted.
📚 By default, orders submitted via the portal cannot be edited once submitted. If your tenant has the Customer Portal Order Import feature enabled, you can configure portal customers to edit and cancel their own orders.
See below 👉 Enabling Order Edit & Cancel
The order status can be set in 3 locations:
Organisation Settings - This is the default setting and will be used if no other settings are added. Set this as a minimum.
Transport Service - This will take priority over the default setting.
Customer Profile - This is the primary setting if included.
Order Status options include:
Quote: When the customer submits the order via the portal, it will be built and shown as a Quote until processed further.
The customer will see the Quote number assigned in the portal under the ALL tab.
In the tenant, the quote will show in the Quote tab rather than orders.
Once the quote is accepted and sent to planning, it will generate a new order number.
To Plan: When the customer submits the order via the portal, it will be built and shown as an order, with the status 'To Plan'.
The order number shown will be consistent through the duration of the trip.
The system uses a fallback logic to determine which customer portal status field should be used when creating an order in the customer portal:
Status on Customer – If a value is present on customer level, this will be used.
Status on Transport service – If field on customer level is empty, the system falls back to the value on transport service level.
Status on Tenant – If both field on customer and field on transport service are empty, the system uses the value on tenant level.
Configure Order Defaults
Organisation Settings
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > 'Organisation settings' > Customer portal
Under the 'Customer portal order creation statuses', select how the orders should build in the portal when a customer submits an order.
Options include: Quote / To Plan as outlined above.
Transport Service
Navigate to RATES > 'Order Input'
In the left hand menu, select 'Transport Services'. This will show all the available services configured.
Click on the specific service. Navigate to the 'Customer Portal Permissions'.
Customers who can select this service. Allows setting for ALL customers with access to the portal, or specify specific customers only.
Default customer portal order status. When a customer submits an order via the portal, select the default order status: Quote or To Plan.
Cutoff orders with same day collection.
No cutoff for same day collections. Customers can submit order with any date/time for same day pick up.
Orders need to be entered 1 day before collection. A cutoff time will also need to be specified. Customers will not be able to submit an order for collection on the same day as the pick up.
Define cutoff time for same day orders. A cutoff time will need to be specified. Customers can submit an order for pick up on the same day, providing it is before the specified cut off time.
Customer Profile
Navigate to COMAPNIES > 'Customers'
Click on the customer name to open the profile. If the customer is not visible in the list, use the search box to find the customer.
In the customer profile, scroll to 'Create order: default values'. Select the preferred status from the dropdown menu.
Set Order Default Values
There is also the option here to add Default Order Values.
This can include specific details from the order that are consistent each time an order is submitted.
Once all the details are included, click SAVE.
When a customer creates an order in the portal, the order details will be pre-filled, further streamlining the users data entry requirements.
Display Charges
From the customer profile, scroll down to the 'Contacts' panel.
Toggle on option to 'Show charges on customer portal'
With this option toggled on, the user is able to VIEW charges on the order via the portal.
Charges that require approval can also be actioned via the portal.
Where approval is required, a label showing 'To Approve' will display.
Hover over the label will display option to approve or reject the charge.
Once actioned this charge will update in both Portal and the tenant.
Approve charge:
Reject charge:
Provision Order Import features (Qargo & Super Admin only)
Select:
Customer portal order import > Provision
‼️ Once 'provisioned' fields that configure the order import functions, are displayed. Toggle off 'customer portal order creation via order import enabled' to revert to the previous order behaviour.
🧰 It is not possible to configure this by individual customer. Once enabled it is available for ALL Customer Portal users.
Enabling Order Edit & Cancel
📚 Train your customer to use these new features, share the training walkthrough article Customer Portal Walkthrough.
Once enabled, this feature will give portal customers the ability to edit or cancel orders they have already submitted.
Under 'Customer portal order import', users can set preferred order import workflow.
To allow customers to update submitted orders, set 'Enable updates' toggle ON.
From the 'Automation' panel, there are three new toggle options:
Automatically create orders: Portal orders are automatically created as transport orders
When toggled off - users will need to manually approve customer submitted orders from the 'Order Imports' page
Click 'Create order' to verify and save the order
Apply changes automatically: Portal customers can edit the details of a submitted order, providing it has not yet been collected
Only available if 'enable updates' is toggled on.
Where updates are not accepted automatically, users will need to approve updates in the 'Order Imports' page
Customer Portal users will see update requests as 'Update awaiting approval' and under the 'Waiting for approval' tab
Set a status to restrict updates beyond set point in workflow:
Apply cancellations automatically: Portal customers can cancel a submitted order, providing it has not yet been collected.
Set a status to restrict updates beyond set point in workflow:
How it works
To submit a new order, portal customers MUST use a unique customer reference, otherwise an error will be displayed back to the user
This reference number is used to link the portal order to the TMS order.
📚 Update customer reference number field to 'Always show' on the order form to help Customer Portal users complete the necessary information.
Once submitted successfully, the order will appear in the Order List view, with the 'Portal' label.
If 'Automatically create orders' is NOT set, all orders will need to be manually updated in the 'Order Import' tab
If customer submitted orders generate a quote first, these will show in the Quote tab, with the 'Portal' label.
Portal customers will see 'Edit' and 'Cancel' options on eligible orders.
When enabled, changes submitted by the customer will update the order in the TMS automatically.
Portal users will see a label 'Update awaiting approval' until the order is opened in the carrier account, which will 'approve' the update.
Where automatic updates ARE NOT enabled, customers can still edit the order, and the carrier will see an 'Update' label appear on the order
Click on the update to open the revised order.
Validate and save the update.
📚 Only orders created through the new order import flow can be edited or cancelled this way — orders created via the previous portal flow remain non-editable. Any new orders submitted via a 3rd party integration also cannot be edited or cancelled by the portal user. These options will be 'greyed out'.
Troubleshooting order import
Getting the customer reference error but don't see where to include the reference number.
Unless the field is marked as 'always show' the customer reference field is found under the '+ Add information' link in General details on the order form. Recommendation is to set this field to 'always show', which makes it visible as a field on the order form.
Customers are unable to autoprint labels after creating an order on the customer portal. They used to be able to do this - why does it no longer work?
When 'order import workflow' is enabled, and a customer submits an order from the portal, the order will not immediately be created in the customer portal, based on approvals. The order import workflow has automation around approval for the order, which can create a delay. Once the order is approved the customer portal user is able to download the label manually. If this impacts the autoprinting and the customer wants to go back to how it used to work, toggle OFF 'Customer portal order creationvia order import enabled'. This will revert the order behaviour, including the autoprinting behaviour. However, the customer WILL NOT be able to edit or cancel orders.
Order import error showing 'Not allowed to create or update the order after the cutoff time'. How do I fix this?
This error is received because there is a lead time that applies to the transport service or service level selected on the order. This error is not visible to the customer submitting the order and allows users to determine if the lead time can be overridden.
Click the option to 'Fix the error'. This will open the order entry page so the user can correct the data and save the order.
My customer submitted their order, but made a change which I need to approve manually. When I viewed their change the location was outside our delivery area, so we cannot take the order. I cancelled the order, but how does my customer know?
When the customer portal is not configured to accept automatic order creation, order's will end up in the waiting for approval tab. If the carrier then decides to not execute the order, it will end up in the cancelled tab.
When the customer cancels an order that is in the waiting for approval tab, it will also show up in the cancelled tab.