Shipping Events

What are Shipping Events?

Shipping events are specific activities tied to a shipment. Events form a timeline of the shipment's lifecycle and are used for operational monitoring and exception management.

How are these Shipment Events different from the overall Shipment status in OpenBoxes?

Both Shipment status and shipping events are related but different concepts in supply chain and logistics tracking. They both help monitor shipment's progress, but they differ in how they are used.

The Shipment status, such as Created, Picked, Shipped, Received reflects the high-level overall state of a shipment, for example, items are being picked for a shipment, or the shipment has left the originating warehouse.

The Shipping events allow us to capture additional milestones for the shipment, for example, the shipment is undergoing custom clearance or is in transit.

Together, they provide both operational control (status) and progress visibility (events).

Different Types of Shipping Events in OpenBoxes

All Events tracked in OpenBoxes always records the Date Logged (when the event was recorded in the system), Event Date (when the event occurred), and Created by.

Locations are automatically tracked for operational events, such as Partial Receipt and Putaway.

• Custom Entry

Custom Entry allows user to manually add events for a shipment that is not operationally tracked by OpenBoxes, such as Shipment arrival at Port or Customs Clearance.  

To add a Custom Entry, select an Event Type, select a Location, add the Event Date for when the Event occurred, and add Comments to record additional details. Once you save it, OpenBoxes records it as a Shipping Event.

To add additional Event Types to select from, read this article: Create Custom Event Type.

• Operational Monitoring

  • Created - The event of Shipment creation with Date Logged, Event Date, Location, and Created by.

• Shipped - The event of shipment being shipped in OpenBoxes with Date Logged, Event Date, Location, and Created by.

• Shipped - Rollback - The event of when a Shipment is rolled back in OpenBoxes with Date Logged, Event Date, Location, Created by. A shipment must be re-shipped after a rollback.

• Partial Receiving - The event of partially receiving shipped items in OpenBoxes with Date Logged, Event Date, Location, and Created by. Only possible for Location with Partial receiving turned on.

• Received - The event when there are no shipped items pending to be received with Date Logged, Event Date, Location, and Created by.  

• Received - Rollback - The event of rolling back a receipt of items with Date Logged, Event date, Location, and Created by.

• Putaway - The event of Putaway transaction recorded for items received in the shipment with Event Identifier, Date Logged, Event date, Location, and Created by.