Optivis CMSCompareSpreadsheets and e-mail
From spreadsheets and e-mail to one cargo management system
Spreadsheets and e-mail cost nothing extra and every forwarder already knows them, so they work well while there are a handful of jobs a month. Optivis CMS, a cargo management system, keeps the shipment, its documents, pre-alerts, charges and invoices in one record, so the job's status and profit don't depend on whoever last updated the sheet.
Early access opens soon: a 14-day free trial of Pro, no card needed
Last checked: . Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
At a glance
How the day-to-day work of a freight job compares.
| Topic | Optivis CMS | Spreadsheets and e-mail |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free Lite plan, then US$49 or US$149 a month | Usually already paid for as part of an office suite |
| Set-up | Create a workspace, then import customers and vendors from CSV | None: start a new sheet |
| Structure | Fixed fields for air and sea jobs, parties, cargo, containers and charges | Whatever columns you choose |
| Job status | Worked out from what's recorded, across eight stages from enquiry to closed | A status column someone keeps up to date |
| Pre-alerts | Sent from the job, with its documents attached and a send history | Written in your mail client; attachments found and added by hand |
| Customer updates | Tracking link per shipment, optional PIN, chosen milestones and documents | Replies to individual e-mails |
| Charges and profit | Cost and sale lines per job in any currency, profit calculated | Formulas you build and maintain |
| Quotes and invoices | PDFs created and e-mailed from the app; optional Xero sync | Separate documents or an accounting system, typed from the sheet |
| Who changed what | Audit log of changes | Version history, where your spreadsheet tool keeps one |
| Working together | Roles, teams and tasks | Shared editing in Excel and Google Sheets |
| Leaving | Full export of your data and files at any time | The files are already yours |
When Spreadsheets and e-mail are the better choice
- You move a few shipments a month and one person handles all of them.
- Your jobs are unusual enough that no fixed structure fits them, and you'd rather design your own columns.
- You need something today, with no set-up and no new log-in for the team.
- Your customers and agents don't need a tracking link or pre-alerts from a system.
When Optivis CMS is the better choice
- More than one person works on the same jobs, and you need to see who changed what (Optivis CMS keeps an audit log).
- You send pre-alerts with documents and want the history of what went to whom, on the job itself.
- Customers keep asking for updates and a tracking link would answer them.
- You want profit per job from real cost and sale charges, in any currency, without reconciling a separate sheet.
- Invoices are typed again from the job sheet, and you'd rather raise them from the charges you've already entered.
Why spreadsheets work for many forwarders
Spreadsheets work because they're flexible, familiar and already paid for. A forwarder can set up a job list in an afternoon, shape it to the way the team talks about shipments, and change it the moment something new comes up.
Modern spreadsheet tools also cover more than they used to. Excel and Google Sheets both let several people edit the same file at once, and both keep a version history you can roll back to. If your team is small and your jobs are few, that's often enough.
Where a sheet and an inbox start to strain
The strain usually shows when one shipment's facts live in several places: the job row, the pre-alert in someone's sent items, the commercial invoice in a shared folder, the costs in another tab and the invoice in the accounting system. Each copy is correct until one changes.
Research on spreadsheets has found that errors in them are common and not trivial, which matters most where the same figures are re-typed into quotes and invoices. A cargo management system doesn't make people infallible, but it does remove the re-typing: the quote's prices become the job's charges, and the charges become the invoice.
- A customer asks where their cargo is, and the answer depends on who last updated the sheet.
- An agent says they never got the pre-alert, and finding what was sent means searching several inboxes.
- Month-end profit per job takes a separate reconciliation.
- A new team member needs the unwritten rules of the sheet explained before they can help.
What changes in Optivis CMS
In Optivis CMS each shipment is one record that holds everything about the job. Take SIN-26-0204 for Harbour Coffee Roasters, Singapore to Rotterdam by sea: the parties, the containers, the MBL and HBL, the documents, the pre-alert sent to the Rotterdam agent, the cost and sale charges, and the invoice all sit on that one job.
The job's stage (enquiry, quoted, booked, in transit, arrived, delivered, invoiced, closed) is worked out from what's been recorded, such as the actual departure date, so nobody has to remember to update a status column. The customer can follow it through a tracking link that shows only the milestones and documents you choose.
Moving from spreadsheets
Start with the records you reuse, not the history. Customers and vendors can be imported from a CSV file, which most spreadsheets export directly; open jobs are usually quickest to re-enter as you next touch them.
Keep the old sheet read-only for reference until your open jobs have closed in Optivis CMS. There's a free Lite plan, so there's no deadline to finish by.
- Export your customer and vendor lists to CSV and import them from the customer and vendor lists.
- Load the sample data to see a job at every stage before you enter your own.
- Enter new jobs in Optivis CMS from a chosen date, and let old jobs finish in the sheet.
- Export everything from Optivis CMS at any time if you decide it isn't for you.
Questions
- Can I import my existing spreadsheet into Optivis CMS?
- You can import customers and vendors from a CSV file, which any spreadsheet can save. Shipments aren't imported from CSV today; most teams enter open jobs as they next work on them and keep the old sheet for reference.
- Is Optivis CMS worth it for a very small forwarder?
- If you move a few shipments a month, the free Lite plan (one user, five shipments a month) may be all you need. If a spreadsheet already works and nobody else needs the information, it's reasonable to stay with it.
- Can I still use Excel alongside Optivis CMS?
- Yes. You can export your data, including the main records as CSV, at any time and analyse it in Excel or Google Sheets.
- What does CMS mean here?
- CMS means cargo management system: software that runs freight jobs from quote to invoice. It isn't a content management system for websites.
Sources
Last checked: . Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
See your next shipment in Optivis CMS
Set up your workspace in a few minutes, load sample data to see every stage, or look around the live demo first.
Early access opens soon: a 14-day free trial of Pro, no card needed