Built for How Freight Forwarders Actually Work: Inside TrakIT's Approach to Workflow, Automation, and Africa's Complexity

Every freight forwarder eventually hits the same wall with off-the-shelf logistics software: the platform was built for someone else's business.

Maybe it assumes a workflow you don't follow. Maybe it charges more every time you add a team member. Maybe it was designed for a market where customs documentation is uniform and predictable - and then falls apart the moment you're routing a shipment through three countries with three different regulatory regimes.

TrakIT was built to solve that problem from day one, in the market where it matters most: Africa. Today it supports freight forwarders across 50+ countries, with deep, battle-tested coverage across 30+ African markets - and everything about the platform, from its workflow engine to its pricing model, reflects the lessons learned getting logistics software right in the world's most operationally complex trade corridors.

Your Workflow, Not a Template

Most logistics platforms give you a fixed process and ask you to adapt your business to fit it. TrakIT does the opposite.

Its workflow engine was designed around a simple reality: no two freight forwarders operate identically, and a forwarder moving goods through Lagos, Mombasa, and Douala can't run the same approval chain, documentation sequence, or exception-handling process as one working purely intra-Europe. Multi-country regulatory complexity isn't an edge case for TrakIT - it's the foundation the architecture was built on.

That means you can configure workflows around how your operations, compliance, and documentation teams actually work - not the other way around. Custom approval stages, conditional routing based on shipment type or destination, role-specific task assignment, and country-specific documentation requirements are all things you configure, not things you request from a vendor roadmap and wait months for.

Reporting That Runs Itself

Ask any ops manager what eats their week, and "pulling reports" is near the top of the list. TrakIT's reporting automation is built to take that off your plate entirely - scheduled reports generated and distributed automatically, so your team, your clients, and your partners get the visibility they need without anyone manually exporting a spreadsheet at 6pm on a Friday.

Because the platform understands shipment data natively, reports aren't static exports - they reflect the real-time state of your operations, filtered and formatted for whoever's reading them: a client wants shipment status, your finance team wants revenue by lane, your ops lead wants exception flags. Same underlying data, automatically shaped for each audience.

Automation That Actually Reduces Work

TrakIT's automated actions go beyond reminders. The platform can trigger real operational events based on rules you define - status updates cascading through a shipment's lifecycle, notifications firing when a milestone is hit or missed, documents routing to the right person the moment they're uploaded. It's the difference between software that tells you something needs attention and software that handles it.

Two features stand out here, both born from real forwarder pain points:

OCR bill of lading extraction - pull structured data directly from BOL documents instead of manually keying it in, cutting a slow, error-prone step out of your process entirely.

Natural language shipment queries - ask TrakIT a question the way you'd ask a colleague ("which Mombasa shipments are delayed past 5 days?") instead of hunting through filters and dashboards.

Integrations Without the Integration Headache

Freight forwarding doesn't happen in one system - it happens across carriers, customs platforms, client portals, and internal finance tools. TrakIT is built to connect to that ecosystem rather than compete with it, with an integration architecture designed to plug into the carrier and customs systems you already depend on. The goal isn't to make you migrate everything to one walled garden - it's to make TrakIT the operational hub that ties the systems you already use together.

Pricing That Scales the Way You Do

Here's where TrakIT breaks from almost every competitor in the space: no per-user fees. Add your whole documentation team, bring on seasonal staff, give your finance department visibility - none of it adds to your bill. For forwarders running lean, growing teams, or seasonal operations (which describes most of the industry), this alone changes the economics of adopting proper logistics software.

Why This Matters Most in Africa

Africa's freight forwarding market has historically been underserved by logistics software built for simpler, more homogeneous trade lanes. Multi-jurisdictional documentation, inconsistent customs digitisation, and highly variable regulatory requirements from country to country have made "off-the-shelf" software a poor fit for forwarders operating across the continent.

TrakIT was shaped by exactly that complexity - not adapted to it after the fact. That's the difference between a platform that tolerates African market conditions and one that was actually designed around them.

See It on Your Own Operations

The best way to understand what a purpose-built platform feels like is to see it against your own workflows, your own shipment volumes, and your own team structure.

Ready to see TrakIT in action? Request a demo, and we'll walk through how it fits your operation - no per-user pricing surprises, no generic sales pitch, just a real look at whether it's the right fit.

Faster searches with "Skip Count"

TrakIT features a new Skip Count checkbox in the filter panel on the Operations and Finance Jobs pages (located just to the left of the Search button) designed to significantly speed up slow searches.

How TrakIT Searches Work

Normally, every search triggers two separate database queries:

1. Count Query: Counts every matching row to determine the total (e.g., “1,482 Found”) and calculates pagination. This can be slow on broad searches because the database must scan every matching record.
2. Data Query: Fetches the specific rows for the current page (e.g., the first 20 records). This is typically very fast.

Enabling Skip Count bypasses the first query entirely, delivering your results instantly without waiting for a total count.

What Changes When “Skip Count” is Enabled

• Pagination Limited to One Page: With no total count, the pager displays only a single page with no “next” option. Sorting and filtering continue to work normally. Note: You can select “Rows per page” (i.e. 20, 50, 100, 200) from the dropdown placed at the bottom of the result table.
• Estimated Results Label: The results label changes from an exact count to “20+ Found” (indicating at least that many, and likely more). If fewer rows match than fit on a page, it displays the exact count (e.g., “12 Found”).
• Export Restrictions on Operations: Export is temporarily hidden on Operations while the box is ticked (as exports require a real total to verify size limits). Finance Job exports remain unaffected.

When to Use It

• Use it when you need a fast result for a specific item sorted near the top (newest jobs, highest value, etc.) and the grand total doesn't matter.
• Leave it off when you need to measure data (e.g., “how many jobs are still open?”), plan to export data, or need to browse through multiple pages of results.
• Pro Tip: If a search is running slowly, tick the box to quickly confirm you have the right rows, refine your filters, and then untick it once your search criteria are narrow enough.

Profile preferences

Your preference is saved to your user profile so it stays active the next time you open the page. Operations and Finance Job pages remember this setting separately. If you see “20+ Found” unexpectedly, check the filter panel to see if the box is still ticked from a previous session.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Export Exactly What You Need: The New Work Order Export

Exporting work-order data in TrakIT was never one-size-fits-all - you could already compose your own export and pick which columns to include. But the old experience was clunky, and once you'd chosen your fields, there was little you could do with them: no control over formatting, no alignment, no choice of which aspect of a field to pull. The redesigned Work Order Export keeps the composable foundation and rebuilds everything around it. The result is faster to work with and genuinely customisable down to the individual column - you choose the fields, their order, their format, and how the file is delivered, and TrakIT remembers it all for next time.

Here's how it works and why it matters.

It starts with your filters

The export always reflects what you're already looking at. When you filter the job list down to the work orders you care about - a customer, a workflow, a date range, a status - and click Export, TrakIT carries your exact query into the export. There's no re-selecting records and no risk of exporting the wrong set. If nothing matches, or you've selected more work orders than your organisation's limit allows, TrakIT tells you up front rather than producing an empty or oversized file.

A two-panel composer

The export window is split into two panels:

Available Fields (left) - everything you can add, organised into four tabs.

Selected Fields (right) - the columns your export will actually contain, in order.

Click any available field to add it; drag rows in the selected list to reorder them. The Work Order ID is always included as the first column, so every export is traceable back to the source record.

Four kinds of data, one export

The available fields are grouped into four tabs, each searchable with a live count:

Header - core work-order attributes: customer, shipper, transporter, origin and destination, container number and size, status, dates, and dozens more.

Events - operational milestones from the workflow.

Data - the custom data fields captured against your work orders.

KPIs - calculated performance metrics.

Mixing all four in a single file means one export can answer a question that used to require stitching several reports together.

Control every column

This is where the "composed" part earns its name. Each selected column carries its own settings:

Option - for Events and Data fields, you don't just get the value. You can pull the Value, the Remarks, Updated On, or Updated By. Want both the milestone date and who recorded it? Add the same field twice with two different options. For KPIs, you choose Hours or Days.

Format - apply an Excel format string like #,##0.00 for numbers or dd-MMM-yyyy for dates, so the file arrives report-ready.

Alignment - left, center, or right per column.

You can compose up to 30 fields per export - enough for a rich report, while keeping files fast to generate and easy to read.

Choose how it's delivered

When you're done, pick your delivery method:

Download Now - the file is generated and downloaded immediately. Perfect for quick, everyday pulls.

Send Email - TrakIT builds the file in the background and emails it to you, closing the window right away. Ideal for large exports, so you're never left watching a spinner or tying up your session.

Your layout is saved automatically

The columns you choose, their order, formats, alignment, and your preferred delivery method are all saved to your profile. The next time you open the export, your composition is already there. 

The benefits, in short

• Self-service reporting. Build the exact report you need without waiting on a custom development request or a new template.
• One file, four data domains. Header attributes, events, custom data, and KPIs together - no more merging spreadsheets by hand.
• More than just values. Pulling Updated On and Updated By alongside a value gives you a built-in audit trail: not just what happened, but when and who recorded it.
• Presentation-ready output. Column order, number/date formats, and alignment are baked in, so the file is ready to share the moment it lands.
• Consistency across reports. Saved layouts mean recurring reports look the same every time - no drift, no rebuilding.
• Built to scale. Background email delivery handles large pulls gracefully, while system limits and a 30-field cap keep exports fast and your environment healthy.
• Speaks your language. Column names reflect your organisation's configured terminology (your own labels for customer, shipper, transporter, and more), so the output matches how your team actually talks about the business.

A few tips

• Search before you scroll. Each tab has a search box - type a few letters to jump straight to the field you want.
• Use two options on one field when you need both the data and its provenance (e.g., an event's value and who updated it).
• For big date ranges, choose Send Email. Let TrakIT do the heavy lifting in the background while you carry on working.

The new Work Order Export replaces a rigid, one-size-fits-all download with a flexible report builder that remembers your preferences and adapts to your workflow. Filter, compose, and export - exactly what you need, every time.

For any questions, as always, please contact Support.

Introducing Lead Management in TrakIT

Your sales pipeline starts with a lead - and TrakIT's CRM module gives you everything you need to track it from first contact to closed deal.

Creating and Organising Leads

Every lead in TrakIT captures the full picture of an opportunity: the company name and primary contact, their designation, phone, email, website, address, and country. You can also attach an estimated deal value with currency, a probability percentage (0-100), and an expected close date - all the information your team needs to prioritise their day.

Each lead is automatically assigned a unique code in the format LEAD-YYYY-NNNNN, so referencing it in emails, notes, or conversations is unambiguous.

When creating a lead, you also select:

• Lead Source - where the opportunity came from (e.g. Referral, Website, Cold Call). Sources are fully configurable by administrators and can be grouped by channel type.
• Lead Stage - the current step in your sales process. Stages are colour-coded and are also administrator-defined, so they reflect your team's actual workflow rather than a generic template.
• Rating - Hot, Warm, or Cold. A quick visual signal for how urgent an opportunity is.
• Assigned To - the team member responsible for this lead, along with the responsible office.

Moving Through the Pipeline

As a lead progresses, use Change Status to move it to the next stage. Every status change is recorded in a Stage History log - so you can always see who moved a lead, from which stage, and when. This gives managers a clear view of velocity and helps teams identify where deals tend to stall.

Multiple Contacts per Lead

Real deals involve more than one person. On a lead's Contacts tab, you can add as many contacts as needed - each with their own name, designation, phone, email, and social/LinkedIn URL. Mark one as the primary contact so your team always knows who to call first.

Activities, Comments, and Attachments

The lead detail page is organised into tabs so related information stays grouped and accessible:

• Activities - log calls, meetings, follow-ups, and other sales activities directly against a lead.
• Comments - leave internal notes for your colleagues without cluttering the main record.
• Attachments - upload proposals, contracts, brochures, or any relevant documents.
• Action Log - a full audit trail of every change made to the lead, including who made it and when.
• Custom extra fields configured for your office also appear on the lead, letting you capture any information specific to your business.

Converting a Won Lead

When a deal closes, TrakIT makes the handoff seamless. Once a lead reaches a Won status, a Convert button appears. Converting a lead creates a full Entity record (Customer, Prospect, or any other entity type you use) pre-populated with the lead's company details. All contacts from the lead are copied across automatically - no re-entry needed.

Once converted, the lead is locked and linked to the new entity, preserving the history while your operations team picks up the relationship.

The Contacts Page

The CRM Contacts page gives you a single place to browse and manage all contacts across every lead and entity in the system - useful when you need to find a person without knowing exactly which record they belong to.

Filter contacts by:

• Name, email, or phone number
• Type - Lead contacts or Entity contacts
• Primary contacts only (useful when you need decision-makers fast)

Each row shows the contact's parent lead or entity as a clickable link so you can jump straight to the record. Click any contact to open an edit panel where you can update their details or remove them if needed.

Filter settings are remembered between sessions, so your Contacts view picks up where you left off.

Lead Management in TrakIT is designed to keep your team aligned and your pipeline moving - from the first enquiry through to a closed, converted customer.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support. We are open to feedback and suggestions.

AI Vendor Bill Extraction Now Available

Creating vendor bills in TrakIT just became faster and far more convenient. TrakIT now includes an AI‑based PDF extraction feature that automatically reads and fills in bill details for you.

How it works

When creating a new bill:

1. On Finance > Bills, click 'Add Bill' to open the bill creation pop‑up

2. Drag and drop the PDF file - scanned or digital - into the drop zone at the top

3. Wait a few seconds while the AI processes the document

4. Key information from the bill will be automatically populated into the relevant fields

This reduces manual data entry, speeds up billing, and helps ensure consistency across your records.

Accuracy and verification

For high‑quality PDFs, extraction is typically very accurate. However, for low‑resolution or poorly scanned documents, the AI may misread certain fields.

Please review all extracted information before creating the bill.

Technology behind the feature

TrakIT uses the getbl.ai service to intelligently extract structured data from uploaded documents, enabling fast and reliable processing.

Need help?

If you have any questions, feedback, or encounter issues, please reach out to TrakIT Support. We’re here to help you get the most out of this new feature.