Modifying Bill of Lading

A bill of lading (BOL) is a document issued by a carrier to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment. A bill of lading serves three main purposes:

  • Provides a receipt, i.e. an acknowledgement, that the goods have been loaded.
  • Contains the terms of the contract of carriage.
  • Serves as a document of title to the goods.

Bills of lading are required in international trade situations to ensure that exporters receive payment and importers receive the merchandise.

Configuration

The "Print outs menu" and "Printouts -- maintenance" security settings must be set to "Yes" for users who will build and modify report layouts. Additionally, the "Printouts -- edit report layouts for sales" setting is required to modify the BOL report. Other configuration considerations include Sales Orders created in DEACOM. If customers have just recently installed the DEACOM software, they may need relevant data loaded or created. This occurs during the Implementation process.

Users should also reference the "Configuration" section of the Managing Report Layouts page prior to creating any report.

Process

General process information on designing Report Layouts can be found in the Managing Report Layouts page.

Designing the Bill of Lading report

  1. Navigate to Print Outs > Maintenance > Report Layouts.
  2. Locate and select the "lading" system report in the list then click "Modify" to display the Printing Defaults form.
  3. In the "Name" field enter an appropriate name for the report. Note that this indicates the name of the report as it will appear in the pick list throughout the system when users select the report to print.
  4. Ensure "Type" is set to "Sale" and complete other fields on the Printing Defaults form as desired. Complete information on the fields available to this form are covered on the Report Layouts Encyclopedia page.
  5. Click "Add" to display the Printing Defaults form.
  6. Enter a caption for the new report, such as "u_BOL" so the system recognizes this version as a user-created version of the master system report. The value entered is up to the user, but we recommended that the value entered be preceded by "u_".
  7. Click "Save" to create the new report copy then close the Printing Defaults form.
  8. In the Edit Printing Default section of the Printing Defaults form, locate and select the newly added copy then click "Edit Report".
  9. On the User Report Name form, enter a name for the report then click "Continue" to open the Report Designer, which should display the default Bill Of Lading template as supplied by DEACOM.
  10. Modify the general layout of information on the report.
  11. Users may wish to print a few Bills Of Lading using the default template to understand what type of information is generally printed. This is accomplished by clicking the "Preview" button on the Report Designer toolbar.
  12. Typically, BOL reports will contain the following:
    1. Header: Form title, Company information (company name, logo, address, and contact information), Order information (Sales Order Number, Customer PO Number, Bill-to and Ship-to names and addresses), Shipment information (Ordered and Shipped dates, Freight payment method, Ship Via, Warehouse/Facility).
    2. Detail: Order line, Item Master information of the materials shipped (Part Number and Description, Freight information, Weight, Quantity, etc.).
    3. Footer: Date and time document was printed, page numbers, notes or instructions for how to handle the materials, etc.
  13. Once all sections have been designed, click "Save" to commit the changes, then close the Report Designer.
  14. Back on the Printing Defaults form, click "Save" then close the form to complete the process.

Printing BOL reports

To print a BOL report for a Sales Order:

  1. Navigate to Sales > Order Reporting > click "View". Users may also utilize the available filters to narrow down the list of Sales Orders that will be displayed.
  2. Locate and select the desired Sales Order and click "Print".
  3. On the Copies To Print form, confirm the "Report" selected and print settings then click "Print".