Trips
A Trip is the central document of the Transportation Management (TMS) module: it groups the Invoices, Sales Orders/Dispatches or Sales Receipts that are being delivered together on the same run, along with the transportation Vendor, the equipment (truck/vehicle), the driver and, if applicable, the unloading Vendor and equipment. With this information AdmCloud calculates the freight and unloading cost, tracks the delivery status, and, once delivered, generates the carrier's bill for you.
What is it and what is it for?
When your company delivers merchandise on your own or third-party trucks, several Invoices, Sales Orders/Dispatches or Sales Receipts usually go out together on the same run. A Trip represents exactly that: a transportation run to which you assign the sales documents being delivered, the transportation Vendor (with its equipment, rate and driver) doing the delivery, and optionally a second unloading Vendor that receives or unloads the merchandise at destination.
From that information, AdmCloud automatically calculates the freight and unloading cost using your Transportation Rates (by Vendor, Route and Equipment Class), tracks the trip's status (planned, pending, sent, delivered), and once delivered, lets you generate the carrier's Bill with the freight cost directly, without re-typing it by hand.
How to use it
- Create the trip from the Planner ("From Planner" option under the New button): filter the pending Invoices and Dispatches by Location, Period (a single date-range control: when you open it you can pick a relative period such as "This month" or set the from/to dates on the calendars), Customer, Sales Rep, Sales Territory or Destination, check the documents you want to include (automatically grouped by Destination) and, for each destination, set the Transportation Equipment, the Driver (internal or external) and, if applicable, the unloading Equipment. On save, AdmCloud creates one trip per destination in Planned status.
- Or create the trip with Quick Add ("Quick Add" option under the New button) when you'd rather register the trip first and link the documents afterwards, one by one, from the "Linked Documents" tab on the Details screen.
- Complete the Equipment Load (the "Transportation Equipment Load" button, available on trips in Planned status): confirm or scan the transactions that were actually loaded, and fill in the Transportation Equipment, Driver and unloading Equipment if still missing. Once completed, the trip is ready to be sent.
- Change the status to "Sent" from the trip's Details screen, using the change-status menu (requires the "Change Status" permission). AdmCloud won't let you mark a trip as sent or delivered if it has no linked sales documents.
- Reconcile the delivery with "Delivered Transactions Conciliation" (available on trips in Sent status): confirm or scan which transactions were actually delivered to mark the trip as Delivered.
- Generate the carrier's bill from "Delivered Not Billed": filter by date, Subsidiary or Carrier the already-delivered trips whose transportation Vendor doesn't have a bill yet (and is set up to be included in this generation), enter the Application Date and generate the purchase bills in bulk.
- At any time you can edit the trip (transportation and unloading vendor, equipment, rate and drivers), link or unlink documents from the Linked Documents tab, check the delivery location on the map, or print it with a built-in or a custom template.
Status flow
A trip typically moves through these statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Planned | Created from the Planner and waiting for the Equipment Load to be completed. |
| Pending | The load is already confirmed (or the trip was created with Quick Add) and it's ready to be sent. |
| Sent | The trip is on its way to its destination. |
| Sent - Pending Internal Approval | The shipment needs approval before it's considered formally "Sent" (per your approval workflow). |
| Delivered | Delivery was confirmed through Delivered Transactions Conciliation; the trip is now ready to be billed to the carrier. |
| Delivered - Pending Internal Approval | The delivery needs approval before it's considered formally "Delivered". |
| Canceled | The trip was voided and no longer counts toward any report or cost calculation. |
Main capabilities
- A general list ("All") and a filtered list of trips in progress ("Pending"), with filters by date range, Subsidiary and Carrier.
- Creation from a Planner that automatically groups by Destination the Invoices and Dispatches still pending assignment to a trip.
- Equipment Load and Delivery Conciliation screens with document search/scanning, built for use right when the merchandise is being loaded or delivered.
- Two relationship types per trip: Transportation (the vendor, equipment, rate and driver doing the freight) and Support/Unloading (the vendor and equipment unloading at destination), each with its own vendor bill.
- Linking and unlinking sales documents (Invoices, Dispatches, Sales Receipts) at any time, from a search modal.
- A map showing each delivery location on the trip (based on the linked documents' shipping address).
- Bulk generation of carrier Bills for trips already delivered and not yet billed.
- Printing with built-in templates or your company's own HTML templates.
- Custom fields, attachments, change log and activities, just like other AdmCloud transactions.
- Automatic filtering by Subsidiary when that feature is enabled for your company.
Key fields
| Field | What it's used for |
|---|---|
| Number | Identifies the trip. Assigned automatically according to your numbering setup and can't be changed after creation. |
| Date | The trip's date. |
| Subsidiary | Required if your company has Subsidiaries enabled. |
| Reference | Optional free text to note any additional information about the trip. |
| Operation type (Transportation / Support) | Tells whether a row in the relationships table is the Vendor transporting the merchandise or the one unloading/receiving it at destination. |
| Vendor | The carrier (or the unloading vendor) responsible for that part of the trip. |
| Equipment | The vehicle or equipment (fixed asset) used to transport or unload the merchandise. |
| Rate | The Transportation Rate that determines the cost of that relationship; it must belong to the selected Vendor and match the Equipment's class. |
| Internal Driver / External Driver | Who drives the equipment: one of your employees (internal driver) or an external contact (external driver). Only one of the two can be set. |
| Vendor Bill | Read-only link to the purchase bill already generated for that relationship, if any. |
| Status | The trip's current status (see the "Status flow" table above). |
| Linked Documents | The Invoices, Dispatches or Sales Receipts traveling together on this run, each with its customer, address, city, destination and, if applicable, its delivery schedule. |
Validations when saving
- If your company has Subsidiaries enabled, the Subsidiary is required.
- If the trip has vendor relationships, at least one of them must have a Vendor set.
- If the trip is no longer in Planned status, the Transportation relationship must have an Equipment assigned, and if there's Equipment, there must also be a transportation Vendor.
- The selected Rate must belong to that relationship's Vendor and its Equipment Class must match the assigned Equipment; if there's more than one possible rate (or none) for that combination, AdmCloud can't resolve it automatically.
- You can't set both an Internal Driver and an External Driver on the same relationship.
- The trip's status can't be changed to Sent or Delivered if it has no linked Dispatches or Invoices.
- A voided trip can't be edited.
- The trip's Number can't be changed once it's been created.
- A trip can't be deleted if it's already referenced by other related records (for example, fuel dispatch requests generated from it).
Availability and permissions
- Trips are only available on the Enterprise plan, with the Transportation Management (TMS) module active for your company. If you don't see this screen in your menu, contact AdmCloud to activate the module.
- Viewing, creating, editing, deleting and voiding Trips requires the "Trips" permission (TMS_TRIPS) on your user group, with independent levels per action.
- Changing a trip's status from the Details screen also requires the "Change Status" permission (TMS_CHANGE_STATUS).
- The "Transportation Equipment Load" screen requires the specific TMS_TRANSPORT_EQUIPMENT_LOAD permission, and "Delivered Transactions Conciliation" requires TMS_DELIVERED_TRANSACTIONS_CONCILIATION.
- The delivery Schedule column on linked documents only shows up if the Address Schedules feature ("AddressesSchedules") is enabled for your company.
Tips and common mistakes
"Can't change the trip to this status without linked dispatches or invoices". Before marking a trip as Sent or Delivered, check that it has at least one sales document linked on the "Linked Documents" tab.
"The rate doesn't belong to this vendor" or "the equipment class doesn't match the rate". Check that the selected Rate was created for that same Vendor and for the same Equipment Class as the assigned vehicle; otherwise AdmCloud can't apply it.
"Cannot select an internal driver and an external driver". Each Transportation or Support relationship allows only one driver: pick either one of your employees or an external contact, not both.
A trip with no carrier bill won't show up as billed under "Delivered Not Billed" until that relationship's Vendor is flagged to be included in transportation bill generation; check that setting on the Vendor's record if it's not showing up in the list.
Use the Planner when you already know which Invoices or Dispatches will be delivered together: it saves you from linking each document by hand, since it automatically groups them by Destination. Use Quick Add when the trip is being put together on the fly and you'd rather add documents afterwards.