Customer Portal

The Customer Portal gives your consignees a window into their operations without needing to call or email your team. It is a scoped, self-service view where each customer sees only their own data — shipments, production orders, invoices, outbound deliveries, inventory, and reports. With over 21 views covering the full product lifecycle, the portal turns your consignees from passive recipients into informed partners.

The portal mirrors much of what your internal team sees in EMS, but filtered to a single consignee. A customer cannot see another customer's data, pricing, or operations. This makes it safe to give every consignee their own login without worrying about information leaking between accounts.

Accessing the portal

Customers sign in to the portal through a dedicated URL, separate from the main EMS application. The sign-in page asks for an email address and password — no special software or VPN is required. It works in any modern web browser on desktop or tablet.

To set up a customer's portal account:

1. Go to Settings → Users in the main EMS application, or open the consignee's detail page and click the Portal Access tab.
2. Click Create Portal Account.
3. Enter the customer's email address and set an initial password.
4. Link the account to the correct consignee. This is the critical step — it determines which data the customer can see.
5. Save the account. The customer can now sign in.

You can create multiple portal accounts for the same consignee. This is useful when different people at the customer's organization need access — for example, their shipping coordinator, their accounting team, and their operations manager might each have their own login.

Shipment tracking

The Shipments view is usually the first place customers go when they sign in. It shows every shipment associated with their consignee, with real-time status updates.

Each shipment displays:

• AWB (Air Waybill) — the shipment's tracking number from the carrier
• Status — the current milestone in the shipment lifecycle, displayed as the same phase bar your internal team uses
• ETA — the estimated arrival date at your warehouse
• Box count — how many boxes are in this shipment
• Skid count — how many skids were built during receiving (shown once receiving is complete)

The milestone phase bar gives customers a visual snapshot of where their product is in the pipeline. The phases match the internal shipment workflow:

Clicking any shipment in the list opens its detail view. The detail page shows the full timeline of status changes with timestamps, the box-level manifest (once receiving is complete), and links to any related production orders or outbound deliveries.

Requesting a production order

Customers do not have to phone or email you to request a production order. From the portal, they can submit a structured PO request that goes directly into your admin queue.

To submit a PO request:

1. Click Request PO from the portal's Production tab.
2. Select products from the consignee's catalogue. Only products assigned to their consignee profile appear here.
3. Enter quantities for each excise region. EMS shows the regions that apply to this consignee's distribution footprint:
   • Federal — standard federal excise stamp
   • ON — Ontario provincial stamp
   • QC — Quebec provincial stamp
   • AB — Alberta provincial stamp
   • MB — Manitoba provincial stamp
4. Select preferred production dates. The customer can suggest a date range when they would like the production run to happen. Your team is not bound by this preference but it helps with scheduling.
5. Specify stamp sequence preferences if applicable. Some consignees have specific requirements for how stamps are applied or sequenced.
6. Click Submit Request.

The request lands in your admin queue with a status of Submitted. Your team reviews it and either approves, rejects, or sends it back for revision (see the next section for the full revision workflow).

PO revision workflow

The PO revision workflow is the most interactive part of the portal. It handles the back-and-forth between your customer and your admin team until both sides agree on the production order details.

Here is the full cycle:

1. Customer submits. The PO request enters the admin queue with status Submitted.
2. Admin reviews. Your team opens the request and checks product selection, quantities, regional breakdowns, and stamp availability.
3. Three possible outcomes:
   • Approve — the request becomes an active production order. The customer sees the status change to Approved on their portal.
   • Reject with reason — the request is closed. Admin provides a reason (for example, "product out of stock" or "stamp allocation insufficient"). The customer sees the rejection reason on their portal.
   • Send back for revision — admin adds a note explaining what needs to change (for example, "QC quantity exceeds available stamps — please reduce to 500 or fewer"). The customer receives a notification and the request moves to Revision Requested status.
4. Customer revises. The customer opens the request, reads the admin's note, makes the requested changes, and clicks Resubmit.
5. Cycle repeats. The resubmitted request goes back to the admin queue for another review. This loop can repeat as many times as needed until the request is approved or rejected.

At every stage, both the customer and the admin can see the current status, the full history of revisions, and all notes exchanged. Nothing is lost between rounds — the system keeps a complete audit trail of who changed what and when.

Viewing invoices

The Invoices tab in the portal shows all invoices that have been issued to the consignee. Customers can review their billing history, check payment status, and download invoices as PDF files.

The invoice list displays two categories:

• Issued — invoices that have been sent to the customer and are awaiting payment
• Paid — invoices that have been marked as paid by your admin team

Draft invoices are intentionally hidden from the portal. Your team can work on an invoice internally — adjusting line items, adding excise duty calculations, applying credits — without the customer seeing an unfinished version. The invoice only appears on the portal once it has been explicitly issued.

Each invoice in the portal shows:

• Invoice number and issue date
• Line items — product names, quantities, unit prices, and line totals
• Excise duty breakdown — federal and provincial duty amounts, shown separately
• Taxes — applicable tax calculations
• Total amount

Customers can click Download PDF on any invoice to get a professional, printable copy. The PDF matches the format your admin team sees internally, including dual sign-off lines for accounting records.

Outbound documents

The Outbound tab shows all dispatched deliveries for the consignee. Customers can track what has been shipped, view delivery details, and download the shipping documents they need for their own receiving process.

For each dispatched outbound order, the portal shows:

• Dispatch date and time
• Number of skids and total units shipped
• Delivery address
• Current delivery status

Two documents are available for download:

• Bill of Lading (BOL) — the same document your warehouse printed for the truck driver. The customer can download this before the delivery arrives so their receiving team knows what to expect.
• Packing List — the per-skid manifest showing box-level contents. Useful for the customer's team when checking product against the delivery.

The delivery status updates as the shipment progresses. When your team dispatches a load, the portal immediately reflects the dispatch. If you use a carrier integration that provides tracking updates, those updates flow through to the portal as well.

Inventory drilldown

The Inventory tab gives customers a real-time view of their product sitting in your warehouse. This is one of the most valued features of the portal because it answers the question every consignee asks: "How much of my product do you have right now?"

The inventory view shows:

• Available units — the total number of good, available units across all products
• Unstamped count — units that have been received but not yet stamped through production
• Per-region stamp breakdown — for stamped inventory, how many units are stamped for each excise region (any region you add)

The hierarchy follows the same structure as the admin Products view, but scoped to the consignee's products only:

Customers can expand and collapse the hierarchy to see as much or as little detail as they need. The top-level summary gives a quick count; drilling down to the variant level shows the exact regional breakdown.

Sub-accounts

Not everyone at a consignee's organization needs to see everything. The portal's sub-account system lets the primary portal user create additional logins with granular, per-section permissions.

To create a sub-account:

1. Sign in to the portal with the primary account.
2. Go to Account Settings → Sub-accounts.
3. Click Add Sub-account.
4. Enter the user's name and email address.
5. Set a password for the new account.
6. Select which portal sections this user can access. Available sections include:
   • Shipments
   • Production orders
   • Invoices
   • Outbound / deliveries
   • Inventory
   • Reports
   • Feedback
7. Save the sub-account.

Here are some practical examples of how sub-accounts work in real operations:

• Shipping coordinator — access to Shipments and Outbound only. They track what is coming in and going out but do not see pricing or invoices.
• Accounting team — access to Invoices and Reports. They can download invoices and run financial reports without seeing warehouse operations details.
• Operations manager — full access to all sections. They need the complete picture to make decisions.

Each sub-account gets its own login credentials. The primary account holder can edit permissions, reset passwords, or deactivate sub-accounts at any time without contacting your admin team.

Submitting feedback

The portal includes a built-in feedback channel so customers can report issues, suggest improvements, or ask questions without leaving the application.

To submit feedback:

1. Click the Feedback button, available from any page in the portal.
2. Select a category:
   • Bug — something is not working as expected
   • Suggestion — an idea for improvement
   • General — a question or comment that does not fit the other categories
3. Type your message. Be as specific as possible — include what you were trying to do, what happened, and what you expected to happen.
4. Click Submit.

Your admin team sees the feedback in the Feedback module within the main EMS application. Each submission includes a source badge that reads "Customer" so your team can immediately distinguish portal feedback from internal feedback. The consignee name and portal user are attached automatically.

Reports

Portal customers can generate reports scoped to their consignee. These reports use the same professional PDF format as internal EMS reports, with clean formatting and dual sign-off lines for record-keeping.

Available report types:

• Shipment summary — all shipments within a date range, with status, box counts, and timeline. Useful for reconciling what was sent versus what was received.
• Inventory report — current inventory snapshot showing all products, quantities, and regional stamp breakdowns. Useful for the consignee's own stock planning and reorder decisions.
• Production summary — all production orders within a date range, with quantities produced per region, stamp usage, and completion status. Useful for tracking production throughput and planning future PO requests.

To generate a report:

1. Go to the Reports tab in the portal.
2. Select the report type.
3. Choose the date range (for shipment and production reports) or leave it as "current" for inventory snapshots.
4. Click Generate.
5. The report opens in the PDF preview. Review it on screen, then download or print as needed.

Reports are generated on demand — they are not pre-built or cached. This means the data is always current as of the moment you click Generate. If your warehouse team just finished a receiving session five minutes ago, those numbers will already be reflected in the report.

Best practices

• Use sub-accounts to control access. Do not share the primary portal login across multiple people at the customer's organization. Create sub-accounts with appropriate permissions instead. This gives you an audit trail of who did what and prevents accidental changes by users who should not have full access.
• Check shipment tracking regularly. The portal updates in real time. Checking the Shipments tab daily keeps the customer informed about their product's progress and reduces the number of "where is my shipment?" calls to your team.
• Submit PO requests early. The revision workflow can take several rounds of back-and-forth between the customer and your admin team. Submitting requests well in advance of the desired production date gives both sides time to negotiate quantities, regions, and scheduling without rushing.
• Download invoices promptly. Once an invoice is issued, download the PDF for your accounting records. The portal retains all invoices indefinitely, but having a local copy ensures you have it even if there are connectivity issues.
• Use the inventory drilldown before placing PO requests. Check current inventory levels and regional stamp breakdowns before requesting new production. This helps you avoid ordering product you already have in stock and ensures your regional quantities align with actual demand.
• Provide specific feedback. When submitting feedback through the portal, include details: which page you were on, what you clicked, what happened versus what you expected. Vague feedback like "it does not work" is hard for the admin team to act on. Specific feedback gets resolved faster.