Forwarder Portal & Freight Quote System

The Forwarder Portal is a dedicated portal where a freight forwarder can review and respond to Freight quote requests received from buyers. It is accessed on the forwarder.tflowx.com domain, which is separate from the standard user portal (tflowx.com).

💡 Who uses it?

• Buyer: Requests Freight quotes from forwarder candidates within a project
• Forwarder: Receives quote requests in the dedicated portal → responds

🖼️ Screen capture Forwarder Portal login screen 📍 forwarder.tflowx.com · saved at images/forwarder/portal-login.png

1. Buyer — Requesting a Freight Quote (Steps P1–P6)

In a project's Freight & Insurance tab, click the Request Freight Quote button to open a 6-step wizard (P1–P6).

• After submission, a Freight Quote Request is created, and a notification and email are sent to each selected forwarder.
• A quote request card appears in the project's Freight tab, and the number of responses received updates each time a response comes in.

🖼️ Screen capture Freight quote request wizard (P1–P6), step-by-step screens 📍 Project > Freight & Insurance > Request Freight Quote · saved at images/forwarder/freight-request-wizard.png

💬 Try telling the chatbot:

• "Request a Freight quote from a forwarder."
• "Start a quote request for Ocean FCL."

2. Forwarder — Responding in the Dedicated Portal

Forwarder users access forwarder.tflowx.com with their TFlow email and password or Google sign-in — the same account they always use.

ℹ️ If you try to quote and see "This request is no longer accepting quotes", the buyer has already picked another forwarder or closed the request. If it says "Request information is missing", go back to the list and click Respond on the request card again.

• After logging in, a forwarder dashboard is displayed. (The AI chatbot Lyra is hidden in the forwarder portal.)
• Under Incoming Quote Requests, forwarders can see only the quote requests directed to their company.
  • Once your quote is selected, continue the work under Shipments (section 4).
• Click the Respond button on each request card to open the quote response form.

Quote Response Form

If you press Submit Quote and see "Please enter a price", the Freight Rate field is empty. The currency can only be USD or EUR.

• Submit Quote → immediately reflected in the buyer's project Freight tab, and a notification is shown to the buyer.

🖼️ Screen capture Forwarder quote response form 📍 forwarder.tflowx.com > Incoming Quote Requests > Respond · saved at images/forwarder/response-form.png

3. Comparing & Selecting Quotes

The buyer can compare quotes from multiple forwarders on a single screen in the project's Freight tab.

• Freight rate, total surcharges, Transit Time, and Validity are displayed side by side.
• Confirming the final forwarder with the Select This Quote button links that quote to the project's Freight schedule.
• All quotes other than the selected forwarder's are Archived.

🖼️ Screen capture Comparison screen for multiple forwarder quotes 📍 Project > Freight & Insurance · saved at images/forwarder/quote-compare.png

4. After Selection — Forwarder Work on a Shipment

When the shipper (seller) selects your quote (with Add forwarder to project left on, which is the default), the project appears under Shipments in the forwarder portal. Forwarder work is done in this portal, not in the main app (tflowx.com) — shipments you joined as a forwarder do not appear in the main app's project list, and opening one there points you to the portal.

• Shipments list: route (origin → destination), shipper and consignee, and the next date.
• Each shipment has three tabs: Summary · Documents · Comments.
• Quotations, PIs, POs, RFQs and payments are not visible to forwarders. The commercial invoice (CI) is shown with its prices, because customs clearance needs it.

🖼️ Screen capture Shipments list and summary 📍 forwarder.tflowx.com > Shipments · saved at images/forwarder/shipments.png

Entering the Shipping Schedule

In Shipping schedule at the top of the Summary tab, click a step with a pencil icon to enter its date.

• Choose Planned/Actual with the date, and mark steps that do not apply as Not applicable.
• When you enter a date, the shipper is notified and sees it as entered by forwarder.
• Steps such as Cargo ready and B/L issued are managed by the shipper (no pencil icon). If you see "Forwarders can't change this step", that is why.

Documents — Viewing, Uploading Shipping Documents, Entering Packing Weights

The Documents tab has two sections.

• Documents from the shipper: commercial invoice (CI), packing list (PL), B/L, certificate of origin, inspection certificates and similar. View opens a read-only preview; Download gets the original.
• My uploads: upload a draft B/L, booking confirmation, S/R and similar with Upload or drag and drop. AI identifies the document type (shown as analyzing), and the shipper reviews and approves it. You can delete your uploads until the shipper approves them.
• Entering packing weights: use Enter weights on a PL row to enter gross weight, net weight and measurement (CBM) per item. All other fields stay as the shipper wrote them.
  • A PL the shipper has approved cannot be edited.
  • If you see "The packing list changed while you were editing", the shipper saved the PL again in the meantime. The latest version is loaded — enter the weights again.

Comments

The Comments tab is one project conversation shared with the shipper and the consignee. Comments attached to individual documents (such as price discussions on a quotation) are not visible to forwarders. You can edit or delete only your own comments.

Upcoming Schedule

Upcoming schedule in the sidebar lists cargo closing, document closing, ETD and ETA across all your shipments by date (Today / Next 7 days / Later). Show the last 14 days also shows recent past dates.

Adding Colleagues

In the Participants card on the Summary tab, Add colleague adds a colleague from your forwarding company as a forwarder on this shipment. Only approved members of your company can be added, and you can remove colleagues from your company on this shipment (but not yourself).

💡 Troubleshooting (FAQ)

Q. The forwarder logs in to forwarder.tflowx.com but doesn't see the chatbot. A. This is intended behavior. The Lyra chatbot is disabled in the forwarder portal by design, so forwarders can focus on responding to quotes.

Q. Can I send a quote request to a forwarder who isn't in our friends list? A. Yes. If you enter the email directly in Step P5, an invitation email is sent, and once accepted, the forwarder is automatically added to your friends.

Q. I want to use KRW for forwarder quote currency. A. To standardize international logistics, only USD / EUR are currently allowed. Please specify the conversion exchange rate separately in the contract.

Q. Can a forwarder propose multiple routes (direct/transshipment) for a single request? A. There is one quote response per request. To present multiple options, describe the alternative routes in Notes, or issue a separate Freight request for each option.

Q. What happens if a forwarder doesn't respond? A. You can send reminder notifications before the Validity deadline, and once the deadline passes, the request is automatically marked Expired. You can then issue a new request.

Q. I can't see the project I joined as a forwarder in the main app (tflowx.com). A. This is intended — forwarder work is done in the forwarder portal. Use Open forwarder portal above the main app's project list. If you open the project from a notification or an old link, a button to the portal appears at the top. Projects your company imports or exports directly stay in the main app.

Q. I can't see quotation prices or payments. A. This is intended. Forwarders see only shipping documents (CI, PL, B/L, certificates). The CI shows its prices because customs needs them.

Q. Something went wrong in the portal. How do I report it? A. Press Help in the top bar → Report a problem. The last 2 minutes of your screen go to the operations team (password fields are hidden). If you don't see Help, send it as feedback instead. → Report a problem