Clients01
The client book, from the Excel or CSV your program exports.
Air and sea freight forwarders Software for freight forwarders.
Software for freight forwarders.
From quote to invoice.
Cofactu is freight forwarding software (for transitarios, as they are called in Spain) that opens a file per shipment, whether sea, air, road, rail or multimodal, and takes it from quote to invoice: freight rates, HBL or HAWB, pre-alerts to the correspondent, container tracking with free days, planned and real margin and a VeriFactu invoice. Viewing files only needs Transport access; creating and working on them needs the Logistics plan, from €79/month excluding VAT.
One file, five modes
Fields → Sea01Air02Road03Rail04Multimodal05
What it holds.
Validated as you type.
If someone else saved it before you, Cofactu warns you instead of overwriting their changes.
| Number | EXP-year-number. Searchable by container, B/L, vessel, client or reference. |
|---|---|
| Direction | Import, export, cross-trade or domestic. |
| Mode and cargo | Sea (FCL, LCL, general cargo, Ro-Ro or bulk), air, road (full load or groupage), rail or multimodal. |
| Incoterm | Incoterms 2020 with their place. FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF are only accepted for sea. |
| Route | Ports by UN/LOCODE or airports by IATA code, place of collection and of delivery. |
| Main carriage | Shipping line or airline, vessel and voyage or flight, booking, MBL or MAWB and HBL or HAWB. |
| Containers | Number with the ISO 6346 check digit (one mistyped is rejected), type, seal and weight. |
| Parties | Shipper, consignee, notify party, origin agent and destination agent. |
| Statuses | Draft, booked, in transit, arrived, delivered and closed, without skipping steps. |
| Road | The Transport collection or delivery services, linked. “Create delivery” opens one with a line per container. |
| Customs | Lets you link Cofactu Customs files, currently in early access with no sign-up open. |
The journey From quote to invoice.
From quote to invoice.
In the same file.
- 1 · Quote
Freight rates and quotation
You choose route and cargo, compare each carrier's current rates and Cofactu adds freight, surcharges, THC, clearance and road delivery with your margin. Each quote has its number, CTZ-year-number.
- 2 · Accept
The quote opens the file
With the client, route, Incoterm, cargo and carrier, and each line as planned. The same quote always opens the same file, and an accepted one can no longer be edited.
- 3 · Document
HBL, pre-alert and arrival notice
You issue the HBL or HAWB, the arrival notice and the delivery order as PDFs, and send the pre-alert to the correspondent from the file.
- 4 · Track
Milestones, ETA and free days
You log the milestones or import the carrier's file: the current ETA and each container's free days are recalculated, and the AI Inbox warns you.
- 5 · Invoice
Real margin and a VeriFactu invoice
Sales move to a draft invoice with disbursements (suplidos) outside the taxable base. When the file is closed, the real margin is frozen until it is reopened.
Scroll
Compare carriers.
Quote with your margin.
Versioned rate tables, like the road ones, and a quote that adds freight, clearance and delivery with the same calculation as the file's planned figures.
| Rate tables | Purchase (from a shipping line, airline or agent) or sales (for a client or general). Each version is a draft, a published one with its validity dates, or a withdrawn one. |
|---|---|
| Charges | Freight, BAF, CAF, LSS, PSS, THC at origin and destination, ISPS, documentation costs, clearance fees and others. |
| Bases | Per container and type, per W/M in groupage, per chargeable kg in air, per file or as a % of freight, with their minimum and transit days. |
| Route | Origin and destination by UN/LOCODE or IATA; blank means any. The most specific line wins, and a tie is flagged. |
| Compare carriers | Each current purchase rate for the route and cargo, with its total per currency and its transit time. |
| Clearance | Optional: import duties and VAT estimated with TARIC, as disbursements, and the fees. It stores the TARIC version: it is an estimate, not the assessment. |
| Road | Delivery down to the postcode, with your road rate. |
| To the client | As a Cofactu quote, with PDF, link and acceptance: sales with their VAT and disbursements outside the base, never the costs. |
Rates and quotes only for roles with permission to see costs.
Container tracking The ETA that counts.
The ETA that counts.
The free days that remain.
Milestones are entered by hand or from the shipping line's file and go to the same place. The file's Tracking tab shows the ETA against the booking's, the deviation and each container with its free days.
Seven milestones, actual or estimated Departure, transshipment, arrival, discharge, available, picked up from terminal and empty returned, for a container or the vessel. They are entered by hand or by file, and the same event is not stored twice.
The ETA from the latest news The most recent estimated arrival received wins and, once there is an actual arrival, that one. Delay is measured against the ETA on the booking, and the actual departure and arrival fill in ATD and ATA.
Free days per container They count from the day after discharge, or from “available” if that comes first, and stop when it is picked up from the terminal. With 7 days and discharge on day 1, the last free day is day 8.
Alerts in the AI Inbox When the ETA drifts from the booking and when a container has 2 free days or fewer left; critical if charges already apply. They close by themselves when the vessel arrives or the container is picked up.
The HBL, issued.
The pre-alert, sent.
As PDFs, in Spanish or English. The draft has no number; when issued it receives the next one in your series and its content is frozen. Voiding does not release the number, and there is only one live HBL or HAWB per file.
| Document or send | What it carries |
|---|---|
| HBL · HBL-year-number | House bill of lading, sea and multimodal: parties, MBL, vessel and voyage, route, Incoterm, freight prepaid or collect, containers with seals and 1 to 3 originals. |
| HAWB · HAWB-year-number | House air waybill: MAWB, flight, route and chargeable weight with the 1:6000 air divisor. |
| Arrival notice · AL-year-number | Expected and actual arrival, terminal, available from, free days, charges payable by currency and documents needed. |
| Delivery order · OE-year-number | In favour of the haulier, with their NIF (Spanish tax ID) and plate, the customs release reference and only the containers being released. |
| Pre-alert | To the correspondent, at their operations email, with the file's documents (drafts included) and those received, such as the MBL. |
| Client notice | To the client, with the documents issued and those received. |
| Sending the arrival notice | To the client, with the latest arrival notice issued, in one click. |
Lucía reads the MBL.
You decide what goes in.
Upload the shipping line's bill of lading or the airline's AWB in the Documents tab. Lucía proposes, field by field, only what is new or different: anything that would overwrite existing data comes unticked, and a port that is not a valid code or a container with a misread check digit is not proposed.
A person applies it. Each reading uses the plan's AI credits, and the same file is not charged twice while its reading is pending.
Start freeFrom your program's Excel or CSV.
Shipping lines and correspondents02
As suppliers. For a correspondent you then add their operations email, their countries and their ports.
Open files03
One row per file, with its containers. The previous reference is kept and a second import duplicates nothing.
Tracking milestones04
The file the shipping line sends you, with milestones in Spanish, in English or in DCSA code.
What they publish.
What Cofactu does today.
Based on what Visual Trans and CargoWise say on their websites. Where Cofactu does not reach yet, the table says so too.
| Capability | vForwarding | CargoWise | Cofactu |
|---|---|---|---|
| File by mode | Sea, air and road | All modes, rail too | Sea, air, road, rail and multimodal |
| Purchase and sales rates and quotation | Not published | Yes, by route, carrier and goods | Yes: versioned rate tables, carrier comparison and a quote that opens the file |
| Container tracking | Yes, with more than 130 shipping lines | Yes | Milestones by hand or by file, with ETA, free days and alerts; no carrier connection yet |
| Profitability, planned versus actual | Not published | Not published | Yes, with received invoices allocated to the cent |
| File invoice with VeriFactu | Not published | Not published | Yes, with disbursements outside the base |
| HBL or HAWB, arrival notice and delivery order | Not published | Generates B/L and AWB | All four, in Spanish or English |
| Pre-alerts to correspondents | Not published | Not published | Yes, with the send kept in the history |
| AI that reads shipping documents | “Dossier con IA” (version 26.07) | Not published | Lucía reads the MBL or AWB and proposes; a person applies |
| Bookings with shipping lines and airlines | Bookings and slots | eBookings | No |
| EDI with ports | Portic and Valenciaport | EDI with clients, partners and authorities | No |
| Several offices or companies | Invoicing between offices | Not published | No |
| Electronic bill of lading | Not published | Yes, in its Value Packs | No |
| Price | Not public | Value Packs with a per-transaction charge | Logistics plan, from €79/month |
Logistics plan: €79, €149 or €249 a month with 3, 10 or 25 users, with a 30-day trial.
What a freight forwarder asks
before switching.
See pricing → What does Cofactu do as freight forwarding software?
It opens a file per shipment (sea, air, road, rail or multimodal) with its number EXP-year-number, and takes it from quote to invoice: freight rates and quotation, HBL or HAWB, arrival notice and delivery order, pre-alerts to the correspondent, container milestones with their ETA and free days, planned and real margin and a VeriFactu invoice (Spain's e-invoicing system). Delivery from the port is a Transport service in the same account.
Which plan do I need?
Creating and working on files, rate tables and quotes needs the Logistics plan: €79, €149 or €249 a month with 3, 10 or 25 users, with a 30-day trial. Viewing the files only needs Transport access, and if you leave the plan you can still view them. Rates, quotes and margins are only visible to roles with permission to see costs.
Can I bring my data from vForwarding, CargoWise or a spreadsheet?
Yes, from the Excel or CSV your program exports: clients, shipping lines and correspondents as suppliers, open files with their containers and tracking milestones. Columns are matched by name, by what the last import remembered or with help from Lucía, and you review them before importing. Each file's client must exist by its NIF (Spanish tax ID), and the previous reference is kept so a second import duplicates nothing.
Does Cofactu track containers with the shipping lines?
Not automatically yet. Milestones are entered by hand or from the file the shipping line sends, and with them Cofactu recalculates each container's ETA and free days and warns you in the AI Inbox about delays and about containers about to start incurring charges. The connection to a shipping-line aggregator is built and switched off until it is contracted.
How is the file's margin calculated?
Each sales or cost line has a concept, a currency with its rate to euros, a planned and a real amount, and VAT; accepting a quote creates them as planned. A shipping line's invoice is allocated to one or several cost lines and split in proportion to the planned amount, to the cent. The margin also adds the costs of the linked road services. Disbursements are kept apart and do not move the margin, and when the file is closed the real margin is frozen.
What does it not do yet?
Consolidating houses into a master, EDI with ports and PCS (port community systems), bookings with shipping lines, electronic bills of lading or invoicing between the companies of a group. Customs is in early access: the file lets you link its files, but it cannot yet be contracted or file real declarations with the AEAT (Spanish Tax Agency).
Keep reading through Transport
The road leg, in the same account.
- 01 Transport Services, planning, deliveries and road invoicing.
- 02 Planning The collection and delivery services that come out of the file.
- 03 Deliveries The signed delivery at destination.
- 04 Warehouse What waits in your warehouse before delivery.
- 05 DeCA The control document for the road delivery.
- 06 Consignment note The consignment note (carta de porte) for the road leg.
