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Shipment Matching and Search

Product Support avatar
Written by Product Support
Updated over 2 weeks ago

The Companion’s core job is to help you take an email you’re looking at in Outlook and quickly tie it to the correct shipment or declaration—so you can quickly get context, documents, or make updates in the right place.

Click here for a quick 1 minute video on how to use shipment search.

How does the Companion technically work? When you open an email, the Companion will:

  1. Read the email context (e.g. subject/body/metadata + attachments when present)

  2. Extract key identifiers (e.g. file numbers, bill numbers, container IDs, reference IDs, etc)

  3. Suggest the most likely shipment or declaration (or a short list of candidates)

  4. Let you choose the matching file or search for the correct file if needed

Once a shipment/declaration is selected, you can proceed with the rest of your workflow (e.g. getting Shipment details, uploading documents, etc) as the Companion will remember this choice incase you return to this email again in the future.

Common Workflow

In most situations you’ll utilize the Companion to locate shipment details to upload e-docs, start creating files or additional jobs, and make updates.

  1. Open the email thread you’re working on

  2. Review the suggested match in the Companion

  3. Confirm the shipment (or switch it if needed)

  4. Continue your task (upload docs, review details, etc.)

How to Interpret Shipment Match Results

There are a couple likely results you’ll see as you open up emails broken down into three categories. Here’s how you can approach each one.

1) One clear match found

You'll see a single suggested shipment/declaration which is the ideal experience. You can click View Details to view the Shipment Details. The Companion will remember your choice and bring this particular Shipment up anytime you look at this email.

Quick verification checks:

  • Does the customer/shipper/consignee look right?

  • Do bill/container/reference numbers align with the email content?

  • Does the origin/destination context match the thread?

2) Multiple possible shipments found

This happens when the email contains identifiers that may apply to more than one file which is common with older Container IDs, Customer Reference Numbers, or PO Numbers.

What to do:

  1. Scan the candidates for the strongest confirming signals:

    • File number / entry number / internal reference

    • MBL/HBL

    • Container number

    • Customer name + route + dates

  2. If one candidate clearly matches, click View Details.

  3. If you’re still not sure, you can click View Details to gather more context from the Shipment as you can easily return to this list by clicking the Back Arrow.

  4. It’s possible that multiple Shipments might be related to email. That’s okay. If you find unrelated Shipments, you can press the Unlink Button and remove them from the list.

Best Practices

  • Prefer high-signal identifiers (file number, MBL/HBL, container) over reusable IDs like Container ID.

  • Unlink unrelated shipments so that if you return to this email you’ll have the correct Shipment ready to go for next time.

3) No shipment found

This usually means the email doesn’t contain enough usable identifiers, the file hasn’t been created yet, or the shipment exists but is hard to locate with the available context. Sometimes the AI just misses the context.

What to do:

  1. Try Shipment Search using any identifier you can find:

    • File number

    • MBL/HBL

    • Container number

    • Purchase order / booking reference

  2. If search still doesn’t find it:

    • Shipment or file might not exist yet.

    • Check if the email was sent to/forwarded from a shared mailbox that isn’t enabled for processing.

  3. You can jump back into CargoWise to look up the shipment.

Why matches can be imperfect

The Companion is working from what’s available in the email. Matching quality depends on:

  • Whether the email contains unique identifiers

  • Whether attachments include identifying details

  • Whether identifiers are reused across shipments (common in logistics threads)

  • Whether the shipment/declaration exists in the system yet

Available Shipment Information

The Companion makes much of the Shipment file available from within Outlook. We’ll go through those fields and show you where to find specific information.

Shipment Listing

You will see a list of Shipments show up initially. Click the View Details button on each card to view the Shipment. If a particular Shipment is unrelated you can Unlink it by clicking the Unlink Icon.

Reference Numbers

  • The Reference ID link will navigate to your instance of Logixboard

  • Links with a 🔍 will take you to the carrier website.

    • The MBL/BOL number if it is a link

    • A link under the container number with a 🔍

  • Organizations related to the shipment will display with their type, and any contact info that is on the shipment<>org relation

    • Email links within the organization information will open a new draft email to that email with the selected shipment reference as the email subject

Shipment Routes

  • The port of origin, and port of destination will show along with their estimated/actual dates depending on what is filled out in CW1

  • If there is a delivery address, that will appear below origin/destination ports along with its respective estimated/actual date.

Documents (eDocs)

  • The documents listed in the add-in are the Published documents in Cargowise, these are the documents available to users of your Logixboard instance.

  • Clicking a file will download it to your computer so that it can be attached to an email or used in some other way.

Related Articles
Search
Detailed Shipment View
CargoWise One Visual Mapping Guide - Forwarding Shipments
Operator Handbook
Document Upload (eDocs)
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