One Container, Five Documents and a Health Deadline: How I Stopped Tracking Imports in Spreadsheets

Importing supplements into Chile isn't just bringing in a container. Each load comes with five or six documents, an invoice in dollars or euros paid on a date that depends on when it arrives, a customs agency and, at the end, a health review that decides when you can sell what's already in the warehouse.

In the Chilean eCommerce business I built this imports dashboard for, all of that lived in spreadsheets and in the heads of two or three people. It worked until it didn't: a payment missed because the arrival date changed, a certificate missing with the ship already in port, a health review nobody was pushing.

The dashboard replaces those spreadsheets with one record per shipment and automatic alerts so nothing slips.

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Every shipment creates itself

The design rule was never to enter the same thing twice. When the team creates a shipment's transit warehouse in the ERP, the dashboard turns it into a shipment with supplier, purchase order, invoice, products with lot and expiration, and destination warehouse. It updates every dawn, or instantly with a button. If a load doesn't go through the ERP, it's created by hand.

A shipment moves through five states: to ship, in transit, at port, in customs and in warehouse. The last one happens on its own, when the goods are transferred to a real warehouse.

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Who rules each piece of data

• The ERP rules on the estimated arrival (ETA), the products and the invoice with its payment. The dashboard doesn't let you edit them.
• The ERP fills in if missing the destination warehouse and the supplier details.
• Only in the dashboard live the shipping line, the BL (the document that certifies the cargo), the container, the agency, the DIN (the customs declaration), the documents, the health review and other costs.

Every piece of data that comes from the ERP carries a badge, so one look tells you where to fix it.

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The dashboard and each shipment's card

At the top, indicators that filter with one click: in transit, arriving within seven days, overdue payments, payable within fourteen days, health review pending and shipments in red. Each card shows the status, days to arrival, the health review, missing documents, what's left to pay and lots with less than six months of shelf life.

Shipments appear as cards or rows, filter by company, status, supplier and payment, and sort by priority or arrival. On a phone everything stacks into one column.

The traffic light sums it all up: red if you need to act today, amber if it's soon, green if it's in order and gray if the shipment is already closed.

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The shipment record

• Summary: dates, logistics, amounts by currency and products. If the shipping line offers tracking, the dashboard checks it daily and updates the ETA on its own.
• Documents: invoice, packing list, BL, certificates, DIN and receipts, dragged into their slot.
• Costs and payments: each cost with its currency and due date. The invoice is marked paid on its own when it's paid in the ERP, and what the agency's provision covers isn't counted twice.
• Health review: the full process, from payment to approval.
• Log: what changed, who changed it and when.

The health deadline, in plain view

Imported supplements need authorization from the regional health authority (SEREMI de Salud) through a Use and Disposal (UyD) resolution. From the moment of payment, the authority has 30 business days to take up the process; the dashboard counts them excluding weekends and holidays, and alerts you when they run out so you can push. Running out invalidates nothing: it's an internal deadline for the authority, and only a rejection ends the process. Holidays are preloaded through 2030 and can be corrected.

UyDs are linked from the company's master product record, sometimes automatically, and the dashboard shows which products are authorized and which aren't.

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Pay on time without calculating dates

Each supplier has its own payment rule, for example ten days before arrival so they release the BL. The date calculates itself, moves if the ETA changes and, if it falls on a weekend or holiday, moves up to the previous business day.

The payments screen groups what's pending by week, with overdue items on top, totals by currency and CSV export. Exchange rates update on their own every day with the Banco Central's official rates, and a chart shows how much more or less the pending amount would cost if the dollar or the euro moves 5% or 10%.

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Calendar, suppliers and alerts

• Calendar of the coming weeks with arrivals, payments and inspections, and a block for overdue items.
• Supplier performance: punctuality, average delay, ETA changes, short-expiry lots and invoices paid on time.
• Daily alerts on upcoming arrivals, payments coming due, unscheduled inspections, missing documents and cargo held in customs, in the notification bell, by email and, for urgent ones, by WhatsApp.
• Configurable recipients : each person chooses their channel, their company and which alerts they receive.
• Permissions for admin, editor and read-only, per company.

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What the business gains

Peace of mind, because nobody has to remember what's due when. Time, because what's already in the ERP isn't typed again. And memory: over time, each shipment shows which supplier meets their deadlines and which doesn't. Those lead times feed the purchasing dashboard, and when the cargo arrives, the turnover and expiration system watches its dates.