Work the Document Review queue
Document Review is the single queue where every document Conterminal receives for your workspace waits for a person. This is how the queue is organized, how to find one document in it, how to add documents yourself, and how to get a stack of them onto paper.
8 minute read · Updated September 9, 2026
Carriers and forwarders do not see the same table.
A trucker or importer workspace gets a checkbox table with keyword search, column filters, and batch printing. A freight-forwarder workspace gets the same queue tabs and keyword search around Express Review: a row list with an inspector panel on the right, without checkbox printing. Both are the same route, but the review body still reflects the workspace's job.
Rows and document details load separately
The Conterminal logo and “Loading documents” appear while the inbox is waiting for its first rows. In carrier workspaces, documents are available before supplemental vessel, carrier, and terminal details finish updating. A message shows when the inbox or its details are updating, including when you leave an empty queue. Recent queue visits appear immediately while Conterminal checks for changes. If an update fails, use Retry in the inbox.
What lands in the queue
Document Review lives at /protected/inbox and is reachable from the left navigation as Document Review. It is available to trucker, importer, and freight-forwarder workspaces; a warehouse workspace does not have it. Documents reach it three ways:
- Email. A message sent or forwarded to your workspace delivery-order address. The address is per workspace and is shown on the empty state as Forward documents to ….
- The Gmail and Outlook mailbox add-ons. You pick individual attachments out of a message and classify each one as a Delivery Order, Request for Quote, Proof of Delivery, Interchange Receipt, or Other Document before submitting it.
- Manual upload. The + Add Documents button on this page.
While a document is being read, a live row appears above the table with an animated indicator, a phase label such as Reading PDF, Checking document type, or Parsing delivery-order fields, the source file name, the sender, and a running elapsed timer. Those rows only show in the bucket the document belongs to, and the live connection only runs while you are on the inbox itself or on a review screen. If you are somewhere else in the app, nothing streams to you.
The elapsed time starts when Conterminal begins the current processing run — not when the email was received. After ten minutes the row changes to Processing is taking longer than expected. That is a slow-work notice, not a failure. If the worker eventually stops after all retries, the animated row disappears and the document remains in its review bucket with a Retry processing action.
Two kinds of row, and why it matters
- Staged attachment
- A document that arrived and is not attached to anything yet. It has its own attachment record, so it can be selected, batch-printed, attached to a tracking item, or archived.
- Ingest event
- A parsed document already matched to a delivery order and waiting for confirmation. It has no separate attachment to select, so it has no checkbox — open it and confirm it instead.
When the queue is genuinely empty you get No documents need review with the + Add Documents button and the forwarding address side by side. When a search returns nothing you get No inbox matches and the hint Try a container number, bill of lading, issuer, or receiver. Those are different states: the second one means your filters are hiding rows, not that the queue is clear.
Queue tabs
Document Review is one stable destination in the left navigation. The individual queues are static tabs in the data sheet on a wide screen and a single dropdown labeled Current queue on a phone. The left navigation no longer expands or contracts as you move between queues. Every tab carries a count badge. A badge showing — means that count has not loaded yet, not that the bucket is empty.
Every workspace
- Delivery Orders
- Delivery-order documents waiting for assignment or confirmation. This is the default bucket.
- Proof of Delivery
- POD documents waiting to be filed against a container.
- Interchange Receipts
- Equipment interchange receipts (EIRs) waiting to be assigned to a container as a gate document.
- Unknown
- Everything that is not a delivery order, a proof of delivery, or an interchange receipt — invoices, packing lists, and anything the classifier could not place. Nothing drains this bucket but you.
- Recently Confirmed
- Work finished in the last 7 days, kept for quick verification. Open the row to view the shipment. When that confirmation has a POD, use the separate Open POD action at the right edge of the row.
- Archived
- Documents taken out of the queue without being applied. Retained for audit.
Freight-forwarder workspaces use the same document-type tabs. The Delivery Orders tab opens Express Review; Proof of Delivery, Interchange Receipts, and Unknown use the standard document assignment table.
Searching and filtering
The data-sheet toolbar contains a search box with the placeholder Search container, B/L, issuer, or receiver.... Search covers the full authorized queue, not just the visible page. In the standard table, Select and Container form a fixed leading identity block, so the container remains visible while the other columns scroll. Trucker and importer tables also have three column-header filters:
- Receiver
- A searchable list of the receivers present in the current queue, with counts. Multiple receivers can be selected.
- Container
- A free-text search box in the column header. One container at a time.
- Document date
- A date picker in the column header, matching the date printed on the document rather than the date it arrived. One date at a time.
The page rewrites your filters.
Container, document type, and document date are single-value filters. If a link or a stale bookmark carries more than one value, the page keeps the first and redirects. It also strips query parameters it does not recognize, and forces a document type when none is set, so the URL you land on is often not the URL you clicked. This is normal — but it means a filter you did not choose can appear selected.
The two history buckets deliberately narrow what you can filter on. Recently Confirmed keeps only the keyword and the container filter and drops the rest. Archived drops everything, including the keyword, and always shows the whole archive newest-first. Do not expect a filter you set in the review queue to still apply after you switch buckets.
Express Review shares the queue-wide keyword search and adds a Status column filter for Missing fields and Warnings. Its other columns remain plain labels; use search for a container, bill of lading, issuer, or receiver.
Uploading documents yourself
+ Add Documents sits at the right end of the footer tab rail under the table. It opens a four-item menu, and the item you pick sets the document type for every file in that batch. Workspaces with spreadsheet import access get a fifth item, Spreadsheet, which opens the operations spreadsheet importer instead of the file picker.
- Pick the type first. The menu items are Delivery Order, Proof of Delivery, Interchange Receipt, and Other Document. There is no way to change the type mid-batch, so upload mixed paperwork in separate passes.
- For a container list, choose Spreadsheet. This is a separate Excel/CSV workflow, not a document attachment. It accepts one .xlsx, .xls, or .csv file up to 25 MB and 50,000 rows, then lets the carrier link strong existing matches or create native operations records without a delivery-order document.
- Choose one or more files. Accepted formats are PDF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF. A file that fails this check is rejected with … must be a PDF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF file. Delivery Orders are stricter: a non-PDF is rejected with Delivery Order uploads must be PDFs. An empty file is rejected with … is empty.
- Wait for the batch. Files upload one at a time, not in parallel. The button is disabled for the whole batch and a status box counts through Uploading 2 of 5…. Leaving the page mid-batch abandons the files that have not been sent yet.
- Read the summary. You get Uploaded 5 documents. on a clean batch or Uploaded 4 of 5 documents. when something failed, followed by 1 file needs attention and the failing file names with their reasons. Only the first four are listed; the rest are summarized as +2 more failed files.
A Delivery Order upload behaves differently from the other three types because it is parsed before it is staged. The upload waits up to 90 seconds for the parser. If parsing finishes in that window the document is staged and the activity feed reports Delivery order ready for review. If the parser is still working when the wait runs out you get Delivery order queued for review instead — the file was accepted, and it appears in the Delivery Orders bucket on its own once parsing finishes. Do not upload it again. If parsing actually fails, the file is counted as a failure with the parser's own reason, or Delivery-order parser could not parse this file. when it gave none.
A Proof of Delivery upload is scanned automatically, but only when it is a PDF. An image POD is accepted and staged with the note POD scan runs on PDFs only. This file is staged for manual review. Nothing is lost — the document still reaches the queue — but you will be reading it yourself rather than checking a scan result.
A POD date can still need review
Finding a container or scanning a barcode does not establish when it was delivered. Conterminal reads the delivery date from the proof. Missing, unreadable, conflicting, or future dates remain for review; they do not replace the shipment's current proof or use the email receipt day. Check the original document before confirming its date. Uploading a POD directly to a shipment requires the actual delivery day.
Forwarding documents in by email
Email is the normal intake path and the one worth setting up properly, because it puts documents in the queue without anyone downloading and re-uploading a PDF. Each workspace has its own delivery-order address; the empty state on this page shows yours on the Forward documents to … button, which opens a pre-addressed message with the subject Delivery order documents.
For the sending side — which address to use, what to do about senders who reply to the thread instead of forwarding, and how attachments are picked out of a message — see Send delivery orders to Conterminal by email.
Opening a row for review
In the trucker and importer table, clicking anywhere on a row opens it. Clicks that land on something interactive inside the row — the checkbox, the container number, a column-header control — do their own thing instead. On a phone the same rows render as cards. The review screen that opens depends on what the document is: a delivery order opens the assignment review, a quarantined document opens the warning review, an RFQ opens Start quote from RFQ, and PODs and interchange receipts each open their own screen. All of them keep a < Back to Inbox link that returns you to the queue with your filters and page intact, and carry your position through the queue so you can work straight through it.
RFQs create a draft, not a customer-facing quote.
In a carrier workspace, an admin or manager reviews the customer, dates, equipment, pickup, delivery, accessorials, and references, then selects Create unpriced quote draft. Conterminal matches or creates the customer prospect, creates the opportunity, and opens New Quote with the confirmed RFQ facts prefilled. The same opportunity remains available in Quote Manager. Luna extraction is not connected in this release, so the reviewer must confirm the commercial facts. Archiving the RFQ prevents quote creation; restore it before continuing.
There are three ways a document leaves the queue, and only one of them is the actual review:
Recently Confirmed is a history view, not another review queue. Clicking a confirmed row opens the shipment page. Use the row's Open POD action only when you want the generated proof-of-delivery screen; confirmations without a printable POD do not show that action. Confirmed delivery orders also have a Print DO button. In any inbox workspace you can select those rows and print their source PDFs from the bottom bar. Carrier workspaces still have the generated-POD print action too.
- Complete the review
- Assign and confirm the document. See Review and confirm a delivery order. Background carrier enrichment may keep improving the suggested fields, but it never blocks manual confirmation: once the assignment row is prepared, a dispatcher can continue whenever the document needs to move.
- Attach as misc document
- Opens Attach to a tracking item. Search by container, MBL, booking, PO, or reference, add a note, then Attach and remove from review. The file is filed under Miscellaneous Documents on that record. On an interchange receipt the same dialog is labeled Assign receipt to a record and files it as a gate document.
- Archive document
- Takes the document out of the queue without applying it. It lands in Archived with the reason shown, and can be restored with Unarchive document.
Attaching as a misc document is not reversible from the Archived list. A document archived that way is filed against a record and the Unarchive document button is not offered for it. Only a plain no-op archive can be restored, and only in trucker and freight-forwarder workspaces. Archive when a document is genuinely not actionable; attach when you know where it belongs.
Accepting a sender warning in a carrier workspace
A parsed delivery order held only because its authenticated sender maps to another organization, or is not yet recognized, shows Review sender. The dialog identifies the sender, receiving workspace, authentication result, document, container, and any matching Network Companies connection. That connection is context for the reviewer; it never accepts or trusts email by itself.
- Accept this document
- Advances only this parsed PDF to assignment and confirmation. It does not trust the sender for another message.
- Accept & trust future documents
- Tenant-admin only. It accepts this PDF and allows future authenticated email from the same sender into this workspace while preserving the sender's own organization.
Missing, failed, or contradictory email authentication and parser quarantines do not offer sender acceptance. Resolve the underlying authentication or document-quality problem instead.
Express Review in a forwarder workspace
Selecting a row opens an inspector on the right instead of a full page. It shows Container, B/L, HAWB / House B/L, Tracked vessel, Pickup terminal, and Local carrier (trucker), with a Missing or Not matched badge on each field that is not resolved. A rail-ramp pickup adds a Marine terminal field. Fill the unresolved fields and press Apply tracking; the button stays disabled until the container is filled, a B/L or booking number is present, and every unmatched reference has been selected from search. Open delivery order shows the source PDF in a new tab, and Open full review leaves the inspector for the full review screen.
The sender-trust actions — Trust sender for future documents and Trust sender & apply tracking — are only offered to tenant admins. If you are working a warning row and cannot see them, that is a permission gate, not a missing feature; ask an admin in your workspace.
Selecting rows and printing a batch
Batch print exists in the trucker and importer table only. Tick the checkbox on each row you want, or use the header checkbox (Select all visible documents, or Select all visible on a phone). A bar appears at the bottom of the table showing 12 delivery orders selected alongside Print 12 Delivery Orders and Clear selection. The wording follows the bucket you are in, so the same buttons read Print 3 Proofs of Delivery or Print 3 Interchange Receipts elsewhere.
- Select up to 25. Twenty-five is the hard cap per print job, and it is also the page size for these workspaces — so selecting every visible row can never exceed it. Selecting across pages is not possible: changing page clears the selection.
- Press the print button. The button reads Preparing… while Conterminal checks that every selected document has a printable PDF behind it.
- Acknowledge anything unprintable. If some cannot print you get a line such as 2 can't print with each file name and a reason: not a PDF, no source file, or not available. Press Print 10 Delivery Orders anyway to continue with the rest. If none can print, the button reads No printable documents and does nothing.
- Print from the new tab. The selected PDFs are merged in selection order into one document in a new tab, which opens the print dialog on its own. Allow pop-ups for Conterminal or the tab will never appear.
Two more caps can stop a job that is under 25 documents. A batch too large in total file size is refused with The selected documents exceed the batch size limit. Print fewer at once. A merged job over 300 pages fails less helpfully, with only a generic failure to build the print job. Either way the fix is the same: split the selection and print in two passes.
What Conterminal keeps
- Stored for review
- The source file itself, a checksum of it, the receipt metadata around it — sender, subject, and the time it arrived — the parser output for the document, and the automatic scan result for a PDF proof of delivery.
- Kept after it leaves the queue
- Archived documents stay listed under Archived with their type, sender, subject, archive time, and reason, and their PDF stays viewable and printable. Nothing is deleted when you archive.
A source PDF can still become unavailable. When that happens the review screen keeps rendering the metadata and tells you plainly, for example The staged source PDF is no longer available. The parsed metadata is still shown here for reference. You can finish reviewing from the extracted fields, but you cannot print that document or include it in a batch.
Troubleshooting
A row has no checkbox
That row is a parsed document already matched to a delivery order, not a standalone attachment, so there is nothing separate to select or print. Open it and confirm it instead. In a forwarder workspace no row has a checkbox — Express Review has no batch selection at all.
Your filters reset themselves
The page enforces one container, one document type, and one document date, strips unrecognized query parameters, and applies a default document type when none is set — each of those triggers a redirect that rewrites the URL. Switching to Recently Confirmed or Archived drops filters on purpose. Re-apply the filter from the column header rather than editing the address bar.
The count badge does not match the list
Rail counts are served from a short server-side cache and are pushed live only while you are on the inbox or a review screen. A badge you last saw on another page can be up to half a minute behind. Reload the inbox to force fresh counts; a badge showing an em dash has not loaded yet rather than being zero.
A document you forwarded never appeared
Check the Archived bucket first, in case it was archived as a no-op, then confirm the message went to your workspace delivery-order address rather than a personal mailbox. The address on the empty state is the authoritative one for your workspace.
A Delivery Order upload was rejected
Delivery Orders must be PDFs even though the other three types accept JPEG, PNG, and TIFF. Convert the scan to PDF, or upload it as Other Document and attach it to the right record from the review screen.
An upload succeeded but nothing is in the queue
A Delivery Order reported as queued rather than ready is still being parsed; it appears in Delivery Orders once the parser finishes. If processing takes more than ten minutes, the live row says “Processing is taking longer than expected” without declaring failure. If processing stops after all retries, the document remains visible with Retry processing. Check Unknown only when the document was classified there.
The print tab never opens
The merged job opens in a new tab, so a pop-up blocker will silently swallow it. Allow pop-ups for Conterminal and press the print button again.