Help centre

Getting started

Sign in at www.celioship.com with your username and password. Your administrator creates your account or sends you an invitation link; new companies can create their own workspace from the sign-up page and confirm their e-mail. Switch between English and French with the EN | FR buttons; the choice is remembered.

• Roles: an Admin manages the company (accounts, permissions, master data, billing); a User works on the files assigned to them with the permissions granted; a Viewer only reads.
• The dashboard shows what needs attention today: demurrage risk, overdue arrivals, missing expected arrival dates.
• Forgot your password? Use “Forgot your password?” under the sign-in button; the link arrives by e-mail and is valid for 30 minutes.

Files and their lifecycle

A shipment is a file with an id like 2026-ABC-001. It moves through four stages:

• Draft: suppliers, clients, containers, ports, forwarder and shipping line are recorded. BV inspection is planned here when it applies.
• Departed: departure date, Bill of Lading and expected arrival are set; tracking begins and B/L pages can be uploaded.
• Arrived: the free-time clock starts for each container; customs milestones follow (declaration lodged, duty paid, released, discharged).
• Closed: the file is archived read-only. Cancelled drafts are archived too. Some transitions can require a second person’s approval when your company enables approvals.

Containers, documents and pictures

• Wherever a document can be added you can Choose File, Take Photo (device camera) or Scan Document (enhanced capture).
• Bill of Lading: several pages or files per shipment, uploaded once the file has departed. The B/L number is clickable on every screen and opens the pages.
• Insurance per container: certificate and receipt, with insured value, premium, currency, insurer and date.
• Loading pictures: up to 15 per container; pictures are optimised automatically before upload.
• Accepted formats: PDF, JPEG, PNG, up to 10 MB per document. Downloads are permission-checked and recorded.

Shipment Tracking and day counts

The Shipment Tracking board lists every departed and arrived file until it closes, with three day counts refreshed daily: departure to arrival, departure to today (at sea) and arrival to today (waiting). Filter by status, sort any column, then Print or export to Excel, PDF or Word with the same filters and order.

Demurrage, exceptions and alerts

• Free time: set the free-time days on a container or its shipping line; the last free day is computed and the Demurrage board sorts arrived files most urgent first.
• Exceptions: one list of everything that needs attention (demurrage overdue or approaching, arrival overdue, stuck in customs, BV stalled, ETA missing, stale drafts, unassigned files).
• My alerts: your own reminders, to acknowledge or snooze.
• Alert rules (admins): company-wide rules run by the daily sweep and delivered by e-mail or WhatsApp when those channels are configured.

Reports, printing and exports

Reports lets you start from a template at file or container level, apply filters and sorting, preview and then Print or export to Excel, PDF or Word. Every output carries the same header and a footer with the date and time, your username, the page number and the CelioShip signature, in the language of the report. Reports Center groups the management reports (Monthly Activity, Carrier Scorecard, Customs Pipeline and more); Statistics shows average transit, clearance and total durations.

Costing, receivables and invoices

When accounting is enabled for your company (plan permitting), each file carries expenses, client charges and payments. The Costing report shows the margin per file, Receivables shows amounts due, paid and outstanding with aging buckets and a printable statement per client, and Invoices lets you issue a proforma from any file and numbered invoices.

Accounts, invitations and permissions

• Admins create accounts directly (credentials shown once) or send an e-mail invitation: the person chooses their own username and password on a 7-day link.
• Permissions are granted per User in groups (files, status changes, people, BV, documents, master data, reports, audit). Admins have every permission for their company.
• Pending invitations can be re-sent or revoked from the Users page.
• The plan sets how many accounts a company can have; the billing screen shows the usage.

Security and two-factor sign-in

• Open Account security (top right) to enable two-factor sign-in: scan the QR code with an authenticator app, enter the six-digit code, then save the eight recovery codes shown once.
• At sign-in you then enter your password and a code from the app. A recovery code works once if the phone is unavailable.
• Lost your phone and recovery codes? Ask an administrator: they can reset two-factor on your account from the Users page so you can enrol again.
• Admins can require two-factor for every account of the company (Users → Security policy).
• Sign-in attempts are limited; a device is locked after five failures and an administrator can unlock it.

Plan and billing

• Every new workspace starts with a free trial. Plan & billing (admins) shows the current plan, its status, usage against the limits and the plans available.
• Choose a plan online where card payment is enabled, or contact CelioShip for invoice billing. Manage the payment method and download receipts from the billing portal.
• If a payment fails you keep full access for 14 days, then the workspace becomes read-only until it is settled. Data is never deleted for a failed payment.
• You can export all your company’s data as an Excel workbook at any time from Plan & billing.

API access for your own systems

• Admins can issue read-only API keys on the API keys page, so your ERP or other systems can pull this company’s shipment data.
• A key is shown once, at creation — copy it then; only its fingerprint is stored, so a lost key is regenerated, not recovered. Revoke a key any time.
• The REST API lives at /api/v1: check the connection with /me, list files with /files, and read one file with /files/{fileId}. Send the key as an Authorization: Bearer header.
• Each key sees only your company’s data and is limited to 600 requests per hour. Full reference: docs/API.md.
• Webhooks: on the Webhooks page, admins register a URL that receives a signed POST when a file is created, changes status, or has its ETA updated — so your systems react without polling. See docs/WEBHOOKS.md.