Working with Expected Documents
Read the Expected Documents card on a shipment, declare the facts it reads, mark rows, confirm which invoice lines a certificate covers, and read a filing's elements.
Every shipment page carries an Expected Documents card. It lists what the file is expected to hold for its destination, goods and transport mode, and whether the documents you uploaded give it. The rows come from the destination’s profile, a baseline that applies to every shipment and, where they apply, transit and export profiles and the regulated-goods lists; each one cites the regulation or guidance behind it. This page covers the tasks on the card. For what the checklist is and where its rows come from, see Expected Documents and Destination Profiles.
The card is advice. A missing row is graded Info or Warning, never as a finding that needs fixing, and nothing on the card changes the shipment’s status. CargoLint flags what the file seems to lack and cites why; whether a document is required for your shipment stays your call.
Before you start
- The shipment has at least one processed document. The card appears with the first document; it does not wait for the cross-document checks.
- The shipment has a destination. If no document names one, the page shows Destination unknown with a Set destination button, and the card falls back to baseline rows until one is set.
Steps
1. Find the card
Open the shipment from Shipments. The Documents card is on the left; Expected Documents sits on the right, above the Consistency Checklist.
The header names what the rows were drawn from and the date they were judged on, for example “United States import requirements · judged on … (invoice date)”. The date is the export date when a document gives one, else the invoice date, else the date of the evaluation. A destination CargoLint has no profile for shows Baseline requirements: a transport document, an invoice and a packing list, each at Info.
The pills on the right count the rows still missing (N missing), the rows that cannot be told (N cannot tell) and the rows your team marked (N handled). When there are none of these, the header says Nothing missing.
2. Read the rows
Rows are grouped by what the documents say about them:
| Group | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Missing | Rows that apply to this shipment and that no document in it satisfies, worst first. The chip reads Missing; the icon is amber for a Warning and blue for Info. |
| Cannot tell | Rows whose condition reads a fact the documents do not give, so CargoLint cannot say whether they apply. These are also listed among the checks not run in the coverage line under the Consistency Checklist. |
| Present | Rows a document satisfies. The chip reads Present, or Present · not read when the matching document is a kind CargoLint recognizes but does not read yet: it counts as present, and nothing in it is checked. |
| Handled | Rows your team marked (step 5). The status underneath is still what the documents say. |
| Filings and markings | Filings, identifiers and markings, such as an import declaration, an EORI number or intact seals. They are not documents in the file, so they are listed as notes; the chip names the kind of row (Filing, Identifier or Marking). |
Rows whose condition does not hold for this shipment are behind Show N not needed for this shipment, each with the reason it does not apply. They show what else the destination can ask for, not what this file lacks.
Under each row’s label, a caption names the document that satisfies it (“Bill of Lading · BL-4471”), or the kind it expects, or “Any transport document” when any kind of a family satisfies it.
Click a row to expand it. Depending on the row, the expanded card shows:
- the row’s own note, and for a row that is not needed or cannot be told, the reason
- Invoice lines this applies to, for a row read line by line (step 6)
- the filing’s elements, for a filing row (step 7)
- Why this grade., when a missing row’s severity depends on a value band, such as the shipment’s value
- Applies when …, the row’s condition in words
- for a family row, the kinds that satisfy it, for example “Any transport document satisfies it: Bill of Lading, Air Waybill, …”
- Sources:, links to the regulation or guidance the row cites
- the mark your team gave it, or the Mark as buttons
- an Open … → link for each matched document, and the row’s id
3. Check the facts
Between the header and the rows is the list of facts the rows’ conditions read. Each fact shows its value and, after the dot, where it was read, or why it is unknown:
| Fact | Where CargoLint reads it |
|---|---|
| Transport mode | The transport documents in the shipment: a bill of lading means sea, an air waybill air, a road or rail consignment note road or rail. |
| Regulated goods | The HS codes declared on the documents, matched against the regulated-goods lists for the route. The source names the agency, the code and the document. |
| Dangerous goods | A UN number or dangerous-goods wording (“dangerous goods”, “hazardous”, “hazmat”) in the documents’ fields. Wording that negates it, such as “non-hazardous”, does not count. |
| Origin of the goods | The country of origin fields on the documents, including each line’s origin. |
| Preference claimed | The agreement named on the certificate of origin, or a statement on origin on the invoice. |
| Transit countries | The routing on the transport document. A transport document that only goes port to port says none. |
When Lists read: appears under the facts, it names each regulated-goods list the checklist matched and the date it was last reviewed, so what a row says can be traced to the list behind it.
Read the facts before the rows. A row marked Not needed or Cannot tell is only as right as the fact behind it, and the source tells you which document to check.
4. Declare a fact, change it, or go back to the documents
When the documents do not give a fact, or give it wrong, you can declare it. Every fact except Regulated goods has a Declare button. Regulated goods follow the HS codes, so a wrong or missing code is fixed on the invoice in the review editor.
- Click Declare beside the fact.
- Give the value:
- Transport mode: tick one or more of sea, air, road and rail. Tick more than one when the shipment changes mode.
- Dangerous goods: choose Dangerous goods or No dangerous goods.
- Origin of the goods or Transit countries: pick a country from Add a country and click Add; repeat for each country. Transit countries are the countries the goods cross under customs control between the export country and the destination.
- Preference claimed: pick the agreement from Choose an agreement.
- Click Save. Saving checks the shipment again, and the page updates when the new evaluation lands.
A declared fact wins over the documents. Its source then reads “declared by” with the name and date, and a second line keeps what the documents said, so the two can be compared.
To edit a declaration, click Change. To drop it, click Use the documents: the fact goes back to what the documents say, and the shipment is checked again.
The transit countries also appear on the route beside the shipment’s reference, as “via …” between the export country and the destination. Declaring a transit country through the United States brings in the US transit rows for goods crossing it.
5. Mark a row
A row that is missing, cannot be told, or is a filing or marking can carry a mark from your team. Expand the row and use Mark as:
- Acknowledged: you have seen it and it will be handled.
- Provided outside CargoLint: the document exists and is held elsewhere, for example by the broker, the carrier or the customer.
- Not applicable…: the row does not apply to this shipment. Write the reason in Why this row does not apply to this shipment (up to 500 characters) and click Save. A reason is required.
The row moves to Handled, its chip shows the mark, and the expanded card shows who set it, when, and the reason. Clear removes the mark.
A mark never changes what the checklist computes. The row’s status stays what the documents say, a mark does not re-check the shipment, and a mark on a row that a document later satisfies is no longer shown.
6. Confirm which invoice lines a certificate covers
A certificate or declaration for particular goods, such as a phytosanitary certificate, a health certificate or a dangerous goods declaration, often covers only part of the invoice. For a row about such goods (a row that applies because the goods matched a regulated-goods list), CargoLint reads the invoice line by line.
Expand the row. Invoice lines this applies to lists each invoice line whose HS code matched the row, with its description, and either “covered by” the documents that do, “no document covers it”, or, when CargoLint could not match the documents to the invoice at all, “not linked to a document yet”. A link CargoLint proposed carries “(proposed)”: CargoLint proposes the lines a document covers from the words the two share, such as the product, a botanical name or species, or a UN number.
To confirm or correct the proposal:
- Under Lines … covers, find the form for the certificate. Its caption says “proposed by CargoLint from the lines it read” or “confirmed”.
- Tick the lines the certificate covers and clear the ones it does not.
- Click Confirm lines. The shipment is checked again.
Once confirmed, CargoLint stops proposing for that document. Back to CargoLint’s proposal discards your confirmation and returns to the proposed lines.
A line no document covers counts as missing only after every matching document’s lines are confirmed. While any of them rests on a proposal, the row reads Cannot tell, so a missed match never reads as a gap.
7. Read a filing’s elements
Some filing rows list the data elements the filing asks for: the US Importer Security Filing (ISF), the ISF-5 for goods transiting the US, Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS), FDA prior notice, the Canadian eManifest house bill and the EU ICS2 entry summary declaration.
The row’s caption, and the first line when expanded, sums them up, for example “4 of 10 elements found on the documents, 1 missing, 5 not read from them”. Each element then shows one of three states:
- Found: the element is on the documents. The value read is shown beside it.
- Missing: the document the element is read from does not give it, or that document is not in the file. The line under it says which.
- Not read: CargoLint does not read this element from the documents, for example an importer’s tax number, which the filer supplies. The line under it says why.
After each element, the paragraph of the regulation that names it is shown. Where a master bill and its house bill are both in the shipment, elements are read from the house bill.
CargoLint does not file anything. A filing row stays a note: it shows what the documents give the filer, and a missing element reads as information, not as a warning.
8. Open a matched document
Expand a row and click Open … → in its footer to go to the document. Fixing a value on the document in the review editor re-checks the shipment, and the card follows.
Tip: Start with the facts. One wrong fact, such as a transport mode read from the wrong document, can move several rows between Missing, Not needed and Cannot tell at once. Declaring it fixes them together.
Tip: Use Provided outside CargoLint rather than Not applicable… when the document exists but lives elsewhere. The two say different things to whoever opens the shipment next.
What partners see
When an Owner or Admin shares a shipment with a partner organization, the partner sees the same Expected Documents card, read-only: the rows, the facts with their sources, the marks your team gave and the line coverage. A partner cannot declare facts, mark rows or confirm lines. See Working with Shipments.
What’s next
- Expected Documents - What the checklist is, its statuses, and why it never changes a shipment’s status
- Destination Profiles - Which destinations have a profile and what each asks for
- Transport Documents - How the mode, the route, transit and master and house bills are read
- Working with Shipments - The shipment page, the route and the consistency checks
- Shipment Consistency Checks - The cross-document findings beside the checklist