One Shipment, One File: Documents, Photos and Messages Together

Claims rarely fail because the goods were fine. They fail because the papers were in one mailbox, the photographs on two phones, the weighbridge slip in a pocket and the supplier's promise in a chat that nobody exported. When the question finally arrives, weeks later, the answer is given from memory. One shipment, one file is the whole rule, and a few small habits make it work.

One folder per shipment

Create the folder when the shipment is booked, not when a problem appears. Name it with the supplier's short name and the shipment reference. Inside, use numbered subfolders in the order in which the story unfolds:

• 01 Order and contract: the purchase order, the contract, amendments and the specification.
• 02 Shipping papers: the invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading and any certificates received.
• 03 Broker and forwarder: papers and notes that came from your broker or your forwarder.
• 04 Receiving: count sheets, the checklist, the report and a photograph of the signed delivery note.
• 05 Photographs and video: the originals, untouched, in subfolders by day.
• 06 Messages: emails, exported chat conversations and notes of telephone calls.
• 07 Claims: the evidence pack, notices sent and replies received.

The numbers keep the order identical from one shipment to the next, so anyone in the company knows where to look.

Name the files so they sort themselves

Put the date first, written year-month-day, then the shipment reference, then what the file is, then the version: for example 2026-03-12_KH214_packing-list_v2. Files then line up in time order without effort. Avoid names such as "final", "new" or "latest", which stop meaning anything the day after. When a supplier sends an amended document, save it as the next version and leave the earlier one in place.

Photographs are the exception. Keep the original camera file names, or number them once, in the order taken, and never again. The photograph numbers in the report refer to that order, and renaming in bulk breaks every reference.

Keep a log

At the top of the folder keep one page of log: date and time, what happened, who was involved and where the evidence is kept. For example: "12 March 09:05, container arrived, seal photographed, folder 05, files 001 to 004". Add the telephone calls too: who said what, and when. The log tells the story, and the folders hold the proof. A reader who has only the log can still reconstruct the order of events.

Messages, access and backups

• Export each chat conversation with the supplier at the end of every stage, using the application's own export, or take screenshots that show the date and the sender. Save emails as files, with their attachments.
• After a telephone call, send a message beginning "As discussed today" and saying what was agreed, and save it. Voice messages are saved as audio files, with a one-line summary in the log.
• Keep the file in one place that the people concerned can reach, not only on a personal phone or in a private mailbox.
• Keep a second copy elsewhere, and treat the originals as read-only. Work on copies.
• How long to keep the file is a question of your company policy, the contract and the law. Ask your accountant or lawyer, and do not delete the file just because the shipment is closed.

A conditional example. A shipment of 22 pallets leaves behind 11 documents, 140 photographs, 38 messages across email and chat, and 2 call notes. On the fifth day the buyer notices a shortage. With the folder, the evidence pack is assembled by copying from four subfolders: the documents from 02, the report from 04, photographs 61 to 64 from 05 and the supplier's message about the packing list change from 06. Without it, somebody first has to find out which phone holds which photograph, and whether the supplier ever confirmed the change in writing.

Common mistakes

• Leaving a personal phone as the only copy of the photographs.
• Photographs forwarded through a chat application and kept only in their compressed form.
• Documents from two shipments kept in the same folder.
• Deleting "duplicates" that were in fact different versions.
• Postponing the log until the claim is being written.

In short

A well-kept file makes a claim a matter of copying, not of searching. CargoChek delivers the receiving report, the quantity table, the photograph album and the remarks record, arranged by package number and remark number, so that they drop straight into your shipment file.