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Gate In / Gate Out

The Gate module records every container movement across the depot's physical gate — a container arriving (Gate-In) or leaving (Gate-Out). Each movement produces a Gate Pass, which is the source document for custody tracking, yard occupancy, storage/D&D billing, and the printed EIR (Equipment Interchange Receipt).

Before you start

Creating a gate pass has the deepest prerequisite chain in CDMS. Before you can successfully submit a new Gate-In pass, you need:

  • Yard configuration (zones, bays/rows/tiers) — required at the Finalise step, not at creation. Without any configured zones, there is nothing for the slot picker or auto-assign to choose from.
  • A Shipping Line already created.
  • A Customer already created.
  • That customer authorized for the chosen shipping line — this is the step people forget. Without it, the form blocks submission outright.
  • (Optional) An existing Gate-type Work Order with status In Progress, if you want to group this pass under one for invoicing.
  • (Optional) Meta Field definitions for the Gate Pass record, if your depot collects custom data at the gate.

Walkthrough

Gate Passes list

  1. Open Gate from the Operations section of the sidebar.
  2. The Gate-In & Out view (default) nests each OUT pass under its matching IN pass, so one row represents one container visit; switch to Gate-In only or Gate-Out only with the movement-view dropdown for a flat list.
  3. A container still in the depot (gated in, not yet out) shows a dashed "└ Still in depot — not yet gated out" row instead of a child OUT row.
  4. Filter by Status (Draft/Finalised/Voided), Depot Status (Still in depot / Gated out), Container Number (comma-separated for multiple), and a date range. Columns: Pass #, Movement, Container, Shipping Line, Customer, Condition, Status, Slot, Date — all configurable via the column picker.
  5. Click New Gate Pass to start a Gate-In.

New Gate-In Pass

  1. Container Number * — type or use the Scan button (opens a camera capture dialog) to read the container number. It is validated against the standard container check-digit as you type (11 characters); a green check or red alert icon appears once you reach 11 characters.
  2. If the number is valid but the container isn't already in the registry, an amber "Container not in registry — it will be auto-registered on gate-in" banner appears, with a required ISO Size / Type * dropdown to complete the auto-registration on save. If the container is already registered, you'll see "Container found in registry" instead and this step is skipped.
  3. Shipping Line * — a searchable select ("Search shipping line…").
  4. Customer — this field is not directly editable. It auto-fills once a shipping line is picked, resolved from whichever customer is authorized for that line:
    • Resolved successfully → shown in green as "Resolved from line."
    • No customer authorized → shown in red as "No customer linked," and the Shipping Line field itself shows "No customer authorised for this line." See Customer ↔ Shipping-Line Authorization if you hit this.
  5. Gate Work Order (optional) — a searchable select filtered to work orders matching the resolved customer/shipping line with status In Progress. The form explains: "Link this gate pass to a Gate work order to enable grouped invoicing." Disabled until a shipping line is chosen.
  6. Pass Type * — Receiving, Delivery, Interchange, or Repo.
  7. Condition * — Sound, Damaged, or Survey Required.
  8. Gate-In Time * — defaults to now, editable.
  9. Transport details: Truck Number, Driver Name, Seal Number, Booking Ref.
  10. Vessel/booking details: Vessel Name, Voyage Number, Port of Discharge.
  11. Any Gate Pass meta fields scoped to gate-in render here.

  12. Click Create Gate-In Pass. The button is disabled until the container number validates and a customer is resolved.

    Blocking validation on submit

    The form refuses to submit with any of: an invalid/unvalidated container number, no shipping line selected, no customer authorized for the line ("No customer is authorised for this shipping line"), or a not-yet-registered container with no ISO size/type chosen. If the container is already in an active custody elsewhere, submission is rejected with "Container is already in depot — use Gate Out on the Containers page."

  13. On success, a Finalise Gate Pass? dialog opens immediately (see below) — the pass exists as a draft until you either finalise it or choose Save as Draft.

Finalise step (the yard-slot requirement)

The Finalise dialog is shared by the create flow and the pass detail page's Finalise Pass button.

  • It states the action locks the pass and, for Gate-In, "record[s] the container as in depot" (Gate-Out instead releases it) — irreversible.
  • Gate-In Time / Gate-Out Time is shown again here, pre-filled but still editable, so you can backdate to when the container actually arrived.
  • If a matching Yard Slot Allocation was pre-reserved for this container (see Yard Management), the dialog shows a green "Pre-allocation found" notice with the Zone (and Slot, if specific) and finalising uses it directly — no extra step.

  • If there is no pre-allocation, an amber notice reads: "No pre-allocation found. You can select a zone and slot, or let the system auto-assign." Clicking Choose Slot & Finalise advances to a slot-picker step where you pick a Zone and optionally a specific Slot (leaving slot blank lets auto-assign choose within the zone), then click Finalise.

    Warning

    Auto-assign fails with an error if no zone/slot satisfies the depot's stacking rules — meaning Yard configuration must already exist with at least one compatible zone/slot. See Yard Management for the auto-assign logic.

  • From the create-flow dialog, the left button reads Save as Draft (instead of Cancel) — this is the only place drafts are explicitly offered as an alternative to finalising immediately.

Gate Pass detail page

Three tabs: Overview, Charges, Documents.

  • Overview shows Gate Pass details, Transport, Vessel & Booking (if any), and Yard & Timestamps (Yard Slot, EIR Number, Gate In/Out times, Finalised time, notification status).
    • If a container is in the depot with no yard slot (e.g. migrated from a legacy system), an amber "No yard slot assigned" banner appears with an Assign Slot button.
    • Editable meta fields (marked "editable until gate out") can be updated inline via an Edit fields link, as long as the pass is still IN and hasn't gated out.
  • Charges — populated only once the pass is finalised; otherwise shows "Charges are created when the gate pass is finalised." Shows per-type summary cards, a Grand Total strip, and a table grouped by charge type/rate with a per-row remove action (Admin only) that voids the charge with a required reason. If the charge has already been invoiced, the confirmation dialog shows the amount already billed and warns that removing it will also issue a credit note for that amount — see Voiding a billed charge or pass below.
  • Documents — standard attachment area.

Actions on a draft pass: Edit (opens a drawer covering Pass Info, Transport, and Vessel/Booking fields), Delete (permanent, confirmation required), and Finalise Pass.

Actions on a finalised pass: Download EIR (PDF), and, for Admin, Void Pass — this cancels custody, releases the yard slot, and removes every charge on the pass from billing, while keeping the pass on record marked Voided. Voiding a Gate-Out pass instead returns the container to "in depot" status (without a slot, until reassigned) while keeping storage already accrued.

Voiding a billed charge or pass

If any of the charges being removed — whether you're removing a single row on the Charges tab or voiding the whole pass — have already been invoiced, the confirmation dialog tells you the amount before you confirm (and the confirm button reads Remove & credit note / the Void Pass warning is appended). Confirming does two things in a single action:

  1. Issues a credit note for exactly that amount, scoped to just the charge(s) being removed — not the whole invoice they're on. A gate pass's charges can be split across more than one invoice (e.g. storage billed over several weekly cycles); if so, one credit note is created per invoice involved.
  2. Removes the charge (or voids the pass) as normal.

A success banner afterwards names the credit note(s) created, e.g. "Voided. Credit note CN-000045 ($1,240.00) created." — each one is a normal credit-note invoice, visible on the Credit Notes tab of Invoices, linked back to the original invoice it partially reverses. The original invoice itself is never changed — its own total, lines, and billing history stay exactly as issued; the credit note is a separate document that offsets it.

This replaced an earlier hard block ("a charge already on an invoice cannot be removed") that had no working way around it, since the only credit-note action available was for a whole invoice — and one invoice routinely bundles charges from several different gate passes.

Note

Global Search covers containers, customers, gate passes, and shipping lines — but not orders or invoices. A gate pass number or container number typed into search will find this page directly.

Who can access this

  • Admin: full access, including Void Pass.
  • Manager: full read/write on gate operations.
  • Gate Operator: full read/write — this is a core part of their role.
  • Yard Operator: read-only on gate; yard write only.
  • Viewer: read-only.
  • Billing: no gate access — billing staff cannot see or use the Gate module.