Organising an export transaction in your CRM

Separate the deal from individual shipments

One contract may cover several batches, payments and document sets. Keep shared commercial terms at deal level and individual shipments in linked records or tasks. This helps avoid confusing one batch’s payment with another batch’s documents.

Start with the information management and the team need to see without making another call, rather than a long list of fields.

Create a minimum useful record

• Counterparty, country, product, contract number and current version.
• Shipments and their documents, amounts and key dates.
• Deal owner and contacts in banking, logistics and accounting.
• Current stage, obstacle, next action and deadline.
• Agreed payment terms and actual receipt status.

Document links should point to the agreed storage location. Record the date, version and status: draft, under review, approved or signed.

Define what each status means

Each stage needs a completion rule. “Documents approved” should mean that the designated parties have agreed and the final version is recorded. Sending an email is not the same as completing an approval.

Give each task one accountable owner. Others can contribute, approve or supply information. Deadlines and responsibility work only when the owner also has the necessary authority.

Highlight exceptions and decisions

A short recurring update can cover four points: completed work, delays, decisions needed and the next action. Distinguish waiting for a response from an overdue task, and record why work has stopped.

Agree access rights for banking, contractual and personal information before starting. Organising the workflow does not imply automatically migrating every file into a new system.

Pilot one live transaction

Use a current deal to test the documents and tasks, remove unnecessary fields and then extend the structure to other projects. The practical test is whether participants know what to do next and management can see the decisions it needs to make.