Your products, entered once instead of on every shipment

Ask an exporter where their product list lives and the answer is almost always a spreadsheet. That is not the problem. The problem is what happens next.

For every shipment, somebody opens it, finds the right rows, and retypes the description, the HS code and the unit into an invoice. Then into a packing list. Then sends it on to the customs broker, who types it once more into the shipping bill.

Each retyping is a chance for the documents to stop agreeing with each other. That is what holds consignments at the port and gets document sets returned by banks.

What changes#

Your products now live in LEXI. Set one up once, with the details your trade needs recorded, and after that it is selected rather than retyped.

Your documents draw from the same record. When the description on your invoice and the description on your packing list come from one place, they match, because they are the same text rather than two people's typing of it.

You do not have to key in your existing list. Bring in the spreadsheet you already keep. LEXI reads it, you confirm what it found, and your catalogue exists.

Why we built it this way#

We could have asked for a fixed set of product fields. Every trade we looked at needed different ones. A garment exporter records composition, size and colour. A machine-parts exporter records material grade and dimensions. A fixed form would have meant everyone keeping half their real product data somewhere else, which puts the mismatch problem straight back.

So the catalogue holds what your business needs to record, and those details carry through to your documents.

Getting started#

If you are in the beta, your catalogue is ready to set up. Bring your existing list.

If your spreadsheet is untidy, and most are, send it anyway. Awkward real files teach us more than clean ones, and we would rather find the rough edges on your file than have you find them.