How an electronic consignment note progresses
A consignment note is assembled piece by piece: each party signs its own. Such a piece is called a title (a part of the consignment note signed by one party). The order is rigid — the next title cannot be signed until the previous one has been.
The signing order
| Title | Who signs it | What it confirms |
|---|---|---|
| T1 | the consignor | the cargo has been handed over for carriage |
| T2 | the carrier | the cargo has been accepted for carriage |
| T3 | the consignee | the cargo has been received |
| T4 | the carrier | the cargo has been delivered to the consignee |
These four titles are the main chain. In the ETrN block they are shown as T1-T4 markers with a counter: you can see at a glance how many have already been signed and whose turn it is.
Two more titles concern the price and are drawn up after the cargo has been delivered and the main chain is closed:
| Title | Who signs it | What it confirms |
|---|---|---|
| T5 | the carrier | the price of the carriage |
| T6 | the consignor | agreement with the price |
If the consignor does not agree with the price, they refuse to sign T6 and state the reason. The document flow does not end there: the carrier states the price anew — as many new revisions of T5 as needed can be issued. The reason for the refusal is visible in the note's record; you do not need to look for it separately.
Where the amount comes from
In the T5 signing dialog, the amount can be entered by hand or you can select an invoice issued to the client. Only one invoice: the note states a single price, and it cannot "add two invoices together".
The list shows only rouble invoices issued to the client of this request. Foreign-currency invoices are deliberately not shown: in the note, the currency is stated by a code from the state classifier, and the order explicitly prescribes the rouble for this field. Offering a choice that is bound to be rejected after signing would be worse than not offering it at all.
If the invoice has been posted, an amount entered by hand must match it: the system will not let a discrepancy through. A draft invoice does not count as a discrepancy — it is not yet an obligation.
When signing T6, the amount is shown right in the window — the one actually stated in the signed T5, not recalculated anew. You agree to what stands in the document.
Your company only signs for the parties that it actually is. If you are the consignor, you sign T1, while T2 and T3 are signed by the carrier and the consignee at their end. The system shows whose signature the document is waiting for.
Titles for exceptional situations
Two more titles sit outside the main chain and are drawn up only if something has not gone to plan:
| Title | When it is needed | Who signs it |
|---|---|---|
| T7 | redirection — the cargo goes to a different consignee or to a different address | the carrier |
| T8 | relay amendment — the driver or the vehicle changes within the same carrier | the carrier |
Both titles are drawn up after the carrier has accepted the cargo (T2). The upper boundary is the same for both — the signing of the price (T5): after that the state system rejects such changes, the actions disappear from the menu, and the only option left is to issue a new note for the leg.
For redirection the boundary is closer: an ordinary change of consignee or address is drawn up before the cargo is accepted (T3). After T3, redirection remains possible only in two cases — the consignee refused to accept the cargo, or accepted it only in part.
For details see Corrections and exceptions.
Where this is visible
In a shipment — the "ЭТрН" (ETrN) tab, and also the block at each leg on the "Маршрут" (Route) tab.
In a request — the "ЭТрН" (ETrN) tab and the block on the "Информация" (Information) tab, with a "Подробнее" (Details) button.
The same things are shown:
- the state of the note — draft, in progress, completed, archived;
- whose turn it is now — for example, "Now up: consignee — accept the cargo";
- action buttons — only the ones that can be done right now are available;
- the signing stage — the T1-T4 markers and the counter of signed titles;
- the identifier of the note in the state system;
- documents — the QR code, the printable form, the document-exchange archive.
The operator and the GIS EPD (the state information system for electronic transport documents) are not the same thing. The operator may accept the signature while the state system rejects the document: the status at the operator then remains "signed", and judging by it, everything seems fine.
That is why a GIS error is shown in the note's record as a separate red block, with the text of the error itself. If it appears, the document has not been accepted by the state system, and a signature alone is not enough.
In the settings, on the "Список ЭТрН" (ETrN list) tab — all of the company's notes. Archived ones are kept separately, and a note can be brought back into progress from there.
The life cycle
- Draft. The note has been created in the system but not yet registered. The data can be edited freely.
- Sent. After the first title is signed, the note goes to the operator and to the state system. The identifier in it is not assigned instantly — it appears in the record by itself after a while.
- In transit. The parties sign their titles in turn. The system shows whose signature the document is waiting for.
- Completed. All titles have been signed, the document flow is closed.
- Archived. Any registered note can be removed from the working list, not only a completed one: if a document is stuck and not moving, it is archived so that it does not get in the way. It can also be brought back from the archive. A draft cannot be archived — it does not exist in the state system yet.
While the note is a draft, the carriage fields can be changed however you like. After a title is signed, some of the data is fixed: it has already gone into the signed document. It can then only be changed through a correction to the note — see Corrections and exceptions.
One note per leg
A consignment note is drawn up separately for each leg of the carriage. If the cargo travels with a transfer — to a warehouse in one vehicle, then onwards in another — that is two notes, one per leg.
The same goes for groupage cargo: the distribution across the delivery points is documented with separate notes, while the shared line-haul section is one note.
That is why, in a shipment with several legs, the ETrN block shows the state of each leg separately: its own titles, its own status, its own documents. On the legs themselves see Multimodal carriage.
What to show an inspector on the road
The driver used to produce the paper note from a folder. With the electronic one, the QR code plays the same role.
How this works as the carriage progresses:
| Moment | What happens |
|---|---|
| The carrier has signed T2 | the note becomes visible to the traffic police (GIBDD, the Russian road traffic authority), and a QR code is generated |
| T7 or T8 has been signed | the QR code is updated — the vehicle and driver data have changed |
| T3 and T4 have been signed | the carriage is complete and the traffic police no longer see the note |
The driver shows the inspector the QR code on the screen or the paper printable form. The inspector reads the code with their own device — no internet connection is needed for that.
The printable form already has the QR code on it, so it is enough to print it out. The separate "QR-код" (QR code) button produces an animated code: the note's data does not fit into a single square, so the frames follow one another. Such a code is shown from the screen — on paper it will not work.
Both buttons are in the ETrN block and on the "ЭТрН" (ETrN) tab, next to the document-exchange archive.
Working as a freight forwarder
A freight forwarder arranges the carriage of someone else's cargo for a client. For the consignment note this is a separate role, and it must not be confused with the role of consignor.
An ordinary carriage. You transport your own cargo, or cargo that was handed to you as the consignor. The note has three parties: consignor, carrier, consignee.
A forwarded carriage. The cargo belongs to the client, and you arrange the delivery under a freight forwarding contract. A fourth party appears in the note — the customer, the one for whom the carriage is arranged.
To draw up a request this way, tick "Мы экспедитор" (We are the freight forwarder) on the first step of the request. What changes:
- the "Клиент" (Client) field is renamed to "Заказчик" (Customer) — the same person in the system, but they occupy a different place in the note;
- fields for the number and date of the freight forwarding contract appear — they go into the note;
- a "Заказчик" (Customer) block is added to the note itself.
Without a connection to Kontur.Logistics the flag does nothing — no note is drawn up — so it is not shown in the request. Clients do not have access to the tick box in any case.
In the note, the freight forwarder takes the consignor's place with a forwarding mark, while the carrier recorded is the company whose vehicle and driver accepted the cargo. The freight forwarder must not be recorded as the carrier, and a subcontractor's vehicle must not be "substituted in" via a relay amendment (T8): a relay amendment changes the driver or the vehicle of the same carrier, but not the organisation itself.
These details go into the signed title, and Russian law does not allow them to be corrected by a revision. If you made a mistake, the note will have to be reissued. Check the tick box and the contract details before the first signature.
What has to be filled in before signing
Temperature conditions, dangerous goods, instructions on carriage rules and seals are covered separately in Cargo properties in the note.
The system checks the data before sending and, if something is missing, shows a specific list. Most often the following are required:
- the parties' details — TIN (INN), addresses;
- information about the cargo — description, pieces, weight, volume;
- vehicle and driver data, including the driver's phone number;
- the addresses and dates of loading and unloading;
- for a freight forwarding request — the number and date of the freight forwarding contract.
If the loading or unloading address is selected from the directory, and the point's record has only a short name filled in ("Склад №2", Warehouse No. 2), the system will not let you draw up the note: the address field must contain an address. Open the point's record in the address directory and fill in the "Address" («Адрес») field — or enter the address directly in the field on the leg.
The vehicle record must state on what right the vehicle is held by whoever is transporting with it: ownership, joint ownership of spouses, lease, leasing or free use. This is a mandatory detail of the note.
For lease, leasing and free use, the details of the underlying contract are also required — its name, number, date and the TINs of the parties. Without them the GIS EPD will reject the note.
The "Counterparty" («Контрагент») field in the record answers a different question — whose vehicle it is — and does not replace the basis of ownership.
It is by the phone number that the document is delivered to the driver for confirmation. With a mistake in the number the confirmation request will not arrive, and the note will stall.
Accompanying documents
Accompanying documents can be attached to the note — certificates or quality passports, for example. They are attached while the first title is being drawn up, while the note is still a draft.
The operator's limits: no more than 20 files and no more than 20 MB in total — the same limit applies to a single file. PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, CSV, JPG, PNG and ZIP, 7Z archives are accepted.
They see the note itself and the QR code. If the driver needs a document on the road, pass it to them separately.
If the cargo is registered as a container, an accompanying manifest must be attached to the note — a document of that category is added among the same accompanying documents. Without it the state system will reject the signature, and the system will warn you about this in advance.