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Why is a flag missing, stuck, or firing too early?

Flags are set by automations and surfaced in your views. When one behaves unexpectedly, it is usually the level it was set at, its lifecycle, or which port it anchors to.

1. A flag exists but does not appear in your view​

Flags can be set at container level or at tradeflow level, and a view groups at one level or the other. If an automation sets a flag on the container while the view groups by tradeflow, the flag will not surface there, even though it exists.

What to check: the level the automation sets the flag at, against the level the view groups by. They need to match for the flag to be visible.

This is worth knowing before assuming a flag was never created. It is normally visible in the overview but absent from the tabs, or the reverse.

2. When flags appear and disappear​

Two behaviours to expect:

Document flags clear themselves. Each required document has its own flag, and it disappears automatically as soon as that document is uploaded. Invoice, packing list, certificate of analysis and sea waybill each carry their own.

Document flags do not need a container number. They count from the planned departure date, so they work on a file that has no container assigned yet.

Some flags are designed to expire. An automation can include a step that removes a flag a fixed period after it was set, for example 24 hours. If a flag stays on a shipment longer than you expect, check whether the removal step is part of the automation.

3. A demurrage flag fires before the container arrives​

The most common flag question, and the behaviour is deliberate.

Destination demurrage anchors on the port of discharge that the carrier declares, not on the final delivery place. When a carrier lists a seaport as the port of discharge and an inland place only as the final destination, the flag triggers on the seaport discharge.

The reasoning: if the carrier considers the ocean leg closed at that port, free time has usually started running contractually. Anchoring on the final destination instead would mean the flag only fires once demurrage is already accruing, which defeats the purpose.

The consequence is that on routings where free time contractually starts further inland, the flag is early. That is the conservative side to be wrong on, and it is a known trade-off rather than a misconfiguration.

tip

If a lane consistently flags early because free time genuinely starts at the inland destination, raise it with support. The flag anchor is a deliberate default, not a fixed rule for every flow.

4. Free time rules and the backup rule​

If no specific free time rule matches a shipment, a backup rule applies rather than nothing. A flag that appears with unexpected day counts may be running on the backup rather than on the rule you expect.

Check whether a rule exists for that combination of customer, carrier and port. A missing rule is silent by design, since the backup keeps the monitoring running.

5. Exports are capped​

Dashboard exports are limited to 2,000 references per download. The cap exists because larger exports take too long to generate reliably.

For a larger dataset, split the export by view or date range, or use a scheduled report.

Need help?​

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Last updated: July 31, 2026