From Excel to a TMS: why and how freight forwarders make the switch

Almost every forwarding company started with Excel at some point. It is flexible, familiar and cheap. But as volume grows, that same spreadsheet becomes a brake on your operation. This article explains why Excel eventually stalls, how to recognise that you are ready for a TMS, and what a switch looks like in practice.

Why Excel eventually stalls

Excel was made to calculate, not to manage dossiers. There is no single source of truth: files get copied, versions drift apart and crucial information sits scattered across mailboxes and local drives. One absent colleague can block an entire dossier, and errors in a formula often go unnoticed for weeks.

5 signs you are ready for a TMS

• Double work: the same data is entered in multiple files and systems.
• Invisible margins: you only know at month-end close whether a dossier was profitable.
• Missed deadlines: cut-offs and customs deadlines arrive scattered through email.
• Knowledge with one person: when someone is ill or leaves, the overview disappears.
• No audit trail: you cannot quickly find who changed what and when.

What changes with a TMS?

A TMS replaces the loose files with one structured environment. Every dossier gets a fixed structure, documents are linked automatically and the status is visible in real time to the whole team. With AI document processing, incoming documents are even read automatically and placed in the right dossier. See how that works on the dossier management page.

How the switch works

1. Mapping: your current processes and fields are analysed.
2. Configuring: the TMS is tailored to your specific forwarding processes.
3. Migrating: ongoing dossiers and reference data are transferred.
4. Onboarding: your team is trained in a familiar Microsoft environment — often in less than a day per employee.

Do you stay operational during migration?

Yes. A good implementation happens in phases, so you stay operational during the switch. For an average forwarding company a full implementation takes 4 to 6 weeks, with no downtime. Because the platform runs on Microsoft Power Platform, your team works in an environment it already knows.

Conclusion

Excel gets you to a point, but growth demands structure. A TMS gives you back control, overview and visibility on your margins. Curious what the switch means for your operation? View the pricing or request a no-obligation demo.