What is Booking Drafts?
Previously, if something went wrong while creating a booking, you had to either fix the error immediately or start over from scratch. With the Booking Drafts module, you can save a booking at any stage and return to finish it whenever you're ready.
When is this useful?
When you're waiting for missing information (e.g. recipient address or goods weight), when validation errors need support to resolve, or when you're not ready to confirm a booking yet. Or do you want to consolidate them into a single shipment later?
Activation
Please ask your manager on our team to enable this feature for you.
How it works
Creating a draft
Saved manually
You start a booking in ONE, something comes up, and you save it as a draft to continue later.
Created automatically
A booking request from your ERP fails validation. The system saves it as a draft instead of losing it.
Sent from ERP as draft
Your ERP system sends a request explicitly to create a draft (via API or file integration).
The "Booking Drafts" page
Open the Booking drafts section from the left menu. The page is similar to Shipments with filters at the top and a list of drafts below.
Once our team enables this feature for you, a new “Bookings Drafts” tab will appear in your interface.
Open a draft by double-clicking it. The draft editing page looks just like the booking form, with a few extra controls.
Consolidation
If you have multiple drafts going to the same place with the same carrier, you can merge them into one shipment. Enable Consolidation recommendations to see which drafts can be combined.
Drafts can be consolidated if all of these match:
Same owner organization
Same carrier & service
Same pickup & delivery addresses
Same payer
Enable consolidation mode
Toggle on "Consolidation recommendations" in the draft list header.
Select drafts from the same group
Only drafts that belong to a consolidation group are shown. Select multiple from the same group.
Click "Consolidate bookings"
The selected drafts are deleted and a new merged draft opens automatically.
Finalizing & creating the booking
Don't forget to save!
If you close the tab without clicking "Update draft" or "Request vchain assistance", your changes will be lost.
Merge goods (if needed)
If the draft has multiple goods lines that should be packed together, use the Merge goods button to combine them into one.
Fill in remaining fields
Complete any missing required fields. You can save intermediate progress at any time with Update draft.
Create the booking
Click Create booking. If successful, the draft is automatically removed from the list.
Frequently asked questions
Can I save a draft with fields left empty?
Can I save a draft with fields left empty?
Yes. The "Update draft" button saves the draft regardless of whether required fields are filled in. You can come back and complete them later.
Where do I find my drafts?
Where do I find my drafts?
In the left menu under Booking drafts.
What happens to a draft after the booking is created?
What happens to a draft after the booking is created?
Once the booking is successfully created, the draft is automatically deleted from the list. You'll find the shipment in the Shipments section as usual.
Can drafts open in the same tab instead of a new one?
Can drafts open in the same tab instead of a new one?
Yes. Go to your personal Settings → Profile and toggle on "Open booking draft in the same tab".
Will documents be transmitted to the carrier with this module?
Will documents be transmitted to the carrier with this module?
Enabling Booking Drafts may allow documents attached to drafts or bookings to be transmitted to the TMS or carrier — provided you use unique sender's reference / Order No values (or don't use them at all, in which case the system generates them automatically).
I don't see the "Booking drafts" section in the menu. Why?
I don't see the "Booking drafts" section in the menu. Why?
The module may not be activated for your site yet. Ask your vchain manager to enable it.