Questions and answers
The questions we get asked
Short answers about what Lumen does today, what it does not do yet, and how to try it.
- What is Lumen Global Sourcing?
- Lumen Global Sourcing is an operations platform for moving goods. You upload a commercial invoice, packing list or bill of lading, someone on your team checks what was read from it, and approving it sets up the shipment, the purchase order match, the client's tracking link, the warehouse expectation, the charges to bill and the risk watch on that lane.
- Who is it for?
- Freight forwarders, 3PLs, manufacturers, importers and sourcing agencies. The common thread is that your work starts when a document arrives from somebody else, and the same details then get typed into several places.
- How does one invoice set up a shipment?
- The document is read and the fields are laid out next to it. Once a person approves them, Lumen creates the shipment from exactly what was approved, matches it to the purchase order, prepares a tracking link for the client, tells the warehouse what to expect, puts the charges against the client ready to bill, and adds the lane to risk alerts. Nothing is retyped.
- Does a person check before anything is created?
- Yes, always. Fields the reader is unsure about are highlighted, and nothing is created until someone on your team has looked at them and approved. The records are built from the approved version, not from a first guess, and every approval is recorded in your audit log.
- Do clients need a login to track a shipment?
- No. Each shipment has its own tracking link that opens on a phone with no account and no password. It shows that one shipment and nothing else, so a client can forward it to their own warehouse or customer without giving anyone access to your account.
- What file types can it read?
- PDF, JPG and PNG, which covers a clean export from an accounting system, a scan of a printout and a photo taken on a factory floor. The document types are the logistics ones: commercial invoices, packing lists and bills of lading.
- Which modules are live and which are coming next?
- Live today: Tracking & client portal, Warehouse & 3PL, Sourcing & purchase orders, Manufacturing, Billing & invoicing, Risk intelligence, Document reading and Freight & parcel rates. Coming next, each with a waiting list: Landed cost & DDP, B2B sourcing marketplace and ARIA operations agent.
- How do I get early access?
- Send a note from the contact page or email hello@lumenglobalsourcing.com. We are in early access and set up every team personally, so tell us how you work and we will show you the parts that fit.
More detail
The blog goes through a shipment one step at a time. The security page lists what protects your data, and pricing shows what sits in each plan.
Try it on your own shipments.
Early access: we set up every team personally, so you’re running in days.