Client self-service guide
A 3PL portal should let clients operate—not enter the warehouse cockpit.
The useful boundary lets clients create intent, prepare stock, fund purchases, resolve exceptions, and inspect evidence while warehouse lifecycle, inventory truth, shared capacity, and physical control remain operator-owned.
Client-owned jobs
Expose actions, not only dashboards.
Catalog and SKU mapping
Propose canonical product, merchant SKU, barcode, packaging, lot, serial, expiry, dimensions, and handling requirements.
Plans and amendments
Prepare versioned SKUs, cartons, pallets, labels, documents, booking, expected arrival, and discrepancy responses.
Rates, funding, and labels
Compare signed client sell prices, choose eligible funding, authenticate cards, buy, download, reprint, void, and reconcile.
Returns and quarantines
Request return, follow disposition, correct rejected imports, respond to discrepancies, and retain communication evidence.
Money boundary
Show balance, holds, funding, and immutable entries.
A portal that buys labels needs more than a card form. Prepaid wallet, saved-card pay-as-you-go, automatic top-up, enterprise postpaid, authentication, reserve, capture, release, refund, and adjustment remain explicit.
- Card data goes to the payment provider, not the WMS.
- Available funds differ from balance and held funds.
- One purchase idempotency key joins quote, funding, carrier, receipt, and evidence.
Permission design
Client authority must stop before physical control.
Create and amend intent
Own catalog proposals, inbound drafts, orders, quotes, funding, returns, notification, API keys, and webhook configuration within scope.
Own physical truth
Receive, inspect, locate, hold, reserve, count, pick, pack, load, operate equipment, and resolve safety or inventory state.
Exchange evidence
Version, actor, approval, exception, comment, document, receipt, event, and audit connect both sides without granting the same permissions.
Boundary validation
Exercise the actions that define client authority.
Can a client silently overwrite a submitted inbound plan?
Version conflicts preserve document history, actor evidence, reload guidance, and a controlled amendment path.
Can a repeated label click charge twice?
One idempotency key joins funding reserve, carrier request, authentication, capture, and receipt.
Can a client see another client's identifier?
Inventory, order, quote, wallet, return, API key, webhook, invoice, and export identifiers remain tenant-scoped.
Can a client command a printer or robot through the backend?
The backend authorizes business artifacts; the bound warehouse device owns the local hardware connection and acknowledgement.