Documents & Proof of Delivery

Documents are the files kept against your records — delivery notes, invoices, labels, and proof of delivery. Orbit keeps their version history, shows the same file everywhere it is relevant, and lets you control who can see each one.

Overview

Paperwork follows every job: a delivery note, an invoice, a shipping label, a signed proof of delivery. In Orbit each of these is a Document — a file kept against the record it belongs to, whether an Order, a Shipment or a Tour. Rather than emailing files around, you keep them in Orbit, where they stay linked to the job, keep their history, and are visible only to the people who should see them.

Key highlights:

• Files against records — A document is attached to an Order, Shipment or Tour.

• One file, many views — A file linked at one level appears on the related records automatically.

• Versioned, not duplicated — Replacing a file adds a new version and keeps the earlier ones.

• Visibility per file — Choose whether shippers, operators or carriers can see each document.

• Proof of delivery included — The photos and signatures captured on the road are stored here too.

Files against your records

You reach documents both from a central Documents view in Orbit MissionControl and from the document section on an individual record. To add one, use Upload Document or Add Document and attach it to the right record. A document is the actual file — a rendered delivery note, a scanned form, a photo. It is not the layout that generates a file; those blueprints are covered in the Document Engine article.

One file across related records

Orders, shipments and tours are connected, and documents follow those connections. A file linked to an Order also appears on that order's Shipments and their Tours; a file linked to a Shipment shows up on both its Order and its Tour. Orbit marks each of these as the same file seen in another place, so you attach a document once and see it everywhere it is relevant — not as duplicates to reconcile. A short note on the document explains where it will appear.

Versions

Documents are versioned. When a file changes — you re-upload it, or regenerate it — Orbit adds a new version and keeps the previous ones rather than creating a second document. Opening a document shows its current file as the Latest Version, and Version History lists the earlier ones with who changed each and when. To replace a file, use Upload New Version so the history stays intact.

Who can see a document

Being able to see a record does not automatically mean seeing every file on it. Each document carries its own Access Control, set separately for shippers, operators and carriers. For each group you can choose Visible, Hidden, or Restricted for finer rules. This lets you keep, say, an internal cost sheet on a Tour hidden from the carrier while the delivery note on the same tour stays visible.

Proof of delivery

Proof of delivery — the photos and signatures a driver captures at a stop — is stored as a document too, alongside delivery notes and invoices, so you can view, download and share it. Capturing that proof happens out on the road, at the stop, in Orbit Cockpit; that side is covered in the Stops & Arrival Tracking article. This article is about the file once it exists: its versions, the records it is linked to, and who can see it.

Proof files carry visibility like any other document. By default, a proof becomes visible to the shipper only once the Tour review is complete, so a customer sees the finished, confirmed evidence rather than a work in progress.

Example

Spaceport Shipping Co. delivers a pallet to ACME Ltd in Tokyo. The signed delivery note is linked once to the Order in Orbit MissionControl and immediately appears on the shipment and the tour as the same file. When the paperwork is corrected and re-uploaded, Orbit keeps both the original and the new Latest Version in Version History. The driver's photo of the delivered pallet, captured in Orbit Cockpit, sits with the same job as a proof document — visible to ACME Ltd once the tour has been reviewed, and hidden from the carrier throughout, because the operator set that document's visibility that way.

Technical details

Documents and their links can also be managed programmatically. For endpoints and schema details, see the Orbit API Reference.

FAQ

Where is the proof of delivery for a stop?
It is captured at the stop by the driver in Orbit Cockpit and appears against that stop, while the file itself sits with the job's documents. See Stops & Arrival Tracking for how proof is captured.

If I re-upload a file, do I end up with a duplicate?
No. Re-uploading adds a new version to the same document and keeps the earlier ones in Version History.

The same invoice shows on the order and the tour — is that two files?
No. It is one file linked once and shown on every related record. Orbit marks it as the same document seen in another place.

Can I hide a document from a carrier?
Yes. Set the document's Access Control so it is Hidden for carriers, while leaving it visible to whoever else should see it.

What about delivery notes and invoices that Orbit generates?
Those are produced from templates in the Document Engine. The generated result is a Document, versioned and linked like any other file.