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A seafarer agency lives and dies by documents. One expired certificate can stop a placement. Coastal Shipping Links put every record — and every expiry date — into ERPNext.
Free, no-obligation consult — just a real person.
Official ERPNext Partner
In business since 2011 · 200+ clients
Placing a seafarer on a vessel means more than finding someone available. Their certificates, passport and continuous discharge certificate all have to be valid for the length of the contract. Keep those details in spreadsheets and folders, and the expiry dates live wherever someone last wrote them down — so a lapse is discovered when a placement is already under way.
That was the situation at Coastal Shipping Links (India), a seafarer agency in Kochi. Seafarer records lived in Excel and files, certificate expiries were missed, it was slow to find the right crew, and accounts ran on separate software.
Acube implemented ERPNext to run the agency end to end: a seafarer database with documents, crew placement and deployment, billing to ship owners, and accounts and payroll / wages — with custom seafarer record types, expiry alerts and custom reports and print formats. All seafarer records are now in one place, expiry alerts arrive on time, crew are deployed faster, and billing and accounts are connected. The implementation was delivered before 2019.
In business since
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ERP projects
Work by referral
| Client | Coastal Shipping Links (India) |
| Location | Kochi, Kerala, India |
| Industry | Seafarer / crewing agency |
| Engagement | ERPNext implementation with custom seafarer doctypes, expiry alerts and print formats; supported for a period after go-live |
| Users | Operations / crewing, accounts and management |
| When | Before 2019 |
The agency's work — matching qualified seafarers to vessels and billing for it — depended on information spread across tools that didn't talk to each other.
Seafarer details and documents were kept in spreadsheets and folders.
Nothing warned the team before a document lapsed.
Searching for a qualified, available seafarer took too long.
Billing and accounts were disconnected from the operational records.
The cost of staying as-is: in crewing, an expired document found late can cost a placement — and a client who needs crew on time.
ERPNext set up around how a seafarer agency works, with custom development where the standard system didn't have the right records.
| Capability | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Seafarer database & documents | Every seafarer's profile and documents in one searchable system. |
| Custom seafarer doctypes | Record types built for seafarers, their documents and contracts — not borrowed from a generic employee form. |
| Expiry alerts & notifications | Automatic reminders before documents lapse. |
| Crew placement & deployment | Seafarers matched to vessels and contracts in the system. |
| Billing to ship owners | Invoices to shipping companies raised from the same records. |
| Accounts and payroll / wages | Finance and wage payments in the same ERPNext as operations. |
| Custom reports & print formats | Crew lists, CVs and invoices in the agency's own formats. |
The agency holds under a thousand seafarer records, and it didn't give us a measured percentage, so we are not quoting one. Four things changed:
One searchable database instead of spreadsheets and folders.
Documents are renewed before they lapse.
The right seafarer is found and placed more quickly.
Operations and finance run in one system.
Custom doctypes were the key decision. A seafarer is not a generic contact or employee: the documents, their validity and the contracts are the core of the record. Modelling them properly in ERPNext is what makes the expiry alerts possible — the system knows what each document is and when it runs out — and what makes searching for qualified, available crew fast.
Putting billing, accounts and wages in the same ERPNext removed the second system. A deployment, the invoice to the ship owner and the wage that follows all come from the same records. The operations, accounts and management teams work in one place, and custom print formats keep crew lists, CVs and invoices in the formats the agency already used. Acube supported the system for a period after go-live. We are an Official ERPNext Partner, in business since 2011, with 70% of our work coming by referral.
ERPNext set up like this is worth considering when:
Seafarer or staff records live in spreadsheets and folders.
Certificates and documents expire without warning.
for a placement takes too long.
from the operational records.
You need crew lists, CVs or invoices in a specific format.
If those apply, the first step is to list the documents each person must hold and the checks a placement needs. That defines the records the system must keep.
See what it would cost — Answer a few plain questions about how you work, and see a real figure.
Yes. Coastal Shipping Links' ERPNext sends expiry alerts and notifications before documents lapse.
Not out of the box — so custom seafarer doctypes were built for Coastal Shipping Links, covering seafarers, documents and contracts.
Yes. Billing to ship owners, accounts and wages all run in the same ERPNext as the seafarer records.
Yes. Custom reports and print formats were built for the agency.
At Coastal Shipping Links, the operations / crewing team, the accounts team and management.
Coastal Shipping Links holds under a thousand seafarer records. ERPNext suits agencies of that size — the value comes from having everything in one place, not from volume.
Get a clear plan, an honest timeline, and a fixed scope. Talk to a real expert today — whether or not you work with us.
or write to info@acube.co
Kochi (Kadavanthra & Infopark) · Thiruvananthapuram · across India & overseas · In business since 2011