📍 Addresses & Contact Details: Getting Them Right the First Time

Have you ever heard the phrase, “God is in the details”?

In logistics, master data accuracy is those details. If your organization records in CargoWise are the foundation, then addresses and contact details are the cornerstones.

When addresses are incomplete, inconsistent, or outdated, the problems cascade:

• Shipments get delayed because carriers can’t deliver.
• Customs entries flag errors due to mismatched addresses.
• Invoices go to the wrong recipient, slowing down payments.
• Incomplete or incorrect company information prevents CargoWise’s built-in Denied Party Screening (DPS) from working properly.

Denied Party Screening is a critical compliance function in CargoWise. It automatically checks companies against restricted and denied party lists to ensure you only do business with approved entities.

• If your company information is incomplete or inaccurate, the system may fail to identify a match.
• This can expose your company to serious financial, legal, and reputational risk by allowing transactions with restricted parties.

The result? Your team spends hours firefighting operational issues, and your compliance team carries unnecessary risk—all because of bad master data.

Like most issues in CargoWise, it feels like an operations problem—but it’s really a governance and compliance problem.

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Why Addresses & Contacts Matter in CargoWise

1. Operational Efficiency

• CargoWise uses stored addresses for bookings, documents, and shipments.
• A typo or missing postal code can hold a shipment.
• Inconsistent formats (e.g., “St.” vs. “Street”) confuse routing and carrier integrations.

💡 Pro Tip: Implement a data formatting policy to define exactly how addresses should be entered and enforced across your network.

2. Financial Accuracy

• Billing relies on the correct invoicing address.
• Credit notes, statements, and payment reminders all pull directly from master data.

3. Customer Experience & Compliance

• Accurate contacts ensure the right people receive updates.
• Proper addresses and identifiers prevent customs delays.
• Complete and accurate company data ensures Denied Party Screening works as intended, keeping your business compliant.

Bottom line: One bad address can create a domino effect that costs time, money, customer trust—and in worst cases, exposes you to compliance risk.

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Common Address & Contact Pitfalls

Here are the master data mistakes I see most often:

• Multiple Variations of the Same Address
  “123 Main St.”, “123 Main Street”, “123 Main St, Suite 100” — three entries for one customer.
• Missing or Generic Contacts
  Records with “Info@company.com” or no phone number make follow-ups painful.
  Your data policy should strictly prohibit this. Data must be collected upfront—or a master data specialist should follow up before the organization is finalized.
• Outdated Records
  A carrier moves, a client relocates, and your system still points shipments to the old location.
• Free-Text Chaos
  Users type addresses however they like, with no standard format or country-specific rules.

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Best Practices for Clean Address & Contact Data

If you want CargoWise to run like a well-oiled machine, start here:

1. Standardize Address Formatting

• Adopt a consistent structure for every country your network serves.
• Include postal codes, state/province codes, and proper country codes.

2. Maintain Complete Contact Details

• Capture name, email, and phone number for operational and billing purposes.
• Identify primary vs. secondary contacts to reduce confusion.

3. Establish Governance Rules

• Decide who can create or edit addresses in CargoWise.
• Require documentation or verification for any changes.

4. Leverage CargoWise System Tools

• Use address validation features when available.
• Restrict duplicates and encourage users to search before creating new entries.

5. Audit & Clean Up Regularly

• Conduct quarterly or bi-annual master data audits.
• Prevent small issues from snowballing into operational and compliance problems.

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The Takeaway

Your address and contact data isn’t just administrative—it’s operational gold and a compliance safeguard:

• It drives shipment visibility, customer satisfaction, and financial accuracy.
• It keeps Denied Party Screening effective, protecting your company from restricted transactions.
• When done right the first time, it saves hours of rework and firefighting later.

In the next part of this series, we’ll cover UNLOCO & Location Codes—another critical, often-overlooked piece of CargoWise master data that can make or break operational flow.

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🔗 Master Data = Master Efficiency

If your CargoWise system feels like a patchwork of workarounds, chances are your master data is part of the problem.
Clean it up. Govern it. And watch your efficiency—and compliance—soar.

#CargoWise #MasterDataMatters #LogisticsTechnology #FreightForwarding #ProcessImprovement #DataGovernance #Compliance #SupplyChainOptimization #ALL2SConsulting