Knova Freight · Odoo 19 Enterprise
Odoo freight forwarding software for UAE forwarders and road freight operators.
Quotes, house and master jobs, Bayan customs, trucks with GPS, workshop, WPS payroll and live profit per job, in one Odoo system.
Short answer
Can Odoo run a freight forwarding company? Yes, with freight modules on top. Knova Freight is Knova Digital's set of custom modules for Odoo 19 Enterprise, hosted on Odoo.sh. It adds rate-card quotations with margin control, house and master shipments (HB/L, MB/L, HAWB, MAWB), UAE customs declarations (Bayan), trucking trips with iGeoTrack GPS, fleet maintenance, WPS payroll and live profit per job.
How does a shipment flow through it?
- 1. Quoterate cards, margin approval
- 2. House jobHB/L · HAWB · master
- 3. Bayan customsduty + import VAT
- 4. Trips + GPSwaybill, POD, iGeoTrack
- 5. Invoicecharges, disbursements
- 6. Job profitby job, lane, branch
One record from the first quotation to the closed job, so the profit you see on the job is the profit in the accounts. See each step in Odoo.
What does Knova Freight include?
A set of custom modules on Odoo 19 Enterprise, hosted on Odoo.sh, extending Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, Fleet and HR. Master data comes ready for freight: ports and locations (UN/LOCODE, IATA), carriers, vessels, voyages and flights, ISO container types, package types, commodities with HS codes and dangerous-goods data, a charge catalogue and trade lanes.
Mode-specific quotations for sea, air and land, auto-priced from buy/sell rate cards with surcharges and trailer-type rates, showing live margin per line and per quote.
Manager approval below minimum margin, a pricing-team step before sending, numbered revisions (R1, R2…), T&Cs per quote type and branded layouts.
One house job per shipment (sea, air or land; import or export), with LCL and air consolidated onto a master shipment: HB/L and HAWB on the house, MB/L and MAWB on the master.
Milestones planned vs actual, demurrage and detention countdown timers with alerts, exception logging and a colour-coded control-tower board.
UAE customs declarations (Bayan) per shipment: duty and import VAT from the HS code, inspection and release, one-click customer proforma, and delivery blocked until release.
Delivery trips with truck, trailer, driver, waybill and POD; transport contracts with route prices; driver and diesel allowances; subcontracted truckers with margin; monthly billing of all waybills on one invoice.
iGeoTrack GPS: live truck position, odometer and driver, with actual distance, fuel, idle time and overspeeding stored against the planned trip.
Revenue and cost charges per job, one-click invoices, supplier bills matched to expected costs with variance flags, and disbursements kept separate from VAT-able services.
Live job profit that matches the accounts, by job, trade lane, customer, branch (for example Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and mode.
Advance-payment customers' trucks cannot leave until paid; access levels so operations don't see amounts and sales don't see costs.
Fleet and workshop: maintenance takes a truck out of service, spare parts from store or suppliers, external workshop repair orders, approved stock counts, job cards and truck document expiry reminders.
UAE HR and payroll: employee document expiry reminders, multi-level recruitment approvals, fines, loans and advances recovered from salary, Excel payroll register and the WPS SIF file.
Full product page: Knova Freight.
See Knova Freight in Odoo
The quote → job → customs → trip → invoice → profit flow, screen by screen. Screenshots from a demo database with made-up data (Knova Demo Freight LLC).
1. Quote
Sea, air and land quotes are priced from buy/sell rate cards, with margin visible before the quote goes out.
2. House job and master shipment
Each shipment is one house job with its HB/L or HAWB; LCL and air consolidate onto a master shipment with the MB/L or MAWB.
3. Milestones and free time
The control tower shows every job by status, and demurrage and detention timers sit on the job. This is milestone tracking, not live shipping-line tracking.
4. UAE customs (Bayan)
Declarations carry the Bayan number and documents, move through inspection to release, and post duty, VAT and fees to the job.
5. Trips and delivery
Land jobs split into delivery trips with truck, driver, waybill and allowances.
6. Invoice and job profit
Invoices come from the job's charges, and cost and revenue on the same job give live margin.
Fleet, workshop and HR
Truck and employee documents with expiry states, plus scheduled services and external workshop repairs with spare parts from the store.
Why is it strong for UAE road freight, heavy lift and cross-border trucking?
Most freight software stops at the bill of lading. Here, a land job splits into delivery trips, each with its truck, trailer, driver, waybill and proof of delivery, priced from a transport contract with route prices, and with driver and diesel allowances posted to the job. Subcontracted truckers carry their own margin, and a monthly billing wizard puts every waybill for a customer on one invoice.
The iGeoTrack integration shows each truck's live position, odometer and driver, and when a trip is delivered it stores the actual distance, fuel, idle time and overspeeding against the plan. Maintenance requests take a truck out of service, repair orders go to the store or an external workshop, and reminders flag expiring registrations, insurance, port gate passes, inspections and permits.
Sea and air forwarding run on the same system: house jobs, consolidation onto a master shipment, HB/L, MB/L, HAWB and MAWB, and container milestones with demurrage and detention timers.
How are UAE customs, VAT and disbursements handled?
Each shipment can carry one or more UAE customs declarations (Bayan). Duty and import VAT are calculated from the HS code, the declaration moves through inspection and release, and duty, VAT and fees post to the job. A proforma for the customer is one click, and delivery is blocked until customs releases the cargo.
On the customer invoice, disbursements such as duty paid on the customer's behalf stay separate from VAT-able services. Under UAE VAT, international transport of goods and related services is generally zero-rated, while a domestic leg is zero-rated only when supplied by the same supplier responsible for the international transport. This is general guidance; confirm your own contracts with a tax adviser.
Related: UAE e-invoicing on Odoo, which applies to in-scope businesses from 2027.
How does job profitability work?
Every job carries its revenue and cost charges. Customer invoices are raised from those charges in one click, and supplier bills are matched against the expected job costs with a variance flag when a supplier bills more or less than planned. Because it is native Odoo Accounting, the live job profit matches the accounts.
Profitability rolls up by job, trade lane, customer, branch and mode, so a company with branches in Abu Dhabi and Dubai sees each branch's profit. Customers on advance payment cannot have a truck leave until they have paid, and access levels keep amounts away from operations and costs away from sales.
What does it replace?
The Excel sheets that quotes, jobs and trip billing usually live in; manually prepared WPS files; and repair costs that were never tracked per truck. Sales, pricing, operations, finance, workshop and stores, and HR work in one system instead of their own spreadsheets.
It is live at a UAE freight forwarder, and is being rolled out at a UAE road freight and heavy-lift operator with branches in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
How does implementation work?
Knova scopes your lanes, rate cards, fleet and customs flows first, sets up the master data, migrates customers, rates and open jobs, and trains each team (sales, pricing, operations, finance, workshop and HR) on its own part of the system.
Cost and timeline are scoped to your operation, not sold off a price list. You see the system working on your own data before you pay, and if Knova misses the agreed go-live date, you owe nothing.
More detail: Odoo implementation · How to run a freight forwarding business on Odoo · Odoo implementation cost in the UAE
Who builds it
Knova Freight is designed and delivered by Knova Digital, led by founder Muhammad Salman Ali Khan, an Odoo Techno-Functional Consultant in Dubai with 10+ years in ERP, 100+ Odoo implementations and Odoo certifications on v13, v14, v15, v16, v18, v19 and v20. Read how he approaches freight on his own site: Odoo for Logistics & Freight Forwarding.
Frequently asked questions
Can Odoo run a freight forwarding company?
Yes, with freight-specific modules on top. Standard Odoo covers CRM, quotations, invoicing, accounting and payroll, but it has no shipment job, house and master bills, customs declaration or per-job profit. Knova Freight, Knova Digital's set of custom modules for Odoo 19 Enterprise, adds that operational core so sales, pricing, operations, customs, finance, workshop and HR work in one system.
What is Knova Freight?
Knova Freight is Knova Digital's freight forwarding and transport solution built on Odoo 19 Enterprise and hosted on Odoo.sh. It covers rate-card quotations, house and master shipments, UAE customs declarations (Bayan), land trips with iGeoTrack GPS, fleet maintenance, UAE HR and WPS payroll, and live profit per job.
Does it handle HB/L, MB/L, HAWB and MAWB?
Yes. Each shipment is one house job for sea, air or land, import or export. LCL and air shipments consolidate onto a master shipment, with the HB/L or HAWB on the house job and the MB/L or MAWB on the master, alongside container and cargo details.
Does it track containers live from the shipping lines?
No. Container tracking works through milestones planned against actual, with demurrage and detention countdown timers and alerts before free time runs out. There is no live shipping-line API tracking; trucks on land are tracked live through the iGeoTrack GPS integration.
Can Odoo handle UAE customs declarations (Bayan)?
Yes, with this solution. Each shipment can carry its UAE customs declarations (Bayan), with duty and import VAT calculated from the HS code, an inspection and release workflow, and duty, VAT and fees posted to the job. A customer proforma is one click, and delivery stays blocked until customs releases the cargo.
Is international freight forwarding zero-rated for UAE VAT?
Generally yes. UAE VAT zero-rates the international transport of goods and related services, while a domestic leg is zero-rated only when supplied by the same supplier responsible for the international transport. On the invoice, the solution keeps disbursements such as duty paid on the customer's behalf separate from VAT-able services. Confirm your own contracts with a tax adviser.
Does it work for road freight, heavy lift and cross-border trucking?
Yes; that is one of its strengths. Land jobs split into delivery trips with truck, trailer, driver, waybill and proof of delivery, priced from transport contracts. Driver and diesel allowances, subcontracted truckers with margin, monthly billing of all waybills on one invoice, iGeoTrack GPS and truck maintenance are all part of it.
Does it include UAE payroll and WPS?
Yes. It includes employee document expiry reminders (passport, Emirates ID, visa, labour card, licence), multi-level recruitment approvals, fines, loans and advances recovered from salary, an Excel payroll register with the employee on every payroll accounting line, and the WPS SIF file.
Which Odoo version does it run on?
Knova Freight runs on Odoo 19 Enterprise as a set of custom modules, hosted on Odoo.sh. It extends the standard Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, Fleet and HR apps rather than replacing them.
Who builds Knova Freight?
Knova Freight is designed and delivered by Knova Digital, led by founder Muhammad Salman Ali Khan, an Odoo Techno-Functional Consultant in Dubai with 10+ years in ERP, 100+ Odoo implementations and Odoo certifications on v13, v14, v15, v16, v18, v19 and v20.
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