Connect Flexport to Parabola

Pull Flexport shipments, bookings, customs entries, and invoices into Parabola to automate freight reconciliation, ETA monitoring, and exception alerts.

Flexport is a global logistics platform and freight forwarder that manages international shipping, customs, and inventory movements. Connecting Flexport to Parabola lets ops, finance, and supply-chain teams pull live shipment, booking, and invoice data into the same flows they use for ERP reconciliation, ETA monitoring, and partner reporting, without manual exports or engineering work.

Pull from Flexport

The Pull from Flexport step brings shipment, booking, invoice, and document data from your Flexport account into Parabola so you can transform it, blend it with data from other systems, and trigger alerts on custom logic.

How to authenticate

Flexport uses OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials for API access. Ask your Flexport account administrator to enable API access and generate credentials.

1. Get credentials from Flexport. Your administrator will:

   • Log in to the Flexport Developer Portal at https://developers.flexport.com.
   • Navigate to API Credentials.
   • Click Create Credentials.
   • Select the resources (endpoints) you need access to and enable them.
   • Click Create to generate the credentials.
   • Copy your Client ID and Client Secret.
2. Add the Pull from Flexport step. In your Parabola flow, add a Pull from Flexport step.

3. Authorize. Click Authorize and add an expiring access token. Enter your Client ID and Client Secret when prompted; Parabola handles token exchange and renewal. Alternatively, use a manual Bearer token.

4. Pick a resource. Once authenticated, select the Flexport resource you want to pull (Shipments, Bookings, Invoices, etc.) and configure any filters such as date ranges, statuses, or specific identifiers.

Available data

The Pull from Flexport step gives you access to a wide range of logistics and freight records:

• Shipments: The core movement record, including key dates (ETD, ETA, actuals), milestones, buyers and consignees, related bookings, documents, customs entries, calculated weight and volume, dangerous-goods flags, costs, and statuses.
• Bookings: Space reservations with carriers, including service details and requested dates. Includes associated booking line items that describe booked goods and quantities.
• Shipment containers (ocean): Container-level details for ocean moves, including container numbers and attributes.
• Commercial invoices: Commercial invoice headers and values associated with shipments or orders.
• Invoices: Flexport billing invoices for logistics services and charges.
• Customs entries: Declarations and entry details tied to shipments for brokerage and compliance.
• Documents: Files and metadata (BOL, packing list, invoice PDFs) attached to shipments and other records.
• Products: Catalog items, descriptions, and classification data used on documents and entries.
• Network records: Companies, company entities, contacts, and locations representing your trading partner graph (buyers, shippers, consignees) and addresses.

Common use cases

• Reconcile freight invoices against shipment costs: Join Flexport invoices with shipment records and quotes to catch overcharges, then post cleaned charges to NetSuite or QuickBooks Online.
• Build inbound freight visibility: Combine Flexport shipments and milestones with PO data from Fulfil or Cin7 so ops teams see ETAs alongside the orders they belong to.
• Cross-carrier consolidation: Blend Flexport ocean and air freight with parcel data from DHL, FedEx, or UPS to build a single inbound freight dashboard.
• ISF and customs compliance monitoring: Pull customs entries and document metadata to track filing status, then send a Slack alert for missing or delayed filings.
• ETA shift alerts: Watch shipment milestones and trigger a Slack or email alert when ETAs slip beyond a threshold or when a CPC departure is missed.
• Archive freight data for analysis: Push reconciled Flexport data to Snowflake, BigQuery, or Google Drive so analytics teams can model lane performance and supplier lead times.

Tips for using Parabola with Flexport

• Use Expand JSON early. Flexport endpoints return nested objects (charges, milestones, parties). Add an Expand JSON step right after the pull to flatten before joining.
• Match cadence to use case. Hourly for active ETA monitoring, daily for invoice reconciliation, weekly for lane and supplier performance.
• Pull incrementally. Store the last successful run time in a Parabola table and filter on updated_at so each run only processes new or changed shipments.
• Map business keys early. Keep a crosswalk of Flexport IDs (shipment, booking, container) to your ERP and warehouse references so joins downstream stay reliable.
• Filter documents to the types you need. Pull document metadata first, then retrieve and archive only BOLs, packing lists, or invoices to your DMS with consistent naming.
• Alert on exceptions, not raw events. Calculate ETA deltas, missing documents, or invoice variances in Parabola, then send only the meaningful exceptions to Slack or email.

FAQ

Can I push data back into Flexport?

The Pull from Flexport step is read-only. To write back to Flexport (for example, updating a shipment or creating a booking note), use a generic Send to an API step pointed at the relevant Flexport endpoint with your access token.

Why am I missing fields on a shipment record?

Flexport’s API returns fields based on the scopes you enabled when creating credentials. If you don’t see expected fields, ask your administrator to add the missing scope and regenerate credentials.

Can I pull from multiple Flexport accounts in one flow?

Yes. Add multiple Pull from Flexport steps, authorize each with separate Client ID and Secret pairs, then union or join the results downstream.

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With Flexport and Parabola connected, the freight reconciliations and ETA reports your team rebuilds every week run on a schedule, with exceptions landing directly in the channels where ops, finance, and supply chain already work.