Shipment Plans

Set the milestones you expect — and let Sensos track every shipment against them.

A shipment plan is the set of milestones you expect a shipment to pass through on its journey — where and when it should reach each one. Once a plan is in place, Sensos tracks every shipment against it and lets you know the moment a milestone is missed or delayed, so you're not chasing status updates manually.

This article explains what shipment plans are, how the default plan works, and how to create, assign, and replace plans across your shipments.

What is a shipment plan?

There are two related things to keep straight:

A plan belongs to a single shipment. It's the ordered list of milestones that shipment is expected to hit — for example Created → In Transit → Arrived. Every shipment has exactly one plan.
A plan template is a reusable, named definition of milestones that you build once and apply to many shipments — for example an Ocean Freight Plan, an Air Freight Plan, or a Pharma GDP Plan. When you apply a template to a shipment, its milestones are copied onto that shipment's plan.

💡 In the product's own words: "Plan templates define the milestones your shipment should pass through, where and when. Create a template once, reuse it across shipments."

Because a template's milestones are copied onto a shipment when it's applied, editing a template later does not change shipments that were already created from it. Each shipment keeps the plan it started with until you deliberately change it.

📘 Plan milestones vs. lifecycle milestones. A plan describes the milestones you expect a shipment to reach and tracks it against them. That's different from the full set of lifecycle milestones Sensos logs as a shipment moves (Created, In Transit, Shock, Arrived, and so on). For that complete list, see Understanding Shipment Milestones.

The Sensos Default Template

Every new shipment automatically gets a plan. Unless you choose otherwise, that plan is the Sensos Default Template — "Three main milestones, default plan by Sensos."

Milestone	What completes it
Created	The shipment is created in Sensos
In Transit	The shipment status moves to In Transit
Arrived	The shipment status moves to Arrived

You don't have to do anything to get the default plan — it's applied for you. From there you can keep it, pick a different template at creation time, or assign and replace plans later.

ℹ️ Note on existing shipments. Shipment plans are applied to newly created shipments going forward. Shipments created before you started using the feature may not have a plan yet — you can assign one to them at any time from the shipment's actions menu (see Assigning or replacing a plan, below).

Milestones: states and triggers

Milestone states

As a shipment moves, each milestone shows one of three states:

Completed — the milestone has been reached. Sensos records when and where it happened, plus what triggered it.
Next in Line — the milestone the shipment is currently working toward. When an estimate is available you'll also see Next in Line (in about …).
Pending — a milestone still ahead in the journey.

What completes a milestone

Each milestone is completed by a trigger — the real-world signal that the step has happened. When you build a template you choose the trigger for every milestone:

Trigger	Completes when…
Sensos status changed	A Sensos status update is received for the shipment
Parcel carrier	A carrier update is received for a parcel shipment
Air cargo	A status update is received from an air cargo carrier
Ocean	A status update is received from an ocean carrier
Geofence entry	The label enters a defined location — a warehouse, port, or destination
Geofence exit	The label leaves a defined location — the origin or a checkpoint
Device	A device update is received for the shipment

For location-based milestones (geofence entry/exit) you can also set an expected location — an origin, destination, point of interest, or address — and an expected time window, so Sensos knows not just what should happen but where and by when.

Where you'll see the plan

Once a shipment has a plan, it appears across the Shipment Management Card:

Shipment Journey — milestone cards along the timeline show what's Completed, what's Next in Line, and what's still Pending. Completed milestones display the Expected Location, the time, and the Source that triggered them (for example Source: Ocean carrier).
Event Log — each completed milestone appears as a Plan Milestone event, with its name, timestamp, and location.
Shipment Properties — the Plan Template row shows which plan the shipment is on, either the template's name or Sensos Default Template.

📷 [Screenshot: Shipment Journey with Completed, Next in Line, and Pending milestone cards.]

Creating a plan template

Build a reusable template once and apply it to as many shipments as you like.

In the left navigation, open Resources → Plans.
Click New (or New plan template if you don't have any templates yet).
Give the template a name, then add your milestones in order. For each milestone, set:
- a name (for example Departed origin port),
- a trigger — the event that completes it (see What completes a milestone, above),
- optionally an expected location and expected time for where and when it should happen.
Save the template.

Your new template now appears on the Plans page, where each card shows its Total Duration and Last update. From a template's menu you can Rename, Delete, or View Plan.

⚠️ Editing and deleting templates is safe for shipments in flight. Changes to a template only affect shipments created after the change. If you delete a template, "Shipments already using it won't be affected."

📷 [Screenshot: Resources → Plans page with template cards and the New button.]

Adding a plan when creating a shipment

You can choose a plan as part of creating a shipment:

Start creating a shipment as usual.
In the Details step, find the Shipment Plan section: "Assign a plan template to define the expected milestones for this shipment. You'll be notified if any milestone deviates from the plan."
Open the picker (Select a plan template) and choose a template — or leave the Sensos Default Template in place.
Finish creating the shipment.

New to the feature? The picker includes a short explainer — "New to shipment plans?" — and a shortcut to build your own milestones: "Want more control? Define your own milestones with a custom template."

📷 [Screenshot: Create Shipment → Details step showing the Shipment Plan picker.]

Assigning or replacing a plan on an existing shipment

You can set or change a shipment's plan at any time from the three-dot (⋯) menu (the Additional Options Menu) on the Shipment Management Card. The option you see depends on the shipment's current plan:

Assign Plan — shown when the shipment doesn't yet have a custom plan. Opens Assign Plan Template: "Select a plan template to define the expected milestones for this shipment. You'll be notified if any milestone is missed or delayed." Pick a template and click Assign.
Replace Plan — shown when the shipment already has a plan. Opens Replace Plan Template. Pick a new template and click Replace.

⚠️ Replacing a plan resets its milestones. As the dialog warns: "Replacing the current plan will reset all milestones." The new plan starts fresh — previously completed milestones are cleared. For this reason it's best to choose the right plan early in the shipment's journey.

📷 [Screenshot: Shipment ⋯ menu with Assign Plan / Replace Plan, and the Replace Plan Template dialog.]

Good to know

Every new shipment has a plan — the Sensos Default Template unless you pick another.
Templates are snapshots. Editing or deleting a template never changes shipments already created from it.
Assign vs. replace. Assign sets a plan on a shipment that's still on the default; Replace swaps the plan on a shipment that already has one — and resets its milestones.
You're notified on deviations. When a milestone is missed or delayed against its plan, Sensos flags it so you can act early.

Creating Shipments — how to create a shipment, where you also choose its plan.
Understanding Shipment Milestones — the full set of lifecycle milestones Sensos logs as a shipment moves.
Shipment Management Card — the Shipment Journey, Event Log, and Shipment Properties views where your plan appears.
Understanding Sensos Geofencing — define the locations that complete geofence-based milestones.
Carrier Event Data Integration — the carrier events that complete parcel, air, and ocean milestones.

Get in touch — we're here to help

Questions about building plan templates or rolling shipment plans out across your account? Reach out to your Sensos contact or our support team and we'll be glad to help.