Overview
Self-hosted Appsmith console covering inbound receipts, bin-location management, and Saudi Customs Zakat-clearance certificate generation — replacing paper-based processes and a 2008 VB warehouse system.
The challenge
Three bonded warehouse sites operated on paper pick-lists, manual bin-card ledgers, and a 2008 Visual Basic desktop system that could not generate the Customs General Authority certificates required for bonded cargo clearance. Generating a customs clearance certificate took two days and was error-prone — causing cargo holds and penalty fees from Saudi Customs.
The solution
We self-hosted Appsmith on an on-premise server in Jubail, designed a PostgreSQL warehouse schema with bin-location tree structure, and built Appsmith apps for inbound receipts, bin movements, and stock counts. The customs certificate generator was built as a custom Appsmith page that queries the stock record, applies GAZT clearance rules, and sends a PDF to the client's label printer via a Node.js sidecar service. We adapted Appsmith's open-source widget library with a barcode-scan input component for handheld scanner integration.
Outcomes
Inbound receipting cycle from 4 hours to 35 minutes per container
Customs clearance certificate generation from 2 days to 20 minutes
Customs penalty fees eliminated in the 8 months since go-live
All three sites on one real-time inventory view; no more fax-based stock reconciliation
Key metrics
Tech stack
Services
Client testimonial
“Saudi Customs nearly shut us down twice because of certificate errors. Since go-live eight months ago, we've had zero penalties and our inbound team processes three times as many containers per shift.”
— Operations Manager, Hadaf 3PL · Jubail
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