Overview
A Refine.dev admin shell backed by Supabase replaced a 12-year-old Access database that ran the entire purchasing, inventory, and customs-clearance workflow for a Kuwaiti trading firm. Custom Refine modules for HS-code lookup, LC (letter of credit) lifecycle tracking, and a Customs Authority document checklist cut customs-clearance prep from 3 days to 6 hours.
The challenge
A Microsoft Access 2012 database was the single point of truth for all purchasing orders, inventory, and LC tracking. It ran on one physical desktop; if that machine broke, the company could not ship goods. The customs team assembled documents manually from three different folders before each clearance, and LC expiry was tracked in a paper diary — the company had paid two LC amendment fees totalling KD 18,000 in the previous year.
The solution
We built the replacement on the open-source Refine.dev framework, connected to a self-hosted Supabase instance on a Kuwaiti cloud node. The Access tables were migrated to Postgres with referential integrity enforced for the first time. We built a custom LC lifecycle Refine module with a Supabase cron trigger that auto-flags LCs expiring within 14 days and fires email and WhatsApp alerts to the finance manager. The customs-document checklist module reads the shipment's HS code and auto-generates the required document list from a curated Kuwaiti Customs Authority rules table.
Outcomes
Customs-clearance document prep reduced from 3 days to 6 hours
LC lifecycle tracking errors dropped 91%
Zero LC amendment fees since go-live (saving KD 18k/yr)
System now runs on three replicated cloud nodes — no single point of failure
Key metrics
Tech stack
Services
Client testimonial
“We paid eighteen thousand dinars last year to fix two expired letters of credit. This year, not a single one expired without notice. The system paid for itself in month one.”
— Hamad Al-Fares, Managing Director — Tijara Trading
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