External IDs & System-Wide Profile Management

Overview

This enhancement enables organizations to manage profiles across the system using External IDs. By supporting unique identifiers at the profile level and introducing stricter validation, this update improves data consistency, integration reliability, and reporting capabilities across PortPro.

Feature Update: Unique ID Restriction Setting

To ensure data integrity, we've introduced a setting that prevents duplicate External IDs across all profiles in the system, not just within individual profile types.

Key Details:

• The setting is now labeled "Unique ID Restriction" (previously "External ID Restriction").

• A tooltip has been added to provide clarity on its functionality:

"When this box is checked, External IDs can be entered manually, with a system-wide restriction to prevent duplicate entries. Existing duplicates will stay intact until a profile is edited."

When enabled, any attempt to save a profile using a duplicate External ID will trigger an error:
"External ID is not Unique"

This setting can be found in Company Preferences and is available for system administrators.

What Is an External ID?

An External ID is a custom identifier assigned to a profile in PortPro—such as a customer, driver, truck, or vendor. These IDs are usually created by your business and used in outside systems like accounting software, logistics platforms, or internal spreadsheets.

Think of an External ID as the “universal name tag” that helps PortPro stay in sync with your other systems.

Why Use External IDs?

Using External IDs is helpful if:

• You manage customer or equipment data in more than one system (e.g., QuickBooks, ERP, CRM)

• You need consistent naming across integrations

• You want to eliminate duplicate records in your database

• You want full control over how profiles are labeled and tracked

External IDs ensure you’re referencing the same profile across systems—even if names, addresses, or emails change over time.

Where External IDs Are Used

Once enabled, External IDs can be added to most profile types in PortPro:

• Customers

• Drivers

• Trucks

• Trailers

• Chassis

• Vendors

• Users

• Branches

• Truck Owners

How to Turn On External IDs

Only administrators can enable or configure External IDs.

Step 1: Go to Company Preferences

• Click the gear icon in the top navigation bar

• Go to Admin Settings → Company Preferences

Step 2: Enable Manual ID Entry

Find the External ID section in Preferences. You’ll see a checkbox:

Let me choose my own IDs for each profile

• Check this box if you want to enter External IDs manually.

• When enabled:

  • The system stops auto-generating IDs.

  • A field appears on each profile for manual ID entry.

  • Duplicate IDs will be blocked across the system.

If this box is not checked, PortPro will continue generating External IDs automatically using the default rules.

How to Enter External IDs in Profiles

Once enabled in settings, the External ID field appears in every supported profile.

You can manually enter any External ID, as long as it:

• Is 15 characters or fewer

• Can include letters, numbers, and special characters

• Is unique across the entire system

If someone tries to save a duplicate ID, the system will show this message:

“External ID is not Unique”

You’ll only get this error if the setting is enabled. Otherwise, PortPro will generate IDs automatically.

What Happens to Existing Profiles?

• Any profiles created before this setting was enabled will not be affected

• Existing duplicates won’t be blocked unless you try to edit and save them

• Manual entry only becomes required once the setting is turned on

Example Use Case

A trucking company uses QuickBooks to manage customers and PortPro to manage dispatch. In QuickBooks, each customer has a Customer ID. By using External IDs in PortPro, the company can:

• Match customer records between QuickBooks and PortPro

• Avoid confusion when customers have similar names

• Report on revenue by External ID across systems

• Sync records during integration setup or API workflows

Key Reminders

• The External ID setting is only available to Admins.

• It can be enabled or disabled anytime in Company Preferences.

• IDs must be unique across all profile types, not just within one group.

• Use External IDs to connect PortPro to your other business systems more reliably.