Preserve every BOL, customs form, COI, POD signature image and packing list from Descartes Document Services. Original document-id retention, hash-signed evidence, CBP 5-year/EU customs 10-year/FDA 2-year substantiation, sub-second audit search.
Customs auditors don't accept the structured shipment row alone — they require the original document images that substantiate declared value, weight, country-of-origin and chain-of-custody. The descartes document automation archive preserves that substantiation.
Document images are the legal substantiation behind the structured logistics data. A customs filing in ACE is one row; the commercial invoice that proves the declared value of $47,230 is an image. A bill of lading in the Descartes Global Logistics Network is a shipment record; the original signed BOL document is the legal contract of carriage. A proof-of-delivery in the operational system is a status flag; the signature image with GPS and timestamp is the dispute-defense evidence. CBP, EU customs, FDA and shipper-3PL contracts all require the original document images, with chain-of-custody substantiation, retrievable through their respective retention windows.
Multi-TB volumes are routine. A busy 3PL processing 5M annual shipments with average 4 documents per shipment (BOL, commercial invoice, packing list, POD) generates 20M document images annually. Over a 10-year retention horizon covering CBP 5-year and EU customs 10-year requirements, that's 200M images. Average image size 100–250 KB. Total volume: 20–50 TB. Single tenants exceeding 30 TB across actual production document archives are common — and that volume has to survive any Descartes migration with original document-id preservation, hash-signed evidence and signed read-access logs intact.
Syntra ETL's descartes document automation archive is engineered for this scale. Parallel streaming extraction via Descartes Document Services API (25 concurrent connections, respecting tenant rate limits). Hash-signing per document with original Descartes document-id preserved as cross-reference. Routing to cloud object storage with infrequent-access tiering after 90 days (storage cost ~$0.008–$0.012/GB-month for cold data). Search APIs indexed by shipment number, customs entry number, customer, document type and date range for sub-second retrieval. CBP/EU/FDA audit-response substantiation infrastructure with signed read-access logs and tamper-evident chain of custody.
What Syntra ETL ships pre-built to handle multi-TB document archives with regulatory-grade substantiation.
Streams documents via Descartes Document Services API with 25 concurrent connections (configurable, respecting tenant rate limits). Incremental delta extraction watermark-driven. Typical throughput: 500 GB/day per worker pod.
Every document hash-signed at extraction with original Descartes document-id preserved as cross-reference. SHA-256 by default, FIPS-compliant alternatives available. Tamper-evident chain of custody.
Hot-tier object storage (Oracle/AWS/Azure customer choice) for first 90 days, automatic infrequent-access tiering for older documents. 30 TB archive runs $5K–$9K annually fully tiered.
Search indexes by shipment number, customs entry number, BOL number, customer identifier, document type, date range. CBP audit response in under 1 hour vs 10–14 days with consultant-assisted manual evidence assembly.
Every document access logged with user identifier, timestamp, search context, and signed audit-trail entry. CBP/SOX/EU customs auditor proof of access control and chain of custody.
CBP 5-year, EU customs 10-year, FDA 2-year, C-TPAT 5-year, 21 CFR Part 11 e-signature retention all supported with jurisdiction-specific evidence-pack generation.
Initial extraction for multi-TB archives runs 4–10 weeks. Ongoing daily delta extraction keeps the archive current after Descartes cutover or alongside continuing Descartes operations.
Crawl Descartes Document Services API for total document count, total volume, document-type breakdown, oldest-document date. Size object-storage requirement, hot/cold tiering schedule, network egress estimate. Output: storage cost model and extraction throughput plan.
Provision Oracle/AWS/Azure object storage buckets per data-residency requirement. Configure infrequent-access lifecycle policy (typically 90 days hot, then automatic IA tiering). Configure encryption-at-rest with customer-managed keys if required.
Parallel streaming extraction of full document archive. 25 concurrent worker pods typical. Throughput 500 GB/day/pod = 12.5 TB/day at full scale. 30 TB archive completes in 3–4 elapsed days at full parallelism; typically scheduled across weeks to respect Descartes tenant rate limits.
Hash-signing pipeline runs continuously during extraction. Search indexes built incrementally: shipment number, customs entry number, BOL number, customer, document type, date range. Search API endpoints exposed via REST.
Sample audit-response simulation: pull 50 random historical customs entries, verify all supporting documents retrievable within target SLA, generate signed evidence packs, customs broker sign-off. Final reconciliation: source document count vs archive count.
Daily delta extraction watermark established for incremental capture of new documents. Read-access logging activated. Customer customs broker, finance team and legal team trained on search interface. Archive becomes primary historical document source.
Daily incremental extraction of new documents from Descartes (if Descartes continues operating) or from Fusion (if Descartes fully decommissioned and Fusion is now generating documents). Continuous hash-signing, indexing, archive growth.
Per-document retention policies enforce expiry: CBP customs documents expire at 5 years post-entry, EU customs at 10 years post-entry, FDA food import at 2 years, C-TPAT at 5 years. Expired documents purged with audit-log entry retained.
Real customer scenarios and how the descartes document automation archive supports each.
CBP requests supporting documents for a 2023 entry in 2026. Customs broker searches archive by CBP entry number, receives complete document set (commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, BOL) within 5 minutes. Audit response submitted within 1 hour vs typical 10–14 days.
Customer disputes a 2022 freight invoice in 2024. Operations searches archive by BOL number, receives signed POD image with GPS/timestamp/driver metadata plus carrier-acknowledged rate-card version. Dispute resolved in 30 minutes with documentary evidence.
FDA traceback investigation requires all prior-notice records and supplier documents for a specific food import lot. Archive searches by FDA product code and date range, returns complete document set within FDA 24-hour response window.
EU customs requests import declarations and supporting documents for a 2017 import (within 10-year retention window). Archive search by EU entry number returns full document set including original commercial invoices and HS classification rulings.
External auditors request supporting documents for sample freight invoices from prior fiscal year. Archive bulk-export by date range and customer generates signed evidence pack with hash-verification metadata. SOX audit response time collapses from weeks to days.
C-TPAT renewal validation requires 5-year history of supplier security agreements, denied-party screening records and supply-chain security documentation. Archive bulk-export with signed read-access logs satisfies C-TPAT documentation review.
Descartes document automation archive is the long-term preservation of every document image generated or captured through Descartes document services — bills of lading (BOLs), customs forms (ACE entry summaries, ISF transmissions, ACI declarations), certificates of insurance (COIs), commercial invoices, packing lists, proof-of-delivery (POD) signature images, hazmat manifests, certificates of origin and customer-specific shipment documents. The descartes document automation archive preserves these images with the original Descartes document-id, hash-signed for tamper evidence, indexed for retrieval by shipment, customs entry, customer or date range, and substantiated against CBP 5-year, EU customs 10-year, FDA 2-year and C-TPAT 5-year retention windows. Syntra ETL handles multi-TB volumes routinely — single tenants exceeding 30 TB across a decade of retention are common.
Document images are the second largest data volume in any Descartes migration after the shipment event stream — multi-TB common — and they carry the legal substantiation that the structured shipment data references. A customs filing in structured form is one row; the supporting commercial invoice, packing list and certificate of origin documents that prove the declared value, weight and country-of-origin are images. CBP doesn't accept the structured row alone for audit response; they require the original document images with chain-of-custody substantiation. The descartes document automation archive ensures those images survive migration with original document-id preservation, hash-signed evidence and signed read-access logs — independent of whether the structured shipment data lands in Fusion or in the descartes data archive.
Every document type captured through Descartes Document Services. Shipment execution documents: bills of lading (BOLs), shipping manifests, packing lists, commercial invoices, certificates of origin, hazmat manifests. Customs documents: ACE entry summaries, ISF transmissions, ACI declarations, customs invoices, importer-of-record agreements, customs broker power-of-attorney records. Compliance documents: certificates of insurance (COIs), C-TPAT documentation, supplier security agreements, denied-party screening evidence. Proof-of-delivery documents: signed POD images, photographic delivery confirmation, electronic signature records. Customer-specific documents: branded shipment notifications, customer compliance certifications, tariff-engineering opinions. Each document type carries its own retention and substantiation requirements that the descartes document automation archive preserves correctly.
Multi-TB document image volumes are routine in descartes document automation archive scenarios — busy 3PLs and freight forwarders commonly carry 10–30+ TB across a decade of retention covering CBP 5-year, EU customs 10-year and FDA 2-year requirements. Syntra ETL's extraction approach: parallel streaming via Descartes Document Services API (typically 25 concurrent connections, respecting tenant rate limits), incremental delta extraction for documents added since last watermark, hash-signing per document with original document-id preserved, and staged routing to cloud object storage (Oracle Object Storage, AWS S3, Azure Blob — customer's choice based on data-residency and contractual requirements). Storage cost is typically $0.015–$0.025 per GB-month with infrequent-access tiering after 90 days, making 30 TB archives feasible at $5K–$9K annually.
CBP audit response is the highest-stakes use case for descartes document automation archive. CBP requires customs filings retained 5 years post-entry with supporting document images (commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, freight invoices) retrievable for audit response. Syntra ETL's archive includes: original CBP entry number indexing (search by entry number returns all related documents), original Descartes document-id preservation (cross-reference with Descartes pre-migration records), hash-signed evidence packs (tamper-evident chain of custody), signed read-access logs (proof of who accessed what and when), and search APIs that let your customs broker pull the complete document set for any historical entry in seconds. Typical CBP audit response time collapses from 10–14 days (consultant-assisted manual evidence assembly) to under 1 hour.
Two different patterns serving different needs. Fusion attachments: document images bound directly to Fusion shipment or customs entry records via FBDI attachment metadata. Best for current and recently-closed shipments where users access documents in normal operational workflow. Practical limit: 18–24 months of history before Fusion attachment storage cost and database performance become limiting. Descartes document automation archive: standalone object-storage archive with original Descartes document-id indexing and CBP/EU/FDA-substantiated read-access. Best for historical documents beyond the operational window, supporting audit response without bloating Fusion. The standard pattern: current 12–24 months as Fusion attachments, everything older in descartes document automation archive, with seamless cross-search via Fusion-embedded archive search API.
Proof-of-delivery (POD) signature images are operationally critical — they prove delivery happened, when, and to whom, supporting freight-billing finalisation and customer dispute defense. Descartes captures POD via several mechanisms: driver mobile-app signature capture, electronic signature pad, photographic delivery confirmation with timestamp and GPS, paper-document scan upload. Syntra ETL's descartes document automation archive extracts every POD record via Document Services API, preserves the original capture metadata (signature timestamp, GPS coordinates, driver identifier, signature method), hash-signs the POD image, and indexes for retrieval by shipment number, BOL number, customer or delivery-date range. Customer-dispute response (typically requiring POD evidence within 24 hours under shipper-3PL contracts) is supported with sub-second archive search.
Three-component cost model. Storage: typically $0.015–$0.025 per GB-month for hot-tier object storage on Oracle/AWS/Azure, with infrequent-access tiering after 90 days reducing to $0.008–$0.012/GB-month. A 30 TB archive runs $5K–$9K annually fully tiered. Syntra ETL archive subscription: covers search APIs, hash-signature verification, read-access logging, CBP/EU/FDA audit response substantiation infrastructure — annual subscription priced on archive volume, typically $25K–$80K annually for mid-market scope. Optional CBP audit response support: hands-on customs broker assistance during active audits — annual subscription $15K–$40K. Total typical mid-market: $45K–$130K annually, compared to $250K–$500K annual continued Descartes Document Services subscription for the same retention scope.
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll walk through your document volume, retention requirements (CBP/EU/FDA/C-TPAT), audit-response SLA targets and storage preferences — and give you a concrete descartes document automation archive plan and operating cost before the call ends.