This is your orientation to how Amous TMS is organized and the language you'll see throughout the product. Read the first section to understand the one idea that ties Amous together — your branch structure — then use the glossary as a quick reference whenever a term is new.

How your workspace is organized

Amous is built around branches. A branch is a level in your workspace, and your branches together form a tree that is designed to mirror the real organizational structure of your business — its divisions, terminals, and customers. The goal is simple: the system should map onto how you already operate, not force you into someone else's layout.

Because the structure is flexible, you can shape it to fit almost any operation — a single company, a multi-terminal carrier, a brokerage and an asset fleet side by side, or several companies run under one roof.

The master level

Everything in your workspace sits under the master level — the space where your company's entire system is configured. The master level is created and set up by an Amous implementation team during your implementation.

If you ever need something changed in your branch system or a branch to be removed — reach out to your Implementation specialist or contact us at implementation@amoustms.com.

Branches and branch types

Beneath the master level, your workspace is built from branches. Amous has two branch types:

• Division — represents an operating unit of your business: a region, terminal, yard, business line, or a separate company. Most day-to-day users work inside a division.

• Customer — represents the companies you do business with. A Customer branch can be a single customer, or a grouped Shared Customers list that holds many customers as sub-customer branches inside one Customer branch — so your whole operation can work from one shared customer list.

A branch can also carry a branch subtype — an editable label such as plant, warehouse, or distribution center — to clarify its role and group your reporting.

Branches can't be deleted from your end. When a branch is no longer needed, you can deactivate it yourself — this works for both Customer and Division branches. To actually remove a branch, contact your implementation team.

How settings and objects flow through branches

How a branch relates to the branches around it comes down to two rules:

• Configuration flows down, and any branch can override it. Settings made on a higher branch apply to the branches beneath it — and each branch can carry its own configuration that overrides what it inherits from above. This is what makes Amous so flexible: set a company-wide default once, then fine-tune the rules and automations branch by branch.

• Objects are shared to the branch and down. Anything you create on a branch — fleet, users, reports — is available on that branch and every branch beneath it, but not on the branches above it. Create something high in the tree and it's shared widely; create it on a single division and it stays within that division and its sub-branches.

Fleet shows how flexible this is: a truck created on a specific terminal stays with that terminal, while one created higher up can be pointed at the terminal it currently runs from using its working division — change the working division and the asset moves with it.

How we usually organize a workspace

There is no single required layout — branches exist to mirror your structure, so treat this as an example, not a rule. That said, here is the arrangement we set up most often, as a starting point you can adapt:

We create one Operations division to act as a company-wide hub — the branch your dispatchers, managers, and accounting work from. Because it sits high in the tree, what they create there flows down to every division beneath it. Under Operations we add the Divisions that mirror your real operating units — a terminal, a region, or a separate company. Alongside them, a single Shared Customers branch groups all your customers so any division can build orders for them without duplicating data.

For example, an asset-based carrier with terminals across the country might use one division per major terminal, while a company that runs both a brokerage and an asset fleet might use one division for each — all under a single master level, all rolling up to the same place for reporting.

Glossary

A quick reference to the terms you'll see most often in Amous. Terms specific to how your workspace is organized come first, followed by everyday operating terms.

Organization & setup

Master level

The space where your company's whole system is configured. Created and maintained by an Amous implementation specialist (not by you); reserved for super admins. Everything else sits beneath it, and its settings flow down.

Branch

A level in your workspace beneath the master level. Branches form the tree that mirrors your organization and come in two types: Customer and Division. Branches can't be deleted from your end — you can deactivate them, and you contact implementation to remove one.

Branch type

One of the two kinds of branch: Division (an operating unit — region, terminal, business line, or company) or Customer (a single customer, or a grouped Shared Customers list).

Branch subtype

An editable label describing what a branch is — for example plant, warehouse, or distribution center — used to clarify a branch's role and group reporting.

Division

One of the two branch types — a branch beneath the master level that represents an operating unit, such as a terminal, region, business line, or separate company. Where most day-to-day users work.

Customer

One of the two branch types — a company you do business with, modeled as a branch. A customer can stand alone or sit inside a Shared Customers branch as a sub-customer; either way you can set customer-specific rules, templates, and (where enabled) portal access.

Shared Customers

A single Customer branch used as one grouped customer list, holding your customers as sub-customer branches inside it. It's shared across your divisions so anyone can build orders for those customers without duplicating them, and it can be set as the default branch for new customers.

Working division

The branch an asset (truck or trailer) currently operates from. Changing an asset's working division moves where it appears and can be assigned, without re-creating it.

Configuration inheritance

Settings flow from a branch down to the branches beneath it, and any branch can override what it inherits with its own configuration — letting you fine-tune rules and automations branch by branch.

Reference

A custom field that can be assigned to a branch, order, trip, or another scope, such as an order number, trip number, or customer load number. References can use auto generated sequences, dropdowns with preset values, or manually entered text fields.

Sequence

The numbering pattern Amous uses to generate references (orders, trips, invoices, and more), including any prefix, sufix and starting number.

Template

A saved, reusable setup that speeds up data entry. Location templates and order templates preset common details; where a template is saved (a division, the operations level, or a single customer) controls who can use it.

Orders & dispatch

Order

The record of a job to be moved for a customer. An order can have none, one or many trips.

Trip

The transportation execution of an order — the part a driver or carrier actually runs. Orders and trips can follow separate numbering sequences, especially when one order has many trips (or many orders share one trip).

Dispatch Board

The working view where you see, filter, and manage orders and trips, assign drivers or carriers, and update status.

Route Builder

A tool for building a complete route from orders that already have trips. Use it to
chain trips through an exchange point — one driver runs freight to a terminal, another
carries it onward — or to combine several orders onto one driver's trip. A route is a
finished plan: both the pickup and the drop have to be set before you can save it, and
you can store the result as a route template to reuse.

Load Planner

A tool for planning freight that's entered as orders with no trip yet — these carry the
Unscheduled status (an order-only status a trip never shows). Unlike Route Builder,
you plan pickups and drops separately and can save a half-finished plan, so it suits LTL
and consolidation work where loads are gathered into a terminal or warehouse and sent
out later. It adds tools for that scale — filter by location zone, a map of pickups and
drops, and driver-availability cards — to plan efficient trips.

Contracts & rating

Contract

The agreed rates between you and a customer (a customer contract) or between you and a carrier (a carrier contract). Contracts can be shared across branches or scoped down to a specific customer.

Rating engine

The tool that prices an order by filtering your contracts against the order's details (locations, weight, quantity, and more) and returning the rates that match. Think of it as a large filtering tool: it reads the order and surfaces the contracts that fit.

Rate shop

A bulk pricing tool, used most by 3PLs, that runs a list of loads against your contracts (and connected carrier APIs) to return the rates you could offer — commonly during a customer's RFP/RFQ or bid process.

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