Your First Week on XportStack: A 7-Step Setup

You signed up on Monday. By Friday, you want every active distributor, every certificate expiry, and every margin floor visible in one place. No more checking three spreadsheets and a WhatsApp group to answer a simple question.

That's what the first week is for.

This post is the seven-step setup I recommend for every new XportStack account. It works for first-time exporters and for established exporters moving over from spreadsheets. The setup runs across a few short sessions in your first week. Most exporters finish faster than they expect, often in the gaps between meetings.

Across 8 years shipping snacks to 35 countries at Popsmalaya, I've done this migration myself. Every step here comes from that experience.

The seven steps

The setup is sequenced so each step builds on the one before. Following the order keeps each session short.

You don't need every field ready on day one. Start with a handful of distributors and a few products, then add the rest as you go. The "I don't have this yet" button is everywhere.

When you first log in, the app runs a short onboarding flow. It collects your company profile, your target markets, and your product basics. The onboarding is optional. You can skip it and go straight to the dashboard. Either way, you'll land on the dashboard with a Getting Started Checklist already tracking your progress. The checklist mirrors the steps below. You can follow it inside the app, or use this post as a more detailed walkthrough.

Step 1: Import your distributor list

This is the foundation of everything else.

What you need before you start:

• A list of your current distributors (from your spreadsheet, your notes, or your email history)
• For each distributor: name, country, contact person, email, phone, currency, payment terms, current product list

XportStack accepts CSV imports. Map the columns to the XportStack fields. The system shows you a preview before the import is final.

If your distributor list lives in WhatsApp instead of a spreadsheet, export the contacts from WhatsApp first. You'll get names and phone numbers. Add the rest (country, currency, payment terms) by hand from your memory or your email history.

Don't try to clean the spreadsheet data before importing. Bring the messy data over and clean it inside XportStack where you can see what's actually in use.

For 5 to 10 distributors, this is a single sitting. For 20 or more, most exporters split it across two short sessions.

Step 2: Add your products

You can't build a quote without products in the system. This step gets your product catalogue into XportStack.

What you need:

• Product name, brand, HS code, shelf life
• Unit barcode (EAN-13) for each product
• At least one carton configuration per product: units per carton, carton barcode (ITF-14), carton dimensions (L x W x H in mm), and carton weight in kg
• COGS per unit or per carton in your base currency

XportStack accepts CSV or Excel imports for products. You can also add them one by one. If you have multiple carton sizes for the same product (12-pack, 20-pack, 48-pack), each gets its own configuration row.

Don't worry about getting every field perfect. You can skip fields you don't have yet using the "I don't have this yet" button, and come back to fill them in later. The important thing is to get your active products into the system so the quote builder and margin dashboard have something to work with.

One thing to know: Export Executives can add products, but Founders control COGS visibility and margin calculations. COGS is Founder-only data for security.

For 5 to 15 products, this is a single session. For larger catalogues, the CSV import keeps it fast.

Step 3: Set up the certificate calendar

The certificate calendar starts catching expiries in week one. Every active certificate gets entered with its expiry date and renewal lead time.

What you need:

• A list of every certificate per market (halal, GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, kosher, organic, country-specific product registrations)
• Expiry date for each
• Standard renewal lead time for each (most certificates need 60 to 120 days)

Once entered, XportStack starts the alert clock. You'll get alerts at 90, 60, and 30 days before each expiry.

While you're here, check the Compliance Checklists page too. It shows per-market requirements alongside your certificate tracker. Many new users find this helpful for spotting gaps they didn't know they had. The checklists come with sensible defaults per market, but you can customise which documents and certificates matter for your account in Settings.

For 5 to 10 active certificates, this is a short session.

Step 4: Configure margin floors

This step sets the rule that protects your quotes from going out too low.

What you need:

• Your target gross margin per category and per market
• Your minimum acceptable margin (the floor)
• Knowledge of which payment terms apply in which markets

XportStack stores a margin floor. Every quote you build in the Quote Builder gets checked against the floor before approval. If a quote falls below, the system flags it for sign-off.

Set the floor at the minimum you'd actually accept, not the target you'd prefer. That keeps the alerts meaningful instead of constant.

One thing to know: only the Founder role can see and adjust the actual margin floor value. Export Managers and Executives see whether a quote is above or below floor, but not the number itself. This keeps your pricing strategy visible only to the people who set it.

For most exporters, this is a short session. It saves you 2 to 4 underpriced quotes per year.

Step 5: Backload the last 6 to 12 months of shipment history

This is the step that pays back the most over time. It's also the easiest to split across two short sessions.

What you need:

• Records of every shipment from the last 6 to 12 months
• For each shipment: distributor, date, product list, FOB value, freight cost, payment status

You can enter shipments one by one, or use the Import Data tool at /import-data to bring in historical records as a batch. The Import Data tool accepts CSV, Excel, or any structured format. It handles 40+ languages, so you can import data in your local language and it maps automatically. The Import Data tool is the fastest path for larger volumes.

Six to twelve months is enough. The extra years don't change how the system works day-to-day.

For 30 to 60 historical shipments, the Import Data tool gets it done in a single session. Many exporters split this into two shorter sittings across two days.

Why this step matters: every future reorder conversation depends on the team being able to see what you've already shipped to each distributor. Without the backload, the system starts cold. With the backload, the conversation starts with full context.

Step 6: Add team members and set permissions

XportStack has three roles. Founder, Export Manager, and Export Executive. Each role has a different level of access.

What you need:

• The email addresses of the team members you want to add
• A clear sense of who needs to see what

Founder has full access to everything. Pricing, financial summaries, margin floors, team management, billing.

Export Manager can see and edit operational data. They can approve quotes up to the limit you set for them. They can manage distributors, shipments, and certificates. Export Managers can also set approval limits for Export Executives. You control how much authority each person has.

Export Executive can create quotes and update shipment status. Their quotes need approval from a Founder or Export Manager before they go out.

Add yourself first, then one or two senior team members later in the week. Bring in the rest of the team in week two once you've stabilised the setup.

For a team of 2 to 5 people, this is a quick session.

Step 7: Test the alert system

The last step in the first week is making sure alerts actually reach you and your team.

What you do:

• Trigger a test alert from the certificate calendar
• Trigger a test alert from a below-floor quote
• Check that the alert arrives in your email and in the XportStack notification bar
• Check the reorder cycle on your key distributors to confirm the data looks right

Test alerts assume your email settings are correct. Check Settings then Notifications to confirm your email address is verified before testing. If any alert doesn't arrive, fix the email setting before the week ends. The alert system is the part of XportStack that catches the misses your spreadsheets used to miss.

This is a quick session.

How to spread the work across the week

A typical first-week schedule:

Day	Steps
Day 1 (Monday)	Step 1: Import distributors + Step 2: Add products
Day 2 (Tuesday)	Step 3: Certificates + Step 4: Margin floors
Day 3 (Wednesday)	Step 5 part 1: Backload first half of shipments
Day 4 (Thursday)	Step 5 part 2: Backload second half of shipments
Day 5 (Friday)	Step 6: Team + Step 7: Test alerts

Most exporters do each day as one short session, often in the gap between meetings or at the start of the morning.

If you prefer to do more in fewer days, the whole setup can be done across two short blocks instead of five.

What to skip in week one

Four things to leave for later.

Skip the importer portals. XportStack has branded importer portals for each distributor. They're useful once your operational data is in place. But they're about distributor engagement, not operational foundation. Set them up in week two or three once your distributors, products, and shipments are loaded.

Skip the historical financial reconciliation. You don't need to reconcile every past invoice, every past payment, and every past FX gain in week one. Backload the operational data (shipments, certificates, distributors). The financial reconciliation can wait.

Skip the formal team training. Hold off on the formal team training for two weeks. Let yourself get familiar with the system first. The training will be better when you can show the parts of the system you actually use.

Skip the advanced settings. Features like the shipment pre-departure checklist and compliance checklists work out of the box with sensible defaults. Leave the fine-tuning for week three or four when you've seen how the defaults fit your workflow.

Signs the setup is working

By the end of week one, you should see:

• Every active distributor visible in one place
• Your product catalogue loaded with active products
• Every active certificate with its alert clock running
• Margin floors configured
• The last 6 to 12 months of shipments visible per distributor
• Your team members able to log in and see what they should see
• Test alerts reaching your email and notification bar

If any of these is missing, finish that step before moving to week two.

By the end of week two, you should be:

• Building new quotes inside XportStack instead of in spreadsheets
• Receiving real certificate alerts as they trigger
• Checking the reorder cycle on your key distributors once a week

By the end of week four, you should be:

• Doing your day-to-day work in XportStack
• Opening the old spreadsheets less than once a week

What happens next

If you haven't signed up yet and want to see what the setup looks like, the XportStack readiness check is a two-minute quiz. Free.

If you want to see the true margin of your current shipments first, the True Margin Calculator runs the math in your browser. Free. Your numbers aren't stored.

If you're ready to set up your first week, see XportStack pricing. Two plans. Growth at USD 149 per month or Scale at USD 299 per month. Cancel anytime. Your data stays yours.

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Yasmin Karim is the founder of XportStack, the export operating system for F&B exporters globally. Before XportStack, she built Popsmalaya into a snack brand shipping to 35 countries across six continents over eight years. XportStack exists because every operational problem she faced at Popsmalaya is one that thousands of other F&B exporters face today. Most of them are still using spreadsheets to manage it.