Your company documents are a direct reflection of your brand — and with AscendTMS, you can make them look, feel, and function exactly the way you want!

In this Help Guide, we’ll walk you through how to fully customize your Bill of Ladings, Customer and Carrier Rate Confirmations, Invoices and more — complete with your company logo, terms, and layout preferences. Plus, we’ll show you how to actually use these customized documents inside AscendTMS, so every load you move is backed by professional, on-brand paperwork that fits your business perfectly.

Begin by locating the Settings button on the left side of your AscendTMS screen

Next, navigate to the Report & Document Settings section and select Fully Customize Your Load Documents there

You will be taken to the Customize Your Documents screen, shown below.

To get started, click Select a Template or Document. This dropdown menu includes two sections: Templates and Documents.

The Templates section contains Ascend-generated documents that serve as your starting point — these cannot be edited directly, but you can use them to create your own customized versions.

Once you’ve created a custom document, it will appear under the Documents section at the top of your list.

From the Template documents, choose which document you would like to customize. In the below example, we chose the Carrier Confirmation Template.

The Title displays the name of the AscendTMS generated document.

Here it is labeled Load Confirmation.

While customizing your document, you can give it any name you’d like — this Title will appear as the header on the document itself. You can also adjust the font style and font size to match your company’s branding and preferences.

Next, you’ll design the body of your customized document. You can toggle individual sections on or off as needed, and use the dropdown menus to view and adjust the available customization options for each section.

Inside the dropdown of each section, you can also toggle off any of the information shown.

Wherever you see the “hamburger menu” (three horizontal lines), you can click and drag to rearrange sections — moving them up or down to position each part of your custom document exactly where you want it.

In the Signatures section, you can choose which signature line(s) you’d like to make available for EZSign by toggling them on. When you’re ready to email the document, simply select it from your Documents list on the load, choose Request E-Signature, confirm the recipient’s email address, and click Send.

When your custom document is ready, click Create Document. A pop-up window will appear, allowing you to name your new document — this name will display in the Documents list within the load.

If you’ve already created a custom document and need to update it, simply select it from your Documents list.

After making any edits, a Save button will appear — click it to save your changes.

To create a similar document with slight variations, choose Save as New. You’ll be prompted to enter a unique name for the new document, then make your updates and click Save to finish.

To delete a custom document you’ve created, select it from the dropdown list and click Delete.

Now that you’ve customized your documents, let’s look at how they appear on the Load Level.

From Load Management, right-click on the load containing the load documents you wish to view, then select View or Send Load Documents

When you open View or Send Load Docs, you’ll see two sections: Your Defaulted Documents at the top and Other Documents below. By default, ALL documents (including your Customized Load Documents) will initially appear under Your Defaulted Documents.

In the highlighted document below, the first column displays the Document Name. The second column shows the Upload Source, indicating how the document was created (in this case, as a custom document). The column titled Description provides a brief summary — such as Custom Bill of Lading Document.

The Defaulted column lets you mark both custom and system-generated documents as default. When a document’s box is checked, it will remain in Your Defaulted Documents area for easy access.

As an Administrator or a user with the permission to access non-defaulted documents (more on this permission below), you can uncheck a document to move it to the Other Documents area. This section stores documents you don’t use or email on a daily basis but may need occasionally. You can always recheck the document at any time to move it back to your Defaulted Documents area.

In addition to this amazing new feature, we’ve added a new Permission setting for non-defaulted documents. Account admins can enable this option to restrict user access to the Other Documents area, allowing users to view and email only the documents stored in Your Defaulted Documents.

Let’s say your company wants to ensure all team members use only approved, standardized documents—such as your official Bill of Lading, Rate Confirmation, and Carrier Setup Packet—when communicating with carriers and customers.

By enabling the non-defaulted document permission, admins can restrict access so that users can only view or send documents from Your Defaulted Documents. This prevents team members from accidentally using outdated or unapproved templates that may still exist in the Other Documents area, ensuring consistency and compliance across your entire operation.

If you tender loads to carriers through the AscendPortal and have customized documents set up, you’ll now see a modal when sending a load.

This modal displays your defaulted documents for carriers. To choose which document you’d like to send, simply click the dropdown menu, select your desired document, and then click Tender Load to Carrier.

This allows you to easily select the appropriate customized document before completing the tender process.

The process for generating and sending your customized load documents is identical to sending standard load documents in AscendTMS.

If you’re already familiar with sending standard load docs, you’ll follow the exact same steps. For detailed instructions, refer to the Load Documents Help Guides below.