4. Shipping goods internationally

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This application support note is intended to provide information and guidance to users of axis diplomat who trade internationally and import or export physical goods.

Some aspects of functionality described require you to be running axis diplomat's Despatch and Delivery Management module (normally in conjunction with the Warehouse Management module).

The scope of this support note is limited to the handling of outbound or inbound deliveries of physical goods (despatches or arrivals). It does not include aspects such as EC VAT (you may, for example, need VAT registrations in one or more European countries) or Intrastat reporting, currency, tax or customs duties.

When considering international trade, the movement of goods will generally require additional information to be provided to customs both at the point of export and the point of import. This information may be provided either on paper (for example in the form of a Customs Invoice) or electronically via an interface with your carrier/logistics provider where they provide support for paperless trade.

Additional information will be in relation to:

• The customer (e.g. their location, VAT status and EORI number).
• The goods (stock items) contained in the delivery (e.g. each item's commodity/tariff code).
• The delivery (e.g. the delivery terms (Incoterms) and the way it is packed (shipping container information)).

The tax status of the customer (consignee) together with where the goods are being shipped from and to will determine the way in which axis diplomat calculates VAT. To avoid VAT being charged inappropriately, it is essential that (when the customer is VAT registered) the customer account has their VAT registration number set.

In addition, the customer account address and/or delivery address country must be set accurately.

We also recommend that you hold your customer's EORI number in the field provided and show this on your customs invoice.

Tips:

Enter or amend Customer VAT and EORI numbers on an individual customer account using the Customer maintenance function.

Use a Monitor tab of Customers to see which accounts do or do not have these details present (there are columns for VAT registration and EORI).

Use the Import Customer Details fucntion if you wish to update customer accounts en masse with details from a spread sheet / csv file.

NOTE; In older versions, axis diplomat relied on the customer account "account classification field" to determine tax liability. This is no longer the case.

axis diplomat can hold the additional information required against each stock record.

If you are trading internationally, we recommend that you ensure the following fields are fully and accurately populated on all stock. This will enable axis diplomat to pass these details electronically to your delivery service provider (where supported) and may avoid you having to provide paper-based export documentation.

• Commodity / Tariff code (also known as Harmonised code) - Used by customs to determine the duty rate and whether excise duty applies.
• Country of Origin (CoO) - Used by customs to determine liability for duty.
• Weight - Used by your delivery service provider in the calculation of delivery costs (and by axis diplomat to estimate these costs).
• Dimensions -  Used by your delivery service provider in the calculation of delivery costs (and by axis diplomat to estimate these costs). If the item is shipped as a package in its own right then ensuring that these details are complete will avoid having to enter them each time the item is despatched.
• Volume - Sometimes used by your delivery service provider in the calculation of delivery costs based on volumetric weight (and by axis diplomat to estimate these costs). This volume is calculated by axis diplomat based on the item's dimensions so it's important that height, width and depth are all populated. There is a separate "Net volume" field on the stock record which can be used to hold the volume of product (less packaging).

Tip: You can check this information prior to consigning a delivery by using the Delivery Enquiry function's Delivery Items tab. 

International shipments will typically require you to declare the contents of each shipping container (package or pallet) individually either for use by the Delivery Service Provider or by customs at the point of export and/or at the point of import.

axis diplomat's picking (Handheld Pick Sales Orders and Handheld Pick Delivery) functions and the Pack and Despatch function support the (optional) capture of shipping container information as users pick or pack. This detail can then be passed electronically via an axis diplomat Delivery Service Provider interface (where supported by the DSP).

Shipping container mode is enabled via a system parameter. If you're not currently using axis diplomat's Shipping Container mode within Picking and/or Pack & Despatch we strongly recommend that you trial Shipping container mode in a test environment for training purposes before attempting to introduce it.

Preparing to use Shipping container mode:

• Check that the Deloivery Service Provider (DSP) interface you will be using supports shipping container detail (see https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Delivery-Service-Provider-Interface-Foundation/articles/15947 for information on available DSP interfaces).
• Create a stock record for each different item of packaging you use. For example, if you ship using three different sizes of box and also ship full pallets and half pallets, create five stock records describing each of these, their weights and dimensions. For a packaging item, the stock record also has a field to hold the maximum weight which that package can hold. Taking the trouble to set these stock record fields accurately for each packaging item will help ensure that axis diplomat doesn't attempt to pack items into shipping containers (packaging) where it won't fit.
• A SOP parameter on the Order Release tab, allows you to define which product group is being used to hold packaging items (shipping containers). Set this to the product group you have set against all of your packaging items and use this product group only for packaging.
• If you also ship out items "as is" without further packaging, ensure that these stock records have the "Is a package" prompt ticked. If you are implementing this for the first time, you can use the Stock Record Block Amendment function to set 'Is a package' against all items in specific product groups or sales groups.
• Holding accurate weights and dimensions against your stock and packaging helps efficiency and cost control as it ensures correct information is used by axis diplomat to calculate delivery costs (using weight and volumetric weight calculations) and select the best delivery method. Also, that the correct information is passed through to your Delivery Service Provider(s). It can avoid the need to manually key package weight and measurements at your despatch desk prior to consignment as the information is already known.You can define packaging items as either stocked or product items. If you define them as stocked items, axis diplomat will create stock issue transaction(s) each time you use one. If you define a packaging item as a 'product' axis diplomat will assume that you have an infinite supply. All packaging stock items should be set against a single Product Group which isn't used for anything else.

Delivery Terms refers to the International Commercial Terms (normally abbreviated to Incoterms) used to define which elements of costs are to be paid for by the seller (consignor) and which by the buyer (consignee). A Delivery Term takes the format of a three character code (e.g. DDP).

See https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Delivery-Terms/articles/17115 for more information.

axis diplomat has long supported the use of Incoterms in conjunction for Intrastat reporting.  Users of the Despatch and Delivery Management module can now set Delivery Terms against sales orders and deliveries regardless of whether Intrastat is in use.

You can set a default Delivery Term against a customer account to reflect the terms of your commercial agreement with them (for example, whether you (the consignor) or they (the consignee) will be liable for import duties) which will then be used for all orders unless overridden . You can also set a default Delivery Term within the sales ledger and purchase ledger parameters for use when creating new customer and supplier accounts.

If you have one or more axis diplomat eBusiness interfaces, you may want to set a different Delivery Term as the default to be used against sales orders imported from an eBusiness site where the order itself (e.g. the order XML) does not define one. The Maintain Sites function provides the ability to set a default Delivery Term for that site.

The Delivery Term can then be used by axis diplomat to appear on a Customs Invoice (useful to make it clear to customs and freight forwarding staff which party is expected to pay duties) or used by axis diplomat during the consignment of a Delivery to send information on which party is responsible for paying duties.

For those systems with the axis diplomat Despatch and Delivery Management module, axis diplomat can use all of the information you have provided to either submit it electronically to your chosen delivery service provider or produce paperwork to be sent with the delivery.

Where paper is to be used, the required information can be shown on axis diplomat's Customs Invoice document. The Customs Invoice is like any other axis diplomat Document designer document but can be a different layout to your standard sales invoice. You'll typically need to incorporate much more information within the Customs Invoice (for example columns for each item's CoO, commodity code, weight and package ID¹ in addition to quantity and value) and therefore a landscape format is recommended. A sample axis diplomat Document Designer Customs Invoice template is provided on the axis diplomat release as a basis for you to customise as required.

The Despatch & Delivery Management modules allows you to configure a Delivery Method to automatically print a Customs Invoice to a defined printer (perhaps near your despatch desk) whenever an international export is being consigned.

Checklist of information we recommend you provide on your Customs Invoice:

• Your organisation name, address and contact details.
• Your Company registration number
• Your VAT registration number.
• Your EORI number.
• Customer's (deliver to) name and address.
• Customer's EORI number.
• Total value of delivery.
• Total weight of delivery.
• Total number of items on the delivery.
• Total number of packages.
• Delivery Term (Incoterm).
• Item information:
  • Item quantity
  • Item description
  • Item unit value
  • Item line value
  • Item weight
  • Item commodity code
  • Item Country of Origin (CoO)
  • Package number in which the item is contained. ¹

¹ Note that in order for axis diplomat to provide the package ID against each item your system must be running Despatch & Delivery Management and using Shipping Container mode.

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