How to fill out an export document

What to put in each box of a commercial invoice, what customs checks first, and the four mistakes that get shipments held. Includes a free generator.

What goes in each column of an export packing list, how it must match the commercial invoice, and what a customs officer checks it against.

What a proforma invoice commits you to, how it differs from a commercial invoice, and what a buyer's bank needs on it to open a letter of credit.

What belongs on an international purchase order, why it usually becomes the contract, and the four fields that decide most disputes.

What an export quotation has to state to be comparable, and the two fields whose absence costs money later.

What a credit note actually does, when it is the wrong instrument, and why it cannot correct a customs declaration.

For FCL shipments across several boxes, where every line has to trace to a container and a seal.

The short version: what is in the shipment, how many packages, what it weighs. When it is enough and when it is not.

One list covering several orders or invoices in a single consignment, and how to keep each one traceable.

What a tax invoice has to carry for a buyer to reclaim, why exports usually show zero, and how it differs from the commercial invoice.

The shortest document in the set, and the one that decides whether the quotes you get back are comparable.

The seller's acceptance of an order. What it must restate, and why it is the document that decides whose terms apply.

What goes in each box of an ocean bill of lading, why the consignee box decides who owns the cargo, and the difference between a straight and an order B/L.

What a certificate of origin must state, how origin is decided, and why some destinations need a chamber of commerce stamp and others do not.

The ten importer elements, which document each one comes from, and why the deadline is measured against loading rather than arrival.

There is no official form. Nine data elements, a certification statement, and a decision about who certifies that changes what you have to provide.

The numbered boxes on an international road consignment note, which three copies go where, and where the carrier's reservations belong.

The instrument behind documentary collections: an unconditional order to pay, at sight or at a stated future date.

Certifying that plants or plant products meet the importing country's requirements. Issued by a national authority, not by you.

Movement documents tracking hazardous waste and recyclable material from exporter to the facility that treats it.

What to tell your freight forwarder in an SLI, why it carries an authority to act as your agent, and the instructions people forget until it costs them.

The SOLAS verified gross mass: the two permitted weighing methods, who is legally responsible, and why the warehouse doing the weighing does not change that.

The document that settles whose terms apply. What has to be in it, and what the purchase order cannot do on its own.

The document that drafts your bill of lading. Every box here becomes a box there, and amending it afterwards costs money.

Booking a consignment with a forwarder: collection details, routing, and who pays which charges.

Two short declarations destination countries demand, what triggers them, and what you are actually certifying.

Declaring timber packaging and container cleanliness for Australian and New Zealand biosecurity, and why plastic packaging still needs one.

A self-certified origin statement. When it is accepted, when a chamber-stamped certificate is required instead, and what it does not claim.

A blank declaration on letterhead, for the one-off statements a buyer, bank or customs authority asks for that have no standard form.