Shipping documents. Three sheets that have to describe the same goods.

The export invoice, packing list and proof of origin are filled in by different people, at different times, often copying from different sheets. But the person receiving them reads all three together.

This piece is part of the guide to export operations for small food producers and covers the seventh of its eight steps: the documents that go with goods leaving the European Union.

The template, to download

One file, three sheets. The first is the export invoice, the second the packing list, and the third compares the seven fields that have to match and writes coincide (match) or DIVERSO (different) next to each one. The description of the goods, the customs code and the weights are written once and copied from there: the sheet is there to check that this really happened.

The files are free. There's no form in the way, we don't ask for an email address, and we don't get notified when anyone downloads them. The third document that has to describe the same goods is the proof of origin, and the sheet reminds you at the bottom: the differences between EUR.1 and the certificate of origin are on the companion page.

The three documents, and the three questions they answer

A food shipment to a non-EU country travels with a fixed base of four documents: the export invoice, the packing list, the transport document and the export customs declaration. The producer prepares the first two, the carrier the third, and the customs agent the fourth on the exporter's behalf, and it's the fourth that produces the proof of exit you need to keep.

For countries with which the European Union has a trade agreement, add proof of preferential origin: the EUR.1 certificate, or an origin declaration written on the invoice below a certain value threshold.

The final list is decided by the destination country. Ask the buyer for it in writing before preparing the goods, because they're the one in touch with customs at the destination, and it's one of the three questions worth asking them in your first reply.

The export invoice: what's added compared with an Italian one

The commercial invoice for export isn't an Italian invoice in translation. It contains items that are taken for granted in the domestic market and become customs data abroad. The Turin Chamber of Commerce describes it field by field: it's issued by the seller in the language required by the destination country and in the number of copies that country requires, and shows the company name and full address of exporter and consignee, the description, quantity and price of the goods in the agreed currency, the delivery terms, the name of the carrier or freight forwarder, ancillary charges such as packaging and insurance, the method of payment, the country of origin of the goods, and the legal references for charging or exempting VAT.

Three of these items are the ones small producers forget most often, and all three have an immediate practical consequence.

• The Incoterm with its place. “FCA Bari” and “DAP Rotterdam” describe two different sales at the same price. Without that term the invoice doesn't say what's included, and the buyer will compare it with an offer that includes something else. How to choose, and what changes, is covered in the piece on the export price list.
• The product's customs code. It's the classification customs at the destination use to set the duty and any restrictions. If it's missing, someone else assigns it for you, and not always in the way that suits you.
• Net and gross weight. They're used to cross-check the invoice against the packing list and the transport document. They're also the first number that jumps out when the three documents don't match.

The packing list: the document used to check the goods

The packing list, in Italian distinta di carico, is issued by the seller and, according to the same Chamber source, shows four things: the number of the commercial invoice it refers to, the number and type of packages, a description of the goods in each package, and the details of any container.

It's the document customs uses to check that what's written is what's there. Everything else follows from that: a vague packing list (“12 packages, food products”) doesn't allow any checking, so the check becomes physical, so the goods stop and someone opens the boxes. Field by field, with a blank sheet to fill in, in Italian and English: the packing list template.

For food it's worth adding two columns nobody requires but which solve half the problems that come later: the lot number and best-before date for each package. They're the details you need on the day a buyer disputes a consignment, or the day a lot has to be recalled: without them, the search starts in someone else's warehouse, on the other side of the world.

Proof of origin: the EUR.1 and the €6,000 threshold

The EUR.1 certificate proves the goods have preferential origin, so the buyer pays reduced or zero duty when they enter the country. It's issued by customs, at the exporter's request, and only applies to countries with which the European Union has a trade agreement.

It's also the document most often confused with the Chamber of Commerce certificate of origin, which certifies something different and doesn't reduce any duty. The two functions, the two bodies and the two uses are set out in EUR.1 or certificate of origin.

There's one threshold to remember: up to €6,000 in value, any exporter can replace the certificate with an origin declaration written directly on the invoice, as documented by the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, Italy's customs agency. Above that threshold you need the EUR.1, or approved exporter status, or registration in the REX system required by some more recent agreements.

The EUR.1 benefits the buyer. The paperwork is yours. That's why it shows up in almost all their requests and in almost none of your costings.

If you often go over €6,000, you'll save a lot of time by applying for approved exporter status instead of requesting a certificate for every consignment. You do it once, and it covers every shipment after that.

Where it breaks down: the same goods described three different ways

Each of the three documents, taken on its own, can be perfect. The problem arises when they're filled in by different people copying from different sheets: admin takes the description from the business software, the person preparing the pallets writes it by hand on the packing list, and the person filling in the certificate request uses the commercial name from the catalogue.

That's three descriptions of the same thing, and none of them is wrong. But to the person checking, they're three sets of goods that might be different, and the quickest option for them is to stop and ask.

The solution is dull, and it works: a single line, written once, copied everywhere. You set it up once per product, not once per shipment.

Description (EN):  Extra virgin olive oil, glass bottle 500 ml
Italian name (IT): Olio extra vergine di oliva, bottiglia
                   in vetro 500 ml
Customs code:      1509 20 00
Origin:            Italy / Italia
Units per carton:  12
Net weight/carton: 6.00 kg    Gross weight/carton: 7.40 kg
Lot:               L2026-114  Best before: 30/11/2027

This line goes, word for word, onto the invoice, the packing list, the certificate request and the sheet you send the buyer. The same consistency matters when the spec sheet in English goes out, since that's the document the buyer takes these details from the first time.

When the folder for each shipment stops putting itself together

With two shipments a month, the documents get prepared by hand and hold together perfectly well. The difficulty comes when shipments run to ten, products to fifteen and countries to five, and every combination has a slightly different list of documents.

The moment things break is always the same, and it's about remembering more than filling in. Remembering that this country also needs a health certificate, that this buyer wants two copies of the invoice, that this document has to be requested days in advance. That kind of memory is the first thing to go in a busy week.

It's also the point where it's worth taking the job out of someone's head: product details written once and picked up automatically on the documents that go out, and an alert for documents with an issuing time, arriving days ahead and not on loading day. With the rule that matters more than the technology, set out in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document goes to customs or to a buyer until a person has read and approved it.

Questions and answers