Import documents: the checklist for each import

Import Documents is a module of the Warehouse section, under Purchasing: a checklist for each import of the papers and steps that have to happen on time, so no charge is incurred for being late. The imports are on the left with where each checklist stands; the checklist is in the window.

The steps

Each step says who owns it (the customs broker, the forwarder, you, the supplier or the carrier), when it is due, counted from the import's own days (its departure, its arrival, its cutoffs, the last free day, the release, the delivery), and what being late risks:

• ISF penalty: liquidated damages of $5,000 a filing for an ISF filed late, missing or wrong.
• Demurrage: the port charges by the day for a container left past its last free day.
• Detention: the carrier charges by the day for its container kept past its free days after it was gated out.
• Storage: the terminal or the airline's warehouse charges by the day for cargo not picked up.
• A delay or a late fee, where the next step waits or the carrier charges for a late paper.

A due day follows the import: a later ETA moves the entry and the delivery order with it. Set one by hand to hold it where you want it. A step is Late past its due day, Due soon within its reminder window, and Done once marked, with the day, who marked it, and the number it produced (the ISF transaction, the entry number, the delivery order).

Starting and working a checklist

1. Pick an import. One with no checklist shows the steps the templates would give it; Start the checklist keeps them with it.
2. As each paper comes in or each step is taken, Mark done: the day, the reference and a note. Open it again takes done off one marked by mistake.
3. Change the step to change its owner, what being late risks, its due day (by hand) or its note; Take it off removes a step the import does not need.
4. Add a step for something this import alone needs: a fumigation certificate, a lab report.

Reminders

Once a day the app emails the business about the steps coming due (each as it enters its reminder window, so many days before its due day) and the ones that have gone late (once, the day after), under the same notice as the ISF and last-free-day reminders. A step gone late also tells your webhooks once.

The templates

The templates is the list every new checklist is made from: each step with the modes (ocean, air, truck, courier) and Incoterms it applies to, its owner, how its due day is counted, how many days before it is reminded, and what being late risks. The app's own set stands until you change it; the first change copies it in as yours. Add your own, change any, switch one off, or Put the app's back.

The app's set, in the order the steps happen: the booking with the forwarder (on EXW, FCA, FAS and FOB terms, where the carriage is yours to arrange), the commercial invoice and packing list from the supplier, the insurance certificate (CIF and CIP), the ISF filed before loading, the shipping instructions by the documentation cutoff, the bill of lading or air waybill, the arrival notice, the customs entry (the supplier's on DDP terms), the duties paid, the delivery order, the container out before free time ends, and the empty returned before detention.

Best practices

• Start the checklist as soon as the import is planned: the ISF is due before the goods are loaded, which is earlier than people expect.
• Name the broker and the forwarder on the import, so each step says who to call.
• Put the ISF transaction and the entry number on their steps when they come: the next person looks here, not in the mail.
• Keep the last free day on each container current from the arrival notice; demurrage runs from it.