Purpose: Avoid returns by understanding which information to fill in at label creation, in order to ship internationally.
This article is only a guide, and Sendcloud can in no way be held responsible for any issues with your export documents. Always verify the shipping conditions of the carrier and the customs regulations before shipping to a destination that requires customs documents.
For more tips and tricks on international shipping, visit our blog entry: International Shipping: A Checklist for Problem-Free Global Shipping.
: Recently, we released our revamped customs documents, including new fields and an updated design. This new format is described below, and currently only available for beta users. For more information, read our article about the Sendcloud Beta Community.
Step 1: Fill in Customer information
Make sure all customer details are correct to prevent delivery issues!
Once you select a destination country that requires customs documents, the relevant fields will automatically appear.
For customer information, you can add the tax numbers of the sender, receiver, or importer of record to the parcel.*
Possible tax numbers are:
| Abbreviation | Explanation |
| VAT | Value-added tax → VOEC number for Norway should be shared here as advised by the Norwegian Tax Authorities |
| EIN | Employer Identification Number |
| GST | Goods and Service Tax |
| SSN | Social Security Number |
| EOR | European Union Registration and Identification |
| DUN | Data Universal Numbering System |
| FED | Federal Tax ID |
| STA | State Tax ID |
| CNP | Brazil CNPJ/CPF Federal Tax |
| IE | Brazil Type IE/RG Federal Tax |
| INN | Russia Bank details section INN |
| KPP | Russia Bank details section KPP |
| OGR | Russia Bank details section OGRN |
| OKP | Russia Bank details section OKPO |
| SDT | Overseas Registered Supplier or Import One-Stop-Shop or GB VAT (foreign) registration or AUSid GST Registration or VAT on E-Commerce |
| FTZ | Free Trade Zone ID |
| DAN | Deferment Account Duties only |
| TAN | Deferment Account Tax only |
| DTF | Deferment Account Duties, Taxes and Fees only |
| RGP | EU Registered Exportes registration ID |
| DLI | Driver's License |
| NID | National Identity Card |
| PAS | Passport |
| MID |
Manufacturer IDq |
*A customs-connected record importer specializes in importing goods and managing the associated customs documentation. If not provided, the receiver's address will be used instead.
Step 2: Add International information
Export type
Export type refers to whether the export is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), or even private individual-to-individual (C2C). These terms indicate the nature of the transaction and the parties involved in the export process. The default export type is Commercial B2C. If the type is "Private" tax numbers will not be required, as it is not expected for a private customer to have an EORI number for example.
Export reason
The export reason represents the intention for the export transaction and is often specified for documentation, customs clearance and regulatory purposes. You can choose between:
- Gift
- Documents
- Commercial Goods
- Commercial Sample
- Returned Goods
Declared value
The declared value consists of:
- Total declared value without discount
- Discount (optional)
- Total declared value with discount
For example:
The total amount was €225 (1), but the customer paid €200 (3) for the order, because the customer received a €25 discount (2).
Freight costs
The freight costs are shipping costs paid by your customer.
Insurance costs
This only needs to be filled in if your customer paid for insurance. If you pay for insurance (for example Sendcloud Shipping protection), without charging the customer for it, this field doesn't need to be filled in.
Other costs
Additional costs charged to your customer for example: A wrapping fee, or a return fee.
Total invoice amount
Total declared value with discount + freight costs + insurance costs + other costs = Total invoice amount
Invoice number
A customs invoice number is a unique identifier assigned to a commercial invoice, serving as a reference for customs clearance.
Invoice date
The invoice date is the date of when the commercial invoice was issued.
General notes
General notes can be used to give extra context about the shipment. For example stating the return reason (returned due to wrong size) or the gift reason (gift for baby shower).
Declaration statement
A declaration statement may contain specific details about the nature of the goods being shipped, their origin, or any additional information required by customs authorities. The content of an additional declaration statement can vary based on the requirements of the importing and exporting countries, as well as the nature of the goods being transported. Below, you can see 2 examples of the most common declaration statements:
Preferential Origin Declaration: “The exporter of the products covered by this document declares that, except where otherwise clearly indicated, these products are of preferential origin. I/We hereby certify that the information on this document is true and correct and that the contents of this shipment are as stated above.”
CITES Declaration: “With reference to the above shipment, I understate that the content is not made of leather parts of animal species protected by the Washington Convention.”
Step 3: Fill in Shipment details
Make sure the parcel weight corresponds with the total weight under Items. Please note: We do not advise adding a multiple number of parcels when shipping internationally, since we do not support multicollo for international shipments yet.
To avoid unnecessary high import cost and ensure smooth customs clearance, we highly recommend creating separate labels for each parcel. Each label should clearly state the items being shipped in that particular parcel. This ensures that customs authorities can accurately assess duties, taxes, and import regulations for each shipment.
Step 4: Add items
Let's add some items.
Please note: The amount of items you can include differs depend on the type of customs document:
- CN22/CN23: Postal carriers (e.g. PostNL, Correos, Royal Mail, bpost, Deutsche Post) allow a maximum of 5 items per commercial invoice.
- Commercial invoice: carriers (e.g. DPD, DHL, UPS) allow a maximum of 99 items per commercial invoice. To create more than 99 items, you must create a new shipment.
Step 5: Select a Shipping method
It's time to select your preferred shipping method (and associated incoterms). Would like to learn more about which shipping method to select? Here's a Help center article to help you out: Things to take into account when shipping internationally.
Step 6: Ship with Sendcloud Shipping Protection (optional)
If you want to protect your shipments against damage or loss during transport, consider adding Sendcloud Shipping Protection to your parcels.
To insure your shipment, go to the Incoming Orders tab in your Sendcloud panel and click on the pen icon to edit the order details. You will be able to enter the desired amount at the bottom page in the Total requested insurance field. Here, you can also check whether the shipping method that you are about to use includes carrier insurance.
You can see the indicative insurance price in the summary of the shipping costs before you create the label.
For more detailed information, please refer to the Sencloud Shipping Protection article.
How to create an International Shipment via API
All of this information can easily be included through the API as well!
To ship an international parcel via the API, simply include all the details outlined in the previous steps within the customs_information object. For more guidance and technical specifics, feel free to refer to our API documentation.
Here is an example of an API v2 request containing all the necessary customs information.
{
"parcels": [
{
"name": "John Doe",
"sender_address": 1,
"company_name": "FlowerShop",
"email": "john@doe.com",
"telephone": "+316112233445",
"address": "Fürstenrieder Str.",
"house_number": "70",
"address_2": "",
"city": "Munich",
"country": "US",
"to_state": "NY",
"postal_code": "80686",
"country_state": null,
"integration_id": 116118,
"to_post_number": 262373726,
"parcel_items": [
{
"description": "T-Shirt",
"hs_code": "610900",
"origin_country": "SE",
"product_id": "898678671",
"properties": {
"color": "Blue",
"size": "Medium"
},
"quantity": 2,
"sku": "TST-OD2019-B620",
"value": "19.95",
"weight": "0.9"
},
{
"description": "Laptop",
"hs_code": "84713010",
"origin_country": "DE",
"product_id": "5756464758",
"properties": {
"color": "Black",
"internal_storage": "2TB"
},
"quantity": 1,
"sku": "LT-PN2020-B23",
"value": "876.97",
"weight": "1.69"
}
],
"shipment": {
"id": 84
},
"weight": "10",
"length": "31.5",
"width": "27.2",
"height": "12.7",
"total_order_value": "896.92",
"total_order_value_currency": "EUR",
"shipping_method_checkout_name": "Battery WarehouseX DHL",
"quantity": "1",
"is_return": false,
"request_label": false,
"apply_shipping_rules": false,
"request_label_async": false,
"customs_invoice_nr": "",
"customs_shipment_type": null,
"customs_information": {
"customs_invoice_nr": "456",
"customs_shipment_type": 4,
"export_type": "private",
"invoice_date": "2020-02-03",
"discount_granted": "12.01",
"freight_costs": 11,
"insurance_cost": "0",
"other_costs": ".01",
"general_notes": "This is my general notes for parcel customs item",
"additional_declaration_statements": ["Statement", "Another statement"],
"tax_numbers": {
"importer_of_record": [
{"country_code": "US", "name": "VAT", "value": "NL123456789B01"},
{"country_code": "US", "name": "EORI", "value": "NL123456789B01"}
],
"receiver": [
{"country_code": "US", "name": "VAT", "value": "NL123456789B01"},
{"country_code": "US", "name": "EORI", "value": "NL123456789B01"},
{"country_code": "NL", "name": "IOSS", "value": "123123123"}
],
"sender": [
{"country_code": "NL", "name": "VAT", "value": "NL123456789B01"},
{"country_code": "NL", "name": "EORI", "value": "NL123456789B01"}
]
},
"importer_of_records": {
"name": "Elisei",
"company_name": "Sendcloud",
"address_1": "Prins hendrik",
"address_2": "left",
"house_number": "1A",
"city": "Eindhoven",
"postal_code": "1111",
"country_code": "IT",
"country_state": "IT-RO",
"telephone": "+316112233445",
"email": "john@doe.com"
},
"return_data": {
"return_postal_code": "4444",
"outbound_tracking_number": "TR111",
"outbound_shipment_date": "2023-01-09",
"outbound_carrier_name": "UPSS"
}
}
}
]
}
That's it! You are ready to create a label and the customs forms will be automatically generated. You can either print them, and attach them to the box (make sure you print enough copies) or send your customs documents digitally via Paperless trade.