Stop 4 of 8 · Weekly
Shipping and customs paperwork
A checklist per shipment type, the pack read against itself for mismatches, and the question that goes to the broker instead of a guess.
The pack, per shipment type
A shipment is not one document, it is a pack, and the pack changes with how the goods travel. Sherif knows this and still finds himself at the broker's office missing a certificate of origin at four in the afternoon.
Write the checklist once per shipment type, keep it in the company Project, and generate the shipment's own copy from it.
| Shipment type | What the pack adds |
|---|---|
| Sea, full container | Bill of lading, container and seal numbers, packing list by container |
| Sea, part container | Bill of lading, cargo receipt, packing list by pallet |
| Air | Air waybill, dimensions and chargeable weight, courier handover |
Every type carries the same spine: commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, insurance certificate, the advance cargo declaration reference, the supplier's conformity or inspection certificate where the goods need one, and the bank set for the letter of credit.
Reading the pack against itself
The paperwork rarely fails because a document is missing. It fails because two documents disagree. The consignee is spelled two ways. The packing list says 240 cartons and the bill of lading says 238. Gross weight on the invoice does not match the air waybill. The description on the certificate of origin is shorter than on the invoice. The invoice total is 200 dollars over the letter of credit.
That is a field by field comparison across eight documents, which is exactly the reading a person stops doing properly at document five. Upload the pack with the bank and customs identifiers covered and let Claude do the comparing.
What the broker confirms
Classification, the duty and tax rates that follow it, which certificates the authority is asking for this month, and whether the pack will clear. None of that is Claude's to say, and a confident wrong tariff line costs money at the port. Claude's job is to draft the question with the specification and photographs attached so the broker answers it once, in writing, and that answer goes into the Project.
Using the shipment checklist file in this Project, produce the checklist for one sea, part container import from Turkey of 240 cartons of LED panels under a letter of credit. One line per document: what it is, who issues it, when it must exist, and what it must agree with on the other documents. Mark the three that most often arrive wrong.
[upload the shipment pack with the letter of credit number, the bank account and the customs declaration number covered] Check these documents against the checklist above. First, which documents are missing. Second, a table of every field that appears on more than one document: consignee name, description, quantity, carton count, gross and net weight, values, incoterm, port names. One row per field, one column per document, and flag every row where they do not match exactly. Do not state an HS code and do not state a duty rate.
From those flags, write two things. One, a short English note to my customs broker listing what I am sending, what is still missing, and the numbered questions I need answered, including the classification question with the specification sheet attached. Two, the Arabic version of the same note. Keep both under 150 words.
The Arabic note leaves the company, so Sherif reads it against the English before it goes.