Export Document Management: Why Outsourcing This Service Can Save Time and Avoid Errors

General documents include:

COMMERCIAL DOCUMENTS

Proforma Invoice: This is a provisional document issued by the exporter to provide the buyer with complete information about the elements of the transaction.

Commercial Invoice: This is the most important commercial document in the document flow of an export transaction.

Packing List: This is a control document, issued by the exporter, detailing all the packages, boxes, containers, or parcels that make up a shipment, as well as the weight and contents of each, identifying them with a number or reference.

Customs invoice: A document issued by the seller and required by the customs authorities of some importing countries for statistical or informational purposes, particularly regarding price structure. When duly completed, it is sent along with the exported goods.

Consular invoice: A special document issued by the exporter and authenticated by a consulate of the importing country in the exporting country. This document may be required by the customs authorities of some countries.

Certificates of origin: Certificates of origin are intended to prove the origin of goods, in order to satisfy the requirements of the customs authority of the destination country, the importer/customer, or the financial institution through which the export transaction is processed.

ATA and CPD Carnets: The ATA Carnet is a Temporary Admission document for goods valid in the member countries of the ATA Chain. It replaces national temporary export and import documents in certain cases and when specific requirements are met.

TRANSPORT DOCUMENTS

Maritime Bill of Lading: This is a document issued by the shipping company or its agent confirming receipt of the goods for transport to the designated port on the specified vessel.

Air Waybill: This document serves as proof of the air transport contract between a shipper and an air carrier, whereby the carrier acknowledges receipt of the goods for shipment and undertakes to transport them to the destination airport under the specified conditions.

CMR Road Consignment Note: This document is generally issued by transport companies and freight forwarders, under the responsibility of the shipper, and confirms receipt of goods for transport to the agreed point under the conditions established in the document itself.

TIR Carnet: This document is used in international road transport and allows the transit of goods through countries adhering to this regime without being subject to customs controls. It was created in Geneva on November 14, 1975.

CIM Rail Consignment Note: This document regulates international rail transport between at least two countries connected by railway lines listed in the annexes to the COTIF-CIM Convention.

FIATA Multimodal Bill of Lading: This is used to regulate international multimodal transport, organized under the responsibility of freight forwarders belonging to FIATA (International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations), whose Spanish member is the FETEIA association.

INSURANCE DOCUMENT

Transport Insurance: This is a contract by which one party (the insurer), in exchange for a premium, undertakes to pay compensation to the other party (the insured), or to a third party (the beneficiary), in the event of a risk or uncertain event occurring to the person or thing being insured.

LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS

Single Legalization or Hague Apostille: The apostille process consists of placing an apostille or annotation on a public document, or an extension thereof, certifying the authenticity of the signature on public documents issued in a country that is a signatory to the XII Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, which abolishes the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents to be used in another signatory country.

Legalizations: Unless a legal instrument exists that exempts this requirement, all Spanish public documents must be legalized to be valid abroad.

It is good that exporters and importers rely on a logistics operator to ensure that the documentation is correct and that shipments are quick and less expensive.