Shipment Document Tracker

The core set: commercial invoice, packing list and transport document (B/L or AWB) travel with everything; certificates of origin, inspection/fumigation/insurance certificates, and licenses or permits attach by commodity, destination and payment terms (LC shipments multiply the formality). The select list here covers the usual suspects — the discipline is listing them per shipment BEFORE cargo moves, not discovering them at the border.

Any deviation between the presented documents and the letter of credit's terms — spellings, dates, amounts, missing stamps. Banks reject on discrepancies (a majority of first presentations have them), converting guaranteed payment into 'subject to buyer's acceptance', plus discrepancy fees and days lost. The defence is proofreading documents against the LC text, character by character, before presentation — tedious, and worth it every time.

At or before shipment — COOs typically need chamber-of-commerce attestation (a day or three), and preferential COOs (for FTA duty savings) have issuance rules tied to shipment dates. The expensive pattern: cargo arrives, buyer asks for the COO to clear at preferential duty, and the chamber's queue plus courier time holds the box. A due-date row here makes that impossible to forget.

Officers and risk engines compare: invoice says 480 cartons, packing list says 48, B/L says 'said to contain 480' — that triangle triggers a query or exam even when each document is individually plausible. Same for weights, consignee names and HS descriptions. The five-minute cross-check this tracker's 'Verified' status represents is the cheapest customs acceleration available anywhere.