Analyzing the Communication with Customs

Based on the UCC and its implementing provisions, the customs administrations in the EU specify the process of electronic data exchange in the respective national IT procedure in detail. As part of the eCustoms project, the EU established a standardized electronic export procedure. The Automated Export System (AES) provides a common platform for the electronic submission and processing of export declarations, and for electronic data exchange between the economic operators and the customs offices.

The AES provides for a variety of procedures. This lesson explains the settings required for processing an export in the EU using the example of the two-step procedure in both the normal procedure and in the simplified procedure (simplified declaration).

In delivery Customizing, the data exchange with the customs administrations of different countries is largely preconfigured and in most cases coordinated with the authorities in certification procedures. Changes to the delivered configuration should therefore be made with great caution, if at all.

When replicating the billing document, SAP GTS determines the foreign trade organization responsible for the export. The system takes the country of departure from the address of the business partner in this role. For example, if the billing document was created for a French company code, SAP GTS determines the country code FR from the address of the business partner representing the foreign trade organization assigned to the company code. Consequently, the system applies the legal regulation for processing exports from France (CUSFR (Customs Processing - France in delivery Customizing).

In Customs Management, a process template is assigned to each legal regulation (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Customs Management → Control Settings for Application Areas by Legal Regulation of a Legal Code). Process templates are always country-specific. They are the framework for communication with the customs authorities. You can see the structure of a process template in the communication control in Customs Management (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Customs Management → Communication Processes → Define Control Settings for Communication Processes).

If electronic data exchange with the customs authorities is temporarily not possible for technical reasons, a fallback procedure can be used in some Member States. In this procedure, customs allows the customs declaration in question to be submitted in paper form. The process flow of the fallback procedure is always controlled in a separate activity sequence.

The SAP GTS system decides which activity sequence is used as the basis for the customs declaration during billing document replication. The simplified procedure always takes precedence over the normal procedure. If there is a suitable authorization for the transaction, SAP GTS chooses the simplified procedure. If there is no authorization or if the existing authorization cannot be used, the system opts for the normal procedure instead. A key prerequisite for the replication of the billing document is therefore a successful determination of the activity sequence.

You can influence the determination of activity sequences in Customizing (menu path SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Customs Management → Communication Processes → Define Determination for Activity Sequence).

The message determination that is based on the activity sequence is part of the procedure for defaulting data. Delivery Customizing provides a variety of country-specific default procedures for message determination in export declarations. These procedures contain a single target field: $MESSAGE (Message). These procedures are intended as templates for procedures that you define in the customer name space.

You use the Define Attributes of Default Data Rules for Messages transaction (transaction code /SAPSLL/DPDATA_MSG) to create the output determination rules for message determination in customs declarations.

SAP GTS uses the Post Processing Framework (PPF) to generate IDocs for the customs declarations in an SAP-specific format and to transfer these documents to the EDI converter. The PPF is a solution-independent tool for application development within the SAP NetWeaver. As the technical successor to message control in SAP ECC, the PPF generates condition-dependent actions. Data output in IDoc format is only one of several options: You can also use PPF actions to print document data on forms or to send e-mails.

In Customs Management, an action definition is assigned to each outbound message. The action definitions are grouped into country-specific action profiles. You can find all the action profiles required for communication with the customs authorities by choosing SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Customs Management → Communication Processes → Define Technical Medium for Messages (PPF Actions) for General Documents and → Define Technical Medium for Messages (PPF Actions) for Supp. Customs Decl..