Submitting Export Declarations (EU)

The export procedure is one of the customs procedures defined in the UCC.

Export declarations must have a structure defined in the Implementing Regulation for the UCC and must be submitted in electronic form. A declaration on the paper form, the Single Administrative Document (SAD), is only possible in exceptional cases, for example in the event of technical faults.

AES participants exchange data through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). If you use SAP GTS to access the AES, the system generates an intermediate document (IDoc) for each export declaration. This IDoc is a document with an SAP-specific format that can be used to exchange data between various SAP systems and between SAP systems and third-party systems. The IDoc is converted into an XML message by a converter and sent electronically to the customs authorities. If the customs authorities system issues a response message, the converter "translates" this message into IDoc format for inbound processing in SAP GTS.

The UCC also provides a simplified declaration without formal authorization. Customs authorizes this simplification on a case-by-case basis by acceptance of the customs declaration. The exporter will be required to submit the missing information in a supplementary export declaration within a specific time-limit.

Simplified declarations without formal authorization are predominantly used for cross-border chain transactions. In chain transactions of this kind, one EU company commissions another company in the same Member State to deliver goods to a consignee in a third country. The delivering company does not generally have all the information and documents required and therefore submits a simplified export declaration.

Billing document replicas are used as the document basis for export declarations in SAP GTS. These replicas are referred to as customs declarations in SAP GTS.

If you use shipments in your good issue processes in SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA, you can use the Shipment Consolidation: Generate Customs Declarations from Sales Docs transaction (transaction code /SAPSLL/CUS_INV_R3) available in the feeder system. This transaction makes it easier to create collective billing documents that group outbound deliveries transported together for export processing in SAP GTS. You can access this transaction on the Documents tab in the area menu for communication with SAP GTS.