General information about completing a declaration

On this page, you can read general information about and practical tips for completing a declaration.

Practical tips for completing a declaration

• The declaration consists of sections. You can also move between these sections by clicking on the name of the section in the side navigation. The service saves the details even when you move from one section to another. You can also move in the declaration by clicking on “Next” and “Previous”.
• The mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk (*) after the field name.
• You’ll get more information about completing a field by clicking on the question mark next to the field name. The tooltip is closed when you click on the question mark again.
• The service has two types of drop-down menus, where you can select the correct detail in two ways:
  • As for the first type, you can display all the alternatives and select the appropriate detail. These menus have an arrow icon.
  • As for the second type, you can use search function in addition to browsing. Write the e.g. the beginning of the name or the country or the code (e.g. ‘United’) in the field, and the menu filters the alternatives accordingly. Then select the appropriate alternative (e.g. “US United States”). These menus have a magnifying glass icon.
• The service makes checks while you are completing the declaration and notifies you of any errors. For example, if the character string you are using as the trader reference is too long, the field will be highlighted in red and the following error notification will be displayed under the field: “Trader Reference Number has more than 22 characters.”
• If you provide the reference number you received from the transport operator when you are selecting the import declaration and if your transport operator submits data to Customs, some of the declaration details will be filled in automatically based on the reference number.
• If you have been authenticated in the service as a representative for your business, the details of your company are displayed in the declaration when you tick the box “Use the details of the authenticated trader”.

The service saves the details as a draft

The service saves the details you enter almost in real-time. At the top of the view, you can see when the newest version of the draft was saved.
The draft will be saved in the following cases:

• every minute if you edit or add something
• when you click on the side navigation
• when you click on “Close” while completing a declaration.

Please note that drafts can’t be named. If you want to create and name draft templates, you’ll have to create own templates (see the sections “Declaration lists” and “Summary and submission”.

The basic declaration details are displayed in the data panel

You can easily see the key details, such as the state of the declaration, the MRN, the name of the trader and the time when the declaration was registered, in a separate data panel. The data panel is displayed at the top of the page when you are viewing or completing a declaration.

After the time of registration, it is shown, in brackets, whether the declaration has been lodged in the Customs Clearance Service (“online services”), in the Import Declaration Service for private persons or through message exchange (“message exchange”).