---
title: "Import dossiers"
description: "Open one dossier per purchase from abroad: the supplier, the terms of the sale, the route of the goods and your bank's domiciliation."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beelocity.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Import dossiers

An **import dossier** is the folder of one purchase from abroad, the way your bank and your
forwarder already call it. You open it when the foreign supplier's proforma arrives. It holds the
supplier, the currency, the terms of the sale, how the goods travel, whether they are for resale
or for your own needs, and your bank's domiciliation. As the purchase goes on, the dossier keeps
the day of each step until the file is closed.

<a id="open-an-import-dossier"></a>
## Open an import dossier

1. Open **Foreign Trade**, then **Import dossiers**, and press **New**. If your business has not
   yet said what it imports for, **New** opens [Setup](setup.html) instead: say it there, then press
   **New** again.
2. The **Dossier number** is filled in for you, as `IMP-2026-000001`. It is the dossier's own
   number in the app, not the bank's. You may type another.
3. Under **Parties and terms**:
   - pick the **Supplier**. Only partners filed as suppliers are offered;
   - pick the **Currency** of the proforma;
   - pick the **Incoterm** the proforma prints, such as `FOB` or `CIF`. `FAS`, `FOB`, `CFR` and
     `CIF` are rules for sea transport: pick one and the **Transport mode** below reads **Sea** and
     cannot be changed ([Which Incoterms go by sea](#which-incoterms-go-by-sea)). The place the
     rule names is not asked: under `FAS` and `FOB` it is the **Port of loading**, and under `CFR`
     and `CIF` the **Port of discharge**, both picked under **Route**;
   - type the proforma's number as the **Supplier reference**.
4. Under **Route**, choose the **Transport mode** (sea, air, road, rail or multimodal) first,
   unless the Incoterm has already chosen sea. The two places the goods travel between are named
   for it: **Port of loading** and **Port of discharge** by sea, **Airport of departure** and
   **Airport of arrival** by air, and **Place of loading** and **Place of discharge** by road, rail
   or several modes. Each offers only the places that mode uses. In the first, type the place's
   name, its code or its country, such as *Shanghai*, `CNSGH` or *China*, and pick it from the
   list, where the places are grouped by country. Do the same for the second, which offers only the
   places of your business's own country, as your
   [organization's profile](../getting-started/organization-profile.html) names it, and is never the
   place of loading. A place missing from the list is left empty and named in the **Notes**. Add the **Country of origin** when the goods are made in another country than the supplier's, and the
   **Carrier** and the **Transport document number** once you know them. **Free days** is the
   number of days the shipping line lends its containers after unloading; a dossier that travels
   by air has no container and is not asked.
5. Fill in the domiciliation: see [The bank domiciliation](#the-bank-domiciliation) below.
6. Under **Dates**, type the **Expected departure** and the **Expected arrival** the forwarder gave
   you.
7. Press **Save**. The dossier opens as **Open**, with its road drawn at the top of the page.

You can change the dossier later with **Edit**. A forwarder often changes the carrier or the place
of discharge while the goods are on their way, and the dossier should say so.

A dossier opened before the list of places shows each place as it was typed, on the page and under
the field when you edit it, until you pick the matching place.

<a id="which-incoterms-go-by-sea"></a>
## Which Incoterms go by sea

The International Chamber of Commerce writes eleven Incoterms. Seven may be used whatever the
transport: `EXW`, `FCA`, `CPT`, `CIP`, `DAP`, `DPU` and `DDP`. Four are written for the sea:
`FAS`, `FOB`, `CFR` and `CIF`, because under them the goods change hands alongside a ship or on
board one.

So when you pick one of those four, the dossier goes by sea. The **Transport mode** reads **Sea**,
cannot be changed, and says why under it. A place of loading or of discharge already picked for
another mode is emptied: an airport is no port for a ship. Pick one of the other seven and the mode
is yours again, still reading what it held.

Goods in containers handed to the carrier at a terminal are often sold `FCA` rather than `FOB`, as
the Chamber advises. The app does not insist: a `FOB` container shipment is common and lawful.

<a id="the-bank-domiciliation"></a>
## The bank domiciliation

Before anything is paid or shipped, your bank registers the purchase and gives it a
**domiciliation number**. A few purchases need none. The **Domiciliation** section opens on one
question, **Domiciled or exempt**, with its four answers in view:

- **Domiciled by the bank**, which a new dossier starts on. It then asks for:
  - the **Domiciling bank**, one of your bank accounts. Only bank accounts are offered;
  - the **Domiciliation number** as the bank's stamp prints it. You may type it with its spaces:
    the app keeps it as twenty-three characters, and checks that the currency in the middle of the
    number is the dossier's;
  - the **Domiciliation date**, the day the bank domiciled the purchase;
  - the **Import programme** whose visa the bank domiciled it under, picked among your
    [import programmes](import-programmes.html), the newest first. Only a programme of your
    business's own kind of import is accepted.
- **Exempt: under the threshold**, for a value under the regulatory threshold.
- **Exempt: sample or gift**.
- **Exempt: suspensive regime**, for goods under a suspensive customs regime such as temporary
  admission.

An exempt dossier asks for no bank, no number, no day and no programme. Choosing an exemption takes them off the
form, and saving clears whatever you had typed in them, so a dossier is always either domiciled or
exempt, never both. Switch back to **Domiciled by the bank** before saving and they are still there.

<a id="the-orders-a-dossier-covers"></a>
## Add the purchase orders

A dossier covers whole purchase orders of its supplier, in its currency. The orders are written
and received as usual, under [Purchase orders](../procurement/purchase-orders.html); the dossier
gathers them.

1. Open the dossier and its **Purchase Orders** tab.
2. Press **Add a purchase order**, choose the order, and press **Add**. A draft order may be added:
   the dossier is often opened on the proforma, before the order is approved.
3. Do the same for each order of the purchase.

The list shows every order of the supplier. One the dossier cannot take is greyed out, with the
reason beside it:

- **in another currency** than the dossier's. An order that names no currency is in your base
  currency, the dinar, so a euro dossier cannot take it: set the order's currency on the order
  while it is a draft;
- **cancelled**, or **revised**: a revised order is replaced by its revision, which is the order to
  add;
- **already in another dossier**, which the list names.

The list is read again each time it opens, so an order confirmed in the meantime is in it.

The **Goods value**, under **Parties and terms**, adds the orders up before tax and in the dossier's
currency: their lines less the discounts, plus the shipping. A cancelled or revised order counts
for nothing. The figure is worked out each time you open the dossier, so it follows an order
changed while the dossier is open.

The **Goods Receipts** tab lists the receipts of those orders as the warehouse writes them. Nothing
is received through the dossier: a receipt against an order in a dossier is made like any other.
And the purchase order's own page shows **Import dossier**, the dossier's number, which opens it.

While the dossier is **Open**, an order added by mistake comes off with **Remove**, in its row's
menu. The order itself is kept.

Once the dossier covers an order, its **Supplier** and **Currency** are fixed: every order in it is
that supplier's, in that currency. To change either one, remove the orders first.

The order holds them too. A draft order in a dossier can still be edited, but on its own page the
**Supplier** and the **Currency** are closed, and say which dossier holds them. To give the order
another supplier or currency, remove it from the dossier first.

<a id="the-programme-a-dossier-draws-on"></a>
## See what the dossier draws on its programme

A dossier that names an [import programme](import-programmes.html) has an **Import programme** tab.
It sets each line of the dossier's purchase orders against the programme line it draws on:

- the **Programme line**, the one whose tariff sub-heading is the product's;
- **Used**, the quantity ordered, in that line's unit;
- **Remaining**, what the line has left once every dossier under the programme is counted, or
  **Overrun by** the excess. It is the figure the programme itself shows.

A good that counts on no line is listed all the same, with its **Reason**: no product, no tariff
sub-heading on the product, a sub-heading the programme does not hold, or a unit that cannot be
converted. [What a programme has left](import-programmes.html#what-a-programme-has-left) says what
to do about each. A dossier that names no programme has no such tab.

<a id="following-the-goods"></a>
## Follow the goods from departure to closing

The dossier's road is drawn at the top of its page: **Open**, **In transit**, **Arrived**,
**Customs cleared**, **Closed**. Each step records the day it happened, and you state that day: the
forwarder's email often reaches you a day or two after the ship sailed. It is today unless you
change it, and it can be neither later than today nor earlier than the step before.

1. When the goods leave, press **In transit** on the road. The **Mark shipped** window asks for the
   **Shipped on** day and the **Transport document number**: the bill of lading, the air waybill or
   the road consignment note. The goods leave only a dossier your bank has domiciled, on or before
   that day, or one that states its exemption.
2. When they reach the place of discharge, press **Arrived** and give the **Arrived on** day. The
   free days count from it.
3. When customs releases them, press **Customs cleared** and give the day. The warehouse then
   receives the goods against their orders, like any other delivery.
4. When every order the dossier covers has been received, closed or cancelled, press **Closed** and
   give the day. The file is complete.

Hover a step of the road to read its day: the day the forwarder expects before the step is
reached, the day it happened after, and who recorded it.

A day recorded by mistake is corrected with **Edit** until the dossier is closed. Once the goods have left, the dossier number, the supplier, the currency and the Incoterm can no
longer change: your bank and customs already hold them. The route stays open, because a
forwarder often changes the carrier or the place of discharge on the way. A closed or cancelled dossier keeps
only its **Notes** open.

<a id="cancel-an-import-dossier"></a>
### Cancel a dossier

A purchase that does not happen is cancelled while the dossier is **Open**: open the status at the
top of the page and choose **Cancelled**. The dossier stays, with its number and its
domiciliation, and its purchase orders are released so that another dossier can take them. A
dossier cannot be cancelled once goods have been received against one of its orders: the import
happened.

<a id="what-the-app-refuses"></a>
## What the app refuses, and why

- **A domiciliation number without its date, or a date without its number.** The two come from
  the same stamp. The form says so on the field that is missing.
- **An expected arrival before the expected departure.**
- **A place the transport mode does not use**, such as a seaport on a dossier that travels by air,
  **a place of discharge outside your business's own country, or the same place twice.** The form
  offers only the places that fit and says the last one before you save.
- **A sea Incoterm on goods that travel by air, road, rail or several modes.** `FAS`, `FOB`, `CFR`
  and `CIF` are rules for sea transport. The form chooses **Sea** for you, so this is only met by a
  dossier written some other way.
- **A domiciliation number of the wrong length, or in another currency than the dossier's.** The
  number is either mistyped or belongs to another purchase. Check it against the bank's stamp.
- **A partner that cannot take a new document as a supplier**, because it is not filed as one, or
  it is inactive or blocked. Put it right on the partner first.
- **An order that is cancelled or revised, another supplier's, or in another currency than the
  dossier's.** None of them belongs in this dossier.
- **An order that is already in another dossier.** An order is in one dossier at most, and the
  message names the dossier it is in.
- **Deleting a dossier that covers orders, or a purchase order that is in a dossier.** Remove the
  orders from the dossier first.
- **A step dated later than today, or earlier than the step before it.** For **Mark shipped**, the
  step before is the bank's domiciliation.
- **Goods leaving a dossier that is neither domiciled nor exempt.** Record the domiciliation, or the
  exemption, first.
- **Closing a dossier while one of its orders still has goods to receive.** The **Closed** step is
  greyed out until then; rest on it and it names the orders: receive them, or close or cancel
  them.
- **Changing what the dossier's step has fixed**: its terms once the goods have left, and anything
  but its notes once it is closed or cancelled.

Source: https://docs.beelocity.com/en/trade/import-dossiers/index.mdx