MSG Team's other articles

12959 COVID 19 and Its Impact on the Technology Sector

In the past few years, technology companies have been driving the boom in the financial markets. The FAANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) have seen their valuations increase by leaps and bounds. However, COVID-19 is causing a worldwide stock market collapse. It would be fair to say that the pandemic is not affecting […]

13041 Customs Clearance Agency and Process

Any Organization that is engaged in Imports or Exports would require the services of third party Customs Clearance Agent as well as a Freight Forwarder. While freight forward manages the transportation part of the exports and imports, customs clearance and the approval and co-ordination with the rest of the regulatory authorities to affect the imports […]

9492 The Great Indian NBFC Crisis

The Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) are quasi-banking institutions in India. They are allowed to make loans just like banks do. However, they are not allowed to take deposits from people in order to make these loans. Hence, these Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) borrow money from the bond market in order to make loans. Traditionally retail […]

9901 Why India Should Abolish Personal Income Taxes?

Personal income taxes are omnipresent all over the world. From the developed nations to the developing ones, all tax the incomes of their citizens at different rates. There are only ten countries across the entire world where there are no income taxes. Out of these ten countries, six are from the Gulf peninsula. The governments […]

9787 The Impact of COVID-19 on Start-ups

Startups had become an important part of the modern economic system. Most of the companies which have achieved billion-dollar valuations in the past few years have come out of the startup ecosystem. Companies like Uber, Twitter, Facebook, and Airbnb are testimony to this fact. The startup system has often been viewed as a risky place. […]

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Supply chain operations and network extend beyond domestic boundaries and global boundaries of all countries. A logistical exercise originates at the buyers end and involves multiple agencies including buyer, seller, 3PL freight forwarder, transporters at various juncture, shipping lines, airlines, various governmental agencies, customs departments at various locations and financial institutions like banks to complete the entire supply chain cycle.

Smooth flowing of materials in a journey originating at one point and going through the entire cycle of exports and imports to reach a point of consumption would mean engagement and interaction with all of the above agencies who have a stake in the said transaction.

Need for decision-making concerning financial, commercial, technical, operational matters about shipments arise at various times in the cycle, which demands that the 3PL, the logistics carrier, the buyer, the supplier are actively engaged and have visibility to information and documentation for the smooth flow across various transit points. In fact, in faultless logistics operations, the documentation and information flow should precede physical movement of goods.

Documentation becomes important not only for the physical logistics operations involving multiple agencies engaged in the entire chain, the financial, trading and accounting processes of the both buyer and seller organizations and partner banks also involved depend upon the entire set of documentation pertaining to each transaction to be able to recognize the sale, recognize value of consignment and effect necessary payment.

Accounting practices of the organizations require detailed documentation as per bookkeeping practices and norms. Finally, goods and services are recognized and identified at every stage only with the set of authenticated documentation showing ownership based on which the customs allow them to be exported or imported into or out of the country. There are many more aspects like terms of carriage by the carrier coupled with insurance liabilities and coverage that call for set of documentation covering specific aspects of each transaction.

Therefore the entire supply chain transaction involves set of standardized documentation from buyer and seller, from 3PL carriers and documentation as required by customs at exporting country and importing country coupled with trading or bank requirements documents. The entire set of documents and the terms of trade have been developed and standardized across all countries to facilitate international trade.

INCO terms and EDI approved/enabled standardized documentation has made Export and Imports smoother and hassle free, thus cutting down on bottlenecks and delays arising out of documentation requirements.

Today software applications have built in standardized documentation templates and modules in their offerings that reduce the amount of time and effort involved in preparing documentation.

ERP modules contain the documentation formats as an integral part of its internal processes. 3PL logistics providers work with various software applications that have shipping documentation built into its operational processes and offer track and trace with documentation visibility to customers on the web.

Filing documents with customs has been EDI enabled. Electronic documentation has become a part of operations amongst all agencies. However at customs and banking counters, original documents are required to be produced as negotiating and valid legal documents for shipments to be cleared through.

A supply chain manager needs to be aware of the complete set of documentation requirement along with the various aspects to be able to design processes and documentation control mechanisms. Errors in documentation will lead to financial damage, delays in delivery and performance that is what every manager aims to avoid.

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