Getting started with Borderdesk

Borderdesk keeps the customs data on your products complete, and prints commercial invoices, pro forma invoices and CN23 forms for your international orders. Setup takes about ten minutes.

1. Add your sender and tax details

Open Settings. Borderdesk fills in what it can from your store, so check it:

• Sender. The company name, address, country and email printed as the exporter.
• Customs and tax numbers.
  • EORI number: couriers need it for commercial shipments.
  • VAT number: your EU VAT number.
  • UK VAT number: needed when you sell parcels of £135 or less to UK consumers.
  • IOSS number: lets EU consumers pay VAT at checkout instead of on delivery.
  • Leave out the numbers you don't have; the documents warn you when a route needs one.
• Document defaults.
  • Incoterm. DAP or DDP. See Choosing an Incoterm.
  • Reason for export.
  • Packaging weight. The weight of an empty box with its filling, in grams. Documents print the gross weight as the products' weight plus this.
  • Invoice number prefix and next number. Numbers never go below one already used.
• Logo and signature. Optional PNG or JPEG images, up to 500 KB, printed on every document.

2. Complete your products' customs data

Open Products. Every shippable variant has a status:

• Ready: has an HS code, a country of origin and a clear description.
• Incomplete: the HS code or the country of origin is missing.
• Vague: the description customs would see is too general, like "Gift set" or "Accessories".

Click a product to edit it, or select several and edit them together. Suggest HS codes proposes codes for every product without one; you choose and save. Read HS codes explained first if HS codes are new to you.

Changes go into Shopify's own customs fields, so Shopify Shipping and label apps use them too. To edit many products at once, use CSV import.

3. Print documents

Open Documents. It lists your orders from the last 60 days that need customs paperwork, with what's missing for each one.

1. Choose the document: commercial invoice, pro forma invoice or CN23. The CN23 is a supporting copy: when you buy a postal label for an international parcel, the carrier prints the official CN23 with it. See Which document do I need?
2. Select orders and click Print. You get one PDF with every document, each with its own number.
3. Orders with a problem, such as a product without an HS code, aren't printed. They're listed with the reason, so you can fix them and print again.

Printing an order again reprints the same document. To give it a new number, for example after a refund, tick New number for orders printed before.

Business buyers

For a sale to a business, select the order on the Documents page and add the buyer's VAT number. A UK buyer needs a GB number and an EU buyer an EU number. With it, UK invoices get the reverse charge note and IOSS is left out. Borderdesk also reads VAT numbers from Shopify B2B companies and from VAT number fields at checkout.

Printing from the order page

On any order in Shopify, open More actions, then Print, then Borderdesk. Choose the document and print. On the Orders list, select several orders and print them together the same way.

Plans

Every plan includes the product editor and HS code suggestions. Plans differ in how many new documents you can print each month; reprints are always free. See Plan in the app.