FR EN DE ES IT

Presentation guide — GTM module
International shipping: Incoterms, customs classification, packing, document set (CMR, commercial invoice, packing list) — and the same journey automatically marked for students

Everything you need to understand and demonstrate, explained simply, with a worked example from start to finish: KLS Concept ships three pallets of laptops and batteries to Trasporti Bianchi S.r.l. in Trieste, under FCA Trieste, and produces a CMR, a commercial invoice and a packing list in Italian.

Prepared on 13/09/2026 · Module International shipping (ADR-0130 to 0133) · Testing environment: dev3, then production app.gse-web.online (organisation demo) once the module is opened
📢 This guide is free to reuse Preparing an internal presentation for your teams, or a course for a logistics class? Help yourself: the demo walkthrough, the worked example, the sample files to download (product customs profiles, customs nomenclature) and the answers to frequently asked questions are all available to you, without restriction.

1International shipping in 2 minutes

GTM = Global Trade Management. In practical terms, within GSE-Web, it is the module that prepares everything goods need to have in order to cross a border: delivery terms, customs classification, packing and accompanying documents.

GSE-Web manages the warehouse: receiving, storage, picking, dispatch. Until now, the software stopped at the warehouse door: as soon as goods crossed a border, everything had to be re-keyed into a spreadsheet or handed to the freight forwarder. The International shipping module extends the existing shipment (the EXP-2026-00001 that groups movement orders) all the way to the documents required by the carrier, the customer and customs, with no re-keying at all.

The simple analogy An international shipment is a parcel missing its passport. The module fills in that passport from what the application already knows (the products, their weight, their origin, the consignee, the parcels weighed on the dock) and refuses to print while a mandatory field is missing — rather than letting a lorry leave with a blank box discovered at the border.

❌ Before (without the module)

  • Weight, customs codes and country of origin live in a separate spreadsheet, never up to date.
  • The CMR is filled in by hand, often the day before, with box errors.
  • The commercial invoice mentions neither the exact Incoterm, nor the named place, nor the EORI number.
  • Impossible to find, two years later, the exact document handed to the carrier.

✅ After (with the module)

  • Each product carries its customs profile (weight, dimensions, nomenclature, origin), inherited from its family when it has none.
  • The shipment carries its Incoterm with its named place, its parties, its customs lines and its customs value.
  • Packing is done standing on the dock, one parcel at a time, on a phone.
  • The document set (CMR, invoice, packing list…) is produced by the server, in the consignee's language, numbered without gaps, immutable and archived with its fingerprint.
Where to find it in the application? A GTM (International shipping) section appears in the side menu once the module is open for the organisation and the user holds at least one right from the category:
🚢 International shipments 🗂️ Document archive 📚 Customs nomenclature 💱 Exchange rates 🏷️ Export identity
Everything else lives where you would expect it: an International shipping card on the product record and on the partner record, an International button on every shipment, and the import of the official nomenclature under Administration GSE (reserved for the platform).

2Glossary for the uninitiated

TermWhat it means, in one sentence
IncotermA three-letter code (EXW, FCA, DAP, DDP, FOB, CIF…) that states who pays for what and from where the risk transfers from seller to buyer. Eleven rules in the 2020 edition; the 2010 edition remains accepted for older contracts (it had DAT instead of DPU).
Named placeThe location that completes the Incoterm. "FCA" alone means nothing; "FCA Trieste, Italy" is complete. The application refuses an Incoterm without a place.
Customs nomenclatureThe code that classifies the goods: HS with 6 digits (worldwide), CN with 8 digits (European Union, for exports), TARIC with 10 digits (for imports). Revised every 1 January, hence a version per year.
Origin (non-preferential / preferential)The country where the goods were manufactured in the customs sense — not to be confused with provenance (the country they are shipped from). Preferential origin gives entitlement to reduced duties under a trade agreement; it must be justified.
EORIA company's customs identification number within the Union. Mandatory on documents as soon as goods leave the Union's customs territory.
Customs valueThe invoice value, adjusted (transport, insurance, commissions, royalties…) according to the Incoterm. It is calculated at the customs exchange rate (monthly, set by the authorities), which differs from the day's rate.
Parcel / load unit / consignmentA consignment contains load units (pallets, containers) which contain parcels. Documents don't all reason at the same level: the packing list details the parcels, the CMR counts the parcels and weighs the consignment.
CMRThe international road consignment note: a standardised form with 24 boxes, in four copies (sender, consignee, carrier, archive). Its layout is fixed.
Document setThe set of documents for a consignment (commercial invoice, packing list, CMR…) produced and sent as one block.
SpecimenA document produced by a student in an exercise warehouse: same layout, "SPECIMEN — exercise" watermark, numbered separately, never legally binding.

3Enabling the module and granting rights

The module is closed by default for every organisation, including new ones: an SME that does not export should see nothing. It is opened in three steps.

  1. The platform opens the module for the organisation — menu Organisation management (section reserved for the platform administrator, two-factor authentication required) → the organisation → module checkboxes → GTM → save. The checkbox shows what the module already holds (profiles, rates, parcels) before any closure. Nothing is ever deleted: closing it hides it, reopening it restores everything.
  2. The organisation's administrator distributes the rightsGroups → the group → category GTM. Ten rights, because they match real responsibilities: view, edit a shipment, pack, enter the Incoterm, classify a product (nomenclature and origin), produce a document draft, issue a document (the binding act), cancel or replace, view the archive, configure (export identity, rates). The Administrator role holds all of them by default.
  3. The organisation fills in its export identityExport identity: EORI number, registered exporter number (REX) where applicable, bank details, legal notices and document footer, signatory. The company name, VAT number and address come from the billing identity already on file.
Can't see the section? Three causes, in this order: the module is not yet checked for your organisation (a platform action, not a user one); your group has no right in the "GTM" category; the application has not been reloaded since it was opened. The menu never guesses a module from the rights: it asks the server for the list of open modules.

4How the data fits together

The principle that structures the whole module: each piece of data lives at a single level, and documents fetch it from wherever it lives.

LevelWhat lives thereWho maintains it
Server reference data249 countries (with membership of the Union, the customs territory and the VAT territory — French Guiana is in one but not the other), 22 Incoterms 2010 and 2020 rules (allowed modes, point of transfer of risk and cost, breakdown of obligations, insurance), parcel types, container types, transport modes, customs procedures, customs nomenclature by year.GSE-Web, on every deployment; the official nomenclature is imported by the platform from the European Union's publication.
Product (customs profile)Net and gross weight, dimensions and volume, nomenclature code and its year, country of origin, preferential origin and its justification, customs description, supplementary unit, controlled goods, dangerous goods (UN number, class, packing group).Classification (nomenclature, origin) and logistics (weight, dimensions), record by record or through a bulk import.
Category, subcategory, familyDefault values (nomenclature, origin, description) inherited by products that have none. The application always shows where an inherited value comes from.Classification.
Partner (international profile)EORI, ISO country, roles (carrier, freight forwarder, declarant), document language, professional numbers.Partner administration.
ShipmentTransport mode, Incoterm and named place, parties (exporter, consignor, consignee, importer, notify party, carrier, freight forwarder, declarant) with a snapshot of their record, country of destination and of origin, customs procedure, nature of the consignment (sale, sample, return, temporary export), currency and rate, insurance, milestones.The shipment.
Customs lineFor each product shipped: quantity, value, nomenclature, origin, weight — derived from the movement orders and the profiles, with the source of each value, and editable line by line.The shipment.
Parcels and load unitsNumber, type, marks, actual weight, dimensions, contents by line and by lot; pallets and containers (ISO number, seal, payload).The dock, on a phone.
DocumentA complete snapshot of everything above at the moment of issue, the PDF and its fingerprint.The server, at issue.
The worked example used in this guide Product ORD-15 "15" laptop": 2.100 kg net, 2.650 kg gross, nomenclature 8471 30 00 (year 2026), origin CN, supplementary unit "piece". Product BAT-LI "Replacement lithium-ion battery": nomenclature 8507 60 00, dangerous goods ONU 3480, class 9, packing group II. Consignee Trasporti Bianchi S.r.l., Trieste (IT), EORI IT01234567890, document language: Italian. Shipment EXP-2026-00012, road, FCA Trieste, sale, EUR.

5Guided tour, screen by screen

In the order that presents best: first the base data, then the shipment, then the dock, then the documents.

5.1 — The product record → "International shipping" card

What it's for: filling in a product's customs profile. Two sections: Logistics (net and gross weight in kilograms to three decimal places, length, width, height in centimetres, calculated volume) and Customs classification (nomenclature chosen from the browser — search by keyword, HS → CN tree, year —, country of origin and preferential origin chosen from the list of countries, customs description, supplementary unit, controlled goods, dangerous goods).

  • An inherited field shows its source: "inherited from the family" or "inherited from the category". The product can override it.
  • A net weight higher than the gross weight, a missing gross weight, a supplementary unit expected by the code but not filled in: flagged in a banner, the record still saves. An unknown nomenclature code for the year, an unknown country, incomplete dangerous goods details: rejected.
  • For hundreds of products: the Product customs profiles import template on the Imports screen — cell-by-cell preview, an empty cell doesn't touch the existing value. Sample file in section 10.

With the example: ORD-15 gets 8471 30 00 (2026) and origin CN; BAT-LI gets 8507 60 00, ONU 3480, class 9, group II.

5.2 — The partner record → "International shipping" card

EORI, ISO country (the legacy partner record carries a country as free text; here it is the two-letter code that is authoritative on the documents), carrier, freight forwarder, declarant roles (so they can be offered among a shipment's parties), document language (the language in which this partner will receive its invoice and its CMR), professional numbers.

With the example: Trasporti Bianchi, EORI IT01234567890, country IT, carrier, language Italian.

5.3 — Settings: export identity, exchange rates, nomenclature

  • Export identity: the organisation's EORI, REX, bank (IBAN, BIC), legal notices, footer, document signatory.
  • Exchange rates: by currency and by kind — commercial (the contract rate) or customs (the authorities' monthly rate) —, with a start date; a rate is never edited, it is closed and a new one begins. No currency is ever converted silently: a shipment in USD with no customs rate says so.
  • Customs nomenclature: browsable by keyword and by tree, year by year. The extract shipped with the software is an unofficial demonstration; the platform imports the official publication (CSV format documented in section 10) from Administration GSE.

5.4 — The shipment → "International" button

From a regular shipment (one that groups movement orders), the International button opens the seven-tab page. As long as the shipment is a draft, everything can be edited; as soon as a document is issued, the details are frozen (banner) until that document is cancelled.

  • General — transport mode, Incoterm (the editor shows the version, the mandatory named place, the table of the ten seller / buyer obligations, the points of transfer of risk and cost, and greys out rules forbidden for the mode: FOB by road is refused), country of destination and of origin, customs procedure, nature of the consignment, currency and rate, payment terms, insurance, carrier instructions, tracking reference.
  • Parties — one card per role. Choosing a partner locks a snapshot of its record (name, address, VAT, EORI): if the record changes afterwards, the Refresh button shows the difference before applying it. "My organisation" fills in the exporter with one click.
  • LinesDerive from movement orders builds the customs lines from the attached movement orders and the profiles, showing the source of each nomenclature, origin and weight. Each line can be corrected; Differences with the movement orders shows what has changed since, without ever applying it on its own. At the bottom: the adjustments (transport, insurance, commissions…) and the customs value, totalled by nomenclature and by country of origin.
  • Packing — opens the dock screen (5.5).
  • Milestones — planned and actual dates: packed, documents issued, booked, sent to the declarant, collected, departed, in transit, held by customs (mandatory reason), cleared, delivered, closed. A milestone is never edited: a new one is added that supersedes it.
  • Checks — the list of blockers and warnings (section 6).
  • Documents — the documents (section 7).

With the example: EXP-2026-00012, road, FCA Trieste (Italy), destination IT, origin FR, permanent export, sale, EUR; exporter KLS Concept, consignee and carrier Trasporti Bianchi; two derived lines: 40 × ORD-15 at 850.00 EUR, 40 × BAT-LI at 95.00 EUR.

5.5 — Packing, standing on the dock

Designed for a phone or a handheld terminal, with gloves on: large targets, one parcel at a time. You create the parcel (type chosen from an icon grid: box, pallet, drum, crate…), enter the gross and net weight and the dimensions on the numeric keypad, assign it lines by "still to pack" (one tap = everything remaining, or a quantity), scan the parcel's barcode (EXP-2026-00012-P001) to reopen it. Parcels are then grouped into load units: pallets or containers (ISO type, number with its check digit, seal, payload and fill rate).

  • The chargeable weight is calculated per mode (volumetric divisor: 6,000 for air freight, 3,000 for road transport, 1,000 for sea freight).
  • A net weight higher than gross, contents exceeding the line, an overloaded pallet: shown in a banner, never corrected. That is the software's rule: flag it, never substitute a value.

With the example: three pallets, 80 parcels of 2 pieces; total 212.000 kg gross, 1.92 m³.

5.6 — The document set and the document archive

The Documents tab shows one card per document type: proforma, commercial invoice, packing list, CMR, delivery note. For each: create a draft (proposed language = the consignee's), preview with watermark, issue, download or share the PDF, verify the fingerprint, send, accept, refuse, cancel with a reason, replace. Issue the document set produces several documents at once, all or nothing; Download the document set bundles them into a ZIP. The Document archive page finds any issued document by type, status, period and text — including cancelled ones.

6Checks: flag it, never correct it silently

Before any issue, the server evaluates the shipment. A blocking check prevents issuing; a warning is shown and lets you proceed anyway. No check ever modifies a piece of data.

🔴 Blockers

  • Missing Incoterm, or incompatible with the transport mode (FOB by road).
  • A line with no nomenclature, no country of origin, or no weight.
  • Net weight higher than gross weight (line or parcel); sum of the parcels differing from the total; a line not fully packed; a parcel containing more than the line; an overloaded load unit.
  • Controlled goods with no licence on file; undeclared dangerous goods.
  • Missing EORI for a destination outside the Union's customs territory; missing VAT number for an intra-Union sale; shipment currency different from the consignee's.

🟠 Warnings

  • Unusual Incoterm: EXW to a buyer outside the Union, DDP with no importer registered, FOB or FAS with a container.
  • Declared value that departs sharply from the last line issued for this product.
  • No insurance even though the Incoterm makes it the seller's responsibility (CIP, CIF).
  • Transport lead time incompatible with the promised delivery date.
What is deliberately NOT checked Embargoes and sanctions lists: no official source is bundled, and an "indicative" list would place liability on the publisher. The day an official source is connected, the check will exist with its provenance shown.

7The document set, from preview to archive

  1. Draft — the document is created with its language (by default the consignee partner's, otherwise the organisation's). The preview is a PDF watermarked "DRAFT", rendered on the fly, never stored.
  2. Issue — a separate right, a confirmation, and in this order: lock, verification that nothing has moved, blocking checks, mandatory notices for the document type, a number drawn from a continuous sequence per type and per year (CMR-2026-00007, INV-2026-00003…), a full snapshot of the data, the PDF rendered in the language and the formats of the consignee (dates, numbers), SHA-256 fingerprint, storage, audit log. The shipment's details are frozen.
  3. Life of the document — sent (to whom, by which channel), accepted, refused (reason). An issued document is never edited: a correction is a new document, with a new number, linked to the old one which becomes "cancelled — replaced".
  4. Archive — years later, the PDF served is the stored file, byte for byte, never a new render: even if the templates, the rates and the nomenclature have changed, the document is identical to the one handed over. The Verify button recalculates the fingerprint. Real documents survive a purge of the organisation's data, just like invoices; only exercise specimens leave with their warehouse.

The CMR, box by box

Four identical pages headed 1 sender / 2 consignee / 3 carrier / 4 archive, bilingual labels (French + the document's language), and for each box its source: 1 sender and 2 consignee (parties), 3 place of delivery (consignee's address and named place), 4 place and date of taking over (organisation and collection milestone), 5 documents attached (the other issued items in the document set), 6 marks, 7 number of packages, 8 method of packing, 9 nature of the goods (customs descriptions), 10 HS codes, 11 gross weight, 12 volume, 13 instructions and procedure, 14 carriage paid or forward (deduced from the Incoterm), 15 cash on delivery, 16 carrier, 19 special agreements, 20 to be paid by (Incoterm allocation), 21 place and date of issue, 22 signatory. A box with no data is declared empty in the snapshot; the software never invents text.

Italian delivery note When the seller is established in Italy, the delivery note takes the form of the documento di trasporto (DDT), with its own specific fields: causale, aspetto dei beni, porto, vettore, data e ora inizio trasporto.

8The educational side: the same work, marked automatically

This initiative began with a curriculum analysis: of the 45 skills in the Italian Tecnico dei servizi logistici profile, seven of GSE-Web's nine gaps concerned the administrative and documentary management of shipping. The module was therefore designed so that the student's actual work in the application can be assessed, never relying on what the student declares.

Seven new question formats

  • Matching — pairing each Incoterm with its point of transfer.
  • Sequencing — putting the twelve steps of a shipment back in the right order.
  • Multiple answers with partial marking (one wrong box cancels one right box, never below zero).
  • Numeric entry with tolerance — calculating a customs value or a chargeable weight.
  • Illustrated question — clicking the right box on an annotated CMR.
  • Document to fill in — filling in the boxes of a CMR or an invoice, marked box by box with justification.
  • File submission — for work produced outside the application, marked by the teacher.

The student only sees right or wrong per item; the marking scheme belongs to the teacher, who can override an automatic mark (the log records it).

Verifying the actual state

In a scenario, the teacher declares expected shipment actions: "FCA Incoterm with a place containing Trieste", "at least two parcels with dimensions", "all lines classified and with an origin", "no blocking check", "CMR issued with box 7 equal to 3 and box 16 containing Trasporti Bianchi". The server reads the shipment the student has built in their exercise warehouse and compares it field by field — including the 24 boxes of the issued document. A shipment made outside an exercise warehouse is refused; a closed module returns "verification unavailable", never "satisfied".

Students' documents are specimens: same layout, watermark, separate numbering, never legally binding — and they disappear with the exercise warehouse.

The curriculum is data, not code The Italian PROF-LOG-01 curriculum is loaded just like the French curricula (Bac Pro Logistique, CAP), with its units of competency and its skills; four system scenarios for international shipping come with it (determining the Incoterm; classifying and calculating the customs value; packing; filling in a CMR), each with its own starting stock. Adding a qualification requires no development work.

9Suggested demo walkthrough (~20 min)

  1. Show it closed (1 min) — an organisation without the module: no section, no card. Open the module from "Organisation management"; reload: the section appears.
  2. The customs profile (3 min) — ORD-15 record: choose 8471 30 00 in the nomenclature browser, origin CN from the list of countries; show a value inherited from the family with its source; trigger a warning (net > gross) then a rejection (dangerous goods with no class).
  3. The bulk import (2 min) — Imports screen, "Product customs profiles" template, the sample file: cell-by-cell preview, then import.
  4. The international shipment (5 min) — EXP-2026-00012, International button: FCA Incoterm with no place → visible rejection; FCA Trieste → obligations table; parties with "My organisation" and Trasporti Bianchi; derive the lines, show the sources; customs value.
  5. The dock (3 min) — on a phone: three pallets, two parcels, weighing; trigger an anomaly (net > gross): banner, nothing corrected.
  6. Checks and the document set (4 min) — Checks tab: one remaining blocker; try to issue the CMR → the list of blockers; fix it; issue in Italian; open the PDF; verify the fingerprint; try to edit the Incoterm → frozen; cancel the CMR with a reason → unfrozen.
  7. The educational side (2 min) — system scenario "Filling in a CMR": the expected actions and the illustrated-question quiz; a student in an exercise warehouse; the box-by-box verdict.

10FAQ, accepted limitations and sample files

Sample files to download

  • profils-douaniers-exemple.xlsx — the Product customs profiles import template filled in with six fictitious products (laptop, cheese, wine with a supplementary unit in litres, lithium battery with dangerous goods, box, toy). Columns: REFERENCE, POIDS_NET_KG, POIDS_BRUT_KG, LONGUEUR_CM, LARGEUR_CM, HAUTEUR_CM, CODE_NOMENCLATURE, ANNEE_NOMENCLATURE, PAYS_ORIGINE, PAYS_ORIGINE_PREFERENTIELLE, REGLE_ORIGINE, JUSTIFICATION_ORIGINE, DESIGNATION_DOUANIERE, UNITE_SUPPLEMENTAIRE, QUANTITE_UNITE_SUPPLEMENTAIRE, MARCHANDISE_DANGEREUSE, NUMERO_ONU, CLASSE_DANGER, GROUPE_EMBALLAGE, QUANTITE_LIMITEE, DESIGNATION_OFFICIELLE_TRANSPORT. An empty cell does not touch the existing value; the word VIDE clears it. CSV version: profils-douaniers-exemple.csv.
  • nomenclature-import-exemple.csv — the canonical format for the nomenclature import reserved for the platform: version_year;code;level;parent_code;label_fr;label_en;label_de;label_es;label_it;supplementary_unit;valid_from;valid_to, one row per code, the five labels all mandatory. The official publication of the combined nomenclature (Official Journal of the European Union, EUR-Lex) is converted into this format before import.

FAQ

"Does the software handle customs clearance?"

No, and it does not claim to. It prepares and produces the data and documents that a customs declarant or an approved customs-clearance software will pick up from there (each document's snapshot exports to JSON for that purpose). Electronic filing of declarations (Delta in France, AIDA in Italy) is out of scope.

"Does it calculate customs duties?"

No. An indicative order of magnitude may be added one day, shown as such; an authoritative calculation would carry a liability that is not a warehouse management software's to bear.

"Is the nomenclature shipped with the software the official one?"

No: the software bundles a demonstration extract, marked as unofficial, sufficient for exercises. The official combined nomenclature, revised every 1 January, is imported by the platform from the European Union's publication, year by year; older years remain readable for older documents.

"What happens if a product has neither a nomenclature nor an origin?"

The derived line shows it ("no source"), the "line without nomenclature" check blocks issuing, and nothing is guessed. That is GSE-Web's design rule: no silent fallback value.

"Can an already-issued CMR be corrected?"

No: a new one is issued, with a new number, linked to the old one which becomes "cancelled — replaced". The history remains available in the archive. That is what makes the document legally binding.

"Can a proforma be made before there is a movement order?"

Yes, on the server side: a customs line can be entered by hand, without a movement order. The corresponding form in the application is coming in a future batch; until then, the proforma is built from a shipment together with its movement orders.

"Does packing work without a network connection?"

Not yet: packing is done online in this version. GSE-Web's offline mode (stock entries, receipts, movement orders) will be extended to parcels in a later batch; documents, however, will keep being produced online.

"Which documents are not yet produced?"

The bill of lading, the air waybill, the rail consignment note, the certificate of origin, the EUR.1, the ATA carnet, transit documents, health certificates and the formal dangerous goods declaration. The data that feeds them (preferential origin, dangerous goods) is already captured.