#Key Steps Involved In The Process Of Building A B3 Form

The importation of goods in any country usually requires some documents for documentation and accounting for better accountability and checking. In Canada, importing commercial goods into the country requires this documentation process and accounting for custom duty, other duties, and taxes. The document for this purpose in Canada is the B3 form, this is a Canada Customs Coding Form, and it is a customs form that is used to account for any type of goods imported into Canada that is meant for commercial use.

The agency at the ports, which is the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), uses this form for the documentation process. The CSBA requires that this form has been filled correctly and completed because certain information is needed before the shipment is released. As it should be, the CSBA prints the B3 form on white paper and blue ink. However, there is a provision for companies to print privately in either blue or black ink.

The B3 form usually has 51 fields numbered 1-51. It is required that every field is completed correctly. There are information requirements that owners, importers, and brokers must follow for their best interests. Owners, importers, and brokers must give the CSBA accurate documents that would aid the CSBA to carry out the essential process and enforcement functions to guide the release of the shipment to the owner, importer or broker. It is also vital that the information provided should be legible, and all the fields should be filled entirely according to the instructions guiding filling the form.

B3 form filling requires that all certificates, permits, and other necessary documents that the government agency deems to be important as they apply to the regulations of imported goods. Support documents are usually with the broker, owner and importer to make sure in subsequent times, an officer can perform an audit of the records and verification of information which was the basis for the calculation of duties was based, and most importantly, border officers will review the information and overall documentation of the B3 form to make sure it is consistent with the CBSA requirements. It is imperative of the border officers to return the B3 form if it does not meet the stated requirements. Where necessary, goods are withheld, and owner, importer, or broker would be given reasons for rejection.

Most business enterprises tend to outsource their custom processes to a vendor/custom brokers to manage these processes effectively while they focus on other business operations. However, there are associated risks associated with outsourcing a vendor like the visibility of goods, control of processes, product allocation, and also cost-effectiveness of the general operations. It is advised that business enterprises must go extra in communicating with trading partners and authorities related to transaction surrounding cross-border affairs, business enterprises should also put in more effort in the management of global customs filling. International trades have always involved the importer, custom brokers, customs officers, and freight agents to work together and have a relationship, which is a result of the complex logistics documentation and requirements along with expertise and specialization that is needed to deal with international carriers.

There are essential steps involved in the process of building a B3 form. These steps are to be followed because when a B3 form is processed inaccurately, it would ultimately affect the supply chain of an importer and, therefore, affect the stipulated time of delivery of the commercial goods. The custom brokerage now has the knowledge that to get high effectiveness and accuracy in the building of the B3 form. They can outsource B3 form building to specialists and expert custom brokerage support service providers. Outsourcing allows brokerage firms to process a higher number of business transactions and improves the supply chain that would invariably allow them to serve their customers in a better way. Since the outsourced vendor is solely responsible for this process, it will enable the business enterprise to focus more on custom brokerage.

When building a B3 form, the first step is to scan the required documents and that are related to the shipments. Scanning of these documents converts them to images. Then they are uploaded to a secure server after each document had been assigned unique docket numbers to aid data entry and also sent to the service provider via any means deemed appropriate either via email or fax. This then leads to other steps.

After the forwarding of the scanned documents to the customs brokerage service provider, the documents are then sorted and indexed, this would make it easier and faster for the documents to be accessed. Sorting documents means arranging them based on a variable, multiple sorting fields like cities, states, and addresses can be used in the arrangement of these documents. Indexing documents is arranging it according to how they are arranged on a physical shelf. The primary purpose of indexing and sorting documents is to reduce clumsiness due to store paper documents, allows easy access to the documents, and prevents the risks of duplications and omissions

After document sorting and indexing, the documents and invoices are then scanned and treated based on the priority and value of the commercial goods. Documents based on the shipment are then verified before data entry. The Customs Automated Data Exchange notes are reviewed together with Valuation notes and Electronic worksheets. The CSBA process the documents and then transferred through the Customs Automated Data Exchange (CADEX).

Data entry into the B3 form usually involves the sourcing of necessary information from various documents. There are relevant retails like customs duty, purchase order, country of origin, country of export, discount on goods, and stipulated date of delivery are all inserted into the B3 form.

You have to carry out quality checks to make sure that there are no errors and omissions during the entry of necessary information into the B3 forms. After quality checks are done and clear that there are no errors and inconsistencies, the B3 form is then submitted. Errors in a B3 form could result in delays, and this might jeopardize the supply chain, the customer would clarify and correct detected errors. Following these steps would serve as the guidance needed in the building process of a B3 form.

Author
JOYDEEP

Joydeep Singha is the Founder at AskDataEntry – India’s leading online virtual administration services provider for businesses and individuals. He is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship.