When the packing list and commercial invoice don’t match
The short answer
Ask the shipper which document is right before you file: customs examines the packages it needs to, discrepancies between the two documents lead to inspections, and in the US the importer generally pays to prepare the goods for one. Send back the field, both values, the line the difference traces to, and a request for a corrected document.
Last checked By Muhammad Saadullah Khan, Founder
What can happen at customs
Customs decides which goods to look at. In the US, 19 CFR 151.1 says the port director “shall examine such packages or quantities of merchandise as he deems necessary for the determination of duties and for compliance with the Customs laws”. Two documents that disagree about what is in the shipment are hard to reconcile from paper alone.
Ship4wd, in its guide to the documents that cause the most customs holds, says that discrepancies between the packing list and the commercial invoice lead to inspections, which typically add two to five business days.
An examination costs money as well as time. 19 CFR 151.6 says that, except where the port director requires the goods to be examined at the public stores, “the importer shall bear any expense involved in preparing the merchandise for Customs examination and in the closing of packages”.
A weight has a rule of its own. If the invoice or entry does not disclose a weight needed to ascertain duties, 19 CFR 141.86(f) says “the consignee must pay the expense of weighing, gaging, or measuring prior to the release of the merchandise from CBP custody”.
HMRC puts it more generally. Its guidance on exporting goods for international events says that ensuring the documents are “accurately completed and retained is critical for compliance with UK export regulations and smooth passage through customs in both the UK and the destination country”.
None of this means every difference ends in an examination. It means a difference is a risk you can remove before filing, usually with one email to the shipper.
An example: 128 cartons against 126
Take a sample pack, SHP-10482, with invented values: cotton towels and bath mats shipped by Harbor Textile Mills in Karachi to Northstar Retail in Rotterdam, order PO-10482. The commercial invoice totals 128 cartons. The packing list totals 126.
| Line | Commercial invoice | Packing list | Marks on the packing list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton towels | 64 cartons | 64 cartons | NS/01-64 |
| Bath mats | 64 cartons | 62 cartons | NS/65-126 |
| Total | 128 cartons | 126 cartons |
The totals are 2 cartons apart. The lines show where: the cotton towels agree at 64, and the bath mats do not, 64 invoiced against 62 packed. The packing list’s marks for the bath mats run from 65 to 126, which is 62 cartons, so the packing list agrees with its own marks. The invoice says 64.
Paper can’t tell you which is right. Two cartons of bath mats may not have shipped, or the invoice may be wrong. Only the shipper knows, so that is the question to ask. Don’t correct either document yourself: a fix you guessed is still a guess, and now it carries your name.
What to send back to the shipper
Make the request easy to answer in one reply. Include:
- The shipment reference, so they open the right file: order PO-10482, invoice HTM-2291.
- The field and both values, exactly as printed: packages, 128 on the commercial invoice and 126 on the packing list.
- The line it traces to: bath mats, 64 cartons invoiced and 62 packed, marks NS/65-126.
- The question: which count is right, and if cartons are missing, whether they will follow.
- What you need back: a corrected commercial invoice or packing list, before the goods are filed.
A message you could send
Subject: PO-10482: carton count differs between invoice and packing list
Commercial invoice HTM-2291 shows 128 cartons. The packing list shows 126.
The difference is on the bath mats line: 64 cartons invoiced, 62 packed (marks NS/65-126). The cotton towels agree at 64.
The packing list also gives the gross weight as 5.64 tons. Please confirm it in kilograms; the invoice says 5,640.00 kg.
Which carton count is correct? Please send a corrected invoice or packing list before we file.
Put every difference in the pack in one message, not one message per field. A list the shipper can work through in one pass brings back one corrected set of documents.
Differences that need a different answer
- A weight in another unit. 5,640.00 kg against 5.64 tons is not a difference you can settle by converting, because “tons” has three meanings: see short, metric and long tons. Ask for the weight in kilograms.
- A name written differently. If only capital letters or extra spaces differ, it is the same name. If a word differs, ask. Which fields must match covers each field in turn.
- A missing document. If the bill of lading or air waybill is not in the pack, ask for it. There is nothing to compare until it arrives.
- A difference in money. Prices and totals belong on the invoice. If the packing list repeats them and they differ, treat it like any other mismatch.
Checking this automatically
FlowDocs reports this kind of difference. On the sample pack it returns packages as a Mismatch, 128 against 126, with the page each value was read from, and gross weight as Cannot compare: “tons” is ambiguous, so FlowDocs won’t convert it.
Each mismatch is shown with the value from both documents, which you can pass to the shipper; FlowDocs does not write or send that message for you. It compares totals, not lines: it does not compare line items, check invoice arithmetic, classify goods or verify HS codes. So tracing the difference to the bath mats is still done by hand. The commercial invoice and packing list checker lists every rule it applies.