Commercial Invoice Generator

A commercial invoice is the customs document that travels with an international shipment and tells the authorities what is inside, who is sending and receiving it, where it was made and what it is worth. Customs officers use it to classify the goods and calculate any duty and import tax, and carriers use it to confirm the contents. It is different from a standard sales invoice because its job is border clearance rather than requesting payment, which is why it carries fields a normal invoice does not — consignee, country of origin, Incoterms and the reason for export. Getting those right is what keeps a shipment moving.

It needs the exporter (sender) and consignee (receiver) with full addresses, a description of each item with its quantity and unit value, the total value of the goods, and the currency. It also needs the country of origin — where the goods were manufactured — the Incoterms that set who pays freight and duty, and the reason for export, such as sale, sample or return. An invoice number and date tie it to the shipment. The generator provides fields for each of these so the declaration is complete; the specific requirements can vary by destination country, so check the receiving country's customs rules for anything additional.

Incoterms are a set of standard three-letter trade terms — such as EXW, FOB, CIF or DDP — published by the International Chamber of Commerce that define exactly where the seller's responsibility for the goods ends and the buyer's begins, including who pays freight, insurance and import duty. Putting the agreed Incoterm on the commercial invoice removes ambiguity for customs and the carrier about who is liable for costs at each stage of the journey. The generator gives you a field to record the term you agreed with the buyer; which one applies depends on your contract, so use the term both parties signed up to.

No. A sales invoice requests payment from a customer and focuses on amounts owed, tax and payment terms. A commercial invoice is a customs document whose purpose is to declare goods crossing a border so duty can be assessed, so it emphasises the description, value and origin of the goods and the parties shipping them. You might raise both for the same order — a sales invoice to get paid and a commercial invoice to clear customs — and their figures should agree. This generator produces the commercial invoice; use the standard invoice tools when you simply need to bill a client for payment.

No, and no honest tool should promise to. Duty and import tax depend on the destination country's tariff schedule, the goods' commodity code, their declared value and the Incoterms — variables set by each country's customs authority, not by the invoice. What the generator does is lay out and total the declared value of the goods clearly, so customs has the accurate figures it needs to make that assessment. For the actual duty owed, check the importing country's customs or tariff lookup, or ask your carrier or a customs broker. The invoice's job is an accurate declaration; the duty calculation belongs to customs.