Customs Management in SAP GRC Global Trade Services (formerly SAP GTS) is an SAP module that you can use to standardize electronic communication processes, including customs declarations. Electronic communication in Customs Management takes place by printing messages or creating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages. You can connect GRC Global Trade Services to customs authorities worldwide to manage foreign trade activities. It can communicate and set up electronic customs processes with various European, US, and Australian customs authorities. It can also address different filing formats, data transmission requirements, and other features. As an example, I’ll focus on the process used in the US between the exporter and customs. There might be differences for other countries in terms of data mapping or the information required by different customs authorities, and possibly additional process steps within the system. Fundamentally, these steps should be applicable to other countries’ customs management communication configuration setup.

In Customs Management, you have two options. You can have a printed form or electronic communication. With a printed form, you have the option to print, mail, or fax it. With electronic communication, the system converts the data into an Intermediate Document (IDoc) and sends the IDoc output file (i.e., text) to a middleware. The middleware acts as a translator to convert the IDoc file into the format in which the receiving system expects it.

In the US, communication to customs authorities is possible online using Automated Export System (AES). AES is a standardized electronic export procedure from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). AES helps companies manage their exports and connect with customs. It is mandatory for shipments of merchandise identified in the Commerce Control List (CCL) of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) or the United States Munitions List (USML) of the Internal Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) to declare them to US customs authorities. For more information on the options you have for filing with AES, see the sidebar, “Electronic Filing Options with AES.”

I’ll show you how to configure Customs Management in your system to address AES in a way that isn’t documented elsewhere. After you’ve configured Customs Management, I’ll show you some post-processing tasks and settings that you need to address.

Customs Management Configuration

You can access the standard configuration for GRC Global Trade Services through the IMG. The AES process uses some other standard configuration described in standard GRC Global Trade Services configuration guides. The guides do not explain the setup required for AES. Follow these steps to configure Customs Management.

Step 1. Define a foreign trade organization. A foreign trade organization is a counterpart to the company code from your SAP system. This is the highest organizational structure in GRC Global Trade Services. For a master data transfer, you need to configure it. Follow IMG menu path GTS > General Settings > Organizational Structure > Define Foreign Trade Organizations to the Maintain Business Partner screen and click on the Organization button. Enter the business partner number in the Business Partner field and select the role as Foreign Trade Organization in the Display in BP Role field from the drop-down selection. Then enter the name and address and save the entry.

Step 2. Assign the organizational unit from your SAP system to the foreign trade organization. Follow menu path GTS > General Settings > Organizational Structure > Assignment of Organizational Units from Feeder System > Assignment of Company Codes > Assign Company Code at Feeder System Level (Figure 1). When you click on the configuration, two options appear: Automatically Transfer Company Code and Manually Assign Company Code. You can automatically transfer the company code from SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to GRC Global Trade Services, or you can manually create the company code of ECC and map it to the GRC Global Trade Services foreign trade organization.

Figure 1

Map feeder system or ECC company code to the GTS foreign trade organization

Step 3. Define the legal unit. The legal unit corresponds to the feeder system plant. Follow menu path GTS > General Settings > Organizational Structure > Define Legal Units (Figure 2). This step is similar to step 1, except that after you click on the Organization button you need to select GTS: Legal Unit in the Display in BP Role field. Figure 2 displays the legal units in the system.

Figure 2

Create a business partner (i.e., a foreign trade organization or legal unit)

Step 4. Map the legal unit to the plant. Similar to the foreign trade assignment, you need to assign the plant to the legal units. Follow menu path GTS > General Settings > Organizational Structure > Assignment of Organizational Units from Feeder System > Assignment of Plants > Assign Plant at Feeder System Level. When you click on the configuration, two options appear: Automatically Transfer Plant and Manually Assign Plant. You can automatically transfer the plants from ECC to GRC Global Trade Services or you can manually map the ECC or your feeder system plants to the GRC Global Trade Services legal unit. The automatic method displays the ECC or your feeder system’s legal unit plant description and the plant code. However, it only gives you an option to map the plants it displays to one legal unit. After the transfer, you need to manually assign the right legal unit to the ECC or your feeder system plant. With the manual method, you receive the plant description from the ECC or your feeder system and maintain the assignment manually.

Step 5. Define legal regulations. Define the legal regulation for the Customs Management (i.e., import/export customs) processing. You can either use the standard or reference the standard and make necessary changes, such as to the name or description of the legal regulation. Follow menu path GTS > General Settings > Legal Regulation > Define Legal Regulation (Figure 3). Enter ACE (standard delivered) in the Legal Regulation field and click on the copy with reference icon and create a new entry.

Figure 3

Legal regulation for customs-processing details

Step 6. Define determination procedures and the assignment. Now define the procedures you want the system to use when determining the active legal regulations. You use this for determining the relevant legal regulations for the service or customs procedure. You must use the country of departure (i.e., export) and the country of destination (i.e., import) to determine the active legal regulations. Follow menu path GTS > General Settings > Legal Regulation > Define Determination Procedure for Active Legal Regulation (Figure 4). This step is standard. You want to keep the default settings and copy with reference by selecting them. You then can select a different procedure if the standard doesn’t meet your requirement. SAP delivers the settings for configuration but the business maintains the regulations and rules.

Figure 4

Assign the determination strategy to the determination procedure

Step 7. Define document types. You must define the document type for customs processing services in Customs Management (Figure 5). You need to assign the number ranges, action profile, partner grouping, log control, and text determin­ation procedures. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Define Document Types. This is standard; you can just review the setting. If you need a different number range, you can change it in change mode.

Figure 5

Define the document type for customs declaration

Step 8. Activate the customs document type. You need to activate the customs services for the pre-delivered document in GRC Global Trade Services or for the new one you have created with reference. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Activate Document Types (Figure 6). Double-click on the Activate Document Types for Customs Processing folder and add the standard CULOEX document type.

Figure 6

Activate the customs processing document type

Step 9. Assign the document type from the feeder system. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Assignment of Document Types from feeder systems. Now you define the feeder system document (for example, proforma) against which you create a customs document in GRC Global Trade Services for generating a customs declaration. Click on the configuration, enter the application level SD0C, and click on the New Entries button. Enter the logical system group and feeder system document type to the GRC Global Trade Services document type.

Step 10. Define and assign the item categories for the customs shipments. The customs item category controls the text determination schema. The system also uses the combination of an item category and a document type to choose the relevant service in GRC Global Trade Services. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management >General Settings > Define Item Categories and Assignment of Item Categories from Feeder Systems. Assign the item category to the feeder system item category. Click on the configuration and enter the application level SD0C. Click on the New Entries button. Enter the logical system group and feeder system item category to the GRC Global Trade Services item category.

Step 11. Define procedures for the customs code list. Next, define the procedure for the customs code lists. Customs offices issue customs code lists. You need the customs codes for communication with customs authorities when you communicate with them in EDIFACT messages, the standard for EDI communication. The customs codes are officially valid values that enable customs authorities to precisely identify goods, means of transport, and other general attributes for import and export. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Customs Code List > Define Procedure for Customs Code Lists (Figure 7). The codes are standard delivered. If you want to add a new procedure, click on the New Entries button and enter the procedure and description.

Figure 7

Define procedures for the customs code list

Step 12. Assign a procedure to the legal regulation. Here you need to assign the code list to the legal regulation defined for Customs Management (Figure 8). Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Customs Code List > Assign Custom Code Lists Procedure to Legal Regulations.

Figure 8

Assign the legal regulation to the customs procedure

A prerequisite to this is the assignment of two units of measure (UOMs) to the definition of the schema that you’ve assigned to the legal regulation. Customs requires at least two special UOMs (e.g., kilogram and pound) for its test cases. You can only change the definition before maintaining any commodity codes for data consistency reasons. Having special UOMs in the schema requires you to maintain a relationship between the UOMs in the commodity code and the UOMs in the product master that you assigned to the commodity code.

Not following these recommendations results in US customs sending you commodity filing response messages, such as 627 (1st UOM code unknown) and 641 (Quantity 1 must be GT zero).

Step 13. Create the declaration type. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Customs Code List > Maintain Custom Code Lists for Legal Regulations (Figure 9). Choose the legal regulation and the type of customs code list, and then enter the detail. When you click on the configuration menu, the system prompts you to enter the legal regulation. Then click on the execute icon. Select the customs code list and click on the start maintenance icon. This lists the standard declaration type. If you want to use a different one, maintain the entries RX (AES Option 4) and RZ (AES Option 2). Click on the New Entries button and enter the Declaration Type and the Description. You define them in accordance with the code that is required for communication with customs authorities in the respective customs code list, which you can find at www.cbp.gov.

Figure 9

Define the declaration type for the customs code list

Step 14. Create a business partner as the customs office. You maintain the customs office in the GRC Global Trade Services customs master data. The customs office represents the office from which the goods leave and represents the declaration of the submission type. Companies receive authorization or approval for specific procedures and this helps the receiving entity to validate that approval. Follow menu path GTS Area Menu > SAP Customs Management > Master Data > Customs Offices > Edit Customs Offices or use transaction BP (Figure 10). In the Maintain Business Partner screen, click on the organization icon. Enter the business partner number, select the role as Customs Office, enter the name and address, and save the entry.

Figure 10

Maintain the customs office

Step 15. Maintain customs office number. The customs authorities have designated numbers. You use these numbers while transmitting to AES through US Customs. Follow GTS Area Menu > GTS Customs Management > Master Data > Customs Offices > Edit Customs Office Numbers. Select your legal regulation, enter the customs office number, and click on the execute icon. This brings you to the Display Customs Office Numbers screen (Figure 11). Click on the change icon. Now the office number for partner (OFN) is editable and you can enter the customs office number in the OFN field.

Figure 11

Display customs office numbers

So far I’ve gone through the foundation configuration setup for enabling Customs Management for AES. Now let me show you the configuration setup for electronic communication from GRC Global Trade Services to the middleware, which sends the EDIFACT format file to the AES customs authorities. GRC Global Trade Services uses technology called Post Processing Framework (PPF) for the output communication.

Post Processing Framework Setup

Next I’ll show you how to create the technical basis for the communication processes. You determine the sending of messages in Customizing. The system uses PPF to determine documents to be printed or processed via EDI. PPF is a new technique that replaces output determination, formerly in Sales and Distribution (SD). You can adapt the standard PPF configuration according to users’ needs. You can use either print or EDI messages with PPF. Each message has an assigned PPF action.

For print or electronic communication with customs authorities, you define the technical prerequisite for the communication processes in addition to the process-specific settings by following these steps.

Step 1. Define the technical medium for messages for customer shipment. Here you define the action definitions in an action profile. In the action profile, define all the permitted actions and general conditions for the actions contained in the profile. For example, you can define the way in which the system performs the action by either method call for EDI or Smart Forms. Follow menu path GTS > SAP Customs Management > General Settings > Communications Processes > Define Techn. Medium for Msgs (PPF Actions) f. Cust. Shipm. (Figure 12). The different action definitions include general conditions and processing types (e.g., if the system executes actions by method call for EDI or Smart Forms). You can make use of standard delivered action profiles (US_CU_EX), which have as standard the following action definitions:

• US_CU_EX_CUSEX_M_UAES2 (Export Declaration Option 2 [US] for AES outbound IDoc generation)
• US_CU_EX_CUSEX_P_SED (SED print out)
• US_CU_EX_CUSEX_P_SLI (SLI print out)

Figure 12

Action profile definition

Step 2. Define the action. Go to the action profile by double-clicking on the folder Action Profile and then Action Definition. Select Change and then the New Entries button. Double-click on the Processing Types folder while selecting your action definition (Figure 13). Then you need to choose your assignment. In this case, you have only a Method Call because this is the standard for EDI. Use the Default check box only if you create a new action template in the configuration. The system assigns the default processing to the new action template.

Figure 13

Define the processing type for your action definition

Step 3. Define conditions and output parameters for messages. The action profile displays the interface between the application and PPF. It gives a view of the application object type that shows only the settings that are of interest to the PPF. Using the settings provided in the action profile, the system evaluates the conditions that lead to the scheduling of actions by the system.

Next you process templates that you defined in the previous step. The action definition describes the content of an action independently from the processing type. At the action definition level, it specifies how the actions are found, which possibilities exist for the processing of actions, and whether they are set up to specific partners. The system assigns the action definitions and delivers them as defaults to action profiles. The action profiles in turn reflect the country and process combination. At this level, you can specify the details for action definitions and define additional conditions and parameters.

If you want to set up email communication, for instance, enter the recipient’s email address as an action detail in this IMG activity. You can also add action definitions for the action profile here. I recommend that you copy the default settings from the action definitions, and then supplement them as required ? for example, if you want to add new email recipients or change a processing time (e.g., immediate transit or initiated manually).

Follow menu path GTS > Customs Management > General Settings > Communications Processes > Define Conditions and Output Parameters for Comm. of Cust.Sh. Select the action profile and double-click on it. The system lists the Action Definition in the right window (Figure 14). Click on the action profile and go to the Processing Details tab to enter the number of pages to print out. Use the Receipt tab to enter the email addresses. Select the Start condition tab to select the standard start condition SLL_PPF_CUS_START_CONDITION. Then define conditions and output parameters of the action profile. Schedule and start the conditions. Use the example of the conditions of an action profile given in the standard customizing.

Figure 14

Set up the condition in the action profile

Step 4. Define messages for the communication process. An example is document printing or EDI messages. Follow menu path GTS > Customs Management > General Settings > Communi­cations Processes > Define Messages for Communication Process. You then see a screen with options (Figure 15). Select the standard message and make a copy with reference. Change the Action Definition and the system defaults information in the required fields. Also, customizing provides a standard set of messages for printing, or you can refer to the delivered set and copy with reference.

Figure 15

Define a standard message

Step 5. Define a procedure for the communication process. Next you define the communication processes with the customs authorities, structure them, and put each of the process steps into a logical sequence. This allows you to assign messages to each of the process steps and prepare the system so that users receive only process-relevant messages.

Follow menu path GTS > Customs Management > General Settings > Communications Processes > Define Procedure for Communication Process. Define the process template to which you assign communication processes. Then assign the process template to a legal regulation. Within the process template, maintain the processes, process steps, and messages. Then maintain the sequence of messages and choose a process to which you assign activities. Select Process Templ. and click on Process Activit. Then select the messages. In Figure 16 you can see the setting delivered with the Process Templ. CUSUS and Process CUSEX. Define the Activity Sequence for these messages. In the sequence, you want to include the messages you have already defined in the earlier steps (Figure 17). While in the above configuration, make sure to assign the activity or activities related to this process.

Figure 16

Select and sequence messages

Figure 17

Set up the process activity

If there is more than one activity, you need to determine the sequence in which you execute them (Figure 18). If there is only one activity, you still have to determine a sequence of that activity. Enter a new sequence and name it.

Figure 18

Set up sequences for the activity within a process

Set Up Message Determination

Next you need to set up message determination so that messages are assigned to the proper document type and regulation.

Message determination is the setup for determining messages configured in the previous setup from the GRC Global Trade Services Cockpit, such as the master data setup. You have to assign messages to a legal regulation and a document type. Follow menu path SAP Area Menu > SAP Customs Management > Customs Processing–Import/Export > Message Parameters > Message Determination (Figure 19). In this screen, you’re defining the process template or the sequence of messages that the system calls while processing a GRC Global Trade Services customs document. For example, you might want to generate an outbound EDI message to send the SED through AES and generate an output form for SLI as part of your process template. The system then assigns the process template to the legal regulation.

Figure 19

The customs processing cockpit screen allows you to process GTS customs documents

Next you need to assign your message to the legal regulation and document type. Click on the icon next to Message Determination under the Message Parameters tab in the screen shown in Figure 19. This brings up the screen to maintain message determination (Figure 20). Click the New Entries button and maintain the message and parameters that determine the message, such as L.Reg. (legal regulation), Doc. Ty. (document type), and the fields for departure and destination country and city if the value exceeds a certain amount. Based on the configuration setting, if it is a legal regulation and document type, you need to choose that minimum or you can be more specific as per your requirement for determination.

Figure 20

Maintain message determination based on parameters such as legal regulation, departure, and destination country

Other Settings

You should follow four more steps to up other settings.

Step 1. Define ports and RFCs. EDI communication to AES involves the outbound IDoc/message. When you get a response from AES, you need to process it through the inbound IDoc. To send the outbound IDoc and to receive the inbound IDoc, you need to define ports. Set the receiver port for inbound to GRC Global Trade Services from the middleware or EDI converter. You also need a port for sending the outbound IDoc from GRC Global Trade Services to AES through the middleware. Set RFC destinations as usual for communication to these systems. Use transaction code WEDI. Expand the Administration folder and click on Port Definition. Select Transactional RFC and set up the port (Figure 21).

Figure 21

Define the port for inbound IDocs

Step 2. Create a file port for outbound IDocs. Click on the File folder and create a file port for an outbound port by clicking on the create icon. In the Directory field, enter details of the directory where you want to store the file (Figure 22).

Figure 22

Define the file port for an EDI output

Step 3. Define the partner profile for the transmission to be sent to the customs office. While in transaction code WEDI and the Administration folder, go to the Partner Profiles definition and enter GP in the Partn.Type field (Figure 23). You need to define partner type GP for each customs office (i.e., export/import) for outbound IDocs. Keep your cursor in the folder Partner Type GP and click on the create icon and fill in the details: Ty. (type): US (user), Agent: user ID (RIYER in this example), and Lang.: language (EN for English in this example). Then in the Outbound parmtrs. section, enter /SAPSLL/CUS_EXP in the Message type column and in the Inbound parmtrs. section, enter /SAPSLL/CUS_INBOUND in the Message type column.

Figure 23

Define partner profile for the customs office

Step 4. Define the partner profile for inbound IDoc communication. While in the partner profile definition, create partner type LS for inbound IDoc communication. Keep your cursor on the Partner Type LS and click on the create icon. Fill in the details — Ty. (type): US (user), Agent: user ID (RIYER in this example), Lang.: the language you’re using (EN for English in this example). Then enter /SAPSLL/CUS_INBOUND in the Message type column under the Inbound parmtrs. section.

Rajen Iyer

Rajen Iyer is the cofounder and CTO at Krypt, Inc. Rajen has written several in-depth, best practice articles, white papers, patents, and best-selling books on SAP Logistics and SAP Global Trade Services, including Effective SAP SD and Implementing SAP BusinessObjects Global Trade Services. He is also an invited speaker at industry conferences.

You may contact the author at Rajen@kryptinc.com.

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