Enterprises based in a member state of the European Union (EU) are legally required to report their goods movements to and from other member states. These reports are called Intra European Community Trade Statistics (Intrastat) reports. In most cases, this requirement also applies to European subsidiaries of American companies.¹

Intrastat reports basically consist of quantities, weights, transportation data, and values of the goods imported and exported. (See Figure 1.)

Because of the complexity of Intrastat legislation, many SAP consultants “hope” that other SAP consultants will take on learning how to set up the functionality in R/3. As the “other” consultants are hoping the same, very often Intrastat reporting is not set up at all. The result is that the legally required Intrastat reports have to be created manually, which is a time-consuming process.

However, the subject is less complicated than you would think. I’ll explain how to set up Intrastat in R/3, how it is integrated within the R/3 modules, and how to create the reports. I’ll also give you customizing tips not covered by the SAP-provided wizards that guide you through the process. After reading the article, you will be capable of setting up Intrastat and producing the reports.

The same wizards can also be used for settings required for other periodic reports such as Extrastat reports, which track trade between EU member states and non-EU countries. Click here to download step-by-step details on the customizing process. 

Figure 1

Sample Intrastat report

Customizing Intrastat

SAP has created two wizards to guide you through the customizing of Intrastat: one for dispatches, and one for receipts. You can find the wizards in both the purchasing and the SD modules. One of the paths for the dispatch wizard is Logistics>Sales/ distribution>Foreign Trade/Customs>Periodic Declarations>Periodic Declarations>Settings>Wizard Dispatch/Export. The other is Logistics>Materials Management>Foreign Trade/Customs>Periodic Declarations>Periodic Declarations>Settings>Wizard Dispatch/Export. The transaction code is WZFT02.

For the import wizard, go to the menu path Logistics>Sales/distribution> Foreign Trade/Customs>Periodic Declarations>Periodic Declarations> Settings>Wizard Receipt/Import or follow the menu path Logistics> Materials Management>Foreign Trade/Customs>Periodic Declarations>Periodic Declarations> Settings>Wizard Dispatch/Export. The transaction code is WZFT01.

Customization Tip

Here are some special points of attention for customizing that are not covered by the wizards. The exact requirements may vary by country and enterprise. The examples mentioned are just indications of what to check.

• When you customize the company code data with transaction OBY6, don’t forget to go to the screen for additional data (Figure 2). Depending on the country, you may have to fill in additional data used for Intrastat reports. Among other items, the company Intrastat code has to be entered on this screen.

• Make sure that the import screens are available for purchase orders. Use transaction OMGT to check the settings. The control import data field should be empty.

• The export/import group must be made available in the material field selection groups. Use transactions OMSR and OMS9 to check the settings. The settings depend on your customizing. You have to make sure that the field MARC_MTVER (export/import material group) is an optional entry in the material master. Check that the group containing MARC_MTVER is optional for the material types you are using.

• In the customer field groups, the fields region must be made optional. The region is located on the address information, part of the general data view. Use transaction code OBD2 to check the settings.

• In the vendor field groups, the fields region and mode of transport must be made optional. The region is located on the address information, part of the general data view. The Mode of transport and other Intrastat-related fields can be found in the purchasing data view. Use transaction code OBD3 to check the settings. (See Figure 3.)
• Intercompany purchase orders don’t have a related sales order. Because the Intrastat reports check the sales orders for dispatches, this type of export is skipped by the standard transactions. A special transaction must be used to select the dispatches for this type of order. Because the sales data is missing, Intrastat data is derived from the purchasing order. Therefore, special conversion rules have to be customized. Among the settings to be made are: conversion of import/export mode of transportation (transaction code VI46) and conversion of import/export business transaction types (transaction code VI47).

• For some countries, the statistical value of an order must be reported. This means that the calculation of the statistical value must be part of the pricing procedures. The statistical value is calculated by using condition type GRWR. Pay special attention to free-of-charge orders because, for this type of order, the calculation cannot be based on the sales/purchase price. The statistical value represents the actual value of the goods. This can deviate from the invoice price, for example, if these are free goods or if the invoice price includes handling and insurance costs.

Figure 2

Additional company code data for Spain

Figure 3

Field status group for purchasing data

Integration of Intrastat Data

To produce the correct Intrastat reports from the system, a number of master data fields must be maintained. Furthermore, transactional data is used by R/3 to produce the required statistics. The required information is contained in purchasing, sales, and delivery documents (Tables 1 and 2). For example, R/3 can produce the Intrastat reports only if the company’s business scenarios are based on R/3 standard flows. The fields in master data (Table 3) can either be required, optional, or not required at all, depending on the reporting country. The system selects only those documents containing a foreign trade header or item data.

Creating the Intrastat Report and Files

Reporting can be done on paper or electronically. SAP supports both methods.

Electronic declarations may be made by a number of means:

• Disk or tape, in fixed-length ASCII format

• Special software

• EDIFACT message CUSDEC/INSTAT (This is an EDI message used in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Ireland, and Austria to send Intrastat data to the customs administration.)

Keep these general guidelines in mind in selecting documents:

• Make sure that you don’t select customers that have no VAT number, as dispatches for these customers are not to be reported.

• Make sure that you don’t select items that are services. You can exclude them based, for instance, on material group, order item category, or material number.

• Sometimes dynamic selections can exclude both of the above items. If you use specific number ranges for service materials, you can exclude these by excluding materials with a number in a specific range.

Creating the Report and Files Using Transaction ENGR

All Intrastat documents for all countries can be produced using transaction code ENGR. SAP calls it the cockpit for periodic declarations, because from this transaction you can do not only Intrastat reporting (import and export), but also other declarations such as Extrastat and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, via the cockpit you cannot include intercompany purchase orders. You have to do this in a separate step, using transaction code VI98.

The menu path for transaction code ENGR is Logistics>Materials Management>Foreign trade customs>Periodic declarations> Cockpit - Periodic Declarations. This takes you to the selection screen of ENGR (Figure 4).

To create the Intrastat reports, click on the button Create Periodic Declarations. On the overview screen (Figure 5) that appears, you can select the reporting country and whether you want to report exports or imports. The creation of the reports consists of two or three steps — two steps for countries using forms or CUSDEC/ INSTAT, three for countries using a disk.

Step 1: Select the data to be reported. The result is an overview screen showing all selected documents. You can drill down to the selected documents to look at the details.

On the navigation side of the screen (left side), you can also select the log display called Log of incomplete items. Via this log, you can correct the incomplete documents. The documents that are highlighted in Figure 6 are returns; these documents are reported via the receipt report. Manually created Intrastat items, using transaction VEFU or directly via the cockpit, are not shown in the first step. They are included in the second step.

Step 2: For countries using CUSDEC or forms, this is the last step. For countries using disks, an intermediate file on the SAP server is created. The information selected in the previous step, the manually entered information, and the intercompany sales information are combined. The intermediate file is used in the next step to be transformed into a file with country-specific data.

Step 3: The last step is to create from the intermediate file a file to be sent on disk to the Intrastat authorities. The file has the country-specific format. Depending on the country, the file can be sent by disk to the authorities, or it can be sent electronically using country-specific programs.

Figure 4

Main screen transaction for periodic declarations

Figure 5

Selecting a country and the export/import option

Figure 6

Selected items dispatches

Kees van Westerop

Kees van Westerop has been working as an SAP consultant for more than 25 years. He has an MBA degree in mathematics and a degree in finance. Kees has been concentrating on the financial modules, especially in general ledger accounting, cost center accounting, and consolidation. He also has a great deal of experience with rollouts of kernel systems and integrating finance and logistics.

You may contact the author at keesvanwesterop@hotmail.com.

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