Depending on your business strategy, you may be offering attractive WooCommerce discounts on one or many of your products in your store. Offering discounts is an excellent way to attract new customers as well as boost sales.
However, in international sales, you have to use a commercial invoice. So how are you going to show your discounts in this invoice while at the same time following all the rules and compliances? Wrong information in the value of products could affect the customs value that is calculated.
In this article, you will find a brief explanation about commercial invoices and how you can show discounted value in this document. A commercial invoice needs to accurately display the correct information for getting your products cleared through customs.
What is Commercial Invoice?
A commercial invoice is an essential document when you are selling your products internationally. The document is proof of sale between the buyer and the seller and is essential for your products to pass through customs.
A commercial invoice is a document on which the customs value is calculated. So an invoice should include all the amounts required to calculate the customs value on the products. The commercial invoice is incomplete without these details:
- Name and address of the seller/exporter
- Invoice and shipment details like date and number
- Name and address of the buyer/importer
- Delivery address (if different from buyer)
- Product Details like no. of units, cost of each unit, total value, discounts offered (if any), HS Code of the products
- The total value of shipment including the freight and insurance charges
- Total number of packages, the currency used, the total weight of the shipment
- The country of origin of the products
- Sign of the seller/shipper
If any of this information is wrongly mentioned, the shipment is held at customs till clarification can be sought.
However, if the final sales amount is wrongly mentioned, this could affect the calculated customs value. Hence it is essential that the total value that comes as an invoice line total is accurate. The discounts given or any special rate applied as a business decision is accurately calculated in the product value itself.
Display Discounted Rates on a Commercial Invoice
Providing discounts on your products is a strategy you may have used to expand your business. In a regular WooCommerce Invoice, you may show the discount or any free offer as a separate line item.
However, when it comes to a commercial invoice, the discount amounts need to be included in the product value itself.
Let’s take an example. You have a company that sells lipsticks. The value of each lipstick is US$ 5. You have a promotion running that offers a free lipstick of the same value with every purchase.
You cannot show the product value for one lipstick as US $5 and the free lipstick on the second line with nil value when preparing the commercial invoice.
The lipstick will be shown as two units for US $ 5 rather than two separate line items in the commercial invoice.
Here’s another way to show discounts. If your company is selling shirts at US $ 10, and you offer a discount of 10%, then the discounted value of the shirt is US$ 9.
In the commercial invoice, you will have to show the discounted value as the product value.
How Can PluginHive Help You?
The PluginHive WooCommerce UPS Plugin With Print Label is a complete logistical solution for all your shipping needs. With this plugin, you can get real-time rates directly from UPS at the time of checkout.
For international sales, including other necessary documents, you can also generate and print the UPS commercial invoice along with the shipping labels. The UPS commercial invoice with the relevant, accurate information ensures that your products clear customs quickly by paying the required taxes and duty amount.
If there is any mistake in clearly disclosing the discount amount, the invoice amount may be wrong, and the customs duty will also be incorrect.
To ensure that discounted amount can be shown in the commercial invoice correctly; in the plugin under settings, enable the option ‘Discounted Price in Commercial Invoice.’
This ensures that the correct discounted value is picked up by the plugin while printing the UPS commercial invoice. You can ship your products to the customer without delay.
You can head to our product here for more information on the PluginHive WooCommerce UPS Plugin with Print Label.
