Free tool · The Logistics Files

Printable checklists

A checklist on a screen gets read once. A checklist on a desk gets ticked. These are built to be printed, put next to whoever is handling the shipment, and marked off with a pen.

Pick the kind of shipment you are doing and you get one page: every document you need, grouped by when it has to exist, who issues it, and what happens if it is missing. Print it, or save it as a PDF. No email address, no sign-up. It is built on your own device and it is yours.

Which shipment?

The print button opens your browser's print window. Choose Save as PDF as the printer to keep a copy, or send it straight to a printer. On a phone, the share menu in the print preview will offer to save it.

Tap a heading to read it.

How to use a checklist properly

Print it at the start, not the middle. The value is in seeing the whole list before you have committed money, because that is when the long lead times are still fixable.

Give it to whoever is actually doing the work. If your supplier is obtaining the certificates, the checklist belongs with them as much as with you. Half the items on most of these lists are somebody else's job.

Tick with a date, not a mark. "Done" tells you nothing three weeks later. "Done 14 Oct" tells you whether it is still valid, which matters because several of these documents expire.

The column that matters most

Every item is tagged with when it has to exist. Read that column before you read anything else. The items marked "before the goods ship" are the ones that cannot be fixed afterwards, and they are where nearly every stranded shipment goes wrong.

Why there is no email wall

The normal way to publish something like this is to ask for an email address first. I have deliberately not done that.

Everything else on this site runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing anywhere, and it would be strange to make the one printable thing the exception. If a checklist stops somebody paying for goods they cannot legally import, it should not have a toll on it.

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These lists are a starting point

Requirements change with the product, the country, the agency and the year. Where a list says a certificate is needed for regulated goods, confirming whether YOUR goods are regulated is still a conversation with the agency or a licensed agent. The checklist tells you what to ask about. It cannot tell you the answer for your shipment.

A guide, not a compliance document. Document requirements vary by product, route, country and agency, and they are revised without much notice. Confirm the current requirements for your shipment with your licensed customs agent, your bank and the relevant agency before you rely on any of this.

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