EMCS Data Interchange is the Vision Bond interface for HMRC's Excise Movement Control System (EMCS).

What is EMCS

EMCS is an EU-wide computer system that’s used to record duty suspended movements of excise goods taking place within the EU. Post Brexit, this system continues to be used in the UK for duty suspended movements within the UK, and for movements between Northern Ireland and the EU. Each movement is assigned an Administrative Reference Code (ARC) which is a unique number to track the movement, this is printed on Warehousing’s delivery note to accompany the goods being moved.

Vision Bond is fully integrated with EMCS for movements of alcohol & tobacco, it is not used for the movement of energy products however.

Interaction with Vision Warehousing & Distribution

The main controls are found in Bond but this pushes and pulls data to / from Vision Warehousing & Distribution.

VW Goods

Outwards

For goods coming into leaving the warehouse, the originating warehouse generate the ARC and this is sent to the receiving warehouse, this ARC can be attached to a Pre Advice and Warehousing calculates any differences between quantities originally reported by the consignor and the actually received quantities and reports them back to Bond for submission to HMRC on a “Report of Receipt”.

Further information can be found at:

https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VW/pages/2608037895/GI+-+Receipting+Header#EMCS-References

GI - EMCS

VW Goods Outwards

For goods leaving the warehouse, ARCs are requested after the Order is pick confirmed. All of the required information is requested before the order is allowed to be processed with the exception of the vehicle registration, this can be entered when the warehouse know it later on in the process. an order is entered on to the system requesting all required information. The only piece of information which is not required at order entry is the registration of the vehicle moving the goods. The order is picked and pick confirmed, if the user’s never entered a Vehicle Registration at order entry then this is done in https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VW/pages/2331869203/Despatch#Customs-Info-tab and then the record is sent to Bond’s EMCS module and an ARC is requested from HMRC.

After the ARC is requested HMRC usually return it within a matter of minutes, at this point it’s recorded in Bond, Warehousing & Warehousing, Distribution so that it can be printed on the Order’s Delivery Note. If using Depot Printing (the automatic printing of Manifests & Delivery Notes), the delivery note is printed automatically when the ARC is returned.

EMCS Menu Options

This menu is designed to provide you with an overview of all open and outstanding ARC’s which are on the EMCS system, during normal operations and where there are no issues this area does not need to be used however when there are issues you will need to enter here to resolve them.

EMCS Menu

Sections

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HMRC [Red box]

There is no additional section for this option, you use this when you have to logon to the HMRC system entering username and password.

Goods Arriving [Green Box]

Goods Leaving [Yellow Box]

Others [Purple Box]

ARRIVING & LEAVING

As both arriving and leaving forms use the same forms but different filters they are all explained in this single section.

Those items coming into the warehouse will appear in the Arriving group section whilst those leaving the warehouse will appear in the Leaving group section

e-AAD Arriving

VW Goods Inwards

For goods coming into the warehouse, the originating warehouse request the ARC and HMRC forward this to the consignee / receiving warehouse. This ARC can be found on the paperwork accompanying the goods and users can attach it to a Pre Advice in Warehouse Receipts (while handling the received stock) or directly in the Pre Advice screen. The goods are typically received first and the Receipt Detail entry performed. During Bond Detail Receipt Warehousing calculates any differences between the quantities originally reported to HMRC by the consignor and the quantities actually received by the consignee. This helps the user to decide the ‘Global Conclusion of Receipt’ before finally confirming the receipt, which generates a ‘Report of Receipt’ record in Bond’s EMCS module which is automatically submitted to HMRC to discharge the movement.

Further information can be found at:

https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VW/pages/2608037895/GI+-+Receipting+Header#EMCS-References

GI - EMCS

System Components

EMCS Data Interchange screen

This is the screen available to Vision Bond users to handle all of their EMCS data.

Background job service

A job service which runs in the background on one of your servers is responsible for handling all of the communication with HMRC’s system, this works on a timer. Every couple of minutes or so this service checks for anything to submit to HMRC, and also checks if HMRC have any new messages for you and processes them automatically.

EMCS Data Interchange

Menu Options

HMRC

Login

To connect Vision Bond to your HMRC account and start communicating with EMCS, click Login and follow the prompts.

Goods Arriving & Goods Leaving

Items coming into the warehouse appear in the Goods Arriving section whilst those leaving the warehouse appear in Goods Leaving.

The screen design is the same for both of these sections, as such they’re described here as one.

e-AADs

Tabs at the very top of the screen divide the data into records:

There are filter fields at the top for further filtering of the data, ‘Search’ will apply them and return data in the grid below showing all matching ARCs.

A tabbed section beneath shows the full details of the currently selected ARC from the grid. Buttons to the right side of the grid allow the user to perform various operations, usually relating to the currently selected ARC in the grid.

Export to CSV

Provides an easy way for all of the grid data to be exported to an Excel Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, this requires an additional license to use, enquire with the support team if this is something you wish to add to your system.

e-AADs (Goods Arriving)

Alert/Reject

Pressing the button will load a screen, fill in the form and save to queue the Alert or Rejection to be sent.

Further information on each ARC can be viewed by either scrolling the ARC to the right side, or you can press the + button or you can simply select one of the items and full details are displayed on the lower section in one of the multitude of tabs.

e-ADD Leaving

Below is the same form for Goods Leaving the warehouse

Manually Discharge

If for any reason an ARC has been discharged (Report of Receipt accepted) on HMRC’s system and is not reflected in Vision Bond, use this button to manually update the status and close it.

e-AADs (Goods Leaving)

Other Tabs on the form

Tab Name

Requires Attention

Where an item has been submitted OR where it can not be submitted and there is an error it will be displayed in this tab

Awaiting Submission

Anything waiting submission will remain in this tab until submission is complete.

Form Options

Amend & Resubmit (Failures & Rejections)

A record may be submitted to HMRC and either fail or be rejected, here we explain how to handle these cases.

Cancel

Click to cancel an ARC which is awaiting submission, already submitted or accepted by HMRC. For those ARCs which have already been accepted, after clicking the button the background job service will attempt to cancel them will be made by changing the status as follows:

1. Cancellation Submission Pending

2. Cancellation Submitted

3. Cancellation Accepted (or Cancellation Rejected / Cancellation Failed)

Change Destination

Opens a new screen allowing you to change the selected ARC’s destination to another.

Fallback

This feature is used when the HMRC system is unavailable or you have a problem submitting the Draft ARC to HMRC. When used the following PDF’s are emailed:

ARC Details

e-AAD Submissions Information Tabs Section

These tabs show all the details for the currently selected submission in the Results List

To make changes to the values in any of these tabs you will need to click the Amend button once the correct submission is selected.

If the Amend button is disabled ( greyed out) then you cannot amend the details against the submission you have currently highlighted.

Click on any of the tabs in the top row will update the section below

The Header Tab shows another row of Tabs. All the other tabs show either a list or a single screen of fields.

Receipts

Use this screen to process a Report of Receipt against any eAADs where your Company is the Consignee

Both goods coming into the Warehouse and goods leaving the Warehouse have "Return of Receipt" transactions recorded against them when the goods have been received and can be seen in this tab.

You can use the filters at the top of the screen and then click the Search button to filter the results by the values entered

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Colour Key

At this point the status of the record will change to ‘eAAD Draft in fall back’, you can use the ‘Status’ filter in the ‘All’ tab to see all records currently in fallback. Note: it’s a good idea to keep a record of any movements started in fallback to ensure they all properly submit later. At the same time Vision Warehousing & Distribution will have their ARC temporarily set to the word ‘FALLBACK’, this ensures that it’s clear on delivery notes that the movement also requires the FAD.

For any records that Fallback has been used for, the background job service will keep trying to submit the record to HMRC so when the system is available again it should be submitted automatically.

Manually Discharge

See https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VB/pages/11730977/EMCS+Data+Interchange#Manually-Discharge.

Manual ARC Update

If for any reason an ARC gets stuck at status ‘eAAD Draft Submitted’ but HMRC have assigned an ARC to the movement, this button can be used to update the ARC in the system. This will update Vision Warehousing & Distribution in the same way that the automated process does.

Receipts

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Similar to https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VB/pages/11730977/EMCS+Data+Interchange#e-AADs this screen has filters at the top to search for the data you’re looking for, with a grid beneath. The grid rows can be expanded with the “+” button to show errors received from HMRC, alternatively click a grid row to display it’s full Report of Receipt information in the tabbed section below.

Amend & Resubmit (Failures & Rejections)

A Report of Receipt may be submitted to HMRC and either fail or be rejected, here we explain how to handle these cases.

Create

This button allows you to create a Report of Receipt manually in Vision Bond for submission to HMRC. Usually this is not necessary as most Reports of Receipt will be automatically imported from Vision Warehousing Pre-Advices (see GI - Receipting Header GI - Receipting Details GI - EMCS).

Shortage Reason

Click a Report of Receipt which contains a shortage or excess to enable this button. A screen is loaded which allows you to generate an ‘Explanation for Reason for Shortage’.

This can be created and sent by either the consignor or the consignee to provide a more detailed explanation for any discrepancies identified between the quantities in a delivered consignment and those described in the electronic Administrative Document (eAD). Despite its name, this message can be used to explain both shortages and excesses in the consignment.

Key points about submitting this:

1. It can be submitted by both consignors and consignees.

2. There are no restrictions on the number of messages that can be sent for any consignment.

3. The message can include a generic description about the whole consignment or details by individual product.

4. The information provided in this message is confidential and only visible to HMRC and the creator of the message.

This functionality allows both parties involved in the movement to provide explanations for any discrepancies, ensuring transparency and facilitating the resolution of any issues related to shortages or excesses in excise goods movements.

Export to CSV

See https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VB/pages/11730977/EMCS+Data+Interchange#Export-to-CSV.

Reminders

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Shortage Reasons

This tab allows the user to provide reasons for shortages to HMRC as the Consignor or Consignee. The reasons can be entered and later the message submitted to HMRC

OTHERS

Event Reports

Event Reports are received from HMRC and relate to Events that the Consignor or Consignee needs to be aware of.
(There could be many types of these, for example a fire onboard a ship which the member state reports to HMRC would show as an Event).

Pre-Validation

Use this tab to check whether the specified Excise Product Codes can be used on an e-AAD or Receipt to a specific Trader ID.  It will perform a live lookup on HMRC's system and return the results.

Failures

The Failures tab will show messages received from HMRC that the Vision System could not process.

Processing Based On Arrival Dates Section (first Re-Process Message button)

If you need to, you can Re-Submit from this tab using the Re-Process button.

This uses all Report of Receipt records to find any ARCs that are missing in the system.

• Then it reprocesses all messages for these ARCs from HMRC.

• This may take a long time if there are many missing ARCs. 

Processing Based On ARC Section (2nd Re-Process Message button)

• This will Re-process all messages for the mentioned ARC from HMRC.

• It may take some time to process the data.

• Use this if you can see the ARC on the HMRC Gateway or in Bond, but the ARC is not showing against the Order in Vision Warehousing.

• This can sometimes happen if HMRC has issues with their system (like delays in response).