CFSP Data Interchange

HMRC have announced that all CFSP services will be ending on 31 October 2022.

Customers should be using the CDS service at that time.

What can be found on this page

1 Button Options
- 1.1 Upload Transactions
- 1.2 Upload HMRC Response
- 1.3 View/Edit Rejections
- 1.4 Export Declarations to File
- 1.5 Create FSD

The CFSP Data Interchange generates CFSP (Customs Freight Simplified Procedures) transactions for HMRC using a very old format known as EDIFACT.

This will process directly on the CHIEF system which in turn generates a reply file that will contain acceptances or rejections.

When the file is returned from HMRC we know that Outlook will remove parts of the reply message. Because it is contained in the body of the email instead of an attached file, Outlook re-formats the message. It is VITAL that you check your Outlook settings before you copy and paste the reply into the Vision Bond system, otherwise you will receive an error message. There are no known issues with other email clients.

The CFSP process is for:

Creation of CFSP transaction to send over to HMRC via electronic message file, to notify them of any Customs Duty that is necessary.
Process the response back from HMRC to acknowledge or reject these CFSP transactions and allow rejections to be amended and re-submitted.
Generate the FSD at the end of the reporting period to ensure that HMRC has received the correct number of Transactions submitted by the warehouse and that none have been missed.

The CFSP system creates an electronic file which is must be submitted to HMRC for inspection.

HMRC will send an acknowledgment back and advise whether the submitted records are correct and have been accepted or are incorrect and have been rejected.

This acknowledgment also advises how much Duty needs to be paid.

Even although we have calculated this amount, the submission to HMRC contains liters quantities and HMRC will tell us how much the payment is to be.

We provide limited information on this screen, because the buttons simply carry out processes that import, generate, send the files to HMRC, and then process the reply message.

All customers who use this facility should have a one-hour training session on how it works and should also have sufficient knowledge of the HMRC system in the first place.

Button Options

Upload Transactions

Click the Upload Transactions button to load the Import and Withdrawal Upload screen.

Confirm OK on the confirmation screen to Upload the Transactions and the screen will update to show a progress log.

This will upload transactions stored in designated files on the network into an internal data table in the background.

Upload HMRC Response

An email response will be received from HMRC (in the form of an EDI message) containing whether or not the information you submitted for each record was accepted and how much duty is owed. HMRC will have allocated a unique identity number to the response.

Make sure you have given the response area focus (ie Click in the field and make sure the cursor shows in the field). Right Click in the field and select Paste from the pop-up menu or press CTRL + V to paste the HMRC response that is already stored in the background (in the Windows clipboard) into this field before clicking the Process Response button below.

Each record that you submitted will be updated.

Click the Process Response button once you have pasted your HMRC response into the HMRC Response field.

When copying messages from Outlook into this screen, Outlook sometimes corrupts the message.

If this happens, when you click 'Process Response' you will get an error.

Ensure that your Outlook setting 'Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages' is turned OFF, in Outlook 2013-2016 you will find this in File > Options > Mail, then underneath the 'Message format' heading

View/Edit Rejections

This screen shows a list of HMRC Rejections.

The top results list shows the Declarations that have been rejected, including the Error Description.
The bottom results list (including the Supplier tab) shows the detail lines for each Declaration.
Fields here can be manually amended to correct any issues.

Once you are happy with the information for a Declaration, highlight that row and click the Accept Items button to create new Declarations.

New Declarations will be created in the background, ready to be sent off to HMRC.

These new Declarations will be stored in the background and can then use the Export Declarations to File and repeat the process.

This will be a continuous cycle until all records have been accepted by HMRC.

Export Declarations to File

If there are any Declarations to be Exported the Create declaration file for submission to the HMRC screen will appear.

This will create a text file (the file name will be a time and date) containing all of the Declaration Records.

The layout of this text file is set to a format which is preferred by HMRC.
The file will be saved to a designated folder on the network and should then be emailed to HMRC.

Create FSD

Once a month (within the first 4 business days of the month) an FSD needs to be submitted to HMRC for the previous months Declarations.

Select the last working day of the previous month and the deadline for the 4th Working Day and click the Create button and the Create FSD Message will appear.

Select the Month to generate the FSD for using the static Calendar Picker Tool.

Select the Deadline for the 4th Working Day from the pop-up Calendar Picker Tool.

With the check box ticked select the day, month or year and use the up and down cursor keys or click the calendar icon with the inverted arrow to use a pop-calendar tool to select the correct date.

Click the Create button to Create the FSD using the dates selected above.