Changing Warehouse Keeper Approval

The article below deals with what has to be carried out by Ontech and the customer should the warehousekeeper be changing for an existing warehouse.

This is based on previous experience and could change at any time, if you are planning on making the change or you are being forced to change then you need to speak to us as early as possible so that we can update the notes on this page with any potential changes. This is meant as a guide only and not everything will apply to every warehouse.

Pre-Requisites

As the company will be existing, setup Vision for user access to the government gateway as soon as you possibly can as the user setup process can take up to 28 days for the security letter to arrive. You would not be able to provide access to the relevant services until after the approval letter is received however this takes a matter of hours to add those.
Let us know this is happening as early as possible.

Other things you should consider

Obtain your EORI
Do you need a new deferment, have you applied for warehousekeeper approval to use the deferment
Have you registered for EMCS
Have you registered for ATWD
Have you registered for CDS
Do you need a movement guarantee.

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Timing

Generally it takes HMRC upto 45 days to process an application; however it is generally longer because in most cases they reply stating something is missing, the clock only begins when they accept the application and even then if they call for a meeting or site visit the clock stops.

Once approval is granted there seems to be an expectation that you will change to this new approval within 3 months, we have seen old approvals being automatically culled three months in despite assurances it can go on.

When you change from the old registration to the new one in the warehouse you should endevour to clear up the old account within 30 days, this can sometimes be longer but depends on the time of the month when you make the changeover.

If you change over mid month as opposed to a month end there is a minimal amount of additional work for Ontech to carry out. However the tasks we have to carry out will change. However everything has to be done during a down period on the system and you have to consider

Open pre-advices which have arrived and have not been fully receipted
Open sales orders which have been pick confirmed but not despatched and those where you may have printed paperwork early but have not been collected yet (especially for underbond orders)

Down Time on the system would be about 4 hours, whether this is done during the working day, evening or overnight is you decision but we need to pre-plan the changes and have everything in place so we need to have this planned at least 2 weeks ahead of the agreed changeover day.

After Approval is granted

We will require from you :

Copy of the approval letter
Any new deferment agreement information including a copy the C1207N form
Access to the government services including the username and password
Confirmation of the following
- VAT number / EORI
- CDS approval numbers.
- movement guarantee number

On Changeover

We have to perform a number of configuration changes within the system, these just take time and it involves changing your approval numbers, vat, eori, deferment, username and passwords

Monthly Returns - W1

The W1 which is the excise warehouse return has to be sent for both warehouses, the old warehouse will need to end up with a 0 balance and the new warehouse starts with a 0 balance, the movements in between the two are removed and then re-entered and this is usually done manually and those submissions have to be hand entered into the ATWD system.

The ease of this will really depend on the timing of the changeover.

EMCS Clearance

You can only operate with one site associated with a single approval number, this means when you alter your approval and logon we need to change the EMCS system over. Timing of this is critical as once it has been changed you will be unable to use anything you had on the system for the old approval.

To that end prior to going live you need to consider and ensure that all goods are despatched and anything mid receipt are completed.

After you switch you need to have any open ARC’s redirected to the new warehouse approval information, this is done by you contacting the sending warehouse / importer and asking them to make the change.

Goods leaving will start to use the new approval.

You will have to logon to the government gateway to check on the progress of the inbound redirections along with the outbound discharges of ARC’s as you will not be able to use the system once the new approval is in use.