The commercial invoice and packing list your supplier must send

1What the commercial invoice and packing list are for

When you buy goods in China and ship them to Singapore, two documents travel with the order. The commercial invoice says what was sold and for how much. The packing list says how it is packed: how many cartons, how big, how heavy and what is in each one. Your supplier makes both, because only the supplier knows the figures, but you are the one who needs them right.

They do different jobs. We lodge the import permit with Singapore Customs as a Registered Declaring Agent, and the permit is built from the invoice. The packing list is what our hub in China counts your cartons against when they arrive, what your freight is calculated from, and what supports the volume on the permit. We need both before your goods reach Singapore waters; once you accept your confirmed quote, we email you a link to upload them.

2What the commercial invoice must show

A commercial invoice does not need a special form. It needs these lines, and each one is there for a reason:

• The seller's name and address. The company you paid, as it appears on the order.
• The buyer. Your name or company and your Singapore address.
• A plain description of each item. "Plastic storage box with lid, 40 litres", not a product code, a marketing name, or a word like "gift", "sample" or "parts". The goods are classified from this description on the permit (the HS code), and a vague word tells Customs nothing about what is in the carton.
• The quantity of each item, with its unit: pieces, sets, pairs.
• The unit price and the line total.
• The total actually paid, and the currency. CNY, or USD if that is what you paid in. If the seller gave you a discount, the invoice shows the price after it.
• The Incoterm, if one was agreed, such as FCA or EXW. It tells everyone what the price covers, including whether delivery to our hub is in it. Our Incoterms guide explains which one to agree with a Chinese supplier.
• An invoice number and date, so the document can be matched to your order.

The total is the line that matters most. Singapore Customs charges GST at 9% on the CIF value: the cost of the goods on the invoice, plus insurance and freight. The import GST calculator works the figure out from your invoice total, and the GST and customs clearance guide explains how the permit is lodged. The same total sets your cargo cover, which is at declared invoice value: if a carton goes missing, the claim is settled at the figure on the invoice.

If you bought on Taobao or 1688, the order screenshot is accepted as the invoice, as long as it shows the seller, each item, the quantity, the unit price and the total clearly. Blurred, cropped or cut-off screenshots are not. Our guides to Taobao consolidation shipping and 1688 shipping for businesses cover the rest of those orders.

3What the packing list must show

The packing list (装箱单 to a Chinese supplier) is set out carton by carton, not as one total. It needs:

• The number of cartons, as a total.
• A number on every carton, written as 1/46, 2/46 and so on to 46/46, so a missing one shows at once.
• The outer dimensions of each carton in centimetres: length, width and height of the box, not of the product inside it.
• The gross weight of each carton in kilograms, packaging included.
• What is in each carton: the item and how many, matching the descriptions on the invoice.
• Your shipping mark from the booking, in the form SG/SHIPLET/ followed by four characters, which the supplier also writes on every carton.

Each line has a use. When your cartons reach the hub we count them against this list, so a missing carton is found in China rather than in Singapore. Sea LCL is priced per CBM from the carton dimensions, or by weight for heavy goods at 500 kg per CBM, with a minimum of 1 CBM even if your cartons come to less. Put the sizes into the CBM calculator and you know the freight before the goods leave the factory. Air is charged on the greater of actual and volumetric weight, which the chargeable weight calculator works out from the same figures.

For a small online order, the screenshot may carry everything we need. Once an order has more than five different items, it does not: we need a proper packing list showing which items went into which cartons.

4A filled-in example

A Singapore shop orders three homeware lines from one factory in Foshan and ships by sea LCL. The company, products and figures below are made up, but this is the level of detail that works.

Check the two against each other before you accept them. The quantities on the packing list add up to the quantities on the invoice. Every carton has a size and a weight. The shipping mark matches your booking. At 582 kg for 4.73 CBM the shipment is priced on volume, and you can work out the freight on those figures alone.

5The mistakes that hold a shipment up

• The product size instead of the carton size. Freight is charged on the outer carton, so the figure is wrong and the quote built on it is too.
• One total instead of a list. "About 5 cubic metres, 600 kg" is an estimate. Ask for the cartons behind it.
• Descriptions that do not match. If the invoice says "homeware" and the packing list says "storage boxes, racks", one of them has to be redone.
• No marks on the cartons. The hub receives cartons from many suppliers every day, and your mark and carton number are how yours are found.
• A battery, liquid or magnet nobody mentioned. These need to be settled before the supplier dispatches, sometimes with an extra document such as an MSDS.

6Where to upload them: your shipment on the tracking page

Once you have booked, the documents go straight onto your shipment. Open the tracking page and look up your shipment with your reference and the email or mobile number you booked with. The documents card itself opens only with the mobile number, so nobody else can see or add to your papers. It has a slot for the commercial invoice, one for the packing list, and an "Anything else" slot for a document we have asked for, such as a certificate of origin or an MSDS. Files can be PDF, JPG, PNG or Excel.

A file cannot be deleted once it is sent, because Singapore Customs may check it. If one is wrong, upload a new version: we use the newest and keep the earlier one on record.

If your supplier is making the documents, the card gives you a supplier link to copy or send on WhatsApp. The supplier's page is in Chinese or English and shows the reference, your shipping mark, where to deliver the goods and what the invoice must show. It only uploads files: the supplier does not see your address, your price or anything else about the shipment.

Either way, both documents need to be in before your goods reach Singapore waters. If you have not booked yet, get an instant quote first; the upload link follows once you accept the confirmed quote. For the whole journey from supplier to door, read the China to Singapore shipping guide.