New solution solves problem of acquittals

KEVIN MAYHEW
POMONA-BASED Easy Clear has come up with a solution to what clearing agents and freight forwarders regard as one of their biggest problems – Customs and Excise acquittals. General manager “CJ” Pagel says that monitoring, retrieving and acquitting customs documents is a problem, mainly because it involves many third parties and because appropriate systems are not in place. “Easy Clear’s system is a solution, particularly for agents, as it writes all required documents for acquittals from the Easy Clear bill of entry system to a Customs approved acquittal register. “It then automatically notifies the transporter, acquitting agent, acquittal clerk(s) and importer that an acquittal required entry has been processed. This happens by way of an outlook task, automatically generated and e-mailed from the Easy Clear system, outlining the consignment details and penal sum of the entry in the body of the outlook task,” he explained. This effectively eliminates verbal communication and notification, and also, more importantly, informs all concerned parties in writing. The system then also monitors what is still outstanding on the register and on expiry of a 28-day window period. It also automatically generates outlook e-mail final demands for these outstanding acquittals to all the relevant parties. The system is flexible enough to monitor shorter window periods, defined by the system administrators, and it can extract portions off the “gauge”, thereby creating multiple acquittals for single entries such as “WE”-type entries out of a bonded warehouse, says Pagel. Various reports are also available from the system, such as an outstanding acquittal report, reports by acquitting agent, commodity, transporter and acquittal clerks. On receipt of the acquittal documents, the acquittal clerk scans the documents to a file and attaches them to the acquittal file in the Easy Clear system. This provides the user with on-hand, real-time information at the click of a button, making e-filing a first in the industry. “It handles a shipment from order at the supplier to delivery at the importer and all the stages are tracked from the system,” says Pagel.