Logistics ERP Consultant, UK

Declarations after Brexit: a service line, not an afterthought

Before Brexit, a UK groupage operator could move pallets to and from the EU with little customs paperwork. Now each import and export consignment needs declarations, and many forwarders lodge them for clients as customs intermediaries. That work has real cost: trained staff, customs software, queries from HMRC and the clients themselves, and holds that tie up a declarant for hours.

In many firms the finance side never caught up. Declaration fees are agreed informally, extra commodity lines go unbilled, and a held consignment that needed three amendments is invoiced the same as a clean one. When I map the process I record each customs event that should trigger a charge:

• the declaration itself and any additional item lines
• amendments and post-clearance corrections
• holds, document checks and physical examinations
• transit documents and guarantees where used
• supplementary or simplified procedure work for regular importers

The declarations are lodged from specialist customs software connected to HMRC's systems, and that is where they should stay. The ERP needs the resulting events and fees so they reach the client invoice and the consignment's margin. I set that boundary during business analysis, before anyone discusses screens.

Representation, deferment accounts and recoverable balances

How you act for a client in customs matters to the ERP design. A direct representative acts in the client's name, while an indirect representative acts in its own name on the client's behalf and generally takes on more of the liability for the debt. Many UK intermediaries also let clients use their duty deferment account, so duty and import VAT are paid by the forwarder and recovered later.

Each of these choices changes what finance must track. Duty and VAT paid on a client's behalf are disbursements, not revenue. They need their own recoverable balance per client, a credit limit that reflects both service fees and duty exposure, and a clear view of which clients rely on your deferment account and which use their own or postponed VAT accounting. If a client fails, those balances are your loss.

I write these as explicit requirements: a representation type held on the client record, disbursement lines that show clearly on the invoice, aging that splits duty from service income and a review before declarations are lodged for clients above their limit. Your customs compliance lead and accountant decide the policy. The system then enforces it instead of leaving it to whoever is on shift. The UK trading ERP page covers the same flow from the importer's side.

VAT on freight charges and Making Tax Digital

VAT on logistics services is less uniform than many people assume. The treatment of a freight charge can depend on whether the transport is international or domestic, where the customer belongs, whether the charge is for transport or for a related ancillary service, and whether an amount is a genuine disbursement. A storage charge at a UK warehouse, a haulage leg within Great Britain and the main carriage from Rotterdam may all be treated differently.

I do not decide those treatments. I produce a matrix of every charge code your firm uses, by service and customer type, and ask your accountant to set the VAT treatment for each. The ERP is then configured so a code always carries its treatment, users cannot override it casually and exceptions are logged.

That discipline pays off at the VAT return. Under Making Tax Digital, returns are submitted from compatible software using digital records, so the cleaner the coding at invoice level, the less adjustment is needed at quarter end. Import VAT recovered through postponed accounting or deferment adds its own reconciliation, which I include in the test plan. Multi-currency purchase invoices from European agents and carriers also need correct sterling values for VAT, so exchange rate sources are agreed early as part of solution design.

Contract logistics and groupage costing in the UK

Many UK forwarders also run warehouses, whether for e-commerce clients, retailers or importers who want stock held near the ports and the Midlands distribution belt. Contract logistics billing is detailed: storage per pallet per week, handling in and out, picking by line or unit, labeling, returns, kitting and ad hoc labor. If the warehouse system records the activity but billing is assembled in a spreadsheet, revenue leaks every month.

I document each client's tariff, decide whether the WMS prices activity or the ERP does, and define how minimum charges and rate reviews work. Clients increasingly ask for activity evidence with the invoice, so the design keeps that link.

Groupage has its own costing problem. A trailer from Europe carries consignments for many customers, and the trailer cost, ferry or tunnel crossing and delivery legs must be allocated fairly by weight, volume or pallet spaces. Without that allocation, consignment margin is guesswork. I agree the allocation basis with operations and finance and test it on a real load. If you also run your own trucks, the transportation ERP page covers fleet costs, and warehousing ERP covers the storage side.

Moving beyond Sage and choosing a UK logistics stack

A common UK picture is specialist freight software for operations, separate customs software for declarations and Sage or Xero for the accounts, joined by exports and manual journals. It works until volumes grow, a second entity appears or the business takes on contract warehousing. Then month end stretches and nobody fully trusts consignment margin.

I help you decide whether to keep the operational systems and replace the accounting layer, move more of the work into an ERP, or both. During selection each candidate runs the same scripted set: an EU groupage import with a declaration hold, a deferment-funded duty payment, a storage billing run with a minimum charge and an agent statement in euros. I review the Odoo and Dynamics 365 routes particularly carefully, because connector quality varies.

I deliver the whole engagement remotely. Customs and accounts staff join live sessions during office hours, while warehouse supervisors on early or late shifts review short screen recordings when it suits them. The UK ERP consultant page explains how engagements run, the UK hub collects market notes and the logistics ERP guide describes the general job model.