13 — Print the Export Documents

Every export file needs the same paperwork, and until now someone in your office probably rebuilt it in Word or Excel for every deal. Not anymore: the system prints five branded export documents straight from the data you have already entered — your letterhead, bank details and signature seal included. What you print is what the deal says; there is nothing to retype.

Before you start

• Your Exporter Profile in Export Settings is filled in — name, address, IEC, GSTIN, LUT, bank details, and the Signature / Seal image. That block is the printed header, bank section and seal on every document; see Set Up Your Export Profile.
• For the Proforma Invoice and Sale Contract you only need a saved costing — see Create an Export Costing.
• For the Commercial Invoice, Packing List and Quality And Quantity Certificate you need the shipment filled in — containers, BL, vessel, shipping bill; see Run the Shipment. Whatever is still blank on the shipment prints blank on the paper.

Two documents print from the costing, three from the shipment:

flowchart LR
    costing["Export Costing\n(the deal)"] --> pi["Proforma Invoice"]
    costing --> sc["Sale Contract"]
    shipment["Export Shipment\n(the cargo)"] --> ci["Commercial Invoice"]
    shipment --> pl["Packing List"]
    shipment --> qq["Quality And Quantity\nCertificate"]
    settings["Export Settings\nletterhead · bank · seal · terms"] -.->|brands every page| pi & sc & ci & pl & qq

Steps

1. Open the document and click the printer icon

Open the costing or the shipment you want to print from. At the top of the right-hand panel, next to the document's name, sits a small printer icon — click it:

How you know it worked: the form is replaced by the print preview page — a slim panel on the left with Print Format, Language and Letter Head fields, a toolbar with Full Page, PDF, Refresh and Print at the top right, and the rendered document in the middle.

2. Pick the document in Print Format

Click into the Print Format field and choose the document you want. On a shipment you get the three shipment documents:

On a costing the same field offers Proforma Invoice and Sale Contract.

How you know it worked: the preview redraws as the chosen document within a couple of seconds.

3. Clear the Letter Head field

These five documents print their own complete header — your company block straight from Export Settings. If the Letter Head field also has a letterhead selected, the page gets a second header stacked on top. Click into Letter Head, delete its contents and press Escape.

How you know it worked: the preview redraws with nothing above the document's own yellow title band:

4. Check the preview against the deal

Everything on the page came from data you entered — so proofread the data, not the layout:

• Exporter block, IEC, bank details, seal — from the Exporter Profile in Export Settings.
• On the Proforma Invoice / Sale Contract — buyer, ports, delivery terms, quantity, rate and amount come from the costing; the quality specification (moisture, broken %, length…) comes from the specification attached to your product.
• On the shipment documents — invoice number and date, shipping bill, BL number, vessel, container numbers, weights and the FOB / freight / insurance split all come from the shipment form:

• The standing terms paragraphs (payment terms wording, the Sale Contract's numbered clauses) come from the Document Terms table in Export Settings — set them once per document type and every printout carries them; see Set Up Your Export Profile.

If a value is wrong or missing, go back to the source document, fix it there, then click Refresh on the preview toolbar. Never accept a document with a wrong figure — the bank checks these against the LC word by word.

5. Download the PDF

Click PDF in the toolbar. To put paper in the printer instead, click Print; Full Page shows the preview without the side panel.

How you know it worked: a PDF file downloads, identical to the preview — ready to email to your buyer, CHA or bank.

What each document looks like

Proforma Invoice — the deal on one page: buyer, ports, delivery and payment terms, full quality specification, price and amount in words, your bank details and seal. Its number is the costing number.

Sale Contract — the same deal written as a numbered contract: buyer, seller, commodity/quality, quantity, price, payment terms, bank details, then the standing clauses (shipment, transhipment, insurance, force majeure). It runs to a second page with the signature blocks.

Commercial Invoice — the customs and bank copy: invoice and shipping bill numbers, BL number, vessel, every container, the CIF value split into FOB, freight and insurance, the drawback declaration line, and the certification that it matches the proforma.

Packing List — the cargo detail the port and the receiver work from: the same header as the invoice, plus container numbers with their seal numbers, bag counts and net/gross weights.

Quality And Quantity Certificate — your signed declaration: bags, net and gross weight, bag marking, and the full quality specification, referencing the invoice and BL numbers.

If something prints blank

Where this goes next

• Tick each document Final on the shipment's checklist as you finish it — the banner count is your progress bar: Run the Shipment.
• Record the buyer's LC so the invoice can carry its document checklist: Record the Buyer's LC / Contract Terms.