How to Fill Out a Commercial Invoice: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you're shipping a parcel overseas, a commercial invoice is a must-have document. Filling it in correctly means your parcel moves smoothly through customs. Miss a detail, and you could run into delays, extra fees, or have your parcel sent straight back to you.

In this guide, you'll learn what a commercial invoice actually is, why it matters, and the correct way to fill one out, whether you're sending one gift overseas or shipping hundreds of orders a month.

What Is a Commercial Invoice?

A commercial invoice is a document for your international shipment. It lists what's inside the parcel, what it's worth, and where it's come from. Customs authorities, including the Australian Border Force, use these details to check your parcel and work out any duties and taxes (the fees charged to bring goods into a country).

Think of it as your parcel's passport. If the details are wrong or missing, customs can't confirm what's inside, and that's when parcels get held up.

Why a Commercial Invoice Matters

Filling out your commercial invoice correctly means your parcel clears customs quickly, with no unexpected costs for you or your customer.

Getting it wrong can lead to customs holding your parcel for different reasons, like a vague item description, a missing value, or the wrong country of origin. When that happens, your parcel might be delayed, charged extra duties, or sent back to you entirely.

For businesses shipping regularly, repeated delays turn into a bigger problem. They mean late deliveries, unhappy customers, and over time, damage to your reputation. Before you book your next overseas order, our guide to sending international orders is worth a read alongside this one.

What Information Goes on a Commercial Invoice?

Every commercial invoice needs the same core details, no matter which courier you use:

• Exporter and consignee (receiver) names and addresses: Your name and address (the exporter), and the name and address of the person receiving the parcel (the consignee).
• Country of origin of the goods: Where the goods were made.
• A specific description of each item: What it's made of and what it's for. For example, write "men's cotton T-shirt" instead of just "clothing", or "stainless steel water bottle" instead of "homewares". The more specific you are, the faster customs can process your parcel.
• Quantity and weight of each item: With the unit of measurement, for example 2 items, 1.5kg.
• Unit price for each item: What each item is actually worth.
• HS code for each item: A code customs uses to identify what type of product it is.
• Reason for export: Whether it's a sale, a gift, a sample, a return, or documents. You’ll need to specify the reason.
• Identification or tax number: Depending on the destination and whether you’re shipping to a business or a consumer, you may need to include an ID or tax number, like an EORI, IOSS, VOEC, ABN or IRD number.

What's an HS Code, and Why It Matters?

An HS code is a standardised number that customs authorities and logistics providers everywhere use to identify exactly what you're shipping, work out the right duties and taxes, and make sure your shipment meets trade rules. Think of it as a universal language: instead of every country describing goods differently, the same code means the same thing everywhere, used by more than 200 countries.

Each code covers a specific type of product, and the classification goes deeper than a broad category like "clothing". A cotton T-shirt and a leather jacket are both clothing. Still, they're made differently; cotton garments and leather goods sit under separate parts of the classification system, so they get different codes. They can attract different duty rates, even though you'd describe them the same way in everyday language.

Anyone shipping goods internationally needs to use an HS code, whether that's a business sending stock in bulk or someone posting a single gift overseas. Every parcel needs one; it's a required part of your shipment, not optional.

You don't have to dig through classification tables yourself. Interparcel's HS code lookup suggests matching options based on the product description you enter, so you can pick the right one from a shortlist. It's still worth double-checking the suggestion. The first six digits of an HS code are usually standard worldwide, but countries can add up to four extra digits to classify products further, which is why Interparcel provides an 8-digit code for most destinations and a 10-digit code for the US, where that extra detail is required.

Do You Need a Commercial Invoice Template?

When you book your international shipment with Interparcel, we generate your commercial invoice directly in the platform as part of the booking process. This is available for businesses and individuals (one-off senders and casual senders).

So there's no need to worry about downloading a specific template and filling it in, as our commercial invoice is built from the shipment and product details you enter in the steps below.

How to Fill Out a Commercial Invoice With Interparcel

It's simple, doesn't require any previous experience, and can be done just by following the steps below.

Step 1. Add Your Shipment Details

Enter a description of the parcel, the total value of everything inside it, and an order reference if you use one. Customs uses this total value to calculate duties and taxes, so it needs to be accurate.

Step 2. Add Product Details for Each Item

For every item in the parcel, add the quantity, a specific description, price, country of manufacture and HS code. "Men's cotton T-shirt" rather than "clothing". The more specific you are, the faster your parcel moves through customs.

Step 3. Select Your Reason for Export

Select sale, gift, sample, return or documents. If you're selling to a customer, always choose sale, even if it's a low-value order. This matters in particular for shipments to the United States, where declaring a paid sale as a gift can cause problems at customs.

Step 4. Add Your ID and Tax Numbers

Depending on the destination and whether you're shipping business-to-consumer or business-to-business, you may need an EORI, IOSS, VOEC, ABN or IRD number. Double-check these before you ship, since an incorrect number can hold up clearance just as easily as a missing one.

Step 5. Choose How Duties and Taxes are Paid

When you select your courier service, you decide who covers the duties and taxes: your customer on delivery (DDU), or you in advance (DDP).

Which services offer DDP: FedEx, UPS and Asendia. For some Asendia destinations, DDP is the only option, and you'll know because the DDU choice simply won't appear when you select that country.

Choosing DDP usually means faster customs clearance, since your parcel isn't held up at the border waiting for your customer to pay. It's worth choosing DDP if you're shipping to customers who might not expect a duty bill; with DDU, if they refuse to pay, the parcel can be returned to you at your own cost. For a closer look at how DDP and DDU compare, our DDP vs DDU blog article breaks it down in more detail.

Once you've booked, print three copies of the commercial invoice and one shipping label. Put them in a clear document pouch on the outside of your parcel, along with any other documents your destination country needs.

For a full breakdown of every field, including exactly what each ID number is for, our commercial invoice guide walks through it step by step.

Commercial Invoice Mistakes to Avoid

A handful of small errors cause most customs delays:

• Vague item descriptions: Writing "gift" or "parts" doesn't tell customs anything useful. Be specific, like the examples above.
• Mismatched values: The value you write down should match what the item is actually worth, not a rough guess.
• Wrong reason for export: Marking a paid sale as a gift to avoid duties can get your parcel flagged, or even seized.
• Missing or incorrect HS codes: This is the code that tells customs what kind of product you're sending. Get it wrong, and your parcel may be taxed incorrectly or held for a manual check. The purchase price of each item: How much did you pay for these items? This is calculated individually per unit.
• Skipping required ID numbers: Some countries won't clear your parcel without the right ID or tax number attached

If you're shipping something unusual overseas, it's worth checking our prohibited and restricted items list before you book. Some items need extra permits or can't be sent at all through our network.

How Interparcel Helps With Your Shipping

When you book an international shipment through Interparcel, your commercial invoice is generated automatically as a downloadable PDF, along with your shipping label, and emailed to you straight away. If you ever misplace it, you can find it again under Help > Download Documents using your order number.

If you're a business shipping in higher volumes, our shipping tools can help streamline your fulfilment, cut down on manual entry and automate your operations, including printing labels in bulk, so you're not doing this one parcel at a time.

You don't need an account to use our shipping calculator, but if you're an ecommerce retailer and want to explore the platform further, you'll just need to create an account. Our guide on setting up your account walks you through it.

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