Recording a customs declaration for extra-EU imports in SamBooks

How to record the DAU of an extra-EU import, what happens in the journal, and what the product doesn't do yet — duties aren't posted, and there is no "paid" status you can ever reach.

What this is for

A customs declaration in SamBooks is the DAU (Single Administrative Document) that the Italian Customs Agency issues when goods bought from an extra-EU country clear customs: import VAT is assessed, settled and collected at customs for each single operation (art. 70 DPR 633/72): you pay it there rather than to the supplier, and the DAU is the document you deduct it on. Recording the declaration saves the document and automatically posts the deductible VAT journal entry.

This is not a self-invoice and not a reverse-charge operation: the extra-EU supplier's invoice arrives separately, without VAT, and is recorded as an ordinary extra-EU purchase (see Recording a purchase invoice); the VAT you pay at customs is a separate fact that lives only in the declaration. If the foreign supplier is billing a service rather than goods, you don't need a customs declaration: that is the domain of the TD17 reverse-charge self-invoice, covered in Reverse-charge self-invoice TD17/TD18/TD19.

Where to find it: "Customs declarations" is no longer a standalone menu entry. It has been folded into the Purchase delivery notes page (/ddt-acquisto), which lists both supplier delivery notes and customs declarations in a single table, told apart by a badge in the Type column. A saved link to /bolle-doganali now redirects automatically to /ddt-acquisto?tipo=bolla; the detail page of a single declaration is still reachable at its original address.

Before you start

• Role: recording, editing or deleting a declaration requires the Manager or Administrative role. The Logistics role, even though it can create and edit ordinary purchase delivery notes, gets a permission error on this operation: the declaration posts a VAT-credit journal entry, handled like any other fiscal operation. A Viewer can only view.
• Not available for companies on the flat-rate scheme (forfettario): the section doesn't appear in the menu at all.
• Have ready: the DAU number and date, the country of origin (it must be extra-EU — Italy or an EU country is rejected), the customs taxable amount, the import VAT, any duties, and — optionally — the supplier from your registry (the import can predate the supplier record).

Step by step

1. Open "Purchase delivery notes" and pick "Customs declaration"

From the left menu open Purchase delivery notes (don't look for "Customs declarations": that entry no longer exists on its own). At the top right press New document: a window opens with a two-option switch — Purchase DN and Customs declaration — defaulting to Purchase DN. Choose Customs declaration: the form changes and a compliance notice appears above it — "The customs declaration registration is accounting-only. Customs clearance and filing (AIDA) remain handled by the forwarder/accountant: SamBooks does not connect directly to the Customs Agency." — because SamBooks doesn't transmit anything to Customs: it only records the accounting effect.

2. Fill in the DAU data

• DAU number (required, e.g. "25ITQ...") and Year (2000-2999).
• Country of origin — 2-letter ISO code (e.g. CN, US): it must be extra-EU; an Italian or EU code is rejected with a message pointing you to the right flow ("for Italian purchases use the normal flow; for EU purchases use the TD18/TD19 reverse-charge integration").
• DAU date (required): it is also the date the journal entry will be based on, see below.
• Supplier — optional; if you set one, it must be registered as extra-EU (same check as the country).
• DAU amounts section: Customs taxable and Import VAT (required), Duties (optional), Total document (required, pre-filled to taxable + VAT + duties but still editable — the DAU may differ).
• Supplier invoice (optional) section: the foreign invoice's number and date, if you already know them.
• Free-text Notes.

Press Register declaration. If a declaration with the same year and DAU number already exists, SamBooks doesn't create a second one: it tells you it's "already present for this year and DAU number" and leaves the existing one untouched.

3. If you have the customs document at hand, use OCR

Above the form there is a drop zone, "Upload the customs declaration (PDF)" (PDF, JPEG or PNG). It is worth knowing up front what actually gets pre-filled and what doesn't:

• Read from the document: the DAU number, the DAU date (the year is derived from it), the customs taxable amount, the import VAT and the document total.
• Supplier: looked up in your registry by VAT number; if there's a match, it gets selected.
• Duties: not read, but computed as document total − taxable − VAT, and only when all three amounts are present and the difference isn't negative. A warning says so outright, so always check the figure against the duty printed on the DAU.
• Country of origin: derived from the supplier's country read on the document, and accepted only if it is a valid 2-letter extra-EU ISO code. In every other case the field stays empty with a warning telling you to pick the country yourself.
• Supplier invoice details: OCR never pre-fills them, even when the document carries them — you type those two fields in.

It is always a suggestion to review before pressing "Register declaration", never an automatic action.

4. What happens on registration: the deductible-VAT entry

If the import VAT is greater than zero, registering the declaration creates one journal entry, in double-entry form:

• Debit — VAT receivable from the Treasury (account 1.50.05.001), for the VAT amount
• Credit — Customs-declaration VAT payable (account 2.25.05.009), same amount

with reason code "BOLDOG" and a posting date equal to the DAU date. If the VAT is zero (a rare exempt import), no empty entry is created. Any duties you enter remain document data: they feed into the total shown on the declaration, but they don't create a separate cost line in the journal — only the VAT is posted.

5. Linking the foreign supplier's invoice

The extra-EU supplier's invoice usually arrives separately from the declaration. From the declaration's detail page, the Link invoice button opens a picker showing the most recent purchase invoices (search by number or supplier — it isn't filtered to extra-EU suppliers only, so make sure you pick the right one); press Link invoice. This is a tracking-only operation: it doesn't create any new journal entry, it only records the reference. You can redo it later with Change linked invoice if you need to correct it.

6. The declaration's detail page: three tabs

Opening a row from the list (or the direct link) shows a header with the taxable amount, duties, VAT and total, and three tabs:

• Journal entry — the debit/credit lines of the linked entry (empty if the VAT was zero).
• Details — the supplier invoice's number and date, the linked invoice (if any), and the notes.
• AI history — the actions Sam has taken on this declaration, if it was ever asked to.

7. Editing a declaration

The Edit button opens the same form used for creation, in correction mode: you can change the DAU number, date, country, supplier, taxable amount, duties, total, the supplier invoice references and the notes. Import VAT is not editable from here — it is shown read-only with the note "Not editable (drives the deductible VAT entry)": to change it you have to delete the declaration and register a new one with the correct amount, so the entry always stays consistent with the document.

Watch the date. Editing touches the declaration only: the journal entry that was already created is neither re-dated nor rewritten. If you fix the DAU date after recording, the entry stays on the original date — and so does the VAT settlement period the tax landed in. If the wrong date fell in a different month (or quarter) from the right one, the only clean fix is to delete the declaration and record it again. The same goes for the DAU number: the entry's description keeps showing the original one.

8. Deleting a wrong declaration

The Delete button asks for confirmation — "The declaration and its linked VAT journal entry will be deleted. The action is reversible from Sam." — and removes both the declaration and its entry (a soft delete, not a reversal: no offsetting entry is created). There are two cases where the deletion is rejected: when the VAT period of the DAU date has already been settled (reopen that settlement first, otherwise a closed settlement would lose the document backing an already-declared VAT amount), and when the financial year the entry falls in has already been closed.

Two limits worth knowing before you register

• Customs duties are anagraphic data only: SamBooks saves them and adds them into the document total, but today they don't generate any separate cost entry in the journal. If you want the duty to show up as a cost, you'll need to record it elsewhere yourself (for example, when the forwarder's invoice that advanced it arrives).
• There is no way to mark a declaration as "paid": the underlying data also has "Paid" and "Reversed" states, but no product feature ever moves a declaration into either of them — it stays "Registered" for its entire life, and deleting it makes the record disappear (soft delete) rather than moving it to "Reversed". If you need to track that the VAT was actually paid at customs, keep a note elsewhere (in the declaration's Notes field, or in the bank reconciliation of the corresponding outflow).

When it lands in the VAT settlement

The customs declaration's VAT timing follows neither the rule for ordinary purchases (received and recorded within the 15th of the following month) nor the reverse-charge rule (original document date on both legs): the deductible-VAT entry is always posted with a date equal to the DAU date, with no window and no double date — it is the date the VAT was actually paid at customs, and it is what decides which periodic settlement it falls into. That same day is also the date the declaration shows up under in the purchase VAT register.

One clarification that matters: that date is fixed at recording time. Changing the DAU date later from the edit form does not move the entry that was already created, so it doesn't move the settlement either — see step 7.

If something goes wrong

• "Country of origin 'XX' is not extra-EU" — you entered Italy or an EU country: use the normal flow for Italian purchases, or the TD18/TD19 reverse-charge integration for EU purchases, not a customs declaration.
• "Declaration already present for this year and DAU number" — a declaration with those details already exists: look for it in the list instead of registering a second one.
• "Import VAT of the declaration is not editable in place" — you tried to fix the VAT from Edit: delete and re-register instead.
• Deletion rejected because the VAT period is already settled — reopen the settlement for the month/quarter of the DAU date, then try again.
• Deletion rejected because the financial year is closed — the entry falls in a year that has already been closed: the fix doesn't go through here.
• "Operation not allowed for the current role" — only the Manager and Administrative roles can write here.

Ask Sam instead

You can ask Sam to register, update, link or delete a declaration with a plain sentence, for example: "register a customs declaration, DAU 25ITQ004521 dated March 3rd, country China, taxable 8,400 euros, VAT 1,848 euros", "link the Chinese supplier's invoice to the declaration I just created", "update the supplier invoice number on declaration 25ITQ004521", "delete the declaration I registered by mistake". The result is identical to the form, and it stays visible — and reversible — from the detail page's AI history tab.

Frequently asked questions

How do I record a customs declaration? From Purchase delivery notes → New document → pick Customs declaration in the switch, fill in the DAU number, date, extra-EU country of origin and the amounts, then press Register declaration.

How do I deduct the VAT paid at customs? By registering the declaration: if the import VAT is greater than zero, SamBooks automatically posts Debit VAT receivable / Credit customs-declaration VAT payable, and that amount enters the VAT settlement for the period of the DAU date.

I imported goods from China — how do I record the duties? You enter them in the Duties field of the form: they feed into the declaration's total, but today they remain informational data — they don't generate a separate cost line in the journal. If you used OCR on the customs document, keep in mind that this field comes from a subtraction (total − taxable − VAT), not from a reading: check it against the DAU before saving.

What are customs duties and how do I record them in SamBooks? They are the customs duty owed on the import, distinct from VAT. The declaration form has a dedicated, optional field for them: you save them, but the product doesn't post them on its own.

How do I link the customs declaration to the foreign supplier's invoice? From the declaration's detail page press Link invoice, search the purchase invoice by number or supplier and confirm: it's a tracking-only link, it doesn't create any new journal entry.

Can I edit the VAT of a customs declaration that's already registered? No: import VAT is not editable from the edit form. To change it, delete the declaration and register a new one with the correct amount.

What is the DAU? The Single Administrative Document, issued by the Customs Agency when an extra-EU import clears customs: it reports the taxable amount, duties and import VAT.

Does an import from outside the EU generate a self-invoice or a customs declaration? It depends: goods imported from an extra-EU supplier pay VAT at customs through the customs declaration, not a self-invoice. A service received from a foreign supplier (EU or extra-EU) instead follows the reverse-charge TD17 self-invoice.

How do I delete a wrong customs declaration? From the detail page, press Delete: the declaration and its linked VAT entry are removed together. If the VAT period of the DAU date is already settled, the deletion is rejected until you reopen that settlement.

Does the customs declaration enter the purchase VAT register? Yes: registered declarations appear among the purchase register's import-related lines, with the taxable amount and tax shown in full (not a computed rate, because the DAU doesn't carry one as its own data).

Related features

• Receiving goods from a supplier (purchase delivery note) — the same page, for ordinary delivery notes.
• Recording a purchase invoice — where you record the extra-EU supplier's invoice, separate from the declaration.
• Reverse-charge self-invoice TD17/TD18/TD19 — the right flow for foreign services and intra-EU goods, not for extra-EU imports.