The moment a package crosses a border, an invoice picks up a second reader: customs. A commercial invoice is the document customs officers on both sides use to understand what's in the shipment, what it's worth, where it was made, and who's sending it to whom. It travels with the goods — attached to the box or filed electronically by the carrier — and without it, international shipments sit in customs limbo.
What customs actually uses it for
Customs isn't reading your invoice to check whether the buyer paid. It reads it to answer four questions:
- What is this? The goods description tells officers what they're admitting into the country — which determines whether the item is restricted, inspected, or waved through.
- What is it worth? The declared value is the basis for calculating any import duties and taxes the receiving country charges.
- Where was it made? Country of origin (where the goods were manufactured, not where they were shipped from) affects duty rates, since many country pairs have trade agreements.
- Who's involved? Full names and addresses of shipper and receiver, for accountability on both ends.
Because real duties are assessed from this document, accuracy matters more than on any other invoice you write. Undervaluing goods or writing vague descriptions to "help" the buyer is the kind of shortcut that gets shipments seized and shippers flagged.
Fields beyond a normal invoice
A commercial invoice contains everything a standard invoice does — parties, date, number, itemized lines, totals, currency — plus a customs-facing layer:
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Detailed goods description | Plain words an officer can act on: "women's knitted cotton sweaters" beats "apparel" or a SKU code |
| Quantity and unit value per line | So value can be checked line by line, not just as a lump total |
| Country of origin | Where each item was manufactured — per line if it varies |
| HS code (harmonized system code) | The international classification number for each product type; it drives the duty rate. Shippers commonly look theirs up via their carrier or national tariff tool and state it per line |
| Total declared value + currency | The number duties are computed from |
| Reason for export | "Sale", "sample", "gift", "return for repair" — it changes how customs treats the shipment |
| Gross/net weight and package count | Matches the invoice to the physical boxes |
| Incoterm (e.g. DAP, DDU, CIF) | Shorthand for who pays freight, insurance, and import charges — use the one from your sales agreement |
You don't need to be a trade compliance expert to fill this in — carriers' shipping flows prompt for each field — but the invoice you attach should carry the same facts.
Commercial invoice vs your sales invoice
These are two documents with two jobs, even when they show the same transaction:
- The sales invoice is for the buyer. It requests payment, carries your payment terms and bank details, and goes into both parties' books. It's the document from What Is an Invoice?
- The commercial invoice is for customs. It declares the shipment. It travels with the goods, gets read by border officials in two countries and the carrier in between, and needs the origin/HS/declared-value layer the sales invoice doesn't.
For a straightforward sale, many small exporters issue one document that does both jobs — a sales invoice with the customs fields added — and that's fine, as long as all the customs-facing fields are present and the values match what the buyer actually paid. What you can't do is send customs a different value than the sale price: the commercial invoice's declared value and the sales invoice's total must agree.
One more sibling worth knowing: if goods ship before a sale is final — samples, goods on approval — the pre-sale equivalent is a proforma invoice, which can accompany the shipment when there's no completed sale to invoice yet.
Practical habits that keep shipments moving
- Describe like you're explaining to a stranger. "Handmade stoneware coffee mugs, glazed ceramic" — material, what it is, what it's for.
- One line per product type, each with its own quantity, unit value, origin, and HS code mention.
- State the currency explicitly and keep it consistent with the sale.
- Print three copies when shipping with paper documents — one in a pouch on the box, two with the carrier paperwork — or follow your carrier's electronic filing flow.
- Never write "value: $0". Even samples and gifts need a realistic declared value; "no commercial value" shipments still get valued by customs, just without your input.
Example: commercial invoice for an international shipment
A sale shipping from India to Canada — per-line descriptions with origin and HS code mentions, declared value matching the sale, and shipment details in the notes.
Build it like any other invoice
Structurally, a commercial invoice is a normal invoice with more said on each line — and the free invoice generator covers that: 25+ currencies, a shipping field, and notes and terms fields with room for origin, HS mentions, Incoterms, and shipment details. Fill it in, download the PDF from your browser (no signup, no watermark), and attach it to the shipment.
Customs requirements vary by country and product — confirm the specifics with your carrier or a customs broker before you ship.