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Vehicle Export Trading System
The margin that is quoted and the margin that settles are rarely the same number, and the difference is rarely explained. It is usually the cost boundary: what the quotation included, what the contract actually assigned, and what actually happened.
Prefer Chinese? The Chinese edition of this page carries the full source list and every numeric caveat. 本页中文版
- BoundaryIncoterms decide what belongs to the price
- StopsCustoms release · collection
- CostingEstimated → locked → actual
- FXBound to the quotation, gains shown separately
- RefundCash flow, not margin
1. Two margins: quoted and settled
One number is produced before the deal, the other after it; if they are not the same structure, the gap cannot be investigated.
A price is quoted on one reading of the terms, the contract is signed on another, freight moves in between, the exchange rate moves at payment, and the refund arrives a quarter later. Each change is defensible on its own. Together they produce a result nobody can reconcile.
This is not a forecasting failure. It is a structural one: the quotation, the contract and the settlement each carry their own cost model, and there is no record of which one the deal was approved under.
- Cost assigned nowhere. Freight, insurance, port charges, inland transport — someone pays each one, and it is not always the party the term says.
- Terms read differently by the two sides. Who clears export, who bears loading, where risk passes — a single ambiguous clause produces a real dispute.
- Rates frozen once. A quotation without a validity date and a rate basis silently absorbs every later change.
- Exchange gains in the margin. Rate movement is not operating performance; mixed in, it hides both.
- Refund mistaken for profit. The refund is a cash-flow event on a different calendar from the order.
The fix is not a better estimate. It is to keep three cost layers alive on one order — estimated, locked, actual — and to require that the actual explain itself against the locked layer. Then the gap has a name, an owner and a date.
Boundaries matter here as elsewhere: this line covers the trading order and its documents. It does not replace a customs broker, and it does not issue certificates that only an authority can issue.
2. Incoterms are a cost boundary, not a label
The term on the order decides which cost lines must appear, who owns each document, and where risk passes.
| Term | Cost boundary in practice | Documents typically involved | Where disputes start |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Buyer collects at the named place; export clearance is the buyer's | Pickup note, export documents prepared by the buyer's side | Who is responsible for export declaration and whether the seller can provide invoices |
| FOB | Seller delivers on board at the port of shipment; ocean freight is the buyer's | Export declaration, booking, bill of lading | Loading and port charges, and the cut-off between seller's and buyer's costs at the rail |
| CIF | Seller pays freight and insurance to the destination port | Insurance policy, bill of lading, freight invoice | Insurance cover level and the point at which risk passes |
| DAP / DDP | Seller delivers to the destination; DDP adds import duties and taxes | Import documents, duty and tax receipts | Import obligations and who is entitled to clear in the destination market |
Map the term to a cost-line set on the order. The obligation to clear export or import is also a licensing question in the destination market, and that is decided there, not here.
The practical value is a rule: choose the term, and the set of cost lines that must be present is fixed. A quotation missing one of them is not a cheaper quotation; it is an incomplete one.
The same rule decides documents. Under EXW the seller's document obligation is smaller, and a request for a full export document set reveals a mismatch that should have been caught before signing.
3. Eight steps, two hard stops
Commercial progress can be recovered; a released declaration and a collected payment are facts that cannot be undone.
| Step | Stop | What happens | What the system holds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry and quotation | Term chosen, cost lines complete, validity date and rate basis set | Quotation with an expiry and a basis | |
| 2. Contract and order | Order created from the accepted quotation; term, price, delivery window | Order as the single key for the deal | |
| 3. Vehicle and stock | Vehicle availability and preparedness checked against the delivery window | Availability status per vehicle | |
| 4. Documents | Invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and other documents prepared and archived | Document checklist and archive | |
| 5. Customs release | Hard stop | Declaration filed; release or inspection recorded before shipment proceeds | Declaration and release record |
| 6. Booking and shipment | Slot booked, container loaded, bill of lading obtained | Shipment record and bill of lading | |
| 7. Collection and settlement | Hard stop | Payment received and matched to the order; settlement recorded | Receipt matching and settlement entry |
| 8. Refund and result | Refund tracked as cash flow; the order is closed with estimated, locked and actual cost | Cost comparison and closed order |
A hard stop means data cannot advance without the record. It is deliberately an operational fact — release, receipt — and not an internal approval.
Note what is not a hard stop: a quotation can be revised, a delivery window can move. The two facts that cannot move are the release and the money, because both have already left your control.
For the two stops, the system's job is evidence retention, not decision making: who filed, when, which declaration number, which amount arrived, which order it matched.
4. Three cost layers on one order
Estimated cost supports pricing, locked cost supports execution, actual cost supports review. Each has a different audience.
| Layer | When it is fixed | What it is for | What must be attached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated | At quotation | Pricing and approval | Rate basis and effective date, validity of the quotation |
| Locked | At order confirmation or shipment | Execution and commitment | Contract terms, which cost lines are committed and by whom |
| Actual | As invoices arrive | Result and review | Variance to the locked layer with a reason per line |
Default basis; the actual split follows the customer's organisation and authorisation scheme.
Exchange rates belong to the estimated layer with an explicit basis and validity, and exchange gains and losses are shown as a separate line rather than inside operating margin. The refund is tracked against its own cash-flow calendar; treating it as margin inflates a good month and hides a bad one.
The review step is where this pays: a variance against the locked layer with a reason per line turns 'freight went up' into a number and a supplier.
5. Who sees the cost columns
A quotation sent out and a cost sheet kept in are the same page with different fields.
| Role | Sees | Never sees |
|---|---|---|
| Sales / export desk | Price to the customer, term, delivery window, status | Cost lines, margin, supplier pricing |
| Documents | Document checklist, declaration status, bill of lading | Margin |
| Logistics | Booking, container, port charges they are responsible for | Customer price, margin |
| Finance | Collection, settlement, cost layers, refund | — (full figures) |
| Management | All orders and margin, variance by line | Other companies' data in a shared tenant |
Default scheme. The exported external quotation and the internal cost sheet are generated from one order, so the two can never disagree by accident.
That last sentence is the whole permission design: one order, two renderings. When the external version is maintained by hand, a cost change becomes a discrepancy between two documents that both look authoritative.
6. Six red lines
Each one converts an explainable variance into an argument.
- A quotation without an expiry and a rate basis. It absorbs every later change silently, and the customer is entitled to assume it did not.
- A contract whose term disagrees with the quotation. The dispute is decided by the contract; the loss is decided by the quotation.
- Replacing the locked layer with the estimate. Then the actual has nothing to be compared against and every variance becomes an opinion.
- Reporting exchange gains inside margin. Operating performance and currency movement are different questions with different responses.
- Treating the refund as profit. It arrives on a different calendar and is claimed on a different basis.
- Letting sales edit cost lines. The price is a decision; the cost is a record.
7. Questions we are asked most
Five, in the order they arrive.
Does this file export declarations for us?
No. It records the declaration, the release and the documents, and holds the checklist. Filing is done by the licensed party in the market concerned.
Can we use our own contract templates?
Yes. Terms, cost-line sets and document checklists are configurable; the constraint is that a term must map to a cost-line set, otherwise the completeness check is meaningless.
How is the refund handled?
As a cash-flow item tracked against the order and its own calendar, reported separately from operating margin.
Does it handle letters of credit?
It records the payment method and the documents required under it, and matches receipt to order. Issuing, advising and negotiating documents remain with the banks.
Does the demo contain real orders?
No. Prices, customers, declaration numbers and bills of lading in the demo are constructed.
Citation
Suanshu Haiyuan. Vehicle Export Trading System. Shanghai Siyang Information Technology Co., Ltd.. https://eficien.com/en/solutions/wai-trade.html (source list verified 2026-10-17; English edition 2026-10-29).
This page describes how the system carries these stages and fields. It is not legal, tax or customs advice. Rates, categories, deadlines and document requirements follow the competent authority's current rules and must be confirmed by your responsible staff and professional advisers. The Chinese edition lists the official reference entry points; this edition does not restate them, and deliberately gives no numeric conclusions.
8. Where to start
One closed order, three columns.
Take the most recent closed order and write three columns: what was quoted, what the contract committed, what was actually paid. The lines that cannot be filled are the ones no report can recover later.
- Map every Incoterm you sell under to a mandatory cost-line set.
- Add validity and rate basis to the quotation as required fields.
- Create the locked layer at order confirmation and require a reason for each variance.
- Separate exchange gains and refunds from margin in reporting.
- Generate the external quotation from the order rather than maintaining it separately.
Which line is hardest to explain at month end?
Send one closed order; we will show where the three cost layers diverge and which fields are missing.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough