To reduce the chance of facing these potential problems and ensure you use the proper export paperwork, you may want to hire an export documentation specialist to manage documentation responsibilities.
Having a dedicated export documentation specialist guarantees someone is responsible for the first step in the export journey—accurately completing the correct export documents.
Hiring an export documentation specialist provides a higher level of professionalism at your company, because it ensures that at least one person knows the documentation procedures and requirements inside-and-out and is responsible for creating the paperwork that will get shipments out of the country and to your customers.
Conversely, dividing the responsibilities among several different people means no one person is specifically responsible for the job and no single employee feels empowered to take on challenges as they arise. It also means that no one makes accurate export documents their priority. This leads to mistakes, which, in exporting, are expensive and embarrassing, and—if compliance errors occur—could potentially land you in hot water.
An export documentation specialist prepares export documents required for shipping from the United States to various international destinations. This seems fairly straightforward, but depending on the size of your company and the amount of exporting it does, an export documentation specialist may oversee the entire documentation process of your internal team, including sales, customer service, logistics and warehouse personnel, and your external partners, like your freight forwarders, carriers, brokers and others.
Typical job responsibilities and duties include:
While there is no standard list of requirements for an export documentation specialist, candidates for the role should have the following qualifications:
Finally, an employer needs to have high levels of trust in the individual that is brought in for this position since they are working in an area that has likely created problems for your operations in the past.
While companies that are just beginning to export and make a small number of international shipments may not be able to hire a full-time documentation specialist, it’s important to assign those duties to one person or a small group of people, so they can understand their responsibilities and make sure they are abiding by the regulations. Because even small companies can face substantial penalties for violations. As your exporting grows, you may want to create a dedicated in-house export documentation specialist position.
Some companies try to avoid export documentation responsibilities by outsourcing these duties to third parties like their freight forwarders or third-party logistics providers (3PLs). While companies should absolutely rely on their trade partners like freight forwarders and 3PLs to provide guidance and assistance with export documents and other parts of their international transactions, they don’t know your company’s operations, products and customers as well as you, nor are your exports their only responsibility. Rely on their assistance and expertise, but understand you are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of your documentation.
Whether you have a single person serving as your company’s documentation specialist or you rely on a team of people to do the work, it’s important to provide them with the ongoing training they need to stay on top of current regulations and best practices and provide them the tools they need to be successful.
In addition to hiring a documentation specialist, you should equip your team with export documentation software like Shipping Solutions to ensure that no matter who is completing documents, you can make sure your documents are ready as soon as your exports are ready to ship. With Shipping Solutions, your team can complete all important export tasks, including:
No matter when you hire a full-time export documentation specialist, it’s important to have some kind of export documentation system in place. In my experience, companies run into trouble when they haven’t planned for such a system, or neglect to train their employees in how to properly use the chosen software. Wherever you end up, your decision should be well-considered and thoughtful.
We’d love to show you how Shipping Solutions software might work in your company, so you can see how much easier it is compared to the way you’re filling out forms now. Schedule a free demo of our software today.
While not every company should hire an export documentation specialist right away, it is recommended for most companies—even if it seems like a stretch to hire someone for the role at first. Over time (and probably sooner than you think), you will likely see the problems your business was facing with exporting start to disappear, and your efficiency and, potentially, even sales volume will increase.
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