The Export Process Step by Step: From Enquiry to Payment

The export process in 12 steps, from the buyer's enquiry and your quotation to shipping, customs, documents and payment, with a timeline and a checklist.

An export is a project with a start date, a deadline and a dozen people involved: your sales and production teams, a freight forwarder, a customs broker, a shipping line, your bank, the buyer and the buyer's bank. When the steps are done in the right order, with the right information passed at the right moment, the shipment leaves on time and the money comes back. When one step is skipped, typically starting production before the payment is secured, or preparing documents from outdated data, the cost appears weeks later as a demurrage invoice, a payment blocked by a discrepancy, or a buyer who no longer wants the goods.

This lesson walks you through the export process in twelve steps, grouped in four phases. For each step you will see what to do, who does it, which documents come out of it and what to check before moving on. A worked example, five containers of porcelain tiles from Oran to Dakar, shows the timeline in real dates.

The sequence is written from the seller's side for a sea shipment, which is the most complete case. Air and road exports follow the same logic with shorter lead times and a different transport document.

Phase 1: winning the order

Step 1. Qualify the enquiry

An enquiry arrives by email, at a trade fair, through an agent or a B2B platform. Before you spend hours on a quotation, find out who is asking and what they really need: the exact product and specifications, quantity, destination, required delivery date, the Incoterms® 2020 rule they expect, the payment terms they propose, and any certification or labelling the market requires. Check that the company exists and is not on a sanctions list; the lesson on finding and checking international buyers explains how.

Step 2. Cost the deal and send your offer

Build your price from the ex-works cost upward: product cost, export packaging, inland transport, export clearance, port charges, freight and insurance if your Incoterm includes them, bank charges, financing cost, and your margin. Choose the Incoterm deliberately: it decides which of these costs belong in your price. The lesson on choosing the right Incoterm helps you decide.

Your offer is usually a quotation or a proforma invoice stating the goods, HS codes, unit and total prices, currency, Incoterm with a named place, delivery time, payment terms, validity of the offer and the documents you will provide.

Step 3. Agree the contract

The deal becomes binding when both sides agree on the same terms: a signed sales contract, a purchase order matched by your order confirmation, or a proforma invoice countersigned by the buyer. Read the buyer's purchase order line by line: buyers often change the Incoterm, add documents or shorten delivery times without highlighting it.

Phase 2: preparing the shipment

Step 4. Secure the payment

Do not commit money to the order until its payment security is in place. Depending on the payment method you agreed:

• Advance payment: wait until the funds are credited to your account, not until the buyer sends a transfer receipt.
• Letter of credit: when the credit is advised to you, check every condition at once (amounts, dates, documents, descriptions, the Incoterm, partial shipments, transshipment) and ask for amendments immediately if anything cannot be met.
• Documentary collection or open account: confirm the terms in writing and decide whether you need credit insurance.

Step 5. Complete the home-country formalities

Many countries attach formalities to each export operation. In Algeria, Banque d'Algérie regulations make domiciliation with an authorised intermediary bank a prerequisite for every export operation, so it must be done before the goods leave, and the proceeds must be repatriated within the time set by Banque d'Algérie regulations; see bank domiciliation of export operations. Other countries may require an export licence for controlled goods, an exporter registration, or a pre-shipment inspection for certain products. Check the current rules with your bank and customs broker for every new product or market.

Step 6. Produce, inspect, pack and mark

Produce or source the goods, then check them against the contract specifications before they are packed: it is far cheaper to find a defect in your warehouse than in the buyer's. Arrange any third-party inspection, laboratory test or sanitary certificate the buyer or the importing country requires, and leave time for the certificate to be issued. Pack for the journey (sea transport means humidity, stacking and handling) and mark each package as agreed.

Step 7. Book the freight

If your Incoterm makes you responsible for main carriage (CPT, CIP, CFR, CIF, the D terms), ask your freight forwarder or the shipping line for a booking. You receive a booking confirmation with the vessel, the port of loading and three critical cut-off dates: the documentation cut-off for shipping instructions, the VGM cut-off, and the cut-off for delivering the loaded container to the terminal. Missing any of them means rolling to the next vessel. Under FCA or FOB, the buyer books the freight and you must coordinate with the buyer's nominated forwarder.

Phase 3: shipping and documenting

Step 8. Prepare the export documents

Prepare the commercial invoice and packing list from the final, actual data: quantities shipped, net and gross weights, number of packages, marks. Then prepare or apply for the other documents: certificate of origin, health certificates, insurance certificate if you insure the cargo. Send your shipping instructions to the carrier so the bill of lading is drafted with the correct shipper, consignee, notify party and goods description.

Step 9. Stuff the container, declare the VGM, clear customs

The container is collected, stuffed at your premises or at a depot, sealed, and weighed or calculated to establish its verified gross mass, which the SOLAS convention requires before loading. Your customs broker lodges the export declaration with the invoice, packing list and any licence or certificate. Customs may release the goods on the documents or select them for inspection.

Step 10. Load and obtain the transport document

Once the container is loaded, the carrier issues the bill of lading. Check the draft before the originals are released: a typing error on an original bill of lading is slow and expensive to correct, and it can cost you payment under a letter of credit.

Step 11. Send the documents

Depending on the payment method, send the documents to the buyer directly (advance payment, open account) or present them to your bank (collection, letter of credit). Under a letter of credit, present within the period stated in the credit; if none is stated, UCP 600 sets a maximum of 21 calendar days after shipment, and never later than the expiry date.

Phase 4: getting paid and closing the file

Step 12. Collect, repatriate, reconcile

Follow the documents until payment is credited. Then close the file properly: confirm the repatriation of the proceeds where your country requires it, settle the domiciliation file with your bank, compare actual costs (freight, port charges, bank fees, exchange rate) with your quotation, and archive the full document set. This last comparison is how your next quotation becomes more accurate.

Worked example: porcelain tiles from Oran to Dakar

A tile manufacturer in western Algeria sells porcelain floor tiles to a building-materials distributor in Dakar, Senegal.

Why CPT and not CFR? The tiles travel in containers handed to the carrier at the Oran terminal days before loading. Under CPT the risk passes to the buyer at that handover, which matches reality; under CFR it would pass only once the containers are on board.

Who does what in the export process?

The lesson who is who in international trade describes each of these actors in detail, and the document checklist by Incoterm, mode and payment tells you exactly which documents each deal needs.

Common mistakes in the export process

• Starting production on a promise. A transfer receipt or a draft letter of credit is not payment security.
• Accepting an unworkable letter of credit. Conditions you cannot meet (a shipment date too early, a document only the buyer can issue) must be amended before you ship, not after.
• Late booking. In peak season vessels are full; a late booking can cost a week and the buyer's goodwill.
• Documents built from the proforma, not from what was shipped. Quantities and weights change during packing. Rebuild the invoice and packing list from the final count.
• Not checking the draft bill of lading. Wrong consignee, missing freight-prepaid mention, or a description that contradicts the invoice: all of them are avoidable.
• Forgetting the closing step. Unreconciled costs and unconfirmed repatriation turn into problems with your bank or your margins months later.

Putting it into practice

On Incoforms, each export is a shipment that holds the buyer, products with their HS codes, quantities, weights, Incoterm, transport and payment terms. The proforma, commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of exchange and bank domiciliation request are generated from that one record, so the figures stay consistent, and the shipment's costs and receivables are tracked in costing and finance until the file is closed.