Customs Compliance is Becoming one of the Biggest Operational Risk Areas in Retail
“Customs compliance is becoming one of the biggest operational risk areas in retail.” That was one of the recurring themes during The Retail Hive’s Supply … Read more
Mark’s Memo: What Happens When you Actually Start Checking your Customs Data
There is a common assumption in most organisations that if something was wrong with their customs declarations, they would be aware of it. On the … Read more
Carsten’s Corner: Customs Data is Infrastructure
A Reflection on Control in a Volatile Trade Environment After a couple of decades working with international trade, I have learned one thing: Customs is … Read more
TRE Reports: What UK Traders can Learn from Their CDS Declaration Data
HMRC’s Trade Reporting and Extracting service, often called TRE, is now live. The service allows UK importers and exporters to download their CDS declaration data … Read more
Understanding Line-Level Customs Data: From Classification to Financial Exposure
In many organisations, customs declarations are retained but not systematically analysed. Review tends to focus on individual transactions rather than underlying data patterns. However, classification, … Read more
Five Control Routines Every Importer Should Run on Their Customs Data
Customs declarations are submitted every time goods are imported. For the importer, responsibility for the accuracy of those declarations remains, even when a customs representative … Read more
Emma Systems is ISO/IEC 27001 Certified
In January 2026, Emma Systems completed the ISO/IEC 27001 certification process and received the certificate following a thorough and professional audit carried out by DNV. … Read more
Making Tax Digital for VAT: Where does Internal Control go?
The UK has been moving steadily towards digital tax reporting. The Making Tax Digital for VAT programme is designed to simplify submissions, reduce errors and … Read more
Why Finance Cannot Ignore Customs Data
In international trade, customs is often viewed as a specialist domain managed by logistics or compliance teams. For finance, it can feel too far removed, … Read more
Mark’s Memo: What Not to do When HMRC Comes Knocking
Trade compliance mistakes aren’t just theoretical risks—they can be very real and very expensive. Here’s a true story that illustrates just how quickly things can … Read more