Set Up the Customs Forms Data Map

When you are printing international shipping labels with an integrated customs form, Endicia Professional can automatically retrieve and enter up to 1000 lines of commodity information. Each line can include Quantity, Description, Value, Country of Origin, and Weight. For more information, see About the Customs Data Map.

• Note: Based on shipping parameters, Endicia Professional automatically selects the correct customs form as well as the correct number of pages, and regardless of the form or label size, you can have up to 1000 line items.

Setup and use of the Customs Data Map is optional.

• Note: The setup or changes that you make in the following Steps apply only to the current profile.

Steps

1. If you are using more than one profile, verify that you have selected the correct profile: On either the Order Lookup tab or the Batch Print tab, view or select the profile from the Active Profile field.

2. Select Edit > Preferences.
3. On the Preferences window, select the Data Source and Post-Back tab.

4. If your database system does not keep the database connection open, select the Re-open database connection for each address lookup check box.

   Normally, for most database systems, you should not select this check box, but if your database system closes the database connections, you should select this check box.

5. Click the Edit Customs Data Map button.

6. In the Customs Data Map window, select Data Map > New.

   The Data Connections Setup wizard starts.

7. Click Next.

8. Select your data connection method, such as OLE-DB or ODBC, and click Next.

   • If you selected OLE-DB, select your data provider—such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Text/CSV File, Microsoft SQL Server, or Visual FoxPro—and click Next.

   • If you selected ODBC, select your ODBC data source, and—if required—enter your User Name and Password and click Next.
9. In the Create New Data Source dialog box, click Browse, navigate to and select that data source of your customs data and click Open.

10. Only in special circumstances, such as under the directions of technical support, select the Show the database connection string check box. 

    Otherwise, do not select the Show the database connection string check box.

11. Click Next.
12. Enter a Data Source Name, and click Next.

13. Click OK to finish the wizard.

    The Customs Data Map window displays your data source name.

14. Next to the Table field, click the Select button to choose the table that contains the customs form data.

15. In the Lookup Records area, select the Endicia Professional field that you want to use to match with the field value of your data source.

    Because the Order Lookup Data Map is executed before the Customs Data Map, you can match records in the customs data table with either:

    • The order number. For example, if both your source data table containing the shipping addresses and your customs data table use the same order number, you can link Endicia Professional’s Order Number field to the order number field in the customs data table.
    • A value that has been entered into the Description or one of the Rubber Stamp fields. If records in your source data table use a different reference ID to link to records in the customs table, you can:
      1. Connect that reference ID field to Rubber Stamp 1, for example, in the Order Lookup Data Map and the Batch Print Data Map (if the batch print feature is being used).
      2. In the Customs Data Map, select Rubber Stamp 1 in the Match the value in the Endicia Professional field.

      3. In the With the value in the database field list, select the field in the customs data table that contains the reference ID.

         When you retrieve shipping addresses, Endicia Professional loads the reference ID into Rubber Stamp 1 and then uses that value to find matching records in the customs data table.

16. In the Customs Form Data area, select the fields from your data source that correspond to the following Endicia Professional fields.
    • Quantity
    • Description or HTS ID
    • Item Code
    • Value
    • Origin Country (country where the item was manufactured)
    • Weight
17. If the weight is in pounds rather than ounces, select the Weight is in pounds check box.
18. Click OK.

See Also

About Integrated Customs Forms

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