Drawing the goods and payment routes

Begin with where the cartons go

Draw the physical route from the dispatch location to the receiving location in Japan. Use one box for each meaningful stop and label the company operating that location. Include a consolidation warehouse or fulfilment centre when it is part of the proposed route. If the route is only planned, mark it as planned rather than presenting it as a completed shipment.

Write what each arrow means: goods collected, goods consolidated, international transport or delivery after clearance. Put the freight forwarder beside the leg it arranges if that helps the reader. A location label such as Japan warehouse needs the operator's name, not just a city or a platform logo.

Draw payment as a separate route

On a second line, identify who pays whom for the goods. Include a platform's collection or settlement role if it is relevant to understanding the sale. Separate that from payments for transport, storage or service fees. The commercial route may contain parties that never physically handle the goods.

Describe purchase, resale or consignment arrangements using the underlying agreement. If ownership or a resale before import affects the proposed importer explanation, mark the relevant point and have the arrangement reviewed. Do not use a diagram to invent a title-transfer term that the contract does not contain.

Use names and a legend instead of decorative detail

Give every company its legal name once, then use a short label consistently. Keep addresses in an accompanying party list if they make the drawing crowded. A legend can explain solid arrows for goods and dashed arrows for payments, but label the arrows as well so the map remains readable without colour.

Japan Customs lists a commercial or transaction flow chart among the supporting documents for an ACP notification. Our two-layer format is a suggested way to make that explanation readable, not a prescribed Customs template. The format should serve the transaction you actually have.

Check the map against the documents

Read the map beside the invoice, company records and proposed importer explanation. Look for a party appearing in one place but missing from another. Where the invoice consignee, buyer and receiving operator differ, explain why. A note is more useful than forcing three different roles into one company box.

Add a preparation date, version and owner. Ask the commercial contact and logistics contact to review their respective parts before sending the map with the appointment evidence. When the route or commercial arrangement changes, update the map and tell the review team which arrows changed.

• Every party has a name and an explained role
• Goods and money follow separately labelled routes
• Planned arrangements are marked as planned
• The map agrees with the current invoice and agreement