Commercial Invoice

A commercial invoice is a customs document required for international shipments. It describes the goods being shipped, their value, and the parties involved. Customs authorities use it to assess duties and taxes at the destination country.

Envia generates commercial invoices automatically through the POST /ship/commercial-invoice endpoint after you create an international shipping label.

When you need a commercial invoice

A commercial invoice is required for any shipment that crosses an international border. Carriers will not process international shipments without one. The invoice must include:

Description of each item being shipped
HS code (tariff classification) for each item
Quantity and unit price of each item
Country of manufacture
Export reason (sale, gift, sample, return, or personal effects)
Who pays duties: sender or recipient

Request structure

The commercial invoice endpoint requires five main objects:

Object	Required	Description
origin	Yes	Sender address with name, phone, street, city, state, country, postalCode
destination	Yes	Recipient address with the same fields
shipment	Yes	Carrier name and tracking number from the label you already created
packages	Yes	Array of packages, each containing an items array
customsSettings	Yes	Duties payment entity and export reason

Creating a commercial invoice

After creating an international shipping label, use the tracking number and carrier to generate the invoice.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api-test.envia.com/ship/commercial-invoice \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ENVIA_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "origin": {
      "name": "Pedro Garcia",
      "company": "Envia Corp",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "phone": "8113219177",
      "street": "Belisario Dominguez 2470",
      "city": "Monterrey",
      "state": "NL",
      "country": "MX",
      "postalCode": "64060",
      "identificationNumber": "XAXX010101000"
    },
    "destination": {
      "name": "Maria Schmidt",
      "company": "Import GmbH",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "phone": "679223722",
      "street": "C. del Moscatelar 18",
      "city": "Madrid",
      "state": "M",
      "country": "ES",
      "postalCode": "28043",
      "identificationNumber": "ES12345678A"
    },
    "shipment": {
      "carrier": "dhl",
      "trackingNumber": "794929929630"
    },
    "packages": [
      {
        "items": [
          {
            "description": "Blue jeans for kids made of cotton",
            "productCode": "6204.62.3190",
            "quantity": 1,
            "countryOfManufacture": "MX",
            "price": 20
          },
          {
            "description": "Cotton shirt L size",
            "productCode": "6206.30.0090",
            "quantity": 2,
            "countryOfManufacture": "MX",
            "price": 3
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "customsSettings": {
      "dutiesPaymentEntity": "recipient",
      "exportReason": "sale"
    }
  }'

Response

A successful response returns the generated commercial invoice document URL:

{
  "meta": "billoflading",
  "data": {
    "carrier": "CARRIER_CODE",
    "trackingNumber": "TRACKING_NUMBER",
    "billOfLading": "https://example.com/bill-of-lading.pdf"
  }
}

Item fields reference

Each item in the packages[].items array requires:

Field	Type	Required	Description
description	string	Yes	Clear description of the product
productCode	string	Yes	HS code for tariff classification
quantity	integer	Yes	Number of units (minimum 1)
price	number	Yes	Unit price in the shipment currency
countryOfManufacture	string	No	ISO alpha-2 country code where the item was manufactured

Customs settings

Field	Type	Required	Values
dutiesPaymentEntity	string	Yes	"sender" (DDP) or "recipient" (DAP)
exportReason	string	No	"sale", "gift", "sample", "return", "personal_effects"

Choosing "sender" means you pay duties upfront (Delivered Duty Paid). Choosing "recipient" means the buyer pays duties at delivery (Delivered at Place).

Uploading customs documents

Some carriers require you to upload the commercial invoice as a digital document. Use POST /ship/uploadDocuments with the tracking number and a base64-encoded PDF.

The document type code varies by carrier:

Carrier	Type Code
FedEx	COMMERCIAL_INVOICE
DHL	INV
UPS	002

Best practices

Always classify your products with an HS code before creating the invoice. Use the HS Code Classification endpoint if you need help finding the correct code.
Include the tax identification number (identificationNumber) for both origin and destination when available. This helps customs process the shipment faster.
Set the countryOfManufacture for each item. Some countries require it and omitting it can cause customs delays.
For the export reason, use "sale" for commercial transactions. Using "gift" or "sample" for commercial shipments may cause customs issues.

Important: The commercial invoice must be generated after creating the shipping label, because it requires the tracking number from the label creation response.

Duties & Taxes — DDP vs DDU and Envia Guaranteed options
International Shipping Workflow — End-to-end guide for cross-border shipments