The File You Keep Decides What You Can Prove a Year Later

Three Events That Ask for the File

A shipment file is boring until the day it is the only thing standing between a buyer and a loss.

A cargo claim. The insurer or the carrier asks for the invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading, photographs of the goods before and after, the delivery receipt and the survey report. Missing one document does not always fail the claim; it delays it, and delay is how claims are lost.

A customs query. Valuation, classification or origin, questioned months after entry. The authority asks for the commercial invoice, the purchase order, the payment record and often the supplier's cost breakdown. A buyer who cannot produce them pays the reassessed duty plus interest.

A product incident. A customer complaint, a marketplace removal, a recall. The traceability chain runs from the batch code on the unit back to the production date, the factory, the test report and the material supplier. Without records the whole shipment becomes suspect rather than one batch.

The Document Set

Ten documents cover an ordinary shipment. Each has a purpose beyond the border.

• Purchase order and the supplier's proforma invoice, with the specification annex and the agreed terms.
• Commercial invoice and packing list, in the version actually used for the entry, not a later revision.
• Bill of lading or air waybill, with the container or piece count and the seal number.
• Certificate of origin, if one was issued, with the reference number.
• Freight invoice and the forwarder's quotation, which is what a landed-cost calculation is rebuilt from.
• Customs entry and duty payment receipt from your broker.
• Insurance certificate, if insured, with the policy number and the declared value.
• Test reports and declarations for the product, as supplied by the factory.
• Inspection report, if an inspection was done, including the photographs.
• ISPM 15 / fumigation certificate, where wood packaging was used.

Store the documents as received. A corrected invoice that replaces the original destroys the record of what was declared.

Photographs Are Evidence Too

Photographs settle more arguments than documents, because they show condition rather than intention. Four moments are worth recording on every shipment.

• The empty container or the loading bay before anything goes in. This is the frame that answers a "wet cargo" dispute.
• Half loaded, showing the stacking and the blocking.
• Full, with the doors open, showing the load is complete and stable.
• Closed, with the seal, with the seal number legible.

Three more help in specific cases: the carton marks on a sample carton, the pallet configuration, and the goods on arrival before unpacking. Photographs carry a timestamp and are hard to argue with; a description written a week later is not.

Keep the originals, not the compressed versions sent through a messaging app. Resolution is what makes a mark or a seal number readable.

Naming and Structure

A file that cannot be found is not a record. The naming convention matters more than the storage system.

A workable pattern: year, month, supplier short name, invoice number, and a two-word description. For example 2026-11-suppliername-INV20431-sofa-cartons. Sorted alphabetically, the folder becomes a chronological list by supplier, which is the way queries usually arrive.

Inside the folder, keep a one-page summary: order date, deposit date, completion date, sailing date, arrival date, quantities, values, and the name of the person who handled it. The summary is what makes the file usable by somebody who was not involved, including an insurer's adjuster or a broker three years later.

Two rules keep the structure honest. One folder per shipment, never per supplier only, because a supplier file grows until nothing can be found in it. And a copy outside the email system, because mailboxes are archived, migrated and occasionally lost.

Index the folder once, at the top level, in a single spreadsheet: date, supplier, invoice number, container or air waybill number, product, quantity, value, destination and folder name. That sheet is what makes five years of files searchable in seconds, and it is the first thing an insurer or a broker will ask for when the query arrives. A folder structure without an index is a pile with better manners.

How Long to Keep What

Retention periods are set by customs authorities, tax authorities and insurers, and they differ by country. As a working baseline, most importers keep the full shipment file for five years and the summary sheet indefinitely.

• Customs records. Commonly three to five years after importation, longer in some jurisdictions. Check the requirement in the country of import, not in China.
• Tax and accounting records. Usually the longer of the customs period and the local tax period, often five to seven years.
• Cargo claims. Keep the full file until the claim is closed and the limitation period has expired, which can be a year from delivery depending on the convention that applies.
• Product compliance files. As long as the product is on the market, plus the retention period afterwards, because a recall can arrive years later.
• Photographs and inspection reports. Five years alongside the shipment, longer where the product has a safety dimension.

Retention periods above are typical and vary by jurisdiction and by product. Confirm the requirement that applies where you import, and treat this as a baseline rather than advice.

Two practical notes on retention. The clock usually starts at the date of importation, not the date of shipment, so a file is kept from arrival rather than from the sailing. And where a claim is open, the retention period stops being a policy question: nothing in the file is deleted until the claim is settled and the limitation period has run, however long that takes.

Deleting on a schedule is better than keeping everything forever. A file that is complete, indexed and reviewed once a year is usable; a decade of unsorted folders is a liability that nobody can search.

What a Claim Actually Needs

A claim is decided on a sequence, and the sequence starts before the loss.

Proof of what was shipped. Invoice, packing list, and the loading photographs. This establishes the condition at origin.

Proof of what arrived. The delivery receipt with any remarks noted at the time of delivery, photographs of the container and the goods before unpacking, and a survey if the loss is significant. Remarks written on the delivery receipt are worth more than a letter sent the following week.

Proof of value. The invoice, the payment record and, where the loss is disputed, evidence of the resale value.

A timeline. Sailing date, arrival date, delivery date, notification date. Most policies and conventions require notice within a short period, often three days for visible damage and longer for hidden damage. The notice period is where claims are lost, not the merits.

None of this can be assembled after the event. It is assembled during the shipment by somebody who expects never to need it.

The Supplier's Half of the File

Part of the record sits with the factory and will never be sent unless it is asked for at the right moment.

Ask for four things at the end of production, and keep them with the shipment: the production date and the batch or lot code, so a unit in the field can be traced back; the inspection or test record for the run, if one exists; photographs of the finished cartons with marks; and a signed statement that the goods match the sealed sample.

Two of these are unusual to request and both are useful. A factory that can name the production date of a specific carton in a specific container has a traceability process. A factory that cannot is a factory whose recall would be a total recall.

Ask once, at the start of the relationship, and make it a standing requirement in the purchase order. It costs the factory ten minutes and it changes what you can prove two years later.

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