Collect the documents

The bill of lading, the invoice and packing list, the test and inspection reports on the bulk, and the proof of origin where a preference depends on it: they arrive after loading and before the rolls land, and the balance moves against them, so check each one against the purchase order and the sealed sample it carries:

• Bill of lading. Issued by the shipping line at loading. Check the roll count, the gross weight, the ports and the consignee, and that its date is inside the shipment window on the order, because a late bill is a late delivery whatever the mill says.
• Invoice and packing list. Both issued by the mill against the bill of lading. The invoice must state the construction, the finished width, the metres and the price per metre or per kilo exactly as ordered; the packing list must give the roll numbers, the metres and the shade lot of every roll, so that a short roll or a mixed lot can be traced to a number.
• Test report. Issued by the laboratory the order names, on bulk, before shipment: weight, width, residual shrinkage, colour fastness and pilling against the grades ordered. Check that the lot tested is a lot on the packing list and that the test method named is the one in the order, because the same cloth gives different figures under different methods.
• Inspection report. Issued by the inspector you paid in step 9, on the four point system, before loading. Check the points per hundred square metres against the cap in the order, which rolls were rejected, and whether they were replaced or credited.
• Proof of origin. A certificate of origin from the exporter’s chamber of commerce, or whichever proof of origin the destination’s scheme accepts, only where a duty preference depends on it. Check the origin, the heading and the quantity against the invoice; the preference is claimed on this paper and on nothing else.