Your CBAM administration, from import to declaration

CBAM is bookkeeping. Every import that falls under it has to be recorded, valued and eventually declared. This page explains what you have to keep, and how to keep it without a spreadsheet that only one person understands.

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Do you fall under CBAM?

CBAM applies to importers of iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen from outside the EU. Two things decide whether it applies to you: what you import, and how much of it.

  • Above 50 tonnes of CBAM goods per calendar year you are in scope. Below it you are not, but you still have to be able to show that.
  • Being in scope means you need authorised CBAM declarant status. Without it you cannot import CBAM goods at all.
  • Whether a product counts is decided by its CN code, not by what you call it. A bracket and a beam can land on different sides of the line.

The threshold is per calendar year and per importer, so it is worth watching as the year fills up rather than discovering in December that you crossed it in August.

What you have to record per import

This is the part people underestimate. A CBAM declaration is not one number; it is the sum of everything you brought in, and every line needs its own backing.

The goods themselves

CN code, net mass and country of origin, taken from the customs declaration rather than the invoice.

Who made them

The supplier and the specific production installation, because emissions are a property of the plant, not of the company.

The embedded emissions

Actual figures from the producer if you can get them, EU default values if you cannot. Actual data is usually lower, and lower means cheaper.

Carbon already paid

Any carbon price already paid in the country of origin can be deducted, but only if you can evidence it.

Keeping it the way you keep your books

The reason spreadsheets fail here is not that they cannot hold the data. It is that the default values change, the certificate price changes every quarter, and nobody remembers which version of which annex a figure came from. So you book each import once, and the system keeps the rest current.

  1. 1

    Book the import

    Enter the CN code, origin and quantity. The right product group and benchmark values are recognised automatically.

  2. 2

    Watch the cost build up

    Every booking updates what the year is going to cost you, so the CBAM bill is a running total instead of a surprise.

  3. 3

    Add supplier data as it arrives

    Chasing producers for actual emission figures takes months. Replace default values as the data comes in and the cost drops accordingly.

  4. 4

    Export the declaration

    Quarterly reports and the annual declaration come out in the formats the EU asks for, including the official XML schema.

Want to know what it will cost before you commit to anything? Read how a CBAM bill is built up.

See it on your own imports

In a demo we book a few of your real imports and show you what your CBAM year looks like.

Request a demo