Keep your stock account reconciled to CDS — and your HMRC authorisation safe.
For bonded and customs warehouse operators. Consyn keeps your warehouse stock account continuously reconciled against your CDS declarations and physical stock, flags every break before HMRC does, codes your removals correctly, and assembles the audit pack your supervising office expects — so the duty and VAT suspended in your warehouse never becomes your problem.
The problem we solve.
If you operate a customs or bonded warehouse, the authorisation is yours — and so is the liability. The pain is everything that happens between receipt and removal.
Your stock account has to match your CDS declarations exactly, all the time
Today that reconciliation is manual, line by line, across spreadsheets and systems that don't talk to each other.
You hold other people's goods, but you carry the audit risk
If a depositor's stock can't be accounted for, the suspended duty and VAT can land on you.
There's no deadline to force a clean-up
Goods can sit indefinitely, so discrepancies accumulate quietly until an HMRC audit surfaces them all at once.
Removals have to be coded right and sequenced right
Goods can't leave until HMRC release is evidenced and the entry is in the stock account; the date of acceptance — not the day goods move — sets the duty rate. Miscode or mis-sequence and you've created a duty point.
Multi-depositor traceability is hard
In a public warehouse a depositor or their agent may run their own EIDR records while you keep the stock account — split records that still have to reconcile to each other and to CDS.
Preference is won or lost at intake
A preferential rate on removal to free circulation depends on the proof of origin being noted in the stock record on receipt — miss it then, lose it later.
HMRC audits test the stock account against declarations and physical stock
Assembling that evidence pack by hand is slow and error-prone.
How it works.
Three steps, one workflow — sitting on top of the stock data and CDS declarations you already produce. Consyn reconciles and assures; it doesn't have to replace your WMS.
Post every receipt and removal, matched to its declaration
Each receipt is recorded against entry to the warehouse (procedure 7100) with its DUCR and MRN; each removal is tied to the CDS declaration that discharges it. The audit trail builds as goods move.
Reconcile continuously — physical stock ↔ stock account ↔ CDS
Consyn matches all three on an ongoing basis and surfaces every break: stock with no matching declaration, declarations with no matching stock, quantity and value variances, and depositor goods not yet tied to an MRN.
Code removals correctly and produce the audit pack
Removals are coded to the right procedure with the correct duty rate at date of acceptance and any preference carried through from intake. The reconciled stock account plus evidence is assembled the way an HMRC warehouse audit expects.
2 breaks surfaced — declarations with no matching stock and a stock-account vs CDS variance.
What Consyn handles.
Receipts into the warehouse
Entry under procedure 7100, recorded against the depositor with DUCR and MRN, proof of origin captured at intake for later preference claims, and customs status tracked (UK / non-UK goods).
The stock account itself
A continuously reconciled account that is the heart of the authorisation — matched to declarations and physical stock, with usual forms of handling (sorting, repacking, preserving) logged, and any resulting reclassification recorded.
Removals, correctly coded
Each removal carries the right additional procedure codes (DE 1/11), supervising office (DE 5/27), and the duty rate fixed at date of acceptance — with the rule that goods don't move until HMRC release is evidenced and the stock account is updated.
Multi-depositor model
Public and private warehouse handling, segregated traceability per depositor, and reconciliation across the split where a depositor or third-party agent keeps their own EIDR records while you hold the stock account.
Audit pack
The reconciled stock account plus supporting evidence — declarations, MRNs, origin proofs, removal records — assembled on demand for your supervising office or an HMRC audit. This is the thing you build by hand today.
Excise & bonded goods
For operators holding excise approvalsFor excise warehouses (Excise Notice 197, WOWGR): entry under procedure 0700, EMCS movement tracking (e-AD / ARC raised, receipted and discharged), excise movement guarantee status, the Goods Departure Message that releases liability on export, W5/W6 deferment returns, duty-stamp tracking, and Climate Change Levy relief where it applies. Consyn flags an EMCS movement that hasn't been receipted before it becomes a duty point — including where a broken movement can pull in the forwarder or haulier.
Integrations.
Consyn takes the inputs you already have and reads the systems you already run — periodic extracts are enough, no live rip-and-replace required.
WMS & inventory systems, ERP master data, CDS import and export declarations, HMRC MSS records, and inventory-linked port locations — connected by email, web upload, API or direct sync.
The authorisations behind it.
Consyn holds your warehouse authorisation and the goods under it as one registry, and enforces it on every movement.
- Customs warehouse authorisationPublic or private, with its conditions and supervising office.
- Excise warehouse approvalsWOWGR, where excise goods are held.
- Depositors and their goodsSegregated, each tied to the correct customs status and declarations.
- GuaranteesCustoms Comprehensive Guarantee (CCG) and excise movement guarantees, with status and headroom.
- Linked authorisationsSCDP / EIDR for simplified removals, transfers into IP, deferment account (DAN).
Expiry, review dates and guarantee headroom are monitored and flagged before they bite; nothing files against an expired or out-of-scope authorisation.
Frequently asked questions.
- How long can goods stay in a customs warehouse?
- Indefinitely — customs warehousing has no period for discharge. The procedure is discharged item by item when goods are removed to another procedure (free circulation, re-export, transfer) or destroyed, with evidence of discharge held. Because there's no deadline forcing a reconciliation, the risk is discrepancies building up unnoticed — which is exactly what continuous reconciliation prevents.
- Is there a bill of discharge for customs warehousing?
- No. Unlike inward processing, there's no BOD3 and no throughput period. The obligation is a stock account that reconciles to your declarations at all times, with each removal discharged individually. The stock account is the discharge record.
- Am I liable for my depositors' duty?
- As the authorisation holder and warehousekeeper, you carry responsibility for the goods under your authorisation. If stock can't be accounted for against declarations, the suspended duty and VAT can become payable — which is why a reconciled stock account and clean depositor traceability are your protection.
- What happens in an HMRC warehouse audit?
- HMRC test your stock account against your CDS declarations and your physical stock, and check that removals were correctly coded and evidenced. Consyn keeps that reconciliation current and assembles the evidence pack on demand, so an audit is a download rather than a fire drill.
- What's the difference between a customs warehouse and an excise (bonded) warehouse?
- A customs warehouse suspends import duty and VAT on non-UK goods (entry 7100). An excise warehouse stores excise goods in free circulation with excise duty and VAT suspended (entry 0700), and movements run through EMCS under Excise Notice 197 and WOWGR. Many bonded operators hold both — Consyn covers customs warehousing in full and the excise layer where you're approved for it.
- Do I have to replace my WMS?
- No. Consyn reconciles from your existing stock data and CDS/MSS extracts and produces the audit pack above whatever you run. It's an assurance layer, not a new system of record.
Know exactly what's suspended in your warehouse — and that it reconciles.
Keep your stock account continuously reconciled to CDS, flag every break before HMRC does, and assemble the audit pack on demand.