EMCS is coming...

EMCS (Excise Movement and Control System) will link traders in 27 administrations across the EU. It is has been a long time coming and now we are looking it squarely in the face.

The Different Stages

FS0 took effect in April this year (April 2010) and was the first of three planned stages. It stipulated that ‘as a minimum, all Member States are required to handle the destination site of electronic movements, enabling the electronic discharge of the movement by report of receipt’ (taken from the HMRC Website).

FS1 is planned to take effect from 31st December 2010 and moves the system on to handle both electronic submissions and discharges.

FS2 is planned for July 2011 and is when the rest of the FESS requirements are due to be met.

Do you need to Worry about it?

If you receive goods under bond or transfer goods from one location to another you need to be aware of the requirements. In truth you should already know about it as there would have been a change after April this year.

We have been speaking to more and more warehouses (both 3PL and Own Warehouse) operators that have real concerns about their current systems being able to cope with the change.

What’s the Worry?

It is probably fair to say that if you are buying a shiny new warehouse management system then it will (or should) have EMCS cover... however if you don’t then you may have a system that works perfectly for you right now but that doesn’t cut the mustard with respect to EMCS.

Ah, the Solution

At Ontech Solutions we have a WMS system that we have built; its a great system and one of the reasons it is so good is that it is modular. When we set out on the development path we wanted to be as flexible as we could be.

As such you could take our warehouse tool but use another distribution tool or, and this is the fun bit, have your own warehouse tool but take Vision Bond and let it work with your current systems to allow you to comply and work efficiently.

If you have any thoughts about your systems and meeting the EMCS requirements give us a call, we are happy to chat and may be able to offer a solution that simply works.