Skip to Content
ConfigurationSurety Settings

Surety Settings

The Surety Settings tab allows you to monitor your customs surety balance and configure automated alerts when your balance approaches critical levels.

What is Customs Surety?

Customs surety (also known as customs guarantee or “douanekrediet” in Dutch) is a financial guarantee required by customs authorities to secure potential duties and taxes on imported goods.

Key Concepts:

  • Surety Limit: The total guarantee amount approved by customs (in EUR)
  • Surety Balance: The current amount of surety “locked” by active declarations
  • Available Balance: The remaining surety capacity (Limit - Balance)

When you submit an import declaration, the estimated duties and taxes are deducted from your available surety balance. Once goods are released and duties are paid, the surety is freed up again.

Surety Balance Monitoring

Surety Limit

The total surety guarantee amount approved by customs authorities.

Configuration:

  • Enter the amount in EUR (e.g., 500000 for €500,000)
  • This value should match your official customs authorization
  • Consult your customs authorization letter for the exact amount

Important: This field is for monitoring only. Borderbolt does not communicate surety limits to customs - it tracks your usage to help prevent over-utilization.

Warning Threshold

The percentage of surety utilization that triggers a warning notification.

Default: 70%

Example:

  • Surety limit: €500,000
  • Warning threshold: 70%
  • Warning triggers when balance reaches: €350,000

Best Practice: Set warning threshold with enough buffer to take action before reaching critical levels (typically 60-75%).

Critical Threshold

The percentage of surety utilization that triggers a critical alert.

Default: 90%

Example:

  • Surety limit: €500,000
  • Critical threshold: 90%
  • Critical alert triggers when balance reaches: €450,000

Best Practice: Set critical threshold to allow emergency actions before hitting 100% (typically 85-95%).

Surety Notifications

Enable Notifications

Toggle to enable or disable automated surety balance notifications.

When Enabled:

  • System monitors surety balance after each declaration submission
  • Email alerts sent when warning threshold is crossed
  • Critical alerts sent when critical threshold is crossed
  • Notifications sent to users with appropriate permissions

Notification Recipients:

  • Admin role
  • Manager role
  • Users with “Surety Notifications” permission
  • Organization billing contacts

Notification Timing

Notifications are sent:

  • When a declaration submission crosses a threshold
  • Daily summary if balance remains above threshold
  • Immediately when critical threshold is reached

Critical Alert: When surety balance exceeds the critical threshold, consider:

  • Expediting duty payments on released declarations
  • Delaying non-urgent declaration submissions
  • Requesting a surety limit increase from customs
  • Contacting your customs broker for guidance

Per-Declarant Surety

While company-wide surety settings are configured on this page, per-declarant surety and DVA (Deferred VAT Accounting) settings are now managed on the Customer page for customers with is_declarant=true.

Where to Configure Per-Declarant Surety

  1. Navigate to Customers
  2. Select a customer that is marked as a declarant (is_declarant=true)
  3. In the customer details, find the Surety & DVA Settings section
  4. Configure declarant-specific settings:
    • Declarant surety limit
    • DVA guarantee amount
    • Declarant-specific thresholds

Design Note: Declarant-specific settings were moved to the Customer page to consolidate all declarant-related configuration in one location. This aligns with the principle that declarants are a specialized type of customer.

Understanding Surety Balance

How Balance is Calculated

Current Balance = Sum of all active declaration duties
Available Balance = Surety Limit - Current Balance
Utilization % = (Current Balance / Surety Limit) × 100

What Affects Balance

Balance Increases When:

  • New import declarations are submitted
  • Declarations with higher duty estimates are processed
  • Amendments increase duty amounts

Balance Decreases When:

  • Duties and taxes are paid (declaration cleared)
  • Declarations are released by customs
  • Declarations are cancelled or rejected

Real-Time Monitoring

Borderbolt updates surety balance in real-time:

  • After each declaration submission
  • Upon receiving customs release notifications
  • When duty payments are recorded
  • During daily balance reconciliation

Best Practices

Threshold Configuration

Conservative Approach (Recommended):

  • Warning: 60%
  • Critical: 80%
  • Provides ample time to resolve balance issues

Standard Approach:

  • Warning: 70%
  • Critical: 90%
  • Balances alert fatigue with safety

Aggressive Approach (Not Recommended):

  • Warning: 80%
  • Critical: 95%
  • High risk of hitting limits

Surety Management

  1. Monitor Regularly: Check surety dashboard at least weekly
  2. Expedite Payments: Pay duties promptly to free up surety
  3. Plan Submissions: Schedule large shipments when balance is low
  4. Maintain Buffer: Keep at least 20% available for emergencies
  5. Review Limit: Request increases if consistently near threshold

Multi-Declarant Scenarios

If you operate with multiple declarants:

  • Set company-wide limit to the sum of all declarant limits
  • Configure per-declarant limits on Customer pages
  • Monitor both aggregate and per-declarant balances
  • Consider separate thresholds for high-volume declarants

Updating Settings

  1. Navigate to Settings → Surety Settings
  2. Update the desired fields:
    • Surety limit (EUR)
    • Warning threshold (%)
    • Critical threshold (%)
  3. Toggle notifications on/off
  4. Changes save automatically on blur

Permissions

To edit surety settings, users must have the Settings permission. This is typically assigned to:

  • Admin role
  • Manager role

To receive surety notifications, users must have:

  • Surety Notifications permission, or
  • Admin/Manager role

Troubleshooting

Notifications Not Received

Problem: Surety threshold crossed but no notification sent.

Solutions:

  • Verify “Surety Notifications Enabled” is toggled on
  • Check user has appropriate permissions for notifications
  • Confirm email settings are configured correctly
  • Contact your Borderbolt administrator to check system logs

Balance Doesn’t Match Customs

Problem: Borderbolt surety balance differs from the actual customs balance.

Solutions:

  • Borderbolt tracks estimated duties; customs tracks actual secured amounts
  • Run daily reconciliation to sync with customs data
  • Check for pending declarations not yet accepted by customs
  • Verify all release notifications are processed

Threshold Alerts Too Frequent

Problem: Receiving too many surety warning emails.

Solutions:

  • Increase warning threshold percentage
  • Increase surety limit if consistently near capacity
  • Expedite duty payments to free up balance
  • Consider disabling daily summary emails
Last updated on
Customs SettingsBilling Settings