In 2022, the UK customs administration (HMRC) will replace the old CHIEF customs system with the new CDS system.
- What will change with the switch from CHIEF to CDS?
- Overview 5 stages
- AEB’s migration plan
- Migration tasks for you as a company
- Book your start week now
- Optional Services which can be ordered
- Which steps should you be taking now
What will change with the switch from CHIEF to CDS?
Overview 5 stages
The following chart is showing the 5 stages AEB is planing to go through, to make your switch of UK customs system from CHIEF to CDS successful:
AEB’s migration plan
AEB is currently preparing the deployment of the updated application as well as the switch to the new system. Firstly we will migrate our customers using the AEB UK Import ICI solution as the deadline for migrating UK Imports to CDS is 30th September 2022. AEB already has customers filing import declarations via CDS. Please see below for information on the migration to CDS and the actions you need to take.
Once AEB has completed the technical set up to CDS you will be able to carry out the following steps independently using the migration guide provided by AEB.
- Make the necessary changes in the API (if applicable for your solution)
- Check and adapt your templates.
It is also strongly recommended that you take the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the differences between CHIEF and CDS in the processes and data requirements, remembering that AEB is not able to provide customs consultancy services.
Your AEB ICI system is already optimized to support CDS and will not require changes to your API structure or core solution. However the CDS data structure is different to that of CHIEF so you may need to provide additional and/ or different data in the existing API you have developed. Your templates are also likely to need to be amended for the same reason.
AEB will support with this migration by changing your system configuration to enable you to test against CDS. We will also provide a user guide, and a migration guide in due time as part of the agreed terms of use and at the time we are ready to migrate you.
Migration tasks for you as a company using AEB’s Customs Management application
CDS is different to CHIEF in its data structure and status messaging, and CDS data requirements differ from those that you may be familiar with in CHIEF. As a result, you need to prepare for changing the data you enter or for making modifications to your templates within ICI.
The change-over will involve some commitment and time from yourself in order to understand and test the move from CHIEF to CDS declarations. We expect the elapsed time to be around 6 weeks from start of migration to productive use – including testing.
To prepare for this, it is important that you take the following steps:
- Gain an understanding of the HMRC CDS for imports requirements and changes compared to CHIEF. The above listed links will provide more details from HMRC about this.
Please review and, as applicable, seek external CDS knowledge training. We recommend you undertake this step urgently. - Plan for a period of testing your ICI solution with links to CDS. HMRC is looking to see that customers have performed appropriate tests successfully before moving systems linked to CDS into production. If your processes are complex and/or you declare a variety of procedures or product types, it may be worth starting to collate a list of these for testing purposes.
- If you are integrating to AEB ICI via API, prepare for possible modifications to the data you are sending in line with changed requirements for CDS.
- Plan for some downtime in your production environment during the migration (up to ½ a day) for cutover from ICI with CHIEF to ICI with CDS. This may include managing your imports accordingly to cater for this downtime once you are in a position to go live with ICI with CDS.
Book your start week now
Once you have a plan for the above points, please follow the link below and complete the form to select your preferred week to start the migration work.
Please note: at this time this is only for migration of CHIEF Import to CDS Import. If you are using CHIEF Export only, please do not select a start week at this time and await further updates to this article. It is expected that we will start CDS Export migrations in Q4 2022.
We have a limit on the numbers we can start each week. We will do our best to accommodate the week you select, but we may need to communicate with you if we are oversubscribed in certain weeks. We strongly recommend starting as soon as you can. After we have received your submitted form and selection, we will plan the next steps and get back to you with further information about your migration plan.
Optional Services which can be ordered
We offer you the option of ordering AEB services to support with your migration. We will be happy to provide you with a corresponding quotation upon request as from March 2022.
You can choose between training (about templates and template selectors with a short introduction of what will change with the system switch), stand-by or a small migration project with AEB.
Which steps should you be taking now
- Follow our advises on Migration tasks for you as a company using AEB’s Customs Management application
- Select your start week
- Organise/ book any CDS training you need and start to consider what additional data you may need for your declarations.
- Subscribe to this Help Center article using the follow button on top of this article. As soon as further information on technical changes becomes available, you as the subscriber will be informed about what’s new by email. A one-time registration is required for this.
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