As markets become increasingly more global and business structures more complex, the need for accuracy in handling the foreign trade needs of a business is gaining rapidly in importance. SAP’s R/3 Foreign Trade / Customs application (FT) provides the tools you need to compete effectively in today’s fast-paced market. It is designed to help you meet the rapidly changing foreign trade requirements of your business.

SAP’s R/3 Foreign Trade application enables you to:

• Manage import and export processes, integrating them efficiently into the supply chain
• Automatically identify licensing requirements for importing and exporting goods based on current regulations
• Simplify reporting with automatic procedures for creating, printing and submitting declarations
• Determine which of your products qualify for preference handling
• Provide an active interface for sending or retrieving data via internationally available EDI systems and other electronic media
• Update or change data in all relevant foreign trade documents at any time prior to the final goods issue. Even after you have posted the goods issue, you can still change data in the invoice.

The Foreign Trade/Customs (FT) application component is integrated with Materials Management for handling imports and with Sales and Distribution for exports. In the area of documentary payments, it is also integrated closely with the Financial Accounting application.

The following graphic illustrates where FT data is integrated into the R/3 environment:

The capabilities of the SAP Foreign Trade application are illustrated and described in each of the following component descriptions: