Proforma invoice PI-2026-0417
Proforma invoice
A container of rattan furniture quoted from Melbourne to Singapore, written so the buyer can open a letter of credit and lodge an advance customs entry before anything is loaded.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Exporter letterhead
- Trading name, ABN, address and the export contact, because the bank matches these against the letter of credit application.
- Not a tax invoice notice
- States in one box that no amount is payable and no input tax credit arises, so accounts payable does not process it.
- Issued, valid until, Incoterms, total
- The four facts a buyer checks first, including the delivery term the price assumes and the date the price stops holding.
- Seller and consignee
- Full legal names, addresses, ABN and UEN, plus the named purchasing contact who will chase the shipment.
- Goods with HS codes
- Description, tariff code, quantity, unit price and amount per line, worded the same way they will appear on the commercial invoice.
- Value, freight and insurance
- Goods at FOB, then ocean freight and marine insurance at 110 percent of value, building to the CFR total.
- Shipment facts
- Country of origin, load and discharge ports, estimated sailing, container and pallet count, gross and net weight.
- Deposit and bank details
- Thirty percent to start production, the balance against a scanned bill of lading, with the SWIFT details and the reference to quote.
- Terms of the quotation
- Price validity, the lead time clock starting at cleared funds, a two percent quantity tolerance and what happens if the order is cancelled.
- Documents that travel with the goods
- Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin and fumigation certificate, each with how many originals and why it matters.
- Declaration and signature
- A signed certification that the particulars are true and the prices are the ones that will be invoiced.
What makes this document work
It says what it is not
The notice sits above the numbers: nothing is payable on this document and no input tax credit can be claimed from it. That single box stops a proforma being filed as a bill and paid twice.
Customs can read it without asking
Every line carries its HS code, and origin, ports, packing, gross and net weight are all on the page. That is the set of facts an advance clearance entry asks for.
Freight is priced apart from the goods
Goods are shown at FOB Melbourne, then ocean freight and marine insurance as their own lines up to the CFR Singapore total. Changing the Incoterm changes one line, not the whole quotation.
Questions people ask
What is a proforma invoice used for?
It is a committed quotation in invoice form. The buyer uses it to open a letter of credit, arrange an import permit and lodge an advance customs entry, all of which have to happen before the goods move.
Is a proforma invoice legally binding?
It binds the seller to the prices for the validity period shown, thirty days in this example, but it does not create a debt. The invoice issued once the goods ship does that. The notice at the top calls it the tax invoice that follows, and the shipping papers list it as the commercial invoice, the same document under its export name.
Does a proforma invoice show GST?
Not here. An export sale like this one is GST free and is priced in United States dollars. A proforma for a domestic sale would show the GST the eventual tax invoice will carry, and say so.
How is it different from a quotation?
A quotation prices the work. A proforma also carries the facts a shipment needs: consignee, HS codes, Incoterms, ports, packing and weights, laid out in the order a bank and a customs broker read them.
Why does the proforma list HS codes?
Because customs classification decides the duty and it is the exporter who has to declare it. This document carries the code against each line of goods, beside the description and value. Getting it onto the proforma means the buyer broker can check the classification before the shipment is booked rather than at the border.
What documents travel with the goods?
The proforma names them in its own section, so the buyer knows what will arrive and what they must present. On this shipment that covers the packing list, the bill of lading and the certificate of origin. Listing them up front is what stops a container clearing customs slowly because one certificate was never requested.
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Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .