How To Calculate Landed Costs Using Cleartools

Learn how to use the Cleartools platform to accurately calculate landed costs for international shipments. This guide walks you through product classification, duty estimation, and the final confirmation process to help you manage your import expenses efficiently.

ClearTools
35 steps
3 minutes

Cleartools

Let's start in your account dashboard.

Click "Open tool" under ClearShip, or alternatively click ClearShip in the top navigation bar.

Start by entering your product in the "Product Description" box - we're going to use a generic example here to demonstrate that being as specific as possible is better.

We'll enter "machine parts" and click "Look up code" - this fires off a request to a gov.uk trade site to find the associated commodity code.

Here, ClearShip is telling us that the term 'machine parts' is too vague to accurately classify. So let's be more specific. In this example, we're going to sell a sewing machine.

Now we enter "sewing machine" in the Product Description, and hit the "Look up code" button again.

Now we get much more specific commodity codes. Select the code by clicking on it.

Enter your selling value into the "Product Value" box and the weight of the final shipment into the "Weight" box.

Now we enter the dimensions of the parcel - length, width and height.

Then select our destination country from the drop down list - we're selling to France.

Click "Calculate Landed Cost".

After just a second or two you'll get the calculation, a box explaining what it means, and a recommendation - this isn't just a calculator, it's a decision support tool.

You can then click through to get shipping quotes from our partner.

Let's try something else - you don't have to refresh the page, just type a new Product Description over what's already there.

Let's sell some fibre optics. Click the "Look up code" button as before.

Great, we've been more specific this time - select the commodity code from the list.

Again we'll enter the selling value, weight and parcel dimensions. This time we'll sell to Germany.

Click "Calculate Landed Cost"

The calculator has updated with the new values, new advice and a new recommendation.

These examples have been simple. Let's choose something we know attracts excise duty - Scotch.

Scotch whisky, the best in the world! Let's choose that.

Fill in the details again - Product Value, Weight, Dimensions and country - let's sell this Scotch to The Netherlands.

Click "Calculate Landed Cost"

ClearShip has added Dutch excise duty into the calculator automatically.

The advice has updated to reflect this.

Now we've done a few calculations, you can see we've built up a history at the bottom of the tool. Let's review this in more detail by clicking "View all".

This goes back to your account and the calculations we've put through ClearShip are there in the history. From here we can edit and confirm shipments to build up a history.

Click the "Confirm" button next to a shipment.

Clicking "Confirm shipment" confirms that shipment with the exact values.

Let's edit some values. Click the "Confirm" next to another shipment.

Here we can edit any fields to reflect actual costs vs the calculated costs. For example maybe shipping was more or less than calculated, or we ended up selling the product for a different price.

Click "Confirm shipment"

The confirmed shipment now shows a variance to the calculation. Click "Confirm" again on the last one to make more changes.

Using the history feature, you will build up a picture of all your shipments over time, and how they compared to the calculated amount. You can filter by tool, status, dates and also perform manual searches. This history will be held for 7 years in the tool, you can also download the data as a CSV to keep forever.

On your main account page you will also find dashboard analytics covering your use of the tool. Here you will see both ClearShip and ClearDuty together, and where possible you can filter between the two.

How To Calculate Landed Costs Using Cleartools

ClearTools
35 steps
3 minutes