The 10-step shape
Every GB to Northern Ireland movement follows roughly the same sequence:
- Confirm the route (GB to NI)
- Gather goods detail: commodity code, description, quantity, weight, value, origin
- Establish at-risk status (may the goods move on into the EU?)
- Check whether UKIMS or another simplification applies
- Work out which declarations the movement needs
- Enter the information into TSS
- TSS submits to the relevant systems
- Complete any movement reference the carrier needs at the port
- Customs and safety & security processing take place
- Goods travel and arrive ## Where teams get stuck
Steps 2 and 3 cause the most delay in practice. Commodity code errors at step 2 cascade into every later step, while getting at-risk status wrong at step 3 affects the duty position for the whole movement. Resolve both before step 6.
Full walkthrough: TSS for GB to NI movements
At risk vs not at risk
Goods that may go on to the EU are treated as at risk. Goods meeting the relevant conditions can be treated as not at risk, most relevantly, goods authorised under UKIMS moving in for sale or final use in Northern Ireland.
Building a repeatable process
Once a business has run this workflow a handful of times, the pattern becomes routine. The Trader Goods Profile helps here: it pre-populates commodity data for goods you move regularly, so step 2 becomes a lookup rather than a re-entry exercise.
