Implementation of the Accounts Receivable Ledger (ARL)
Customs Notice 16-01

Ottawa,

1. This Customs Notice is to advise Trade Chain Partners (TCP) with Account Security (ASEC) for Release Prior to Payment (RPP) privileges that the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) will be implementing the Accounts Receivable Ledger (ARL) on . Important changes will need to be made in order to receive your new daily and monthly statements and associated remittance arrangements.

What is the Accounts Receivable Ledger?

2. ARL is the first phase of the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project. CARM is a large, multi-year transformational project that will help the Agency simplify and streamline the assessment and collection of revenue from importers and automate key business processes.

3. ARL is a fully integrated and centralized accounting system that will allow for off-setting of account credits against debits, as well as offer TCPs more comprehensive accounting statements and new electronic payment options.

Accounting Statements

4. With the implementation of ARL, the current *K84 – Importer/Broker Account Statements (K84s) will be replaced with electronic Daily Notices (DN) and Monthly Statement of Accounts (SOA), providing importers and customs brokers with additional transaction information in a comprehensive statement. The importer statements will be issued using the 15 digit business number (e.g., 123456789RM0000); the statements for customs brokers will be issued using the 9-digit business number (e.g., 123456789).

* Effective January 26, the K84s will be provided to TCPs for one full accounting period following the ARL implementation date for information purposes only.

5. Importers and customs brokers with ASEC will no longer be required to designate a specific CBSA office as a Central Accounting Office in order to obtain their accounting statements.

6. Importers and customs brokers who have registered with the CBSA will be able to receive DNs and monthly SOAs electronically. For additional information on how to register to receive electronic ARL statements, please contact the CBSA's Technical Commercial Client Unit (TCCU) at: tccu-ustcc@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.

7. Clients will be able to receive statements through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and therefore, the CBSA will not be batch printing the new DNs and SOAs. TCPs requiring a paper copy will be able to make a request in person at a CBSA office that offers this service (see the Appendix for the list of offices).

8. The new DNs will be electronically produced daily, unless there has been no activity for that day, and will include transaction details relating to accounting documents such as the Form B3, B2-1 Detailed Adjustment Statements, K32 Drawback, *Notice of Penalty Assessment (NPA), *K9 Ascertained Forfeiture, K23 Miscellaneous Invoice, *Non-sufficient Funds (NSF) Fees and transactions currently under appeal.

*Importer DN only.

9. The new SOAs will now be consistently produced on the 25th day of the month, as opposed to the current monthly K84, which is generated on the second to last business day of the month. This new statement will include additional transaction details relating to accounting documents such as the Form B3, B2-1 Detailed Adjustment Statements, K32 Drawback, *NPA, *K9 Ascertained Forfeiture, K23 Miscellaneous Invoice, *NSF Fees and transactions currently under appeal.

*Importer SOA only.

Payments

10. With the introduction of ARL, the payment dates and the rules for the application of late payment penalties and interest charges do not change. All CBSA commercial offices will continue to accept payments, issue receipts and make deposits, within posted business hours.

11. Any payments, including interim payments, will be posted against the client's account, and will no longer need to be applied to a specific transaction or DN.

12. Unless specifically requested by the importer, the payment will be applied to unpaid transactions on the account using the CBSA's payment allocation rules.

13. With ARL implementation, the CBSA, in partnership with participating Canadian Financial Institutions, is introducing two electronic payment methods:

14. Payments will continue to be accepted in all CBSA offices; however, payment information will only be captured at ARL Payment Processing Sites (identified in the Appendix with an asterisk). Information on payments made at other CBSA sites will be recorded in ARL within a maximum of 5 business days.

Off-setting of Account Credits

15. In ARL, all refunds (i.e., credits) will automatically be applied to the client's account to reduce the balance owing.

16. Following the monthly release of the SOA, the CBSA will issue a cheque to TCPs for any residual credit appearing on the SOA as long as the credit amount is over a CBSA established threshold, or the account has been in a credit standing for a period of two consecutive months.

Payment Reconciliation Process

17. With the introduction of ARL, customs brokers will be required to submit a Reconciliation Exception Sheet (RES) with their monthly payment in order to reconcile any differences between the payment amount and their SOA total payable amount (e.g., short remittance). The RES, which replaces the Reconciliation Control Sheet, is not required when the broker payment and broker SOA reflect the same amount.

GST Direct Payment and Importer Direct Security

18. With ARL, the customs broker's SOA will only include broker transactions (i.e., where the customs broker is the importer) and the transactions that they have secured on behalf of their clients under their broker's ASEC. In cases where a B3 is filed by a customs broker on behalf of an importer who is a GST Direct Payment or Importer Direct Security client (i.e., where a G or I indicator has been included in field 6 of the B3), the amount owing will be shown on the custom broker's DN with the respective G or I indicator. These items will not be included in the daily summary row or in the total payable on the customs broker's SOA. It is expected that the importer will remit the amounts owing directly to the Agency.

Updated D-Memoranda

19. The CBSA is currently revising memoranda D17-1-5, Registration, Accounting and Payment for Commercial Goods and D17-2-1, Coding of Adjustment Request Forms, to reflect process changes resulting from the implementation of ARL. It is expected that these will be released in calendar year 2016.

Additional Information

20.  For more information regarding the implementation of ARL, visit the CARM page on the CBSA Web site, or within Canada, call the Border Information Service at 1-800-461-9999. From outside Canada call 204-983-3500 or 506-636-5064. Long distance charges will apply. Agents are available Monday to Friday (08:00 – 16:00 local time / except holidays). TTY is also available within Canada at: 1-866-335-3237.

Appendix – CBSA Offices Offering Printed ARL Statements

Atlantic Region

Quebec Region

Northern Ontario

Southern Ontario

Greater Toronto Region

Prairie Region

Pacific Region

*Denotes an ARL Payment Processing Site

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