Document reading for customs declarations: the options
If your desk still types goods lines from supplier invoices and packing lists, there are several ways to stop. Here are the main ones, with what each vendor's own pages say, read on 12 October 2026.
From your work address, with the invoice and packing list as PDFs. In the first reply you accept the trial terms with one button; then that shipment is read, and the goods lines come back in the same thread, usually within 5 minutes. No reply within 10 minutes? Check your junk folder, or write to danil@freightparse.com. Free for 14 days, about 20 pages a day.
Rather accept the terms before you send anything? Use the button above. Or upload in your browser (read in the cloud), or ask a question first.
First, ask your own software
Some declaration software reads documents itself, or sells a module that does. If yours does, you may need nothing else, so ask your vendor before you buy anything. The rest of this page is for a desk whose software does not, or not well enough for its suppliers' paperwork.
Three kinds of tool
A reader for the goods lines, beside your software
It reads the invoice and packing list and gives you the goods lines as a file your declaration software imports. Your declarant does the rest as now. FreightParse is this kind.
An agent or platform that prepares the whole declaration
It reads the documents, proposes or decides the commodity code, checks the data and hands a prepared declaration to your software, often with much more work around it. Digicust and Logentic are this kind, each in its own way.
Declaration software that reads and files
It takes over the step in which you file: it reads the documents, checks them and files the declaration itself. SKAI is this kind.
Side by side
| Tool | Kind | Files the declaration | Price | Trying it | Where documents are read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreightParse | A reader for the goods lines | No | On the page: €0.35 a document, minimum €49 a month | 14 days free | Google's EU region |
| Digicust | A platform for the whole declaration | Yes, in Germany, Switzerland and the UK among others | Published: €5.00 a credit, yearly plans from €4,500 | A test account with 20 credits, no end date | EU-hosted |
| Logentic | An agent for forwarding and customs work | No, your declarant files | On request, after a 30-minute intake | The first 2 weeks free | Storage in the EU; computing for the AI models partly in the US |
| SKAI | Declaration software | Yes, directly with Dutch customs and HMRC | Not on the pages read | A 30-minute demo on your own documents | Azure West Europe |
Questions to ask any of them
- Where are our documents read, where are they kept, and for how long?
- Does every value show the page and the text it came from?
- Which import of our declaration software does it write, and has a desk with that software imported it?
- What does a month cost at our volume, and what does one declaration or one document include?
- Can we test it on one of our own shipments before we sign anything?
- Who answers when a value is wrong, and how?
Where your documents go
Read in Google's EU region, not used for training. A request flagged by Google's abuse checks may be kept up to 90 days, in the EU. FreightParse keeps no copy on its server. On the e-mail route, the e-mails are deleted from our mailbox within 30 days.
The data processing agreement comes with the trial. A desk that may not use any cloud can use the local reader instead: text PDFs only.
How this page was made
Every statement about Digicust, Logentic and SKAI comes from their own public pages, read on 12 October 2026, and each comparison page links them. Accuracy figures are left out: each vendor measures in its own way, on its own documents, so the numbers cannot be set side by side; FreightParse's own test is public (how it was tested). Prices and features change, so check the vendor's pages before you decide. FreightParse is not affiliated with any of them. If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to danil@freightparse.com and it will be corrected.
Try it on one shipment
Two fields and one click in an e-mail open the address for your desk. A shipment comes back in its thread, usually within 5 minutes.