CBAM Declaration Software: Generate a Submission-Ready PDF in 5 Minutes

Short version.Most CBAM declaration software starts at €5,000 a year on annual contracts. For most importers and brokers that's an absurd commitment for what they actually need: a tamper-evident PDF per shipment that any customs broker can hand to a CBAM declarant for filing. Our flow does this in five minutes per report, pay-as-you-go, with no signup or contract for one-off purchases. Step-by-step walkthrough below.

What goes into a “declaration-ready” PDF

The EU CBAM Registry doesn't accept PDFs directly — declarations are submitted via the Registry portal by an authorised declarant. But every field the Registry asks for is reproduced inside the PDF, in machine-readable form, so the declarant types nothing twice:

1. Declarant identity— name, EORI, address.
2. Installation— producer name, address, UN/LOCODE.
3. Reporting period— from/to dates of the import.
4. Sector + CN code— the 8-digit classification driving the methodology.
5. Origin country + tonnage.
6. Direct + indirect embedded emissions (tCO₂e per tonne, total tCO₂e), with the EU source for each value.
7. Production route per Reg 2025/2620 §5.3 (e.g. (C) Carbon Steel BF/BOF for steel CN 72081000 from Turkey).
8. Free-allocation deduction + certificate price for the period + optional origin-carbon credit.
9. Net CBAM cost in EUR, the headline number.

Every value above is cited to a specific EU regulation in the PDF's appendix. No magic numbers, no “trust us” claims.

Step-by-step: calculator → PDF

1. Open the calculator at /cbam/calculator. Enter CN code, origin country, tonnage. The cost number lands in under a second.
2. (Optional) Open the Advanced stage— paste verified intensity from your supplier, the origin country's carbon price if applicable, and the import date.
3. Open the Submission stage— fill in declarant name, EORI, address, installation name, UN/LOCODE, verifier (if used), reporting period.
4. Email + checkout— the buy button on the right shows the matched PAYG tier price (Checkout — €49 / €149 / €399 / €899). LemonSqueezy handles payment; link to the rendered PDF arrives in your inbox within seconds of payment clearing.
5. Hand off— the PDF is email-shareable, byte-stable, and re-downloadable from the link in your inbox for the full 7-year EU retention window.

Tamper-evidence: content hash + QR verification

A PDF that anyone can edit isn't worth much for an audit trail. Two layers protect against forgery:

1. Content hash

Every page carries a SHA-256 hash of the calculation snapshot in the footer. The hash is computed over the inputs JSON (CN, origin, tonnage, intensities, certificate price, etc.) plus the production-route catalog version. Changing any value changes the hash. The hash is also stored on our server at generation time, so a verifier can confirm the PDF they received matches the one we issued.

2. QR verification

Every PDF carries a small QR code in the footer that encodes a URL like https://customs-invoice.com/verify/<report-id>. Scanning lands on a public page that asks for the issue date shown on the document — a one-input challenge that only someone holding the actual PDF can answer correctly. On match, the verifier sees a confirmation panel with the report metadata + a re-download link to the original bytes. On mismatch, “verification failed” with rate-limited retry (10 attempts/hour per IP).

Together: a forger would need to (1) reproduce a valid report-ID UUID, (2) match the issue date the holder of the real PDF would type, AND (3) produce a PDF whose content hash matches our server-stored value. Practically infeasible.

The 7 sectors covered

• Cement (HS Chapter 25)
• Iron and steel (HS Chapters 72–73)
• Aluminium (HS Chapter 76)
• Fertilisers (HS Chapter 31)
• Electricity (HS Chapter 27)
• Hydrogen (HS Chapter 28)
• Selected downstream products incorporating CBAM-scope inputs

Each sector has its own EU production-route catalog (Reg 2025/2620 §5.3). The calculator surfaces the right route picker once you enter CN + origin — you don't need to know whether your steel is BF/BOF or EAF up-front.

Verified intensity flow

When your supplier has a verified emissions report (Column A data per Reg 2025/2547 §3), entering the verified intensity on the Advanced stage replaces the EU default in the calculation. The PDF cites both the verified value and the EU default for transparency, with the verifier's accreditation number captured on the Submission stage.

For brokers acting as Indirect Customs Representatives across multiple importer-clients, see our ICR workflow guide.

FAQ

Sources

• Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2547 — declaration format + embedded-emissions methodology.
• Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2620 — production-route catalog (§5.3).
• Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2548 — certificate-price publication methodology.