Opening a sheet
A sheet is opened when an item is physically in the office and not before. The first entry is field 01, the line reference, which is allocated from the next unused number in the register and never reissued; a sheet that is later suspended keeps its reference so that every document drawn from it stays attached. Nothing else on the sheet may be filled from a supplier’s own description, a photograph or a message. Where a figure is already known from elsewhere it is still taken again, and where the two disagree both are written down with the date of each.
The nine fields
| Field | Unit | Comes from | Signed by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Line reference | 6 characters | the register | whoever opens the sheet |
| 02 Description | free text, 200 characters | the item, in hand | whoever opens the sheet |
| 03 Country of origin | ISO 3166 two-letter | the marking on the item | the person with the item open |
| 04 Dimensions | mm, whole numbers | a reading | the person taking the reading |
| 05 Mass, net and gross | g, whole numbers | a reading | the person at the scale |
| 06 Packed volume | cm³, computed | fields 04 and the packed form | two signatures |
| 07 Hazard class | UN class, or NONE | a declaration on file | whoever holds the declaration |
| 08 Age restriction | years, or NONE | the restriction in force | whoever opens the sheet |
| 09 Conformity marking | verbatim from the item | the item, transcribed | the person with the item open |
Blanks, and why a blank is reportable
A sheet with any field blank cannot be signed off, and an unsigned sheet cannot be used to write listing copy.
That single rule is why the fields are set out in this order: the cheapest moment to discover that a declaration is missing is before anyone has written a description.
A blank field is a state the sheet reports, not an absence that passes quietly. Three of the nine may legitimately stand blank for a time: field 03 where the item carries no marking, field 06 until a packed form has been made up, and field 07 while a declaration is being obtained. In each case the reason is written in alongside and dated.
The distinction that matters is between blank and NONE. NONE is a positive entry — it asserts that the question was asked and answered — and it carries the same signature requirement as any figure. Blank asserts only that nobody has answered yet, and a reader who cannot tell the two apart will eventually treat one as the other.
Amendments
An entry is never overwritten. An amendment is a new line beneath the original, with the superseded figure left legible, the new figure, the date and the signature of whoever made the change. This matters most for fields 04 and 05, because a dimension or a mass that moves after a listing has gone live changes what the listing is stating; the snapshot taken at go-live is what shows the difference.
Closing a sheet
A sheet is closed when the line it describes is withdrawn. Closing does not delete anything: the fields, the amendments, the reading slip and the margin are kept together, and the reference remains allocated against them. Grades written after a return are appended to the margin of the closed sheet in the normal way, which is covered under the condition grades. What is held and for how long is set out in what is kept.