You create reports based on your master data, which it is why it is important that all master data is completed before you start creating your first report.

• The calculated packaging quantities remain within your workspace and can only be seen by the users who are connected.
• Once you have your monthly sales figures you can generate the final report and submit the quantities to your collective scheme.
• “Product Versions” is a function used to create a snapshot of all directly and indirectly linked packaging master data at a given time. Read more about Product versions at the bottom of the guide.

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Before creating a report? make sure you have

• Added GTINs to all relevant products.
• Linked all products to a packaging unit. And if applicable, also to a packaging system. Remember that products are linked indirectly to packaging systems when a linked unit is placed within a packaging system.
• Checked that all packaging units only have active components and inactive components have been removed.
• Defined main components and/or integrated components.
• Completed packaging classification - including environmental grading for all components. If there is missing data it will stop the report calculation.
• Checked packaging systems with correct quantities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

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1. How to form a report

1. Go to “Reports” in the main menu
2. Click Create new report
3. Select period
4. (Optional) Add a note
5. Click Create report
6. Next, you'll see a list of reports presented with Report Name, Note, Report ID (this is auto-generated), and the user who created the report.
7. Click on a report to view details, edit, and add products. The top of the report shows the last modification date and the user who made the change.

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2. Add Products to the Report

To select products for the report, you have two options:

• “Select products manually”. Search by GTIN, Product ID, Product name, etc.
• “Use all active products”. All active products are added; and then you can remove all irrelevant products.

To add more products to the report - click Add line.

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3. Select packaging

For each product, you must ensure that:

• you report on the correct product version, packaging unit and, if applicable, packaging system.
• indicate whether the packaging units end up in household or commercial waste streams.
• indicate whether there are parts of the packaging system that fall outside your producer responsibility.

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How to do this for each product - step by step:

1. ‍Select the product version to be used for reporting. If a product version does not already exist, you can create one here. Otherwise, select from the dropdown list of applicable product versions.
2. ‍Select the packaging unit, which corresponds to the sales volume you are reporting on. For example, if you report on a base unit chose the consumer packaging. If you report on a case, select the case packaging.
3. ‍Specify packaging system (if applicable). If the product is sold in a packaging system, please specify it here. If the product is linked to multiple packaging systems, select the correct one in the dropdown list.
4. ‍Specify household or commercial for the packaging unit(s).
5. ‍Specify producer responsibility. By default, you are listed as responsible, but you can select “not liable” if you are using generic packaging that should not be included in the calculation.

If you see any warning icons (red triangle) to the left of a product in the overview, hover over the icon to get a description of the issue.

It might mean that one or more components in the selected packaging unit lack packaging classification. Return to Packaging Master Data and finalize the incomplete components.

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How to report on latest data

The system makes you aware of products that require the creation of new product versions.

If you see an upward arrow (↑) to the right of one or more product lines, it is because changes have occurred since the last saved product version or because the latest version has not been selected in the “Packaging” settings.

• For a single product, click on the upward arrow (↑) and a new version will be created that will automatically be used for reporting.
• For multiple‍ products, you can instead click the text “Apply a new version to all products (X items)“. This will update all lines at once to the latest version.

This product version will appear with the name “Autocreated” unless you have changed the name of the product version under “Sharing settings” on individual products.

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4. Enter sales volume

Once you have selected the packaging for your products, you are ready to enter your sales volumes for the products for that period.

It is currently only possible to enter sales volumes manually - we are working to ensure that they can be uploaded to the system.

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View your Calculated Packaging Quantities

You can see your calculated packaging quantities by activating Show preview in the upper left corner of the report.

The first page of the report provides an overview of total packaging quantities divided by:

• Household and commercial.
• Waste type, material category and environmental grading.

The other tabs show packaging quantities for:

• Disposable packaging
• Reusable packaging
• Single-Use Plastic Products (SUP)
• Non-liable / Not covered.

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Previous reports cannot be edited. If an incorrect sales volume was entered, adjust it in a new report using negative quantities.

Reports can't be deleted or marked as inactive. You can use the Note field for internal communication in these cases.

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What Are Product Versions in GS1Trade Packaging?

A product version is a snapshot of all directly and indirectly linked packaging master data at a specific point in time.

The function caters to two important business needs:

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There are different packaging variants of the same product

If you have a product under the same product ID, where there are slight variations in the packaging in your inventory, then you can create Version 1 for Variation 1 and Version 2 for Variant 2.
Example: Version 1 has only a label on the front. Version 2 has labels on both front and back. This enables you to report both variants as marketed quantities for the same period.


For the calculation of marketed quantities
When you are calculating marketed quantities based on products sold, these are based on a product's directly and indirectly linked packaging master data.
The same data can be updated at the same time by both you and your colleagues. Therefore a product version provides a “fixed” basis for the calculation.

When updating packaging master data that should be included in report calculations, you must create a new product version to capture the updated data.

Therefore, as part of the reporting, you must define which product version the calculation will use.

Example: If a component linked to Product Version A changes weight from 10 g to 10.5 g, you must create Product Version B to include that 0.5 g change in the marketed quantity for that product.