TRACES tutorial · Manual submission

How do you submit an EUDR DDS in TRACES?

Start with the responsible operator, add the goods and their production locations, save a draft, then review the declaration before submitting. After submission, check the statement’s status and retrieve its reference number when the system issues it.

This walkthrough follows a fictional wood example through the EUDR Information System’s acceptance environment. It is for an operator preparing a Due Diligence Statement (DDS), not a simplified declaration (SD). Confirm which obligations apply to your business before choosing the form.

Before you open the form

EUDR acceptance sign-in page with Log in button and a warning that the environment cannot submit official DDS. — The acceptance sign-in page. Check the environment banner before continuing. Select the image to inspect it full-size.

Have the operator’s details, product description, classification, quantity, species information where applicable, and production locations ready. The DDS preparation worksheet helps organise these fields. It is a working document, not a file you upload to submit the statement.

You also need the evidence and conclusion supporting your due diligence assessment. Completing the form does not perform that assessment for you.

Use the Commission’s Information System page for official production and acceptance links. EU Login and access to the legal entity must be set up first; registration and system access are separate from this submission walkthrough.

The fictional example we used

Majumder Consultancy is a fictional operator registered in acceptance. For this exercise, it first places French-grown maritime pine logs on the EU market in the Netherlands. The product and plot values follow our worksheet example; the test account’s operator details differ.

Activity: Domestic; country of activity Netherlands
Internal reference: TUTORIAL-FICTIONAL-20260906
Product: Maritime pine logs, lot EXAMPLE-WOOD-01; heading 4403
Species and quantity: Pinus pinaster; Maritime pine; 1,000 kg net mass; 0% estimated deviation for this fictional example
Production: France; Example Forest Producer (fictional); EXAMPLE-PLOT-01
Plot: 2 hectares; longitude −0.900000, latitude 44.500000

These are synthetic tutorial values, not evidence about a real forest, shipment or supplier. Use your actual classification, measurements and verified locations for real goods.

1. Create a statement as the correct operator

Internal Reference Number prompt displayed after choosing As Operator to create an EUDR statement in acceptance. — After choosing As Operator, the form asks for your internal reference. The prompt explicitly distinguishes it from the system-issued DDS reference.

On the acceptance dashboard, open Create a new EUDR Statement and choose As Operator for this example. The menu also offers representative routes. Choose a route that reflects your authority; preparing a statement for another entity is not the same as acting as that entity.

The new form opens an optional Internal Reference Number prompt. Enter an identifier you can reconcile with your records, then confirm. In our test, it appeared in the statement title after the first save. It is not the DDS reference number issued by the system.

2. Check activity, operator and place of activity

New acceptance statement with Domestic selected, fictional operator Majumder Consultancy, and Netherlands selected as the country of activity. — Domestic activity and Netherlands selected for our fictional example. Country of production is entered separately with the goods.

The form initially selected Import. We changed it to Domestic, checked the fictional operator’s name and country, and selected Netherlands as the country of activity. Do not keep the default simply because it is already selected.

The country of activity and country of production answer different questions. Our goods are first placed on the market in the Netherlands, but the wood was grown in France. The import form displayed a country-of-entry field; that field disappeared when we selected Domestic.

In Additional Information, we labelled this record as a fictional acceptance-only tutorial. This label is for the exercise, not a replacement for any required statement fields.

3. Add the product and quantity

Acceptance HS-code selection dialog showing a search for 4403, the selected wood heading and the Done button. — The selected heading in our fictional example. Match the code to your actual goods, not to this screenshot.

Under Commodity(ies) or Product(s), select Add Commodity or Product. Search for 4403, select the checkbox for wood in the rough, and choose Done. The tested interface allowed the heading itself to be selected and also displayed more detailed codes beneath it. Confirm the classification of your actual product rather than copying ours.

Enter a description that identifies the goods and lot, then the net mass and applicable quantity details. We entered 1,000 kg and 0% estimated deviation. For the species, type Pinus pinaster, select the matching catalogue result and enter Maritime pine as the common name.

4. Enter the production location

Fictional French producer and two-hectare point with expanded Longitude minus 0.9 and Latitude 44.5 fields in EUDR acceptance. — Expanded coordinates for the synthetic two-hectare plot. The interface displays −0.9 and 44.5, numerically the same as −0.900000 and 44.500000.

Choose Add Production Place, enter the producer name and select France as the country of production. Use the point-pin control to add a point. Give the plot a description, enter its area, and open the eye control to view its coordinate fields.

In our test, the new point started at 4 hectares and coordinates 0,0. We replaced those defaults with 2 hectares, longitude −0.900000 and latitude 44.500000. Check the field labels: longitude and latitude must not be swapped.

This small wood plot illustrates point entry. Use the point-versus-polygon requirements for your own plots. For bulk location data, the interface provides an import control and the Commission documents GeoJSON support. You can check a GeoJSON file and inspect its locations on a map before import; passing those checks does not establish legal compliance.

5. Save and review the draft

Save DDS confirmation over the fictional wood example, with the two-hectare French production point and its longitude and latitude visible. — Saving the draft is a separate action from submitting the declaration. All displayed production values are fictional.

Choose Create draft, then confirm the Save DDS prompt. Our statement reopened with DRAFT status and the internal reference in its title. Its product, species, quantity and production-place details were retained.

Review the saved record against your source information. Check the operator, activity, goods, quantities, all relevant production plots and the due diligence conclusion. A saved draft is not a submitted statement.

Saved fictional acceptance statement showing Draft status, its internal reference in the title, and Save and Submit as separate actions. — Draft and confirmation screens were recaptured with a separate copy, TUTORIAL-FICTIONAL-20260907-CAPTURE, using the same fictional goods. That copy remains a draft; the original example supplies the Available result below.

6. Review the confirmation and submit

Submission Confirmation dialog with declaration text, checked geolocation-visibility option, acceptance-only disclaimer, and Confirm and Sign button. — The confirmation before signing. Read both the declaration and the geolocation-visibility choice. This capture was taken in acceptance, not production.

Choose Submit to open the confirmation. Read the declaration before selecting Confirm & Sign. In production, this is the operator’s confirmation about the due diligence carried out and the risk conclusion, not merely a technical form check.

Our confirmation also displayed a checked geolocation-visibility option for when another DDS references this statement. Review that choice deliberately instead of overlooking it. The acceptance dialog explicitly stated that submissions there have no legal value.

We confirmed the fictional acceptance statement and received a success message. After dismissing it, the record showed SUBMITTED.

7. Check the outcome and retain the right identifiers

Acceptance search result for TUTORIAL-FICTIONAL-20260906 showing Available status and its system-issued DDS reference number. — The original fictional statement after processing: its internal reference, issued DDS reference and Available status appear together. No verification number is exposed.

The success message said that the corresponding reference number would become available later and directed us to check the dashboard. Do not treat the internal reference or a SUBMITTED status as the issued DDS reference number.

Return to the dashboard and inspect the same statement as processing continues. Once issued, retain the DDS reference and verification numbers with the correct goods and environment. Keep verification details in controlled records, not public screenshots.

In the tested interface, we chose Go to the EUDR main Search Page from the dashboard and searched for our internal reference. The matching row subsequently showed Available and an issued reference number. This is an observed outcome for our test, not a guaranteed processing time or an authority’s approval of the goods.

If the page times out, check whether the statement already exists before submitting again. An interrupted screen is not enough to conclude that the server rejected a submission.

What does a grouped statement look like?

This separate acceptance example shows a cocoa statement labelled Available – GROUP HEAD. It is not the wood DDS from the walkthrough above. The head has its own reference number; the form’s Grouped Statements/Declarations section lists the linked statement reference and activity.

EUDR acceptance statement SHIP-2026-0042 with Available – GROUP HEAD status and a masked verification number. — An existing acceptance group head, inspected on 7 September 2026. The verification value remains masked by the application. This illustrates the displayed state, not the steps or eligibility conditions for creating a group.

Section 7, Grouped Statements/Declarations, showing a linked reference number and Import activity in the acceptance group head. — Further down the same group head, section 7 lists its linked statement. The reference is clickable in TRACES; no verification value is shown here.

Check the linked records as well as the head when reconciling a group. These screenshots are interface examples, not evidence that any set of shipments may be grouped or that the underlying goods comply.

Repeating this process across many statements?

If your team repeatedly copies product data, checks supplier files and retrieves reference numbers, share that workflow with us. A scoped EUDR implementation can connect validation, exception handling and submission records to your existing systems. Our EUDR submission infrastructure case study shows the kind of integration work involved.

Discuss your DDS workflow

Interface walkthrough verified in acceptance on 6–7 September 2026. Refer to the Commission’s current system guidance and training for updates. This tutorial is operational guidance, not legal advice or evidence that a product complies.