Transit - Moving to the new NCTS communications channel
HMRC will be shutting down the legacy XML and email channels on the 28th February 2022. In anticipation of this, ASM customers will be invited to sign up for access to the new CTC API for NCTS in due course. Ahead of your move there are certain prerequisite tasks that must be undertaken which we have outlined below. Additionally we have provided a step-by-step guide to the process you will need to complete to sign up for access to the new channel for NCTS.
In order to ensure that there is no disruption to your business, we will be inviting our NCTS customers to switch over to the CDS Trader Dress Rehearsal (TDR) platform ahead of their CTC migration. As TDR will be using the same channel as CTC to communicate with HMRC, we can make sure that this is up and running successfully before you commit to making the switch to CTC.
Before you can sign up for access to the new CTC API for NCTS
- You will need to use Chrome, Edge or Firefox to connect to the application, it is not compatible with Internet Explorer.
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We need you to grant access to the following domain names so that they are not blocked by your firewall:
- portal-helios.asmhelios.cloud
- portal-login.asmhelios.cloud
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It is not necessary for everyone to exit Sequoia while the authentication process is being undertaken. However once the authentication has been completed then each user will need to restart their Sequoia application for the changes to take effect.
Creating a new ASM Online account for NCTS and TDR
You will receive an email inviting you to sign up to the new the NCTS (CTC) and TDR platform. The person creating this account must also have access to the Government Gateway account, as signing into the Government Gateway will a part of this process, when you eventually move over to CTC.
When you click on the link in the email you will be taken to the new account creation page where you will be prompted to enter your details.
Your "User Name" will be your email address, and this must be unique. It should prepopulate on the website from the link that we send you.
You will need to enter your first name, your last name, and then create and confirm a password. This password will need to be a minimum of eight characters and must contain at least one upper case character, one lower case character, one number and one special character such as ! or #
Signing into your new account
Once your new account has been created you will be taken to the login page to sign in and continue with the authorisation process.
Your Username will be auto-populated from the Account Creation details that you have given, and you will have the option to check "remember my login" so that the next time you log in from the same machine, your details will be remembered.
Once you have logged in here you will be taken to the Welcome page, and prompted to continue - just click on the blue "continue" button in the top right-hand corner of the page.
Select your Government Gateway accounts
There are options here to sign up for CDS, NCTS or TDR. At this stage you will be selecting the option for TDR only
CDS Trader Dress Rehearsal
So that you can sign up to use the CDS Trader Dress Rehearsal (TDR) we need to generate Test Credentials, which you can then use to log into the Government Gateway site. These take a couple of seconds to generate and you will not need to do anything for them to appear - just navigate to the page. Once they appear you can use the copy buttons to copy them onto your clipboard and then paste them into the Government Gateway site which will open up into a new window for you when you click on the "authenticate" button.
Below is a screenshot of the page. The credentials you see here are not the ones that you will be using. These will be unique to you, and will be displayed on the webpage once you have landed on it.
Once you click on the blue Authenticate button, the HMRC Government Gateway page will open in a new window so that you can easily copy your generated credentials over.
There is a copy button placed beneath the Test Credentials. You can use this button to copy first the Username which you can then paste onto the HMRC site, and then the Password for which you can do the same.
Once you have landed on the HMRC website the first page you see will look like this:
Click "continue" to be taken to the HMRC sign-in page where you can paste in your Test Credentials.
Once you have done this, you will be prompted to "Grant Authority" to ASM so that we can send CDS Trader Dress Rehearsal Declarations on your behalf.
Restart your Sequoia Service Monitor service to update your licence
Go to Microsoft Services on the Sequoia Server and restart the ASM Sequoia Service Monitor.
To access Microsoft Services, press the Windows key on your keyboard then type the word "services" and press enter.
If necessary, contact your IT department in order to do this.
Enable your ASM Sequoia Helios Gateway:
Again from Microsoft Services go to the ASM Sequoia Helios Gateway, and then right-click on it and go to Properties:
Where it says "Startup type" go to the dropdown menu and select "manual", apply and then OK this change. Once this has been done the service will be started by the ASM Sequoia Service Monitor service after a brief period, however you can right-click on the line and just click "start" to get the service working immediately.
Testing TDR Connectivity
Creating and sending a CDS test declaration is the best way to test connectivity between your Sequoia installation and HMRC's services (in this case their TDR, or Trader Dress Rehearsal, service).
Create a test declaration
Within your Sequoia application, click the Test Declarations toolbar button as shown below. If this button is not visible, please reload your Sequoia application.
The New Test Customs Declaration dialog will be displayed.
Select the Standard (Full Import Declaration) or Standard (Full Export Declaration) option and click the Create button.
This will display the CDS test declaration editor. The immediate difference you will see is in the colour of the declaration form - live declarations are blue; test declarations are green (and have TEST in the title bar at the top of the form) as shown below.
Since we only want to test communications, it is not necessary to complete all of the declaration data as a rejection from CDS will suffice. However, an LRN (Local Reference Number) and declaration type are required.
To generate the LRN, click the Badge drop-down and choose any of your badge codes. The subsequent LRN will be shown on the summary panel at the top of the declaration editor.
Click the Decln Type [01] drop-down and choose any of the options.
Once both of these values have been set, click the Send button to send the declaration to HMRC's TDR system.
Checking the test declaration response
Open the Find Declaration utility (either from the option in the Customs module or from the Find menu item at the top of Sequoia).
Click the 'Saved Search Criteria...' drop-down and choose Test CDS Declarations as shown below.
This will populate the search criteria with the information required to only return test CDS declarations in the search results.
Click the Search button.
The test declaration created earlier should now appear in the search results grid.
Double click on the row and the declaration editor will be displayed.
Check the Status showing in the top right hand corner (as shown below).
If the communications test was successful, the status should show 'Errors reported'.
If the Status is 'Errors reported'
If the declaration Status is showing 'Errors reported' then this indicates a successful communications test.
If this is the case, then please send [this email to ASM].
If you can't use the link above, then please send an email as follows:
Subject: Successful TDR Test - Setup for CTC Required
Message: We have successfully completed an end-to-end TDR test.
It is only after you have 'proved' the ability of your Sequoia application to connect to this HMRC TDR service, that we will be able to configure your system to connect to the new transit CTC Trader interface.
All of this work needs to be completed before the end of February, for all of our NCTS customers. As you can appreciate, this is a lot of work for both you and our support specialists. Acting as soon as possible will greatly reduce the risk of your not being able to access the transit system from the end of February.
If the Status is not 'Errors reported'
Close the declaration, wait for a minute and then click the [Search] button again to refresh the result.
Double click on the search result row to open the declaration again. If the Status still does not show 'Errors reported' then this may indicate there is problem with end-to-end communications.
In most instances, this is caused by a firewall blocking communications between Sequoia and ASM's messaging service. Please see this page which provides some general guidance around firewall issues. This may help the people responsible for the firewall to resolve the problem.
Once the firewall has been updated you will need to re-send the declaration.
Open the declaration again and this time click the Tools drop-down button on the declaration editor toolbar and choose Unlock.
Click 'Unlock' when prompted. Now click the Send button.
Wait for a minute or so and click the Search button again to refresh the results.
If the Status of the declaration is now 'Errors Reported' follow these steps.
If the Status of the declaration still does not update to 'Errors reported' then this would indicate there are still problems with end-to-end communications.
At this point please contact the ASM Helpdesk via the ASM Service Desk Portal, reporting you are experiencing communication issues between Sequoia and CDS (TDR).
It is only after you have 'proved' the ability of your Sequoia application to connect to this HMRC TDR service, that we will be able to configure your system to connect to the new transit CTC Trader interface.
All of this work needs to be completed before the end of September, for all of our CHIEF customers. As you can appreciate, this is a lot of work for both you and our support specialists.