Producer responsibility

Extended Producer Responsibility EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) The Producer Responsibility module supports the following reporting types:

• Packaging
• Single-use plastics
• Electronics
• Batteries

The solution generates the necessary data based on the reporting types (Packaging, Disposable plastic, Electronics or Batteries) associated with the goods - as well as any transport packaging related to the sales order. The generated consumption is posted so that it can be audited by the authorities. When invoicing a sales order, the consumption will automatically be posted according to the setup specified on the item. In the article below, all four types of reporting are reviewed. In Denmark, the rules on Producer Responsibility are administered by the DPA. Read more here

Setting up

In order to use the solution, the following must be set up:

• Activate the Producer Responsibility module under “Turn features on/off”
• Fill out the Producer Responsibility BOM on the respective items
• Optionally create Packaging Configurations for Transport Packaging
• The debtors must state whether the expected end user is Business or Household (applies to Packaging and Electronics) Here you can also state whether the debtor is a Micro Business (applies to Packaging)

Reporting type - Packaging

It has become a legal requirement for Danish companies to report their packaging consumption.

• From 2025 Danish companies will have to pay for the packaging they put on the market
• The purpose is to ensure more packaging is reused or recycled
• Reporting Producer responsibility also entails an obligation to report to authorities on packaging consumption

Note: Packaging can also be classified as Single Use Plastic. Certain types of packaging are covered by both the producer responsibility for Packaging and Single Use Plastic. An example is plastic film that a company uses to package a product. If the packaging is also a single-use plastic, the product must be registered and reported under both reporting types.

In the example below. The packaging used for a case of 6 bottles of wine is indicated.

  Below is a description of the fields

Field name	Field Description
Reporting type	Here you specify the reporting type. In this example it will be Packaging
Category	The authorities have currently announced that reporting is required in 16 categories (note: plastics are divided into 4 categories) This will most likely change over time and Uniconta will continuously follow the legislation and expand the categories as needed. The costs that companies must cover will be environmentally graded within the following 16 material categories Cardboard - levels (red/green) Paper - level (red/green) Ferrous metals - levels (red/green) Aluminum - levels (red/green) Glass - levels (red/green) Plastic - flexible - levels (red/yellow/green) Plastic - hard - levels (red/yellow/green) Plastic - hard PET - levels (red/yellow/green) Plastic - foam - levels (red/yellow/green) Food and beverage cartons - levels (red/yellow/green) Wood - not environmentally graded Textile - no payment Porcelain - no payment Cork - no payment Ceramics - no payment Other - no payment Note: Category is a reportable information
Type of packaging	This is not information that must be reported to the authorities, but it can help to better identify the type of packaging used. The category Cardboard can for example be a box or protection etc. Uniconta has defined some types and will continuously expand the types that can be used. Note: It is not a requirement to fill in this field as it is not a reportable information
Waste sorting	Choose from the following three sorting types: Recycled waste Residual waste Hazardous waste Note: Waste sorting is a reportable information
Level	The used packaging is divided between the three environmental grades, each of which will receive a rate. Low (Green) Medium (Yellow) High (Red) The environmental grading will be based on a so-called bonus/malus model, which means that companies that market packaging with low recyclability will have to pay a larger share of the costs. Packaging volumes will be classified into one, two or three levels depending on the type of material (red, yellow or green), depending on the environmental impact of the packaging waste. Note: Level is a reportable information
Unit of measure	For the Packaging reporting type, the unit will always be “kg”
Number of	Quantity = weight in kilograms (kg). The weight can be entered with 4 decimal places - so you can register down to 0.1 gram (100 mg) Note: Number is a reportable information
End user	Here you can specify whether the expected end user of the packaging is Business or Household. This is only necessary if you want to override the setup you have specified on the customer. Note: End user is a reportable information.
Text	Description of the packaging. This is an internal text. Note: It is not a requirement to fill in this field as it is not a reportable information
No reporting	If this field is checked, no postings will be created for invoicing. invoicing. However, there is an exception if Micro Business is marked on the debtor. Read more at about this in the section “Packaging - Micro business”

Note: When using unit conversion on the item, packaging must be set up for the sales unit. Button - Copy from item Here you can download the packaging setup from another item. Button - Copy from BOM This button is only active if the item is of type Production BOM. Pressing this button will unfold the packaging for all items included in the production BOM and insert it as packaging for the production BOM item.  

Micro business - Packaging

There are special rules for Packaging reporting - when trading with Micro businesses. Definition of a micro business: Especially for micro businesses With the producer responsibility for packaging, the legislation introduces special exemption rules for microenterprises, which in Denmark are defined by the criteria; fewer than 10 employees and a turnover of maximum 15 million DKK/year. However, this does not mean that a micro-business is automatically exempt from the rules on producer responsibility. If a microenterprise has packaging manufactured under its own name and brand by a Danish subcontractor, the microenterprise will not have producer responsibility. However, if the microenterprise imports packaging from abroad, the microenterprise itself will have producer responsibility, as the microenterprise makes the packaging available for the first time on the Danish market (this text is taken from Producentansvar.dk) In order to handle this in Uniconta - the two fields below must be considered:

• The “Micro business” field on the debtor under the “Producer responsibility” field group
• The “No reporting” field on the item under the Producer Responsibility BOM

Note: The field “No reporting” does not exist under transport packaging, as it will always be the sender who reports this. On the debtor, you can indicate if it is a micro business. This information is in interaction with the “No reporting” field under the Producer Responsibility BOM. The fields are useful for companies that produce and sell packaging with company name/logo to larger companies or sell packaging (with or without company name and logo) to micro businesses. If you are a company that produces packaging and sells to micro businesses, you can mark the customer field “Micro business”. This means that the packaging that is otherwise marked as “No reporting” is “overridden” and the packaging is registered with the sender.  

Transportation - Packaging

On the sales order header, you can specify the type of packaging used for transportation. transport, also called the outer packaging. This could be a cardboard box, stretch wrap and possibly a Euro pallet. To use transport packaging, you must first define the types you use. This is done under Accounts receivable/Maintenance/Packaging configurations. If the end user is not specified, the packaging will automatically be categorized as Business if the debtor has a CVR number, otherwise it will be categorized as Household. Note: It is also possible to distribute the transport packaging proportionally to the item. Read more in the section “Household or commercial waste” Under lines, you configure the packing cycle for the individual transport packaging.  

Recyclable packaging

A little hint for the use and registration of Recyclable Packaging. The definition of Recyclable Packaging (taken from DPA) When it comes to reusing packaging, it is crucial whether a previous stage has taken producer responsibility for the packaging. For example, if company A from Denmark reuses cardboard boxes as packaging that they have received as packaging from company B from Denmark, which has reported the cardboard boxes as packaging in the producer responsibility register, the cardboard boxes do not need to be reported again. In reality, you do not need to register the use of reusable packaging, as it does not need to be reported to the authorities, but if you want to account for this type of packaging, set the type to “Recycled” and in the reporting, you When reporting, you can filter out this type of packaging so that it is not included in the reporting.  

Reporting type - Single-use plastics

Note: Single-use plastics can also be classified as Packaging. Certain types of single-use plastics are covered by both the producer responsibility for Single-Use Plastics and Packaging. An example is plastic film that a company uses to package a product. If the packaging is also single-use plastic, the product must be registered and reported under both reporting types. Below is a description of the fields

Field name	Field Description
Reporting type	Here you specify the reporting type. In this example it will be Disposable plastic
Category	The authorities have currently announced that reporting is required in 8 categories Uniconta will continuously monitor legislation and expand the categories as needed Food containers Packaging bags and films Beverage containers Drinking cups Lightweight plastic carrier bags Wet wipes (note: stated in the unit pcs) Balloons (note: stated in units of pieces) Filters for tobacco products (note: stated in units of pieces) Note: Category is a reportable information
Type of reporting type	This field is not used for reporting type Disposable plastic
Waste sorting	This field is not used for reporting type Single-use plastic
Level	This field is not used for reporting type Disposable plastic
Unit of measure	For the reporting type Disposable plastic, the unit “kg” or “pcs” is used
Number of	Quantity = weight in kilograms (kg). The weight can be entered with 4 decimal places - so you can register down to 0.1 gram (100 mg) Note: Number is a reportable information
End user	This field is not used for reporting type Single Use Plastic
Text	Description is an internal text Note: It is not a requirement to fill in this field as it is not a reportable information
No reporting	If this field is checked, no postings will be created for invoicing

 

Reporting type - Electronics

  Below is a description of the fields

Field name	Field Description
Reporting type	Here you specify the reporting type. In this example it will be Electronics
Category	The authorities have currently announced that reporting is required in 7 categories Uniconta will continuously follow the legislation and expand the categories as needed Temperature exchange equipment Equipment with screen or monitor over 100 cm2 Light sources Large equipment > 50 cm Small equipment <= 50 cm Small IT telecom equipment < 50 cm Photovoltaic panels (Solar panels) Note: Category is a reportable information
Type of report	This field is not used for reporting type Electronics
Waste sorting	This field is not used for reporting type Electronics
Level	This field is not used for reporting type Electronics
Unit of measure	For the reporting type Electronics only the unit “kg” is used
Number of	Quantity = weight in kilograms (kg). The weight can be entered with 4 decimal places - so you can register down to 0.1 gram (100 mg) Note: Number is a reportable information
End user	Here you can specify whether the expected end user of Electronics is Business or Household. This is only necessary if you want to override the setup you have specified on the customer. Note: End user is a reportable information
Text	Description is an internal text Note: It is not a requirement to fill in this field as it is not a reportable information
No reporting	If this field is checked, no postings will be created for invoicing

 

Reporting type - Batteries

Below is a description of the fields

Field name	Field Description
Reporting type	Here you specify the reporting type. In this example it will be Batteries
Category	The authorities have currently announced that reporting is required in 6 categories Uniconta will continuously follow the legislation and expand the categories as needed Portable batteries Batteries for light transportation Industrial batteries (Category 1) < 2 kWh and > 5 kg Industrial batteries (Category 2) > 2 kWh Starter batteries Electric vehicle batteries Note: Category is a reportable information
Type	This field is not used for reporting type Batteries
Waste sorting	This field is not used for reporting type Batteries
Level	This field is not used for reporting type Batteries
Unit of measure	For the Batteries reporting type, only the unit “kg” is used
Number of	Quantity = weight in kilograms (kg). The weight can be entered with 4 decimal places - so you can register down to 0.1 gram (100 mg) Note: Number is a reportable information
End user	This field is not used for reporting type Batteries
Text	Description is an internal text Note: It is not a requirement to fill in this field as it is not a reportable information
No reporting	If this field is checked, no postings will be created for invoicing

 

Household or commercial waste

End User must be considered for the Packaging and Electronics reporting types. Below is described with a packaging example, but the same also applies to the Electronics reporting type. Packaging volumes must be categorized according to whether the end user of the packaged product is expected to be household or commercial. This does not mean that you have to indicate whether the packaging is sold to households or businesses, but you must give your best guess as to whether the packaging ends up in household or commercial waste when the packaging becomes waste. There are the following definitions:

• End user: The one who turns packaging into waste
• Household: the packaging ends up as waste in a private household
• Commercial: the packaging ends up as waste at a company.

Here's an overview of how it can be managed. On the customer, you specify who the end user will typically be. By default it will be Business, but it can be changed to Household. The same field is found on the Sales order header. Here you have the option to override the setup you have on the customer. The field is located in the Producer Responsibility field group.   It is also possible to control it down to the item level. This will be very useful for proportionally distributing transport packaging on the item. This way, you don't have to define the transport packaging on the sales order header. In the example below, item number 1234567 is a case of 6 bottles of wine sold by the pallet to a retail chain. The first four lines (green) are packaging that ends up as waste in a private household. Note that no End User is specified. End user is retrieved from the setup on the debtor. The last three lines (blue) are packaging that ends up at the retail chain. End user is therefore indicated as “Business”

Production BOM

The situation is slightly different for a Production BOM. If there is a production BOM item number, the Producer Responsibility BOM specified directly on the item number will be posted, if nothing is specified on the item number, it will be checked whether there is a Producer Responsibility BOM on the items included in the Production BOM. Note: If there is only one line with a Producer Responsibility BOM on the production item number, the BOM is not checked. The item below is an example of a Production BOM. All item numbers starting with “8” is a packaging item number. Packaging is defined on the individual item. If you press the Packaging button on item number 1540008, the screen is empty, as all packaging is defined on the individual item numbers included in the BOM. It is possible to insert packaging directly on the item number by using the “Copy from BOM” button. Note: It is recommended to add the BOM for Producer Responsibility to the items included in the Production BOM, as it will then be easier to maintain any changes.

Postings per invoice

When a sales order is invoiced, entries are automatically created for producer responsibility. For example, the packaging is retrieved from the items to which it is attached. If transport packaging is also specified in the sales order header, this will also be included in the entries. You can see the producer responsibility entries directly on the individual invoice in the invoice journal. Below is an example for invoice number 195576. It is possible to manually add lines if you are missing something during registration. registration. You can also make corrections in the Quantity and End User columns. With the menu item “Add packaging configuration” you can add packaging entries that are defined under “Packaging configurations”. It is also possible to delete registrations.

Producer Responsibility reporting

Reporting to the authorities is done under Finance/Reports/Producer responsibility. The individual fields are described further up in the article.  

Button	Button description
Search	Enter the following before pressing Search Reporting type Country Period Create <Reporting type> postings (not posted) If this is selected, all invoices in the specified period will be reviewed and if no registrations have been created for Producer Responsibility, the missing postings will be inserted in the report. A check mark will be placed in the “Created” column to indicate that it is a “calculated” entry.
Compress	Before a file can be created, the records must be compressed. What needs to be reported differs for each reporting type. Packaging - which is compressed per unit. Period Category Waste sorting Level End user Device Number of Batteries - compressed per battery. Period Category Device Number of Electronics - which is compressed per unit. Period Category End user Device Number of Single-use plastic - compressed per unit. Period Category Device Number of
Create file	The compressed entries can now be output to an Excel file.

 

Overview of products with Producer Responsibility

In the product overview, you can insert the field “Producer responsibility”. The field indicates whether or not producer responsibility registrations have been created for the individual product. If you want to get an extended overview of which products have registered Producer Responsibility, you can use Data Manipulation, which can be found under Tools. Select the InvPackagingProductClient table and select all fields and press “Continue”. Now all registrations are listed. Note: It is also with this tool that you can easily update the registrations if, for example, you change the number (weight) etc. It is always recommended to make a copy of the accounts and test it before you do it in production data.  

Load data

If you want to bulk import data, you can use the import options available under Tools. The tables in the green box relate to Transport packaging (Packaging configurations) The table in the blue box is the product liability parts list for each item.

Return of goods

If a credit note is created, the consumption will be offset.