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Overview

TRACES limits how many producers a single due diligence statement may carry. For very large deliveries one statement is therefore not enough. Polygon One does not solve that by making you take the delivery apart by hand — it splits it: into several member statements and one group head that references them. To the outside it stays one number. Customs and your customers receive only the group head’s reference number; the member numbers are internal.
The split only arises in the Create DDS wizard, and only for incoming statements. Statements created through the REST API or a bulk import are not split — there, an oversized delivery fails at submission instead.

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What triggers a split

Two TRACES limits do:
  • Too many producers in one commodity. They are counted per article: as soon as a single article carries more producers than TRACES allows per statement and commodity, the delivery is split — the wizard heading says “per statement” for short. One producer counts as a combination of name and country — not as one plot. A producer with 300 plots is one producer.
  • Too much geolocation data per statement. TRACES accepts at most 25 MB of geometry per statement, across all commodities together.
The wizard checks this when you move to the Confirmation step and reports “Checking the TRACES limits…” while it does. If the delivery fits into one statement you see none of this and carry on as usual.

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The process

1

Create it as you always do

Open Create DDS and choose supplier, articles and quantities. There is no “create as a group” switch — the application decides from the delivery.
2

Review the split plan

If the delivery exceeds a limit, the Confirmation step shows a plan instead of the usual buttons: the heading “This delivery exceeds the TRACES limit of … producers per statement”, and below it one row per planned member statement with its producer count, plots and quantity. What you see here is exactly what gets created.The note underneath is the one that matters: “Producers are never split across statements.” It is also why the split fails when a single producer is too large (see below).
3

Create the group

The only button reads “Create … statements + group head”. Afterwards the app reports “Group created — … member statements are ready to submit”. Everything starts as a draft; nothing has gone to TRACES yet.
4

Submit the members

Open the group head and click “Submit all members”. Each member statement goes to TRACES individually and receives its own reference number.
5

Wait for TRACES to make them available

This is a regular waiting state, not a hang. Polygon One polls the state every 30 minutes.
6

Submit the group head

Once all members are available, “Submit group head” appears. Only then do you get the reference number you cite at customs.

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Group progress

The group head carries a Group progress card: members submitted and members available each with a counter, group head submitted as the final step. Below it there is always exactly one sentence about the next step — for instance “All members are available. Submit the group head to receive the reference number for customs.” or, at the end, “The group head is filed. Cite its reference number at customs.” The Members (…) card below lists every member statement with its reference number, the line ”… producers · … kg” and its own status.
There is no separate “the group is ready” notification. You get the usual per-statement notification once a statement is validated — the last of those is your cue to submit the group head. If you would rather not wait, open the group head and read the group progress.

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How to tell the two roles apart

The head statement carries the marker Group head, and in the list the number of its members. A member statement carries “Member of …” with the group head’s reference number — or “Member (draft group)” while the head has not been submitted; the list shows the short form Member. At the top it also carries the banner “Part of group head …” with the link “Open group head”.

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What you must know about the numbers

Head and members must not be added up. The group head carries the full quantity of the delivery; the members each carry their share of it. Adding both counts the delivery twice.
Also normal: the group head has no plots of its own. An empty geo section there is not a data gap — the areas sit with the members, and the group head references their statements. Always assign orders to the group head. Member statements are deliberately not offered in the assignment picker.

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Withdrawing and deleting

Do not withdraw a member statement while the group head has not been submitted. The group head requires all members to be available at TRACES. A withdrawn member no longer meets that: the group progress falls back to step 1, “Submit group head” disappears, and the withdrawn member can neither be re-submitted nor deleted on its own. In practice the way out is to delete the group head and start again; the withdrawn member statement survives that as a standalone statement. The app does not prompt you to do this.
Once the group head is submitted, its members are locked at TRACES. The confirmation dialog says so beforehand:
“The … member statements will be locked at TRACES: they cannot be amended, withdrawn or presented at customs on their own while the group head is active. You can withdraw the group head within 72 hours to release them.”
The 72 hours are a TRACES rule. Polygon One shows no countdown for it and does not stop you from trying later — whether TRACES still accepts the withdrawal is TRACES’ decision. Withdrawing the group head releases the members: they move from Grouped back to Validated as soon as the next status sync has run. A single member statement cannot be deleted. The app says: “This statement is part of a group and cannot be deleted on its own. Delete the group head instead.”

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When a split is not possible

The wizard stops in two cases instead of proposing a group — and in both there is then no button to create anything: Submit an oversized statement created by another route and Polygon One refuses it before submission — TRACES never sees it. The statement then reads Failed, and its detail view names the reason: “This DDS has more producers than TRACES accepts. Split it across several statements.” — or the same message for geolocation data.

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When not all members go through

Members are submitted one after another. If that breaks off midway, the ones already submitted stay submitted and the rest stay drafts — the “Submit all members” button stays visible while drafts remain, and a second click picks them up. Submit the group head too early and the app answers: “One or more member statements of this group are not yet available at TRACES. We check every 30 minutes; submit the group head once all members are available.”

Incoming DDS

Creating, submitting and managing a DDS — including the full status list.

Outgoing DDS

Statements for domestic production and sales orders.

Order Import & Creation

Getting orders into Polygon One before you declare them.

Export & Customs Documents

Reference and verification number for customs clearance.