How Do I Use HDFC TradeOnNet for Exports. Login, FIRC and Shipping Bill Regularisation?

What is HDFC TradeOnNet and how do I log in to the trade module?

TradeOnNet is HDFC Bank's digital trade services module. The single fact that dissolves most of the confusion in search results: it is not a site you log in to directly . HDFC's own Digital Trade Solutions page instructs you to "Access TradeOnNet via Net Banking". The dedicated host tradefinance.hdfcbank.com is live and carries the page title "Trade on Net", but a direct visit returns a security message instead of a login form (checked August 2026). The module is reached by single sign-on from an internet banking session that is already open.

If you searched for "TradeOnNet login" and landed on a page telling you access is not permitted, nothing is broken. You are at the wrong door. Start from your internet banking channel instead. And which channel that is depends on whether you bank with HDFC as an MSME or as a large corporate.

How do I activate the trade finance tab, and what board resolution does HDFC need?

Here is where this guide has to be blunt about a gap rather than fill it with plausible-sounding steps. HDFC Bank publishes no TradeOnNet registration form, no entitlement form and no board resolution format on its public site. The Forms Centre index is script-rendered and yielded no trade registration form in its static page source; the only public self-service trade forms we could verify are the two digital Bank Guarantee applications, which HDFC's own FAQ describes as a route for Retail CASA customers and which sit outside the trade module.

So the honest activation path is a relationship one, and the structural facts that shape it are the ones HDFC does state: the module is entered from internet banking, and Maker. Checker authorisation applies inside it. That means the entitlement conversation covers three things at once. Which entity and accounts, which named users, and who among them makes versus approves.

Activation path

1. 1 Have a current account with an AD-Code-mapped trade facility HDFC's export-import products page lists the Importer Exporter Code as a requirement for trade transactions. Your AD Code must also be registered at the customs ports you ship from, which is a customs step, not a portal step.
2. 2 Establish the right internet banking channel first TradeOnNet rides on an internet banking session. An MSME exporter needs business NetBanking; a large corporate relationship is normally set up on ENet. Getting this wrong is the most common reason an exporter cannot find a trade section at all.
3. 3 Ask your relationship manager for the current entitlement form and resolution format Because neither document is published, the format you use must come from the bank. Ask for it in writing, and ask which team processes it. The branch trade desk or a central trade operations unit.
4. 4 Name your makers and checkers in the resolution Maker. Checker authorisation applies inside the module, so a resolution that names only one authorised user leaves you unable to release your own transactions. Cover the makers, the checkers and a deputy for each.
5. 5 Confirm entitlement by logging in, not by being told Once processed, sign in to your internet banking channel and confirm the trade section opens for each named user. Test with a read-only action, such as pulling a report, before you depend on it for a live shipment.

How do I lodge export bills and shipping bill documents online with HDFC?

Document lodgement is one of the capabilities HDFC states plainly. The Digital Trade Solutions page says you can "Upload documents directly through the portal" and describes processing transactions with minimal documentation by uploading the EP copy or summary of the shipping bill, the invoice, and the Bill of Lading or Airway Bill. The Export Trade Services page repeats it: manage export documentation, including shipping bills and bills of entry, through TradeOnNet.

What HDFC does not say anywhere is that uploading replaces the physical set. The bank's document checklist carries no paperless waiver, so for a documentary collection sent on DA or DP terms, assume the original documents still travel and treat the upload as the processing trigger, not a substitute.

Cut-offs as printed in HDFC Bank's Documentation Requirements for Export and Import Remittances (read August 2026).

How do I get a FIRC or FIRA from HDFC Bank, and which one do exporters actually receive?

This is the most searched HDFC trade question and the one where the internet is least reliable, so the finding first: no official HDFC Bank page documents a self-service FIRA or e-FIRC download inside TradeOnNet or NetBanking . We looked across the digital solutions, export, import, remittances, wholesale and both fee pages. There is no such documented download. We are not going to soften that into "it may be available under a trade menu".

What HDFC does publish is a tariff, and a tariff tells you what products exist and how they are delivered. Its Other Trade Services fees page prices FIRC at INR 200 and a duplicate FIRC at INR 500, and separately records that a credit advice sent centrally by email, in lieu of FIRC, is NIL. Read plainly, that describes two different artefacts:

• The emailed credit advice. Sent centrally, no charge, and the document most exporters actually hold. This is what the market generally calls a FIRA.
• A formal FIRC. A chargeable request when a scheme, an auditor or a counterparty specifically demands the certificate rather than an advice.

How do I give a disposal instruction and set the purpose code for an inward remittance?

HDFC's Remittances page states it directly: clients can provide disposal instructions through Net Banking to speed up remittance proceeds, and can monitor transaction status online through Net Banking. That is the documented self-serve path for a credit that has already landed.

Now the vocabulary trap, because it decides whether your request gets understood. HDFC's trade pages never print the phrase "purpose code". Nor EDPMS, IDPMS or eBRC. The purpose-code election that RBI reporting depends on is carried inside what HDFC calls the disposal instruction. If you ring the bank asking to "set the purpose code", you may get a blank response; ask about the disposal instruction for the credit and you are speaking the bank's language.

How do I regularise and close shipping bills with HDFC for EDPMS?

This is the capability HDFC describes in the most operational detail. The Digital Trade Solutions page says TradeOnNet, accessed via Net Banking, handles "regularisation of Export Bills and BOEs"; that you can efficiently close multiple shipping bills by linking them with the corresponding inward remittances; and that you can update shipping bills with freight, insurance and bank charges. It also states the constraint that decides whether bulk closure will work for you: the bills processed together must share the same currency code and overseas buyer.

A second thing to plan around: a request letter is still a document . HDFC lists Export Regularisation as its own transaction type with a named document set, and the application form or request letter heads that list. The digital route changes how the set is delivered, not whether it exists.

A goods exporter has one shipping bill open against a single realised inward remittance from one overseas buyer, in one currency. The document set below is the one HDFC Bank lists for "Export Regularisation" in its

Documentation Requirements for Export and Import Remittances

and on its

Export-Import Products

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1. Application form or request letter. Heads the list even on the digital route.
2. Commercial invoice for the shipment being closed.
3. Transport document. Bill of Lading or Airway Bill.
4. Draft or bill of exchange , where applicable to the transaction.
5. Shipping Bill or SOFTEX. The export document the closure is against.
6. Certificate of origin , where applicable.
7. Insurance certificate , where applicable.
8. Submit by 3:00 PM through the digital platform for same-day best-effort handling, or by 3:30 PM at the branch Trade Desk.

On eBRC, HDFC gives you nothing to work with by design: the terms eBRC and EDPMS appear nowhere in its trade-services section. That is not an omission on the bank's part. Under DGFT's current system the authorised dealer bank pushes Inward Remittance Message data to DGFT and the exporter self-certifies the eBRC on the DGFT portal. So the bank-side step is IRM reporting, not certificate issue. What HDFC does issue is a bank BRC, priced at INR 150 per shipping bill. Generate the eBRC on DGFT; route only missing or mismatched IRM data back to the bank. Our eBRC filing guide and EDPMS reporting guide cover both sides.

Which HDFC trade tasks work in TradeOnNet and which still need a branch?

This is the honest core of the guide. Every verdict below comes only from HDFC Bank's own product pages, FAQs, tariff tables and documentation-requirements PDF, all as read in August 2026. "Portal" means the bank itself documents the flow. Where the evidence is absent, the verdict is to confirm with your relationship manager. Not a guess dressed up as a probability.

Document upload, regularisation of export bills and BOEs, transaction tracking and reports, disposal instructions, LC and BG issuance workflows. All stated on HDFC's Digital Trade Solutions, export, import and remittances pages. </>), soThat: (<> If yes, start from your internet banking session and open the trade module from there. Submit by 3:00 PM for same-day best-effort handling on the digital platform. </>), }, , , , , ]} conclusion= />

What do these tasks cost?

The charges an exporter using TradeOnNet actually meets, from HDFC Bank's Detailed List of Charges for Export Services and its Other Trade Services fees and charges page. Amounts as printed, as published, effective 1st September 2014 (read August 2026). Taxes apply extra as per the schedule.

Source: HDFC Bank, Detailed List of Charges for Export Services and Other Trade Services. Fees and Charges (as published, effective 1st September 2014; read August 2026). Flat charges, per-bill charges and percentage commissions are different units and are not interchangeable. Read each row on its own terms. Other banks structure and denominate these charges differently, so figures are not comparable across banks. What FEDAI rules let banks charge is covered in our FEDAI charges guide , and the equivalent walkthrough for another portal is our ICICI Trade Online guide .

Your HDFC TradeOnNet activation and export closure checklist

Activation (one-time)

• Current account live, IEC held, and AD Code registered at every customs port you ship from
• The right internet banking channel established first. Business NetBanking for an MSME exporter, ENet for a wholesale relationship
• Entitlement form and board resolution format obtained from your relationship manager, because HDFC publishes neither
• Resolution names your makers, your checkers and a deputy for each, since Maker. Checker authorisation applies inside the module
• Each named user has logged in and confirmed the trade section opens. Tested on a read-only action, not on a live shipment
• Written confirmation from the relationship manager on the three things official pages leave open: the FIRC request route, forward contract booking and cancellation, and your entity's LC application entitlement

Recurring export closure cycle

• Give the disposal instruction on every inward credit promptly, using the bank's vocabulary (disposal instruction, not purpose code) and get the election right the first time
• Upload the export set (EP copy or shipping bill summary, invoice, Bill of Lading or Airway Bill) and keep the physical set ready, since no paperless waiver is stated
• Submit through the digital platform by 3:00 PM for same-day best-effort handling, or use the branch Trade Desk up to 3:30 PM when the timing is tight
• Match realised remittances to open shipping bills and regularise, remembering that bulk closure needs the same currency code and overseas buyer. Which marketplace settlements will not give you
• Keep the request letter in the pack: it heads HDFC's Export Regularisation document list even on the digital route
• Track the nine-month realisation clock per shipping bill (nine months from the date of export for all exporters, including SEZ units, EOUs and Status Holders, with fifteen months only for goods exported to a warehouse outside India) and raise extensions before the deadline
• Self-certify the eBRC on the DGFT portal from the IRM data the bank reports; raise only missing or mismatched IRMs with HDFC
• Store the emailed credit advice for every remittance, and request a formal FIRC or a bank BRC only when a scheme or auditor specifically names that document

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Update history

• 2026-08-18 First published.