What is LEO (Let Export Order)?
A Let Export Order, or LEO, is the formal clearance customs gives once it is satisfied with a shipping bill and, where needed, has examined the goods. After the LEO is granted, the goods can be loaded and shipped. The LEO date is an important reference point in goods exports, used in customs records and in several export processes that follow.
Why it matters for exporters
On the EDF, field 1.20 asks for the LEO date. For goods, it records when customs cleared the shipment. For services, there is no customs clearance and therefore no LEO, so field 1.20 is marked N/A, along with the other goods-only fields: 1.3 shipping bill, 1.14 port of loading and 1.18 port of discharge. Part 2A, the goods table, is left blank.
Service exporters sometimes leave these fields empty, and some banks may be fine with that, but writing "N/A" makes it clear you have considered them rather than skipped them. Our EDF form generator fills these goods-only fields as N/A automatically when you choose "Services" or "Software" in field 1.1. For services, the date that drives your timelines is the invoice date, not an LEO date.
Example
Ishaan, an accountant at Copperleaf Solutions, opens a downloaded EDF template and wonders what to put in "LEO date". Copperleaf provides payroll processing to a UK client, invoiced at ₹4,60,000 for December 2026. There is no shipment, so he writes N/A in field 1.20 and in the other goods-only fields, fills Part 2B with the invoice details and files by 30 January 2027.
Common confusion
For goods, people sometimes treat the LEO date and the invoice date as interchangeable. For services, only the invoice date matters: it starts both the EDF filing clock and the 9-month realisation clock. See the field-by-field EDF walkthrough for the rest of Part 1.