Chestny ZNAK: how to connect and start labelling goods

People usually learn about mandatory labelling a month before the date from which goods cannot be sold without a code. And then something unpleasant turns out: connecting is not a “register” button, but a chain of a signature, contracts, product cards and equipment, where each next step is impossible without the previous one. We will go through the chain in order — from where to start to the moment when the code leaves circulation at the checkout.

What Chestny ZNAK is and why it is built this way

Chestny ZNAK is the national labelling and traceability system for goods. Each unit of products receives a unique Data Matrix code, which is applied to the packaging, and the system records its whole path: code issue, application, putting into circulation, transfer between companies, sale to the buyer. The operator of the system is CRPT, and the technical part runs in GIS MT.

An important consequence for business follows from this: labelling does not end with printing the label. Until the code has “passed” through the whole chain of documents, the goods are not sold as far as the system is concerned, and the balances do not match. It is the desynchronisation of the warehouse and the system that is the source of most problems for those who connected only formally.

Where to start: preparation

Five things without which registration either will not pass or will stop at the very first step.

A GTIN is needed by those who put goods into circulation first: a manufacturer under its own brand and an importer. If you resell goods that are already labelled, you do not need to obtain your own numbers — you work with other people’s codes.

Order of connection

1. Issue an EQES for the head of the company and set up the workstation.
2. Register in Chestny ZNAK and choose the product groups you work with. The role — manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, retail — determines the available operations.
3. Sign the contracts with the operator for the provision of codes and top up the personal account: codes are debited from it as they are ordered.
4. Describe the product in the National Catalogue: obtain a GTIN and fill in the card — composition, characteristics, details of the conformity document.
5. Order the codes and apply them to the packaging, and then submit a report on application.
6. Put the goods into circulation — and then accompany their movement: transfer by universal transfer document, and at the checkout — withdrawal from circulation on sale.

Steps one to three take days, the fourth takes weeks if the range is large. It is better to plan the timing starting from the cards: it is the description of the product that usually turns out to be the bottleneck.

For the importer: codes are needed before the border

The main difference of import is that the goods must arrive already labelled. The codes are ordered by the Russian importer (a foreign manufacturer cannot be a participant in the system), and they must be applied before import: either at the factory site, to which ready labels or print files are passed, or at a customs warehouse before release for free circulation.

From this follows the practical order: the cards in the catalogue and the codes are prepared while the batch is still being produced, not after shipment. For the importer, putting into circulation is tied to the customs declaration, so the data in the card and in the declaration must match — here the HS code (TN VED) again turns out to be the reference point.

For the seller on a marketplace

The platform does not label goods for the seller: it accepts at the warehouse only what has already been put into circulation. Three points that sellers most often stumble over:

• Returns. If a code is damaged or lost, the goods are relabelled — with a new code and an indication of the reason.
• Sets and kits. A set assembled from labelled items is a separate commercial unit with its own code, not the sum of its contents.
• Scheme of work. When selling from the platform’s warehouse, the platform withdraws the goods from circulation; when delivering by your own means, you do it yourself.

What the platforms themselves ask for when a card is created, we reviewed in the article on documents for Wildberries and Ozon.

What it costs

The cost consists of four parts, and only the first of them is about the codes.

• Labelling codes. The price per code is uniform and fixed — 50 kopecks excluding VAT, regardless of the product and the volume. For some categories the codes are provided free of charge.
• Supporting services. Electronic signature, electronic document management, the GS1 fee — regular but predictable expenses.
• Equipment. A scanner and a label printer for the warehouse; for production — application equipment, and with the introduction of item-level tracking, also aggregation.
• Integration. Modification of the accounting system so that codes are not entered by hand. This is the most underestimated item: manual entry works with dozens of items and falls apart with thousands.

How this is related to conformity documents

Formally, labelling and conformity confirmation are different obligations, and one does not replace the other. But they are more closely connected than it seems: when describing a product in the National Catalogue, for most groups you must state the details of a valid conformity document. No declaration — the card is not completed, and there is nothing to order codes for.

Therefore the correct order when launching a new product is this: first determine whether the product needs a certificate or a declaration, issue the document, and only then go to labelling. The reverse order leads to the batch standing idle in the warehouse. What becomes mandatory and when is convenient to check against the labelling calendar for 2026, and production should prepare for item-level tracking in advance.

Typical errors

• They start connecting two weeks before mandatory labelling begins, without allowing time for issuing the signature and describing the cards
• They register in the system but do not set up electronic document management — and the goods cannot be passed to the next participant
• The importer orders codes after the container has arrived, although the labelling had to be done before the border
• They describe the cards only formally and then redo them because of discrepancies with the conformity documents
• They do not submit the report on application and consider the goods put into circulation
• They keep codes in a spreadsheet instead of an accounting system — with hundreds of items this still works, with thousands it no longer does

Order of actions

1. Check against the calendar whether your product is subject to labelling and from what date.
2. Make sure there is a valid conformity document for the product — without it the card cannot be filled in.
3. Issue an EQES for the head of the company, set up the workstation, connect electronic document management.
4. Register in Chestny ZNAK, choose the product groups, sign the contracts and top up the account.
5. Obtain a GTIN and describe the product in the National Catalogue — start with the fast-moving items.
6. Order the codes, apply them, submit the report on application and put the goods into circulation.
7. Set up the accounting system and the cash register so that the movement of codes does not require manual entry.