Help center
Self-help runbooks + FAQs for importers and broker partners. Can’t find what you need? Email support@tariffi.io or open the chat widget at bottom-right.
Screenshots + exact field names for the CBP portal steps that sit between you and your refund.
SME importers · 20–30 minutes (plus email coordination with your 5106 POC)
Get your company an ACE Secure Data Portal account with importer sub-account view — the prerequisite for entering bank info so CBP can pay your refund.
Open guide →SME importers · 10–15 minutes
Enter your U.S. bank routing and account number in ACE so CBP can direct-deposit your refund via ACH EFT — required under Executive Order #14247.
Open guide →Step-by-step walkthroughs for the questions we answer most often.
Your progress is auto-saved and you can pick up where you left off from any device.
Every intake step is auto-saved the moment you complete it. There are two ways back in:
1. Check your email. When you entered your email at step 1, we send a magic-link resume email to that address. Click the link from any device — you'll land on the exact step you left off. Links are valid for 7 days; request a fresh one at /intake/start if it's expired.
2. Re-open the same browser session. We keep a short-lived resume cookie on your device. Returning to /intake/start from the same browser lands you on your last completed step even without the email.
What if I lost the email address I used? We can't merge two different email addresses into one intake session (audit-trail reasons). Start fresh at /intake/start and use the address you want to use going forward. The calculator preview at /importer#calculator is free and doesn't require an email.
Still stuck? Email support@tariffi.io with the approximate date you started and we'll locate your session.
Offers are signed via a secure link in your inbox — check spam if it's missing.
Once your intake is complete and broker-reviewed, you receive an offer email with a one-click signing link. The link opens our signing surface (powered by SpitShake) where you:
Where's my offer email? First check spam/promotions (Gmail sometimes routes signing emails there). Then verify your intake is actually complete at /intake/start — if any step shows as pending, finish it and the broker review re-queues automatically. Offers typically arrive within 24–72 hours of intake completion, faster during business days.
Can I sign on mobile? Yes — SpitShake renders on iOS + Android. If the signature pad won't register, try rotating to landscape or switching browsers (Chrome/Safari both work).
Can I get the offer by PDF instead of e-sign? For enterprise ($5M+ duty paid) we accommodate wet-ink PDF signing — email enterprise@tariffi.io. For standard SME flow, e-sign is the only path (it's what our broker partners accept as legally binding per 19 CFR § 111.36).
Refunds follow CBP's statutory § 1515 window + each entry's 180-day clock. No platform deadline.
Refund timing is governed by federal statute, not by Tariffi — so we can't compress it, but we can give you honest expectations.
Per entry clock (19 CFR § 174.12): each CBP entry has its own 180-day protest window that runs from the liquidation date. Tariffi prepares the CAPE declaration within that window; the broker transmits via ACE.
CBP decision window (19 U.S.C. § 1515): statutorily CBP has up to two years to allow or deny a protest. In practice most Phase 1 IEEPA claims decide faster because CBP is processing them as a queue.
Treasury settlement: after CBP allows, Treasury ACHs the refund to our segregated FBO clearing account; we split on arrival and send yours to the bank account you provided at intake. ACH runs typically settle within 2 business days of CBP's allow-decision.
Entries requiring CIT filing: if an entry was finally-liquidated more than 180 days ago, the protest window has closed and we file a protective action in the U.S. Court of International Trade instead. CIT cases run on court calendar time — often 6–18 months.
How will I know where my claim is? Status changes trigger milestone emails — check spam if you haven't seen one in a while. Your dashboard at /dashboard shows real-time status regardless of email delivery. If you haven't heard anything in 90 days, email support@tariffi.io — silence usually means we're waiting on CBP, but it's worth confirming.
Treasury ACHs to our FBO escrow → we split → you receive yours. Usually 1–3 business days after CBP allows.
Your refund follows this path from CBP to your bank:
Total time from CBP allow → money in your account: typically 3–5 business days.
Why FBO and not direct to you? Regulatory and operational — the FBO account keeps customer funds legally segregated (not Tariffi's own money), and the split-on-arrival automation is faster and more auditable than invoicing you after the fact. The compliance footer on every page has the full disclosure; detailed treatment is in the Regulatory Disclosures.
What if the ACH bounces? We retry automatically for 5 business days. If it still fails, we email you to verify banking details. If you changed banks during the claim, email support@tariffi.io with the new ABA + account and we route manually.
Is there a way to track it? Yes — /dashboard shows the payout status once CBP has allowed. If you don't have dashboard access yet (pre-launch cohort), email support@tariffi.io and we send a status snapshot.
Jump to the section that matches your role.
$10K–$500K duty paid. Self-serve intake, 10/15/25% tiered contingency, filed by our licensed broker partner.
Refund timing follows CBP's statutory § 1515 protest-decision window (up to two years) and each entry's 180-day protest clock per 19 CFR § 174.12. Most Phase 1 cases move faster than the statutory ceiling — we email you at every milestone. Finally-liquidated entries require a protective filing in the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), which adds court calendar time.
Contingency-only, three tiers. 10% for unliquidated entries, 15% for recently liquidated entries (within 80 days of liquidation), 25% for entries liquidated more than 180 days ago (which require a protective CIT filing). No retainer, no advance fees, no deposits — per 16 CFR § 310.4(a)(2) and disclosed up-front per 16 CFR § 310.3(a)(1). If CBP denies your claim, you owe nothing on the denied portion. The displayed "All-in fee" in our calculator includes every charge you'll ever see from us.
A CBP-licensed customs broker partner, under their own license and ABI filer code, per 19 CFR Part 111. Tariffi is the data-preparation software platform — we do not perform customs business under 19 U.S.C. § 1641. You execute a Limited Power of Attorney directly with the broker, following the partnership structure in CBP Ruling HQ H326926.
AmLaw trade practices typically bill $1,000–1,200/hour plus a 15–40% contingency and run 6–18 months. We charge a tiered 10–25% contingency, target 8–12 weeks filing to Treasury settlement, and never bill hourly. We prep the filings (your licensed customs broker partner files them under 19 CFR Part 111); we don't litigate. For CIT litigation, hire a law firm. For recovering IEEPA duties on past entries, use us.
Denial: you owe nothing on the denied portion. Post-refund audit: our licensed broker partner (Filer of Record) responds to any CBP Form 28 (Request for Information) or Form 29 (Notice of Action) within the scope of the Limited Power of Attorney, at no additional charge. Full liability-allocation terms are in our Terms of Service.
Your ES-003 entry-summary CSV from the ACE portal — the universal export every U.S. broker and Importer of Record can produce. Don't have ACE access? Your customs broker can pull it for you; we request it from them after you complete the legal forms. ES-003 is the only data format we accept (strategic constraint, not a limitation — keeps the prep deterministic).
$500K–$5M duty paid. Underwriter-led discovery across multi-broker portfolios.
A named Tariffi underwriter owns your portfolio kickoff — eligibility scan across all your Filer Codes, recovery-probability heatmap per entry vintage, and a single readout before any filing goes to broker review. Underwriter-led is for importers with multi-broker portfolios where one-size-fits-all intake would miss cross-broker edge cases.
Yes. Our partnership architecture is broker-agnostic — we route each entry's prep to the licensed broker who already has the ABI Filer Code for that entry. No broker-switch disruption to your existing relationships. If a broker we haven't partnered with yet owns some of your filings, we onboard them on your timeline.
Yes — diligence pack on request includes: the broker-partnership regulatory evidence (19 CFR Part 111 + CBP Ruling HQ H326926 + H350722), our FASB ASC 450-30 contingent-recovery memo template, and the full engagement-letter redline. All under NDA.
$5M+ duty paid. Custom pricing, co-advisory with your counsel, diligence pack under NDA.
Custom-priced contingency (typically lower than the standard 10/15/25% tiers at enterprise volume) with co-advisory structure that accommodates your existing tax or trade counsel. Email enterprise@tariffi.io to start the pricing conversation.
AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit, role-scoped database access with audit logging, 7-year retention per 19 CFR Part 163. Under NDA we share our third-party penetration-test summary and subprocessor attestations. Additional certifications disclosed as they land.
Yes. We regularly co-advise engagements where an existing Big 4 tax or trade team owns the workpaper review; our licensed broker partner transmits to CBP under their own license per 19 CFR Part 111. The engagement letter accommodates a side arrangement with your advisor.
You stay Filer of Record on every filing. Flat per-filing data-service fee per 19 CFR § 111.36(c) — never a percentage.
You do. Tariffi is software — we prep ES-003-derived data for CAPE declarations, you transmit under your own ABI Filer Code per 19 CFR Part 111. We never touch CBP servers. CBP Ruling HQ H326926 describes the partnership shape; CBP Ruling HQ H350722 constrains AI classification to 6-digit HS only (statistical suffix determinations are always yours).
Flat per-filing data-service fee per 19 CFR § 111.36(c). The fee is owed by the importer to the broker directly; Tariffi is authorized to remit it on the importer's behalf as a promotional platform credit — in practice you (the broker) invoice us. Never a percentage of the importer's refund, never a referral bounty, never volume-based — those structures would violate § 111.36(b) ("unlicensed person benefit" prohibition). The flat fee is negotiated per-partner based on review volume.
No. The partnership agreement explicitly bars Tariffi from initiating customs-brokerage services with any importer you referred, and commits us to referring such inbound inquiries back to you. Detailed client-relationship clauses are in the broker partnership terms.
No. Each broker partner has an isolated tenant — you see only the CAPE filings assigned to your Filer Code. Tenant isolation is enforced at the database layer with role-scoped access and audit logging. No cross-broker visibility, no aggregated client lists.
Enter your 3-character ACE Filer Code at /broker/enter. We validate against CBP's published broker-of-record registry and provision your portal tenant automatically. If verification fails, check the Filer Code matches your ABI certification exactly (case-sensitive) or email partners@tariffi.io.
Our support widget (bottom-right) can answer most questions instantly, or email support@tariffi.io. Replies within one business day.