Use cases

Trade compliance software for importers, brokers and DTC brands

Trade compliance software has to fit the person doing the classifying, whether that is an ops manager with forty new SKUs, a compliance lead prepping for an audit, or a 3PL classifying for thirty clients at once. Classify a product here first, then read how each team uses it.

Published pricing · 10-digit HTSUS with written reasoning · 2026 duty layers included

Customs declaration · AI classifier

FORM TW-01

01 · Product description

02 · Origin

03 · Destination

04 · Value (USD)

The short answer

Trade compliance software assigns tariff codes, calculates duty and landed cost, and keeps a record of why each decision was made. Which features matter depends on the team: ops wants speed on new SKUs, compliance wants one consistent and defensible record, finance wants landed cost before the purchase order, and a 3PL wants to do all three across many clients. TariffWise covers US import classification and duty from $59 a month, and the sections below map each role to the part of the job it solves.

IMPORT / EXPORT OPS

The SMB operations manager

Owns customs paperwork and eats the cost of every misclassification.

New supplier, forty new SKUs, and the broker quotes a per-line fee with a three-day turnaround. Instead: paste each description, get the code, the rationale and the landed cost in seconds, and send the broker only the two rows the classifier marked low-confidence.

Classify new SKUs the day they appear, not the week after.

COMPLIANCE

The trade compliance manager

The decision maker. Needs consistent, auditable classifications the team cannot drift from.

Three people classify, three people classify differently. TariffWise gives everyone the same engine, the same rationale format, and one saved history, so "why did we file 6110 in March and 6109 in June?" has an answer with names and reasoning attached.

One consistent, defensible record across the whole team.

ECOMMERCE / DTC

The cross-border DTC brand

Hundreds of SKUs, thin margins, DDP checkout that must not lie.

International pricing built on the supplier invoice alone quietly loses money on every duty-heavy SKU. Classify the catalog, get the duty and tax per lane, and set international prices from the true landed cost. The landed cost calculator covers the freight-and-fees half of that math.

Prices built on landed cost, not on hope.

3PL / FORWARDER / BROKER

The 3PL and the broker desk

Classifies on behalf of many clients; the manual volume is the margin killer.

A forwarder's classification desk does the same lookup dance hundreds of times a week. Run client descriptions through TariffWise first: the routine cases clear in seconds with a rationale you can forward, and human expertise concentrates on the rows that genuinely need it.

Cut per-shipment classification labor, keep the judgment calls.

FINANCE

The finance and procurement lead

The budget owner. Cares about duty overpayment, penalty exposure and broker spend.

Duty overpaid on a wrong code never announces itself; it just recurs on every entry. Finance uses TariffWise to sanity-check the codes behind the biggest duty lines and to model broker-fee replacement with the ROI numbers on the pricing page.

Duty spend you can explain line by line.

Which trade compliance plan fits which team

The plan follows the number of products you classify in a month and the number of people who touch codes. A brand that launches 30 SKUs a season sits comfortably on Starter. A compliance team re-checking a 5,000-line catalog after the July 24 tariff layer needs bulk CSV and several seats. A 3PL or broker desk feeding codes into its own system needs the API.

Plan	Typical team	Classifications a month	Seats, CSV, API	Price
Starter	Solo importer or a small DTC brand getting classification off spreadsheets.	100	1 seat	$59 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly
Growth	A growing importer or exporter with a small ops team and a real SKU flow.	1,000	5 seats, bulk CSV	$199 a month, or $99 a month billed yearly
Business	A high-volume trade team or 3PL classifying for many clients.	10,000	20 seats, bulk CSV, REST API	$499 a month, or $249 a month billed yearly
Enterprise	Large trade departments and brokers classifying for many entities or clients.	20,000	50 seats, bulk CSV, REST API	$998 a month, or $499 a month billed yearly

Compare that with the per-line route. Brokers commonly charge somewhere around $5 to $15 for each extra HTS line on an entry and more for a full product review, which is why a catalog of a few hundred SKUs usually costs less to classify on a monthly plan than through broker line fees. The arithmetic for your own volume is on the pricing page, and the full broker comparison is in customs broker vs classification software.

What this trade compliance software covers

US import classification to the 10-digit HTSUS line, with the GRI reasoning and two runner-up codes saved per product.
The 2026 duty stack on each code: base rate, Section 301 lists, the July 24 forced-labor layer by origin, Section 232 where it applies, plus MPF and HMF.
Landed cost per unit, so finance can price a purchase order before it ships.
One shared history across the team, which is the audit trail a CBP request asks for.

What it leaves to a broker or a larger suite

Filing the entry in ACE, the customs bond and the conversation with CBP at the port.
Denied party screening, export licensing (ECCN) and FTZ inventory control.
Free trade agreement qualification across many countries at once.
Binding rulings, which only CBP issues.

If screening and export controls are a real part of your week, an enterprise suite is the right purchase and our ONESOURCE Global Trade alternative page shows which modules can be split off. If most of the work is choosing codes and pricing duty for US imports, compare the classifiers side by side in the best HS code classification software roundup.

Trade compliance software questions

How much does trade compliance software cost?

Published self-serve plans for US import classification start around $59 a month for 100 classifications, and TariffWise runs $59, $199, $499 and $998 a month (half that per month when billed yearly). Enterprise trade suites such as ONESOURCE, Descartes or SAP GTS quote per customer and usually add implementation, so their first-year cost runs far higher.

Do small importers need trade compliance software?

Not always. An importer with a handful of stable products can rely on a broker and a binding ruling. Software starts paying for itself once you add new SKUs every month, pass roughly 40 to 50 distinct products, or have more than one person choosing codes, because consistency and a written record become the hard part.

What is the best trade compliance software for a small importer?

For a US importer whose main job is getting 10-digit HTSUS codes and duty right, the best fit is a published-price classifier with written reasoning and bulk upload, not an enterprise suite. If you also need denied party screening, export licensing or FTZ inventory, you need a broader suite and should budget for a quote.

Can trade compliance software replace a customs broker?

No. Software can do the classification and duty math a broker bills per line for, but a licensed broker or your own filer still transmits the entry, manages the bond and answers CBP. Most teams use software for the first pass on every SKU and send the broker only the close calls.

Who is responsible for the HTS code, the software or the importer?

The importer of record. Under 19 USC 1484 you must use reasonable care to classify your goods, and that stays with you whichever tool or broker picks the code. Software helps you meet it by saving the reasoning behind each code so you can show how the decision was made.

Whichever desk you sit at, start the same way

Classify something real on the live demo, then create your account and get the workspace built for your team.

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