Importer setup (CBP + bond + ACE) for US businesses

A named person on our team owns your file and reviews everything that leaves it. Software does a real share of the grinding underneath it — coding, matching, flagging the obvious gaps — but nothing regulated happens without a person’s judgement, and nothing here is signed or filed by an algorithm.

Filing entries on a third party’s behalf requires a CBP-licensed customs broker; CapEasy sets up the importer file and coordinates the broker.

Whatever you already run. Most commonly QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage, Zoho Books and a handful of others — we work inside your system rather than moving you onto one of our own.

A short, free read-only look at what you already have, and a written note on what we found. A scoping call decides the size of the engagement — nothing here commits you to anything.

There is no published price for importer setup (cbp + bond + ace) — it depends on volume, how many entities are involved, and how far behind the books are. We quote after the read-only review, which is free.

Importer setup (CBP + bond + ACE) sits inside registrations & licences, alongside EIN registration, State payroll registrations, Seller’s permit registration. Most clients end up buying the category as a whole rather than one leaf at a time, but starting narrow is fine.

No. There is no import licence to apply for. Any business with an IRS Employer Identification Number can be an importer of record — the EIN itself becomes your importer number. What has to be in place is the EIN, a customs bond, and an ACE Secure Data Portal account, all matching each other.

You can self-file your own entries with no licence at all — that's allowed under 19 U.S.C. §1641 without restriction. A CBP-licensed customs broker is only legally required when someone files entries as an agent for a THIRD PARTY. We set up the importer file either way and can introduce you to a licensed broker if you'd rather have entries filed for you.

We prepare the importer file: the EIN-based importer record, the customs bond application to a CBP-approved surety, and the ACE Secure Data Portal application, with the entity data consistent across all three. Filing an actual entry on your behalf as a third-party agent requires the CBP-licensed customs broker we coordinate; filing your own entries yourself needs no licence and stays entirely in your hands.

CBP sets a continuous bond at the greater of your prior or projected next 12 months of duties, taxes and fees, multiplied by 10%, with an absolute floor of $50,000. We build that projection from your actual or estimated import volume so the bond isn't undersized — which stalls entries mid-year — or oversized, which is premium paid for nothing.

A continuous bond covers every entry for 12 months and suits a business importing regularly. A single-entry bond covers one shipment and has to be repurchased for the next one — it suits a business that imports only occasionally. Which one makes sense depends on your actual import frequency, and we size the recommendation to that.

The EIN is instant if you don't already have one. The bond is typically same-day to a few days through a surety. The ACE Portal account is the piece that takes the longest to clear CBP review, and consistent entity data across all three applications is what keeps that review from stalling.

We flag classifications that look ambiguous so they get a second look, but a tariff classification you'll rely on for an entry is confirmed by you, your staff, or the customs broker filing on your behalf — that's squarely inside the §1641 line, not something we determine.

Legally, no — self-filing your own goods requires no licence. Some importers choose to use a broker anyway for the operational convenience of not running entries themselves. We set the file up self-file-ready by default and only bring a broker into the conversation where it actually adds something.

Yes — the ACE Portal is shared infrastructure for both directions. For exports, shipments over $2,500 per Schedule B line item, or any shipment involving a licensed or controlled commodity, need an Electronic Export Information filing via AESDirect before the goods leave, generating an Internal Transaction Number. We configure that side of the account at the same time as the import setup.

CBP cross-checks entity name, address and EIN across the bond and the ACE account, and a mismatch is the most common reason an ACE application sits unresolved. We pull the entity data once from the EIN record and use the identical string across both applications to avoid that.

CBP's general retention rule is five years from the date of entry. We hand off the importer file organized so that history is easy to produce if CBP requests it, but retaining the actual records is your business's ongoing responsibility.