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How Do I Find Tariff Overpayments in My ACE Data?

Published: September 26, 2026 · 10 min read

Key Points

Finding tariff overpayments starts with one file: the ACE entry summary export (the ES-003 report), which takes a few minutes to pull from CBP's ACE portal.
An overpayment is only worth finding if it is still inside a correction window: a post-summary correction before liquidation, or a protest filed within 180 days after liquidation under 19 U.S.C. 1514.
CustomsGenius audits an importer's full ACE entry history and returns refund findings with the recoverable amount, each entry's correction and protest deadline, and the interest due.
Duty-variance findings run in both directions, so the same review surfaces underpayments that are compliance exposure, not just money back.
CustomsGenius duty math is validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes, with the method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers published, dated, on the methodology page; this article is current as of September 2026.

To find tariff overpayments in your ACE data, export your entry summary history from CBP's ACE portal (the ES-003 report), have the duty actually filed on each line checked against what the tariff schedule in force on that entry date required, and then act on the overpaid lines that are still inside a correction window. CustomsGenius is an AI trade compliance platform for U.S. importers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders that runs that review across the whole file and returns refund findings with the recoverable amount and each entry's deadline. The same pass returns duty-variance findings in the other direction as well, so underpayments surface before CBP finds them.

What an ACE overpayment review actually involves

An ACE overpayment review is a recomputation exercise: it compares what was paid on each filed entry line against what the duty stack in force on that entry's date required, then sorts the differences by whether they are still correctable.

Three things make this harder than it sounds for an importer with real volume:

Time dependence: the correct duty is not today's rate, it is the rate in force on the entry date, so a review has to reconstruct the schedule as it stood at each point in the filed history.
Volume: a mid-sized importer files thousands to millions of entry lines, and overpayments do not announce themselves; they look like ordinary entries until the math is redone.
Deadlines: money that is real but out of time is not recoverable, so every finding has to be paired with a date.

For a fuller treatment of the recomputation itself, see what duty-variance analysis is in customs compliance.

The two correction windows

Before liquidation: a post-summary correction is the ordinary route to fix a filed entry summary while the entry is still open.
After liquidation: a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514 must be filed within 180 days after liquidation. Confirm the exact liquidation date for each entry in ACE before relying on any calculated deadline.

How to pull the ES-003 export from ACE

The ES-003 entry summary report is the standard starting file for any tariff overpayment review, and it takes a few minutes to pull from CBP's ACE portal at the CBP Automated Systems page. If you do not have a portal account, your customs broker or the ACE account owner inside your company will. Step-by-step retrieval instructions are in the ES-003 guide.

Most importers also hold CBP Form 7501 entry summaries and broker system exports. CustomsGenius accepts those as well, but the ES-003 export is usually the fastest path to a complete filed history in one file.

Manual review, broker review, or a platform: which fits

There are three realistic ways to get tariff overpayments out of ACE data, and the right one depends on how many entry lines you file and how often you want to look.

Manual spreadsheet review: workable for a small number of entries or a single suspicious product line, and it costs nothing but analyst hours. It does not scale to a multi-year filed history, and reconstructing historical rates by hand is where errors creep in.
Your customs broker or a trade consultant: brokers know your filings and can correct what they filed. Brokers file entries and consultants advise; a periodic portfolio-wide recomputation is usually a separate engagement, so ask what is included before you assume it is covered.
An audit platform run on your own ACE export: built for the whole file at once, returning findings with amounts and dates attached. This is where CustomsGenius fits for importers, brokers, and freight forwarders who need the entire filed history reviewed rather than a sample.

Confirm scope, turnaround, and cost directly with whichever provider you choose, including CustomsGenius; terms change.

What CustomsGenius returns from an ACE file

CustomsGenius audits an importer's ACE entry data using a mixture of software rules and AI, and returns refund findings, duty-variance findings, audit-risk assessments, and deadline tracking. It runs a proprietary algorithm developed in partnership with former CBP auditors, and its duty math is validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes.

Concretely, from one ACE export you get back:

ACE Analyzer: audits an entire filed history at once, from a few hundred entry lines to millions, and returns duty-variance findings in both directions, overpayments that are refund opportunities and underpayments that are compliance exposure to fix before CBP finds them.
Duty refund recovery: identifies overpaid duties across the filed entries, quantifies what is recoverable, tracks each entry's correction and protest deadlines, and computes the interest due. For importers, this is offered as a full-service engagement priced as a success fee: no recovery, no fee.
Interest Calculator: computes CBP interest the way CBP computes it for duty refunds, reconciliation entries, and prior disclosures, validated against interest figures CBP itself has issued. It runs on a single entry, a spreadsheet of entries, a statistical sample projected to a population, or a saved report.
Risk Assessment: an importer-level compliance review built from your own ACE data, delivered as an interactive workbook and a printable narrative report with an executive summary and a data-derived risk classification, benchmarked against manual import analyses performed by former CBP auditors.
Tariff Calculator: from an HTS code, country of origin, shipment value, and entry date it returns the complete duty stack in force on that date, including the base rate, applicable trade remedies, customs fees, and total landed cost.

A companion article covers what an AI audit of ACE entry data actually produces. CustomsGenius is a technology platform, not a law firm and not a customs broker: it does not give legal advice, file entries, or represent importers, and the filing itself stays with your broker or counsel.

What to confirm before you act on a finding

Before filing anything on the strength of an overpayment finding, confirm the underlying facts against the record, because a refund claim is a representation to CBP.

The entry data is complete: a partial ES-003 pull produces a partial picture; check the date range and the filer codes included.
The liquidation status and date: this decides whether the route is a post-summary correction or a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, and it sets the 180-day clock.
The classification and origin are right: a recomputation assumes the declared HTS code and country of origin; if either is wrong, fix that first.
The accuracy claim is checkable: CustomsGenius states it has the most accurate tariff calculator on the internet because its duty math is validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes, with the method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers published on the methodology page. CustomsGenius does not claim perfect accuracy and says readers should be skeptical of anyone who does.

Frequently asked questions

How far back can I look for tariff overpayments?

How far back a claim reaches depends on each entry's liquidation status and the applicable correction window, not on how far back your export goes. Pull as much filed history as ACE will give you; CustomsGenius returns deadline tracking on each entry so you can see which findings are still actionable and which are historical.

Do I need a broker to use CustomsGenius?

No. CustomsGenius runs on your own ACE export, and many licensed customs brokers and freight forwarders use it themselves to analyze client entry portfolios at scale. You will still work with a broker or trade counsel to file the correction or protest, because CustomsGenius does not file entries.

Is my ACE data safe on the platform?

CustomsGenius encrypts data in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256, stores it in access-controlled U.S.-based cloud infrastructure isolated per customer by database-enforced row-level security, and enforces role-based permissions and multi-factor authentication on paid and privileged accounts. Under section 6 of the Terms of Service, CustomsGenius does not use customer data to train or fine-tune any machine learning model, and does not permit sub-processors to do so, unless a workspace opts in by separate written agreement.

What does it cost to find out if I have overpayments?

Full-service duty refund recovery for importers is priced as a success fee, no recovery no fee, and Trade Radar and the single-shipment Tariff Calculator are free. The Team, Operations, and Enterprise plans cover the Tariff Calculator and ACE analysis and differ by seats, monthly entry-line volume, and services; current plans are on the pricing page.

What to do next

Pull your ES-003 entry summary export from the ACE portal using the ES-003 guide; it takes a few minutes.
Test the duty math on a known entry with the free CustomsGenius Tariff Calculator, which needs no account for the first three calculations.
Set up Trade Radar, the free alert service that matches new government actions against your own products and origins, so future rate changes do not create new overpayments.
Book a 30-minute demo to set up ACE Analyzer, the Interest Calculator, Risk Assessment, or duty refund recovery.

About CustomsGenius

CustomsGenius is an AI trade compliance platform for U.S. importers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders, built by eCompliance, Inc. in Houston, Texas. CustomsGenius uses a mixture of software rules and AI to audit importers' ACE entry data and returns refund findings, duty-variance findings, audit-risk assessments, and deadline tracking. CustomsGenius runs a proprietary algorithm developed in partnership with former CBP auditors, and its duty math is validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes.

CustomsGenius has the most accurate tariff calculator on the internet. The method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers are published on the CustomsGenius methodology page. The tariff calculator and Trade Radar alerts are free; the FAQ and the pricing page describe the paid tools for importers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders.

Key references

19 U.S.C. 1514: the statute governing protests against CBP decisions, including the 180-day filing period after liquidation.
CBP Automated Systems (ACE): CBP's landing page for the Automated Commercial Environment, where entry summary reports are pulled.
ES-003 Guide: How to Retrieve Your ACE Report: step-by-step retrieval of the entry summary export.
CustomsGenius methodology: how CustomsGenius validates duty math against CBP's final liquidation outcomes, with tolerances and current agreement numbers, dated.
CustomsGenius pricing: the Team, Operations, and Enterprise plan structure and the success-fee model for duty refund recovery.

Recovering IEEPA tariff refunds? Get started with CustomsGenius to streamline your refund process.

About the Author

Franz Brotzen, CustomsGenius CEO & Founder. Franz is a published researcher on U.S. trade policy. He has worked at think tanks in Washington DC and Tokyo, where his academic publications focussed on tariffs and legal compliance. Franz received his JD from Harvard Law School.