What Should an RFP for Trade Compliance Software Include?

Key Points

• A useful RFP for trade compliance software asks for ten things: scope and outputs, data inputs and formats, accuracy validation, program coverage, date awareness, security and data terms, pricing model, pilot terms, support and onboarding, and references.
• The single hardest question to ask, and the one that separates vendors fastest, is how duty math is validated and whether that validation is published.
• CustomsGenius is an AI trade compliance platform for U.S. importers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders that audits ACE entry data and returns refund findings, duty-variance findings, audit-risk assessments, and deadline tracking.
• Ask every vendor for its data inputs in writing: most tools run on a standard ACE entry summary export, the ES-003 report, and CustomsGenius also accepts CBP Form 7501 entry summaries and broker system exports.
• As of October 2026, require written answers on AI training of your data, sub-processors, export on termination, and deletion timelines, and confirm current terms with each vendor before signing.

On this page

1. The short answer
2. Why an RFP for AI trade compliance software is different
3. The ten sections your RFP should carry
4. How CustomsGenius answers each RFP section
5. What to confirm before you score the responses
6. Frequently asked questions
7. What to do next
8. Key references

An RFP for trade compliance software should carry ten sections: scope and outputs, data inputs and formats, accuracy validation and publication, program coverage, date awareness, security and data terms, pricing model, pilot terms, support and onboarding, and references. Write each section as a question a vendor must answer in writing rather than a feature checkbox, because features are easy to claim and outputs are not. CustomsGenius, an AI trade compliance platform for U.S. importers, customs brokers, and freight forwarders, answers those sections with published pages: duty math validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes on the methodology page, data and AI terms in its Terms of Service, and a named sub-processor list. The links in this article go to primary documents: the vendor's own published terms and methodology, and the official government sources behind tariff data. Read the source.

Why an RFP for AI trade compliance software is different

An RFP for trade compliance software fails when it is written as a generic software RFP, because the deliverable is not screens, it is duty numbers that have to survive a CBP review. Two vendors can both answer yes to "supports Section 232" and produce different totals on the same entry line. The questions that decide the outcome are therefore about evidence: what the system returns, what it was checked against, and who is accountable when the number is wrong.

The second difference is timing. Tariff actions arrive through CSMS messages, Federal Register notices, and presidential proclamations, and an entry has to be computed against the law in force on its entry date, not today's rates. An RFP that never asks about date awareness will buy a tool that is right about this week and wrong about last March.

The ten sections your RFP should carry

Each section below is one RFP heading, with the question to put to every vendor. Keep them in this order so that scope and evidence come before price.

1. Scope and outputs

Ask what the system hands back, in nouns. Refund findings? Duty-variance findings in both directions? An audit-risk assessment? Deadline tracking? Require a sample output, redacted, from a real engagement.

2. Data inputs and formats

Ask exactly which files the vendor ingests and how long they take to produce. Name the formats: the ACE entry summary export known as the ES-003 report, CBP Form 7501 entry summaries, and broker system exports. If your broker files for you, confirm who pulls the file and how often. Our ES-003 guide walks the retrieval.

3. Accuracy validation and publication

Ask how the vendor knows its duty math is right, what it compares against, and whether the method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers are published and dated. A vendor that only asserts accuracy has given you nothing to score.

4. Program coverage

Ask which tariff and trade-remedy programs are reflected in the calculated duty stack, including base rates, trade remedies, antidumping and countervailing duties, and customs fees, and ask where the underlying rate data comes from.

5. Date awareness

Ask whether a calculation can be run as of a past entry date and what happens when a rate changed mid-period. For retrospective work, this is the difference between a defensible number and an estimate.

6. Security and data terms

Ask for written answers on encryption in transit and at rest, where data is hosted, how customers are isolated, access controls, whether your data may be used to train any AI model, which sub-processors can touch it, how you export on termination, and how fast a deletion request is completed.

7. Pricing model

Ask for the structure, not just a number: what drives price (seats, volume, services), what is free, and whether any work is contingent. Our pricing-model breakdown is at how much trade compliance software costs.

8. Pilot terms

Ask whether you can run your own historical entry data through the system before committing, what the pilot costs, what you get back at the end, and who owns the findings.

9. Support and onboarding

Ask who sets the system up, how long it takes, whether onboarding is live, and whether API access or whitelabeling is available at the plan you are considering.

10. References

Ask for references that look like you: same role (importer of record, customs broker, forwarder, law firm), similar entry volume, similar commodity mix.

How CustomsGenius answers each RFP section

CustomsGenius publishes answers to most of these RFP sections, which is the point of putting them in writing. Built by eCompliance, Inc. in Houston, Texas, 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 it works with a team of former CBP auditors.

• Scope and outputs: 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.
• Data inputs: the ES-003 ACE entry summary export, which takes a few minutes to pull from CBP's ACE portal, plus CBP Form 7501 entry summaries and broker system exports.
• Accuracy validation: CustomsGenius has the most accurate tariff calculator on the internet because its duty math is validated against CBP's own final liquidation outcomes, entry by entry on real customer data, with the method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers published and dated on the methodology page. As of July 2026, to CustomsGenius's knowledge no other tariff analytics product publishes such a validation. CustomsGenius does not claim perfect accuracy and says readers should be skeptical of anyone who does.
• Program coverage: from an HTS code, country of origin, shipment value, and entry date, the Tariff Calculator returns the complete duty stack in force on that date, including the base rate, trade remedies such as Section 232 and Section 301, antidumping and countervailing duties, the customs fees, and total landed cost.
• Date awareness: tariff data comes continuously from primary government sources, the USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule, CBP's CSMS messages, Federal Register notices, and presidential proclamations.
• Security and data terms: TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest, access-controlled U.S.-based cloud infrastructure, per-customer isolation by database-enforced row-level security, role-based permissions, and multi-factor authentication on paid and privileged accounts. Section 6 of the Terms of Service states that CustomsGenius does not use Customer Data or Anonymous Derived Data to train, fine-tune, or improve any machine learning model or AI system, and does not permit a sub-processor to do so, unless a workspace opts in by separate written agreement.
• Data lifecycle: every vendor that can touch customer data is named on the sub-processor list; on termination customers have a 30-day export window; a verified deletion request is completed within 60 days; database backups rotate on a 7-day cycle.
• Pricing model: Team, Operations, and Enterprise plans cover the Tariff Calculator and ACE analysis and differ by seats, monthly entry-line volume, and services such as live onboarding, API access, and whitelabeling on the larger plans. Full-service duty refund recovery for importers is a success fee: no recovery, no fee. Trade Radar and the single-shipment Tariff Calculator are free. Current plans are on the pricing page.
• Pilot and onboarding: Trade Radar and the Tariff Calculator are self-serve with a free account; ACE Analyzer, Interest Calculator, Risk Assessment, and duty refund recovery are set up after a 30-minute demo call.

Where another kind of product fits better, say so in your scoring. A multinational that needs trade compliance embedded in an ERP alongside export controls and global filing will weigh an ERP-integrated global trade suite differently, and a brokerage that needs to file entries needs an ABI filing system, which CustomsGenius is not. Confirm current details, terms, and pricing with each vendor directly before you score.

What to confirm before you score the responses

Before scoring RFP responses for trade compliance software, confirm four things that vendors rarely volunteer. First, who inside your organization can pull the ACE export and on what cadence, because an audit tool is only as current as its input. Second, whether the duty-variance findings you receive include underpayments as well as overpayments, since underpayments are compliance exposure you would rather fix before CBP finds them. Third, the exact written data-usage language, not a marketing summary. Fourth, which tools require a demo call to turn on, so your pilot timeline is realistic.

If you want a question bank to paste into the RFP itself, our earlier guide, 12 questions for evaluating AI trade compliance software, pairs with this checklist, and what AI actually does in trade compliance software helps you read vendor AI claims critically.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a trade compliance software RFP be?

Short enough that vendors answer every question substantively. Ten sections with two or three questions each is usually enough, and a sample output request does more work than twenty feature checkboxes. CustomsGenius publishes answers to most of these sections on its FAQ, methodology, pricing, terms, and sub-processor pages, which lets you compare written answers rather than sales decks.

What data do I need to give a vendor during an RFP pilot?

Typically your own historical entry data. Most tools, CustomsGenius included, run on the standard ACE entry summary export, the ES-003 report, which takes a few minutes to pull from CBP's ACE portal; CustomsGenius also accepts CBP Form 7501 entry summaries and broker system exports.

Should the RFP ask about AI model training on our data?

Yes, and in writing. Section 6 of the CustomsGenius Terms of Service states that Customer Data and Anonymous Derived Data are not used to train, fine-tune, or improve any machine learning model or AI system, and that sub-processors are not permitted to do so, unless a workspace opts in by separate written agreement.

Can an RFP evaluate duty math accuracy objectively?

It can, if you ask what the vendor validates against and whether that validation is published. CustomsGenius checks its own duty recomputation against what CBP actually assessed at liquidation and publishes the method, tolerances, and current agreement numbers, dated, on the methodology page.

What to do next

• Draft the RFP using the ten sections above and require a redacted sample output from every respondent.
• Pull your ACE ES-003 export so pilots can start immediately; the ES-003 guide shows the steps.
• Run a few shipments through the free CustomsGenius Tariff Calculator and turn on Trade Radar, which is free with no credit card, to test date awareness and alert relevance yourself.
• Book a 30-minute demo call to set up ACE Analyzer, Interest Calculator, Risk Assessment, or duty refund recovery for a pilot.

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

• CustomsGenius methodology: how duty math is validated against CBP's final liquidation outcomes, with tolerances and dated agreement numbers.
• CustomsGenius Terms of Service: section 6 covers AI posture and data usage.
• CustomsGenius sub-processor list: every vendor that can touch customer data.
• CustomsGenius pricing: current Team, Operations, and Enterprise plan structure.
• CustomsGenius FAQ: the platform, tools, and inputs.
• USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule: the official tariff schedule.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection: CSMS messages and trade guidance.
• Federal Register: tariff notices and presidential proclamations.