CBP's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is the single window through which nearly all US import filings pass. For ocean freight, the timeline of required filings begins before the vessel even loads cargo at origin and continues through post-arrival liquidation of the entry. Getting the sequence wrong — filing late, or filing with data that doesn't reconcile across submissions — is how forwarders and importers generate penalties and delays that are entirely preventable.
This article walks through each major filing obligation in chronological order, noting the window, the responsible party, and the practical consequences of missing it.
ISF 10+2: 24 Hours Before Vessel Departure
The Importer Security Filing — commonly called ISF 10+2 — is required for all ocean cargo destined for the US. The "10+2" name refers to 10 data elements provided by the importer (or their licensed customs broker as agent) and 2 elements provided by the ocean carrier.
The importer's 10 elements include: seller, buyer, importer of record number, consignee number, manufacturer (or supplier), ship to party, country of origin, commodity HTSUS numbers, and container stuffing location and consolidator details. The due date is 24 hours before the cargo is laden aboard the vessel at the foreign port.
Late ISF filing carries penalties starting at $5,000 per late filing under 19 CFR Part 149. More practically, a late ISF can cause CBP to hold the container on arrival pending a Do Not Load (DNL) or intensive examination — which costs days, not hours. The ISF data requirements are what make early document receipt critical: you need the commercial invoice and B/L draft data in hand before the cargo loads, not after.
The 2 carrier elements (container status messages and vessel stow plan) are the carrier's obligation, but discrepancies between carrier-provided data and importer-provided ISF data can generate CBP queries against the importer. This is one reason why piece count and container number accuracy in the importer's ISF matters — it needs to reconcile with what the carrier files.
AMS: 24 Hours Before Vessel Arrival at First US Port
The Automated Manifest System (AMS) filing is the carrier's obligation, not the importer's. Ocean carriers are required to transmit cargo manifest data to CBP at least 24 hours before the vessel arrives at the first US port. This manifest data includes the B/L information: shipper, consignee, commodity description, piece count, and weight for each B/L in the shipment.
Importers and brokers care about AMS even though it's the carrier's filing because it's the data CBP uses for pre-arrival targeting. If the AMS manifest data doesn't reconcile with the importer's ISF data, CBP's automated systems flag the discrepancy. A mismatch between the consignee in the ISF and the consignee in the AMS manifest is one of the most common sources of "match error" holds.
When Tradevynt extracts data from the shipment documents, one of the cross-document checks we run is ISF vs. AMS-relevant field alignment — specifically, whether the consignee, piece count, and commodity description in the available documents are consistent. Catching a discrepancy before the AMS is transmitted gives the broker time to contact the shipper or carrier for correction. After AMS transmission, an amendment requires carrier cooperation and has a cost.
ABI Entry: Before Cargo Arrives (or Within 5 Days of Arrival)
The formal customs entry — the ABI entry transmitted to ACE via the importer's broker — has more flexibility than ISF or AMS in timing. For ocean freight, an entry can be filed as early as 5 days before the vessel's estimated arrival date. Filing early is common practice for importers who want to receive "entry release" before the vessel berths, allowing cargo to be released from the port immediately on arrival rather than waiting for customs processing post-arrival.
If an entry isn't filed before arrival, CBP gives the importer 5 business days after arrival to file. After 15 days, unladed and unclaimed merchandise can be sent to a general order (GO) warehouse at the importer's expense.
The ABI entry (CBP Form 3461 for informal entry, or the full Consumption Entry for formal entries) requires all the data the ISF previewed: importer of record, commodity description, HTSUS classification, duty calculation, PGA data flags. The entry is the complete, duty-paying submission. Discrepancies between the entry and the ISF — particularly in HTSUS codes and values — can trigger a CBP query or rate advance.
Entry Summary: 10 Business Days After Release
If the entry was filed as a "free entry" (Entry Summary and Payment of Estimated Duties) at the time of release, the duty payment is also submitted at release. If the entry was filed on a formal consumption entry basis with duties to be reconciled, the Entry Summary (CBP Form 7501) is due within 10 business days of the release of the merchandise.
The Entry Summary is where the formal duty calculation is stated. Any classification differences between what was reported in the informal entry and what's stated in the Entry Summary need to be documented. This is also where first sale valuation claims, FTA duty-free claims, and GSP claims are formalized.
Liquidation: Up to 314 Days Post-Entry
Liquidation is CBP's finalization of the entry. Under standard procedure, CBP has one year from the date of entry to liquidate. Most routine entries liquidate within 3–6 months. An importer can protest a liquidation that results in a rate advance (CBP charging more duty than the importer paid) within 90 days of liquidation notice under 19 USC 1514.
From a document intelligence standpoint, liquidation is the end of the timeline, but it's not the end of the record-keeping obligation. Importers must maintain all entry documentation for five years under 19 CFR Part 163. The value of having structured, searchable records of extracted entry data becomes apparent when a liquidation protest, a CBP audit, or an internal duty drawback claim requires pulling specific entry details from two or three years ago.
Where Late Documents Create Cascading Problems
The ACE filing timeline only works cleanly when documents arrive in time to support each filing window. A commercial invoice that arrives 36 hours before vessel departure — after the ISF deadline — means filing ISF with incomplete commodity data, which means either a late ISF or an amendment ISF, both of which generate exposure.
This is the practical context for why document extraction speed matters. A broker who receives a shipment packet and needs to populate an ISF submission within hours doesn't have time for manual transcription. Extraction that produces structured data in under two minutes from a PDF packet — with field confidence flags for the broker to review — is what makes the ISF deadline achievable for high-volume operations.
The timeline above isn't designed to be comprehensive for every edge case — air freight has different AMS windows, bonded warehouse entries have their own rules, and immediate transportation (IT) entries have different release procedures. But for the standard ocean import workflow, this is the sequence that defines where the compliance exposure lives. Knowing which window is about to close is the first step to not missing it.