What it has to do, how the categories of provider actually differ, what it costs — and the cases where a traditional full-service broker is the better answer than any platform.
Rather read first? How drawback works. Rather just ask? hello@aduaria.com.
Duty drawback software is a system that identifies which of your U.S. import entries qualify for a duty refund, matches those imports to qualifying exports or destructions, calculates the recoverable duty line by line, and files the claim as a type-47 entry in CBP's ACE system. It exists because drawback is a documentation problem before it is a refund: the money is real, but only if every claimed dollar can be traced from an import line to an export under a rule CBP accepts.
Good systems work directly from your existing entry data. Weak ones hand you a spreadsheet and call it automation.
Drawback is a documentation exercise before it is a refund. Every dollar you claim has to be traceable from an import line to an export or destruction, under a rule CBP will accept. These are the capabilities that decide whether a claim survives scrutiny — worth checking against any vendor, including us.
| Capability | Why it decides the outcome |
|---|---|
| HTS classification of every line | Substitution matching happens at the 8-digit level. Wrong code, wrong match, wrong claim — classification is the load-bearing step, not a formality. |
| Direct identification and substitution | Few importers serial-track goods from import to export. Without substitution (19 U.S.C. § 1313(b)/(j)(2)), most real books can't be claimed at all. |
| The statutory "lesser of" rule | Substitution claims are limited to the lesser of the duty paid on the import or on the substituted export. Applied wrong, the claim is overstated — the kind of error CBP finds. |
| Five-year clock, per entry | Claims must be filed within five years of import. Value rolls off continuously, so the system has to surface what expires this quarter, not just a lifetime total. |
| Line-by-line evidence | A number you cannot decompose is a number you cannot defend in an audit. You should be able to see the reasoning behind every matched line. |
| Electronic ACE filing | Drawback is filed as a type-47 entry in ACE. Paper CBP Form 7551 is legacy. |
| Accelerated Payment & Waiver of Prior Notice | These privileges are what turn a refund that waits for liquidation into one paid within weeks. Both need CBP approval, and someone has to apply. |
| Routes non-drawback refunds elsewhere | The IEEPA tariffs struck down in February 2026 refund through CAPE, not drawback — and the two are mutually exclusive on the same entry. Filing drawback there can forfeit the larger refund. |
| Licensed broker sign-off | A drawback claim is a customs entry. The liability framework doesn't disappear because software prepared it. |
The arithmetic is simple enough to check by hand, which is exactly how you should sanity-test any tool's output:
Illustrative arithmetic, not a claimed client result. Drawback looks back five years, so a stable book multiplies this across each open year. Your figure depends on your entries, products, duty mix, and which programs apply.
The most common reason a drawback project stalls is not the software — it is the six months spent assembling data before the software can start. Worth asking any vendor exactly which of these they ingest directly, and which they expect you to produce:
If a vendor cannot tell you plainly which of those they take as-is, assume the assembly work lands on your team.
General information, current as of 31 August 2026 — not legal advice. Tariff programs and CBP processes change; confirm current guidance before filing.
"Duty drawback software" covers three genuinely different models. The right one depends less on features than on your size, your systems, and whether you want a service or a platform.
| Model | Typical pricing | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service drawback broker e.g. Charter Brokerage, Comstock & Holt, J.M. Rodgers |
Managed fee or contingency | Large enterprises with complex, high-volume claims — decades of filing history and dedicated staff assigned to your account. |
| Enterprise trade suite e.g. Descartes, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE |
Annual licence or subscription | Companies already standardised on that suite for classification and filing, where drawback is one module among many. |
| AI-native recovery specialist e.g. Pax AI, Caspian, Zollback |
Usually contingency | Importers who want to keep their current broker and bolt a refund engine onto the data that already exists. Several are licensed brokers themselves. |
| Clearance-native platform Aduaria |
Contingency for drawback | Importers who want the entries filed and the drawback to fall out of that same verified data continuously, rather than as a separate recovery project. |
Categories and named examples reflect each provider's own public materials, reviewed 31 August 2026 — including Pax AI and Caspian. Vendor capabilities and pricing change and vary per engagement; confirm terms directly with any provider, including us.
The last two rows look similar from the outside — both are recent, AI-native, contingency-priced, and several are licensed brokers. The real difference is where the data comes from.
A recovery specialist connects to the records your existing broker and systems already produced, then mines them for refunds. Nothing about how you clear goods has to change, which is precisely the appeal: it is the lowest-friction way to find money that is already sitting there.
Aduaria is clearance-first. It files your entries, so the classification and duty data underneath a drawback claim is data it produced and verified at the time of clearance, rather than data inherited after the fact. Because classification is the load-bearing step in substitution matching, that provenance is the thing most likely to affect a claim's quality — and eligibility surfaces continuously as entries clear, instead of during a periodic look-back. The trade-off is honest and obvious: it only applies if you are willing to move clearance.
Either way a licensed customs broker reviews and signs before anything reaches CBP, and Aduaria' drawback pricing is contingency — no upfront fee, a share of what is actually recovered.
Keep your current broker and just want the refund? A recovery specialist is the more natural fit — Pax AI and Caspian are well-funded, publish clear productised offers, and are designed to bolt on without touching your clearance workflow. Caspian publicly advertises a refund-advance product that pays the recovery upfront; Aduaria has no equivalent, and if cash timing is your constraint that difference is decisive.
Very high volumes with unusual manufacturing rulings? An established full-service broker has decades of specific filing history that no recent entrant — us included — can claim.
Already running an enterprise trade suite end to end? Adding its drawback module usually beats introducing a second system.
Never looked at drawback at all? Start with the arithmetic, not a vendor: run the estimate. If the number is small, the honest answer is that no software is worth buying for it.
Four questions separate the options faster than any feature list — and if you want the providers themselves compared side by side, see the 2026 provider comparison.
Note that "software" and "service" are not really a binary. Full-service brokers run on software; platforms involve people. What differs is where the work sits and how you pay for it — a share of the recovery, or a fee whether or not the recovery arrives.
Duty drawback software identifies which of your import entries are eligible for a duty refund, matches those imports to qualifying exports or destructions, calculates the recoverable duty line by line, and prepares the claim as a type-47 entry for CBP's ACE system. The strongest systems work directly from your entry history rather than asking you to assemble the data by hand.
At minimum: classify every import and export line to the correct 8-digit HTS code, support both direct identification and substitution matching, apply the statutory lesser-of rule, track the five-year filing window per entry, produce line-by-line evidence you can defend in an audit, and file electronically in ACE. It should also flag entries that belong in a different refund process, such as CAPE for the struck-down IEEPA tariffs.
Two models dominate. Contingency pricing takes a share of the duty actually recovered, so there is nothing to pay if nothing comes back. Subscription or licence pricing charges an annual fee regardless of recovery, which suits companies already standardised on a wider trade suite. Aduaria uses contingency pricing: no upfront fee, a share of what it recovers.
A drawback claim is a customs entry, and the liability framework around it does not disappear because software prepared it. Aduaria prepares the claim and a licensed customs broker reviews and signs it before anything reaches CBP. Treat any tool that implies the broker step is unnecessary with caution.
It depends far more on your trade pattern than your size. If you import and later export or destroy a meaningful share of those goods, the recoverable duty is often material even at mid-market volumes — and contingency pricing removes the risk of finding out. Traditional full-service providers have historically concentrated on very large filers, which is why many mid-market importers have never been approached about drawback at all.
Less than the labels suggest. Full-service drawback brokers run on their own software, and software platforms involve people — a licensed broker signs the claim either way. What actually differs is where the work sits and how you pay: a service typically assigns staff to your account for a managed fee or contingency, while a platform automates the matching and calculation and usually charges contingency. Judge them on data handling, evidence quality, and pricing rather than the category label.
Four groups. Full-service drawback brokers such as Charter Brokerage, Comstock & Holt and J.M. Rodgers, best suited to very high volumes and complex rulings. Enterprise trade suites such as Descartes and Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, which make sense if you already run them. AI-native recovery specialists such as Pax AI, Caspian and Zollback, which bolt a refund engine onto your existing broker's data without changing how you clear goods. And Aduaria, which is clearance-first: it files your entries, so drawback runs on data it produced and verified rather than inherited. If you intend to keep your current broker, a recovery specialist is the more natural fit.
Import entry data from ACE with duty paid per line, export evidence such as bills of lading or AES/EEI filings, destruction records where goods were destroyed rather than exported, bills of materials for manufacturing drawback, and HTS classification for both sides of the match. The main difference between vendors is how much of this they ingest directly versus expect your team to assemble.
It should, because the eligibility rules differ by program and getting them wrong is expensive. Section 301 duties on Chinese-origin goods are eligible for drawback per CSMS 18-000419. Section 232 steel and aluminium are excluded, while the April 2026 pharmaceutical proclamation made that category eligible. The IEEPA tariffs struck down in February 2026 refund through CBP's CAPE process instead, and CAPE and drawback are mutually exclusive on the same entry.
Two separate clocks. Setup depends almost entirely on data readiness — if your entry history can be read directly from ACE, this is short; if it has to be reconstructed by hand, it is the longest part of the project. After filing, refunds with Accelerated Payment are typically paid within weeks, while claims without it wait for CBP liquidation, which commonly takes a year or more. First-time claimants also need CBP approval of their privilege applications.
Run the estimate on your own figures in under a minute — no email, no call. If the number is worth pursuing, we'll pin the exact figure from your entries.