No, Borderhound is not a broker and this is very much on purpose.

There are plenty of brokers and service bureaus out there that will clear your U.S. shipments if you provide them the written document such as the commercial invoice.

Within the current status quo, a broker will have your business enter into their proprietary import creation software. Because of this it is very difficult to move to another broker because you are in their "silo". All of your shipping templates, consignees, parts/products, and workflow are in their system and the switch over cost is very high.

Borderhound specializes in just the US import documentation creation that you would then forward to your U.S. Customs Broker to handle clearance. Again, many US Customs brokers or service bureaus will take a commercial invoice via fax or email and then will be able to clear your shipment.

In short, Borderhound frees a business from being silo'd into a particular US Customs broker so that they can shop around for the best broker to meet their needs at a given time.

No, Borderhound only produces the US Customs documents via PDF or HTML that you would forward (e.g. fax or email) to your broker.

Borderhound could easily provide XML and JSON formats that a broker or service bureau may be able to leverage in a more automated way. If we hear of this need it could be implemented pretty easily. Leave some feedback if this is a feature your business would be interested in.

Getting shipment data to US Customs is a solved problem, many service bureaus and brokers have "pipes" to US Customs. Most brokers will accept properly prepared documents so you can shop around for a broker while still maintaining autonomy regarding document creation.

Moreover, with Borderhound you don't have to learn a new US Customs document preparation software every time you want to find or have to find a new Customs broker.

There is some truth to that assertion. Borderhound aims to always be a static, non-vacillating monthly business cost. We're focused only on document creation and accounting/ERP integration and not releasing, so our costs should not fluctuate much. Whereas the costs for releasing can vacillate greatly, which is why being able to shop around for that service is the more powerful freedom. Lastly, we promise to honor you wanting to leave Borderhound and will provide CSV files of your Borderhound data so if you leave this information can be imported into another US importing software.

For the most part, yes; however, give Borderhound a whirl if you are not from Canada and let us know how it goes. There may only be a few tweaks needed to support your country's US importing requirements.

🍁 Toronto, CA 🇨🇦

Yes, we hope to support all of the major ones including ERP software. Probably QuickBooks Desktop integration support is next. One of Borderhound's principal aims is to bridge the gap between accounting, inventory, and ERP apps to make US Customs document preparation as effortless as possible.

But you don't have to wait for us to build the integration as Borderhound will be implementing its own API that will allow you to create your own integration.