Landed-cost duty leakage

Landed-cost duty leakage checklist for tariff margin review.

This checklist helps importers separate duty and tariff cost from freight, brokerage, allocation noise, and margin leakage before a specialist conversation.

1. Locate where duty enters landed cost.

Identify whether duty and tariff cost sit in broker files, ERP landed-cost tables, inventory receipts, purchase invoices, or manual allocation workbooks. A useful screen starts by finding the system of record.

2. Check whether allocation hides product-level exposure.

Broad allocation can bury tariff pressure inside average cost. If leadership is asking why margin moved, the review needs product-level evidence: SKU, supplier, item, invoice, shipment, or BOM keys.

3. Mark weak evidence before it becomes a false recovery story.

Missing duty-paid fields, unclear freight/duty separation, or weak downstream matching should become gap notes. The landed-cost margin leakage guide explains the full analysis path.

4. Decide whether the next step is a screen or cleanup.

If duty exposure is material and traceable, a fixed-fee screen can organize the source map. If not, record cleanup should happen before paid specialist time.