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518 artifacts · built 5/7/2026
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App Prototypes 2026-05-06

CapeClaim

Prototype
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CapeClaim

The IEEPA tariff-refund copilot for small importers — sort your entries, build the CAPE Declaration CSV, and walk a CBP-rejection-proof filing checklist in one sitting.

Date: 2026-05-06 Form factor: Web app (single-page; mobile-friendly) Status: Prototype

What it is

CapeClaim is a single-page workspace for small importers (Shopify DTC sellers, Amazon FBA brands, B2B distributors) who have IEEPA tariffs to recover after the February 2026 Supreme Court ruling. It scans an importer's entries, sorts them into "file today / rush / lost" buckets under the CBP Phase 1 rules, generates the exact Entry Number CSV that CBP's CAPE portal accepts, and walks a checklist that addresses the most common rejection reasons.

Who it serves

Small US importers — solo founders, e-commerce SMBs, and small B2B distributors — who paid IEEPA tariffs over the last two years and now want to claim them back without paying a Big-4 customs consultancy a contingency fee.

The pain is concrete: as of late April 2026, ~75,000 CAPE Declarations had been submitted and CBP was rejecting roughly 15% of them, while ACE account approval was running 6–8 weeks. Small businesses without a broker on file are the ones losing money on the timeline. (Supply Chain Dive, 2026-04-29, CBS News, 2026-05-01)

Why it could be profitable

Monetization model:

  • $99 flat fee per consolidated CAPE filing package (eligibility report + CSV + filing kit).
  • $399 Pro tier with a vetted-broker match for importers without ACE/CAPE access (filing fee included).
  • Success fee variant: 5% of refunds received, capped at $750 per filing — undercuts the 10–25% taken by traditional customs consultancies.
  • B2B/white-label: revenue-share with Shopify Apps, Amazon Selling Partner integrations, and customs-broker firms that want to offer self-serve to long-tail clients.
  • Recurring: as Phase 2 (post-liquidation entries beyond the 80-day window) opens later in 2026, every prior CapeClaim user is a re-engagement candidate.

Demand rationale (why now):

  • The Supreme Court's 6–3 ruling on February 20, 2026 invalidated IEEPA-based tariffs, opening up an estimated $166 billion in potential refunds across US importers. (Fortune, 2026-04-20)
  • CBP's CAPE refund portal went live on April 20, 2026; the first refunds began arriving on May 11, 2026. Phase 1 is limited to unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation — meaning every passing day, more entries fall out of eligibility. (CBS News, 2026-05-01, CBP, 2026)
  • 42% of small businesses cite tariff costs as their primary financial concern, but most do not have an in-house customs team or the cash to hire a contingency-fee consultancy. (Fortune, 2026-04-20)
  • 15% of early CAPE filings were rejected — almost always for issues a 60-second sanity check would catch (filer-code mismatches, ineligible Section 232/301 entries mixed in, malformed entry numbers). (CBS News, 2026-05-01)
  • Etsy and eBay told sellers they cannot issue refunds for the duties their carriers prepaid — leaving the marketplace's small importers to file directly. (EcommerceBytes, 2026-04-20)

A flat-fee, software-led service that turns "I don't even know if I'm eligible" into a downloadable CSV in 10 minutes has clear price-disruption headroom against the 10–25% contingency model, and the seasonal cliff of the 80-day window creates a constant inbound funnel.

Form factor & scope

A single-page web app, mobile-friendly. The prototype demonstrates a 4-step flow against three sample importer profiles; a production version would integrate ACE entry pulls (via licensed brokers' APIs), HTS-code validators, and direct CAPE submissions for users with ACE access.

Minimum viable scope demonstrated: importer selection → eligibility scorecard → refund detail with per-entry toggling → CAPE-format CSV preview, download, and copy → filing checklist with common-rejection reference.

How to run it

  1. Open index.html in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari).
  2. The first sample importer (Ridgeline Goods Co.) loads automatically. Pick a different importer from the left rail to see the same flow against an FBA seller (with a broker) or a B2B distributor (with mixed Section 232 entries).
  3. Step through the 4 panels — the entry-level checkboxes in Step 2 update the totals and the CSV in Step 3 live.
  4. Click Download CAPE.csv in Step 3 to get the actual single-column CSV that CBP's CAPE upload accepts.

Note: sample-data.json is also embedded inline as a <script type="application/json"> block inside index.html, so the prototype runs directly from file:// without a local web server.

What's in this prototype

  • Sticky topbar with a CAPE-portal LIVE pill and a running "total eligible refund" pill that updates as you change importers or toggle entries.
  • Importer rail: three sample profiles (Shopify DTC, Amazon FBA, B2B distributor), each with their own broker situation, persona, and access notes.
  • Step 1 — Eligibility scorecard: bucket counts (Eligible / Rush / Ineligible), refund total, and a sortable table of all entries tagged by bucket. The bucketing logic actually implements the Phase 1 rules (unliquidated OR within 80 days of liquidation; IEEPA programs only; Section 232/301 excluded).
  • Step 2 — Refund detail: per-entry refundable amount, days-to-deadline, and a checkbox to exclude an entry from the filing — the totals and the CSV update live.
  • Step 3 — CAPE Declaration CSV: a CBP-format preview (single column Entry Number), a Download button that produces a real .csv, and a Copy-to-clipboard control.
  • Step 4 — Filing checklist: 8 click-to-check items that address the most common rejection reasons, plus a callout for importers without a broker that explains the 6–8-week ACE access wait.

Roadmap

  • ACE entry-pull integration: connect via licensed-broker APIs so the user doesn't need to enter or upload entry numbers manually.
  • HTS-code IEEPA validator: classify each line of an entry (IEEPA vs. Section 232/301/AD-CVD) automatically using the HTSUS Chapter 99 cross-reference.
  • Phase 2 launcher: when CBP opens the post-80-day window, automatically re-flag the user's previously-ineligible entries and walk them through the protest path.
  • Broker marketplace: pre-vetted customs brokers willing to file consolidated declarations on behalf of small importers for $40–$120/filing.
  • Slack/email refund tracker: monitor the user's CAPE submissions for CBP acceptance, rejection, and ACH credit posting.

Sources

Requirements

CapeClaim — Requirements

Goals

  • Let a small importer go from "I might have a refund" to a downloaded, CBP-format CAPE Declaration CSV in under 10 minutes.
  • Surface every entry's Phase 1 status (eligible / rush / ineligible) without the user needing to know the underlying CBP rules.
  • Prevent the most common CAPE rejections (Section 232/301 included, filer-code mismatch, malformed entry numbers, expired window) before the user ever uploads.
  • Make the refund total feel real: a running figure that tracks the user's choices live.

Primary user

A solo or small-team importer (Shopify DTC, Amazon FBA, small B2B distributor) who paid IEEPA tariffs over the last two years and is trying to recover them. They typically know their entry numbers and broker (if any) but do not know the 80-day rule, the difference between IEEPA and Section 232/301, or how to format a CAPE upload. They are working under deadline pressure because every day, more of their liquidated entries fall outside the 80-day Phase 1 window.

Functional requirements

  • FR1: Load and parse a sample dataset of 3 importer profiles, each with 7–10 entries, covering eligible, rush, and ineligible states.
  • FR2: Bucket every entry into one of eligible, rush (≤14 days to window expiry), or ineligible (Section 232/301 OR past 80 days), implementing the actual CBP Phase 1 rules.
  • FR3: Display an importer-level eligibility scorecard with counts per bucket and a refund total.
  • FR4: Display a per-entry table with country, HTS, description, value, program, status, IEEPA paid, and bucket tag.
  • FR5: Provide a refund-detail step where each eligible entry can be toggled in or out of the CAPE Declaration with a checkbox; totals must update live.
  • FR6: Generate a CAPE Declaration CSV in the exact format CBP accepts: single column header Entry Number, one entry per row, only included entries.
  • FR7: Provide a Download button that produces a real .csv file with a name including the importer slug and the filing date.
  • FR8: Provide a Copy-to-clipboard control for the CSV preview.
  • FR9: Provide a 4-step navigator (Eligibility → Refund detail → CAPE CSV → Filing checklist) with Back/Next controls.
  • FR10: Provide a click-through filing checklist with 8 items addressing the most common rejection reasons.
  • FR11: Surface the importer's broker situation and ACE-access notes prominently on the importer header.
  • FR12: Run from file:// without a local server (sample data inlined into index.html).

User stories

  • As a small Shopify seller, I want to see how much I'm owed in IEEPA tariffs without paying anyone, so that I can decide whether the filing is worth my time.
  • As an Amazon FBA seller with a broker, I want to give my broker a single CSV, so that they can file my consolidated CAPE Declaration without a back-and-forth.
  • As a B2B distributor with mixed Section 232 and IEEPA entries, I want the tool to refuse to include the 232 entries, so that I don't trigger a rejection that delays the IEEPA portion of my refund.
  • As an importer whose entries are about to fall outside the 80-day window, I want the tool to flag those entries as urgent, so that I file them first.
  • As a non-expert user, I want a checklist of common rejection reasons, so that I don't make an avoidable filing mistake.
  • As a user, I want my totals and CSV to update the moment I exclude an entry, so that I can experiment with what to file.
  • As a user without a broker, I want the tool to tell me what to do, so that I don't waste 6 weeks waiting for ACE access.

Non-functional requirements

  • Performance: page interactive in under 1 second on a mid-tier laptop; all interactions update the DOM in under 100ms.
  • Privacy: no network calls except for fonts; no entry data leaves the user's browser.
  • Accessibility: semantic HTML5, focusable controls, sufficient color contrast on text against panel backgrounds.
  • Browser support: latest two versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari.
  • Self-contained: no build step; works on file:// open.

Out of scope (for the prototype)

  • Real ACE/CAPE submissions or any CBP API integration.
  • Real HTS-code lookup or auto-classification.
  • PDF or filing-package generation beyond the single CAPE CSV.
  • Authentication, accounts, or persistence across browser sessions.
  • Payments / paywall for the proposed monetization tiers.
  • Phase 2 (post-80-day) protest workflow.

Open questions

  • What does a real production data ingest look like — CSV upload by the user, ACE pull via broker API, or both?
  • For the success-fee variant, who tracks the actual refund posted to the importer's ACH? CBP, the broker, or our own polling?
  • Is there enough margin to bundle a vetted broker into the $99 tier without taking from the success fee?
  • Should Phase 2 (when CBP opens it) be a separate product or a graduation path inside this app?