Get the answer before the call.

GingerOS is GingerControl’s AI trade compliance platform, not an operating system you install. It runs on your process and the data you have, ERP or not. It watches new rules and changes in your parts and supplier records, rechecks every SKU a change touches, asks for missing product facts before it suggests an HTS code, and writes results back only where you approve, with the reasoning on record.

GingerControl builds GingerOS, the AI trade compliance platform that runs on your process. Every classification carries its reason, and every change in your company, a new part, supplier or purchase, triggers its own recheck. Our tools, from the Classification Researcher to Compliance Radar, also work on their own at app.gingercontrol.com.

No. Our Classification Researcher, one of the GingerLite tools at app.gingercontrol.com, gives one product its HTS code with the reasoning. GingerOS is the platform we build around your process: classification in batches and from your BOMs, tariff changes, export control, FTA eligibility and origin documents, across all your parts, plants and suppliers.

Both. The core is shared: the classification reasoning, the rule data and the audit trail. The flow, screens, step names and connections are built around your company, and you see a prototype of your own flow in three days.

Yes. GingerControl is the trade name of Flowyth Co., a Delaware corporation founded in 2025 by Chen Cui and Sean Yu, with its principal office at 701 Tillery Street in Austin, Texas. Backed VC led our $2.1M pre-seed round, announced in May 2026. The About page lists the team and the press, and Case studies shows the system we built for a U.S. customs broker.

Manufacturers and multi-entity groups that import and export a lot: thousands of SKUs, several legal entities or plants, new programs coming in, or a compliance team that is stretched thin. Customs brokers and in-house compliance managers use the tools on their own.

Book one call. We build a clickable prototype of your own flow in three days, review it with you the same week, then send a quote for your project. No system access and no production data. If you only need a tool, open app.gingercontrol.com.

It can suggest one, but a chat answer leaves no audit record, is never rechecked, and may not ask for the fact that decides the code. GingerOS asks first, keeps the reason and the rulings behind every call, and reruns it when your parts, suppliers or the rules change.

Yes. Our classifications are for general reference, educational, and planning purposes; your licensed customs broker reviews each code before it goes on an entry and files the entry, and your ERP keeps its job. GingerOS reads your systems, keeps the reasoning behind each decision, and hands the result to the people and systems that already own it.

Software that uses AI for the research behind import and export decisions: classifying products, working out duties, checking export controls and origin, and finding which parts a new rule touches. The useful kind shows its reasoning and sources and leaves the final say with a named person. GingerOS is ours, fitted to a manufacturer’s own process.

Mostly for research and records: suggesting HTS and ECCN codes with the reasoning behind them, reading spec sheets and invoices, matching new tariff notices to the parts they touch, and keeping an audit trail of who approved what. A person still makes the final call, and a licensed customs broker reviews a code before it goes on an entry.

It depends on the job. If you run on SAP and want screening, customs and special procedures in one suite, SAP GTS is the natural home. For trade content and screening across many countries, ONESOURCE Global Trade and e2open are built for it. If you are a manufacturer that needs every classification decided with its reason, and rechecked when parts, suppliers or rules change, that is what GingerOS does. Our comparison pages say where each tool is the better pick.

Global trade management (GTM) suites such as SAP GTS, ONESOURCE Global Trade and e2open run the transaction side: party screening and, depending on the suite, trade content across countries, export licenses, customs filings and the codes on file. AI trade compliance software like GingerOS works on the decisions that feed them: which code a part takes and why, what a new rule does to your parts, and which origin documents have expired. Many teams run both. If you are weighing a GTM suite, our SAP GTS alternatives, ONESOURCE Global Trade alternatives and e2open alternatives pages compare the options.

Usually several at once. The ERP holds the product master, the customs broker files entries in its own software, and a global trade management suite such as SAP GTS, ONESOURCE Global Trade or e2open runs party screening and, depending on the suite, trade content, export licenses or customs filing. Tariff lookups, duty calculators and spreadsheets fill the gaps. AI trade compliance software like GingerOS takes on the research and record-keeping that falls between those systems.

No. GingerOS decides the codes and keeps the reasons; your GTM system keeps screening, licenses and filing. Approved results flow into the systems that already own them, with the audit trail attached.

GingerOS is built for manufacturers and multi-entity groups: thousands of SKUs, several entities or plants, or new programs coming in. If you import fewer than about a hundred products a year, or you are a customs broker, the GingerLite tools at app.gingercontrol.com cover the daily work without a project.

Every decision keeps its reasoning, the rulings it relied on, the person who approved it and the date, along with any override and its reason. Records export any time by CSV or API and can be kept for the five years 19 CFR 163.4 requires.

Start with the Prototype Week: one call, then a clickable prototype of your own flow in three days, with no system access and no production data. If you go ahead, we agree a test set, an answer key and a pass line before we build, and if you are not satisfied before MVP acceptance, the deposit is refunded in full.

It is assigning a Harmonized Tariff Schedule code to an imported product. The code sets the duty rate when the product enters the United States, and it follows the General Rules of Interpretation: you look at what the product is made of, what it does and how it is used.

It follows the General Rules of Interpretation, the framework CBP uses, not text matching. It spots composite goods under GRI 3(b), weighs which component gives the product its essential character, and asks you a question when a fact is missing instead of guessing. Every result comes with its full reasoning and the CBP rulings it relied on.

Ask what was measured. A 6-digit match is far easier than the full 10-digit code an entry needs, and most published figures are self-reported, ours included: 99.86% at the 10-digit level on GingerControl’s own internal test of 1,000+ products. Every GingerOS result shows its reasoning, so your team can check it against the Section and Chapter Notes and CBP rulings; How we test lays out our method ruling by ruling. In a project we also test on your own parts against an answer key you agree before we build.

PDF documents, JPG images and XLSX spreadsheets: spec sheets, data sheets, invoices, anything that describes what the product is made of and what it does.

In GingerOS, yes: batch classification and BOM upload are GingerOS features, and the Classification + Tariff Calculation API takes 120 items per call by default, which we can size to your throughput. In the GingerLite app, each product is its own case with its own report, reasoning and sources.

Six rules from the World Customs Organization that decide how goods are classified. GRI 1 says the heading terms and the Section and Chapter Notes come first; GRI 2 to 6 handle unfinished goods, mixtures, sets and goods that fit more than one heading.

Yes, as research. Our classifications are for general reference, educational, and planning purposes, and you stay responsible for reasonable care. Classifying goods for an entry is customs business under 19 U.S.C. § 1641, so before a code goes on an entry, your licensed customs broker reviews it and files the entry. The Compliance Disclaimer sets out how our results may be used.

No one can take it for you. A licensed customs broker reviews a classification before it goes on an entry, and our results are for general reference, educational, and planning purposes (see the Compliance Disclaimer). The system keeps the reasoning, the approver and the dates on record, so your own reasonable care holds up.

From the HTS code, the country of origin, the customs value and the date. The total is the base rate, plus any Chapter 99 measures such as Section 301 or Section 232, plus the Merchandise Processing Fee and, for ocean freight, the Harbor Maintenance Fee.

The full stack for one HTS code: base rate, the Chapter 99 measures that stack on it, and MPF and HMF, each shown as its own line. It is one of the GingerLite tools in the GingerControl app at app.gingercontrol.com.

Yes. Pick several of 200+ countries for the same HTS code and value, and see the duty for each side by side, with every component broken out.

The calculation uses the measures in force on the date you enter. When a proclamation, executive order or Federal Register notice changes something, Compliance Radar flags the products it touches and the Policy Briefings summarize it.

Everything it costs to bring a product in: the purchase price plus duties, fees, freight and insurance. The Tariff Calculator works out the duty part.

Five phases from the first call to go-live, typically 8 to 16 weeks. The first two come before any contract: one call, then a prototype of your own flow in three days and a requirements meeting. The Business engagement page lays out every phase.

GingerOS is quoted per project, based on how complex your process is: book a call, and after the Prototype Week we send the quote. The GingerLite app at app.gingercontrol.com is $150 a month for 300 credits, and each classification or Tariff Calculator run uses credits, with top-ups if you run out. The five customs calculators on this site and the Policy Briefings are free.

Very little. We lead the planning and the build; your people supply sample part numbers, answer questions and run the acceptance tests you agree with us up front.

Yes. Alongside GingerOS we run a few focused services: trade advisory, compliance audits, duty drawback, IEEPA refunds and PO reconciliation. Each one starts from your records, and the Services page covers what each includes.

Yes. The GingerLite app at app.gingercontrol.com needs no sales call; it is $150 a month for 300 credits. The Policy Briefings, sent when a rule changes, are free, and so are the five customs calculators on this site.

No. Only the parameters a decision needs ever leave R&D, such as a material share, never the recipe.

Yes, through one API layer we set up for your project, not an off-the-shelf connector list: read-only on your ERP and PLM, with write-back only where you approve, connected in stages, starting with files they already export. No master data migration, and on-premises deployment can be discussed if you need it.

No. If you have no ERP, we set up your data storage and design a data flow for your team. If you have one or several, GingerOS reads them read-only.

Yes. We clean and organize your data first, then build the AI system on it. After that, GingerOS asks for any missing fact before it suggests a code.

Anything in text or image form: emails, PDFs, Excel files, scanned documents and photos. Video is not supported.

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The data security section on our home page covers model training, where your data runs and monitoring.

No. We never use customer data to train AI models. Our privacy policy says so, and how your data is used is written into the contract.

Yes, for enterprise customers. The Classification + Tariff Calculation API returns an HTS code, the base rates and each Chapter 99 duty layer in one call, in the order you sent them: 120 items per call by default, and we can size that to your throughput. It starts with a call; the API manual has the fields and examples.

The HS code is the 6-digit international code from the World Customs Organization, the same in every member country. The U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule adds four digits: the 8-digit subheading sets the duty rate and the last two are a statistical suffix. A U.S. entry needs all 10.

You pay the wrong duty, and CBP can ask for information or propose a change. If the error is a violation under 19 U.S.C. § 1592, penalties run up to twice the lost duties, taxes and fees for negligence (a failure of reasonable care) and up to four times for gross negligence, capped at the goods’ domestic value, and up to the domestic value for fraud. Telling CBP first, through a prior disclosure, cuts a negligence penalty to interest on the unpaid duty.

Legally, yes. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1641 an importer can transact customs business for itself and file its own entries, usually through ABI software in ACE. Express carriers such as UPS, FedEx and DHL clear the parcels they carry through their own licensed brokerage unless you name another broker, which is why many small importers never hire one directly. Companies with regular formal entries usually use a broker, because the rules change often and errors carry penalties. If you use our classifications, a licensed customs broker reviews each code before it goes on an entry.

The importer, with reasonable care: under 19 U.S.C. § 1484 the importer of record declares the classification on the entry, usually prepared by its licensed customs broker. CBP can question it and settles it when the entry liquidates, subject to a protest. For an answer CBP is bound by before you import, request a ruling under 19 CFR Part 177.

A freight forwarder books and moves the shipment. A customs broker is licensed by CBP under 19 U.S.C. § 1641 to handle customs business for others: classification, entries and duty payments. Only a licensed broker, or the importer itself, can file your entry.

The importer of record pays the duties, taxes and fees to CBP, with the entry summary or on a monthly statement. That is usually the U.S. buyer; a foreign supplier pays only when it acts as importer of record, as in a DDP sale. How much of the cost is passed on in prices is a commercial decision between buyer and seller.