5. Tariff alerts
What gets watched
Tariff rates change — sometimes with little notice, and rarely in your favour. DutyLookout re-checks the published schedule daily and compares it against the codes your catalogue actually uses. You are not signed up to a firehose of every tariff change in the United States; you are told about the ones attached to codes you hold.
Alerts are about rates, not classifications. One is raised when a new schedule snapshot changes any rate component on a code your catalogue holds:
- the base (MFN/General) rate on one of your codes changes, or
- a surcharge program affecting one of your codes starts, ends, or changes rate for one of your origin countries.
Each alert names the code, which of your SKUs carry it, which component moved, and the old and new values.
Editing a product does not raise an alert. It re-queues that product for classification, and the result shows up on the Products screen in the usual way.
The Alerts screen
Alerts lists what changed, when, which of your products are affected, and the old and new values. Most entries need no action beyond knowing — but a rate moving from 0% to 7.5% on your best-selling line is worth a same-day conversation with whoever prices your products.
Email digest
When there is something to report, DutyLookout emails the address set in Settings → Alerts (your shop email by default). At most one digest per day, so a busy week in the schedule cannot flood you. No changes means no email — it will not train you to ignore it.
If silence makes you nervous, turn on Weekly summary digest in Settings to get a weekly all-clear even when nothing changed.
The digest is a summary, not a substitute for the Alerts screen.
When a code is withdrawn
Schedule revisions retire codes. If a code you hold disappears from the new schedule, you get an alert showing its base rate going from its old value to no rate — that is what a withdrawn line looks like.
DutyLookout does not re-classify those products for you. Treat that alert as a task: open the affected products and re-classify or override them, because a retired line is one you can no longer declare against.
This is worth understanding: a code that was correct last quarter can be wrong today without anything about your product changing. It is the main reason to leave alerts on.
Next: Settings →