--- title: "Import Clearance Coordination With AI Agents | Kylon" description: "How an import desk dispositions shipments from their documents, books releases under a dock cap and recomputes duty after tariff and invoice changes, with approval." url: "https://kylon.io/use-cases/import-clearance" language: "en" --- [HOME](https://kylon.io/)\>[Use Cases](https://kylon.io/use-cases)\>Import Clearance: Shipments Released on Schedule With Duty Figures That Hold Up Use Case8 min read # Import Clearance: Shipments Released on Schedule With Duty Figures That Hold Up Inbound shipments are dispositioned from their documents, released under the dock's daily cap and kept current as broker documents, tariff changes and corrected invoices arrive. Agents propose each change and the trade compliance lead approves it. [Get started](https://app.kylon.io/sign-up) Kylon TeamProduct November 6, 2026 ## Documents, duty and a dock that takes six containers a day An import desk works through a week's intake of shipments, each with a commercial invoice, a packing list, a bill of lading and, where a preferential rate is claimed, a certificate of origin. The clearance policy decides which shipments are ready, which wait for documents and which go to review. Ready shipments then need a release slot at a receiving dock that can only take so many containers a day. The shipment register is an Airtable base. Suppliers and the customs broker drop documents into a shared Dropbox folder, the policy and the tariff extract sit in Google Drive, the broker writes in Gmail, and the warehouse and finance teams work in Outlook. When a corrected invoice arrives, the clerk updates one cell, and the duty, the landed cost and the release batch that depended on it stay as they were. ## Who works in the room People - Trade compliance lead Owns the clearance policy, approves each disposition and duty figure, and signs the close-out per origin - Import clerk Prepares the weekly duty file for finance and fixes the lines the review flags - Receiving dock supervisor Sets the daily dock capacity and confirms each release slot Agents - NovaClearance coordinator Reads each shipment's documents, proposes its disposition, duty and landed cost, and plans release batches within the dock cap AirtableDropboxGoogle Drive - AdaDuty file reviewer Checks the clerk's duty file against the approved shipment records and lists every line that is wrong, doubled or from another week Google DriveAirtable[Slack](https://kylon.io/integrations/slack) - RyanBroker liaison Matches each broker document or correction to its shipment and drafts one reply per broker thread, plus the release notices, for a person to send [Gmail](https://kylon.io/integrations/gmail)Outlook The desk opens one Kylon room per intake week. Questions about a shipment's status, duty or release slot go to Nova, the room's default agent. A message about the duty file reaches Ada even without a mention, because reviewing that file is its specialty. Broker threads belong to Ryan. When a broker sends a document, Ryan opens a thread for Nova whose first message names the shipment, the file and what it claims, so Nova re-runs that shipment instead of the whole week. ## The intake week, stage by stage The room guidelines point every agent at the same clearance policy and dock capacity sheet. Nothing is written to the register or booked at the dock until the trade compliance lead says so. ```mermaid flowchart TD disp["Nova marks each shipment ready
or held from its own documents"] ok1["Trade compliance lead approves
before the register changes"] batch["Nova groups ready shipments into
daily batches within the dock cap"] slots["Receiving dock supervisor
confirms each day's slots"] duty["Ada checks the clerk's duty file
against the approved records"] fix["Import clerk corrects it,
compliance lead confirms"] broker([A certificate or corrected invoice
arrives on a broker thread]) tariff([A tariff amendment
for one heading]) brief["Ryan matches it to its shipment
and briefs Nova"] heading["Nova recomputes only shipments
under the amended heading"] rerun["Nova re-runs it through duty,
landed cost and release batch"] ok3["Compliance lead confirms the
heading and effective date"] ok2["Compliance lead approves
the changed record"] close["Nova tallies totals per origin
from the current register"] sign["Trade compliance lead signs
the close-out for each origin"] disp --> ok1 --> batch --> slots --> duty --> fix fix --> brief & heading broker -.- brief tariff -.- heading brief --> rerun --> ok2 --> close heading --> ok3 --> close close --> sign class disp,batch,duty,brief,heading,rerun,close agent class ok1,slots,fix,ok3,ok2,sign person class broker,tariff event classDef agent fill:#FFFFFF,stroke:#DCD3C8,color:#1B1712 classDef person fill:#EEF0E3,stroke:#6E7447,color:#1B1712 classDef event fill:#F4ECDD,stroke:#F4ECDD,color:#564C42 ``` | Stage | What happens | Who acts | Who decides | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Disposition | Each shipment is marked ready, held for documents or held for review from its own documents and the policy | Nova, from Dropbox files and Airtable records | The trade compliance lead approves before the register changes | | Release planning | Ready shipments are grouped into daily release batches within the dock cap | Nova | The dock supervisor confirms each day's slots | | Duty file review | The clerk's file for finance is checked line by line against the approved records | Ada | The clerk corrects it and the compliance lead confirms | | Broker documents | A certificate or packing list that arrives moves only its own shipment, through duty and release batch | Ryan, then Nova | The compliance lead approves the changed record | | Tariff amendment | Shipments under the amended heading get duty and landed cost recomputed, and nothing else moves | Nova | The compliance lead confirms the heading and effective date | | Corrected invoice | A new declared value re-prices duty and landed cost and may move the shipment to another batch | Nova | The compliance lead approves and the dock supervisor confirms any new slot | | Close-out | Totals per origin country are tallied from the current register | Nova | The compliance lead signs the close-out for each origin | Stages of one intake week. Shipment numbers, headings and dock figures in this example are illustrative. ## When documents and rates arrive mid-week Most changes come as attachments on a broker thread. A certificate of origin turns up for a shipment held for documents, a supplier issues a corrected commercial invoice, or the broker forwards a tariff notice for one heading. Ryan reads the message, finds the shipment and writes a one-line brief for Nova. Each broker thread gets one reply from the desk, sent by a person, so the broker never has to work out which answer stands. Nova re-runs only what the change touches, but follows it all the way through. A new invoice value changes duty, which changes landed cost, which can push a shipment past a day's dock cap and into the next batch. An amendment to HS 8544 moves every insulated cable shipment in the week and nothing else. Each moved record carries a note with the old and new figures and the message that caused the change. ## What the checks catch - A duty file that pulls in shipments from another intake week because it was filtered by arrival date - A line entered twice in the clerk's file, or an amount that does not match the approved duty on the record - A tariff change applied to every shipment instead of only the amended heading, or applied to duty but not to landed cost - A release batch that goes over the dock cap after a corrected invoice moves one shipment - A broker thread about to get a second reply when it already has one ## What stays with people - Approving each disposition, duty figure and release batch before it is written - Reading a tariff notice or certificate where the wording is not clear-cut - Sending every reply to the broker and every notice to the warehouse, which Ryan drafts - Signing the close-out for each origin ## Integrations in this workflow Kylon is not a customs filing system and it does not replace the broker's. It works across the register, document folders and mailboxes the desk already has, and keeps the coordination between them in one room. - Airtable - Dropbox - [Gmail](https://kylon.io/integrations/gmail) - Google Drive - Outlook - [Slack](https://kylon.io/integrations/slack) - **Airtable** holds the shipment register, the release batches and the close-out records per origin - **Dropbox** is the shared folder where suppliers and the broker drop invoices, packing lists and certificates - **Google Drive** keeps the clearance policy, the tariff extract, the dock capacity sheet and the clerk's duty file - **Gmail** carries the broker threads, where each reply stays a draft until a person sends it - **Outlook** is how release notices reach the warehouse and duty totals reach finance, each sent by a person - **Slack** is where the receiving dock posts its daily capacity and any doors out of service ## Where to start Pick one intake week and one origin. Connect the Airtable base that holds the register, give Nova access to the Dropbox intake folder through a grant the folder's owner approves, and add one line to the room guidelines: an amendment re-runs every shipment it touches through duty, landed cost and release batch, and the compliance lead approves each changed record. > “A corrected invoice used to change one cell. Now it changes everything that depends on that cell, and the thread shows what moved.” ## Set it up with your agent Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it. Set-up prompt Set up our import clearance desk in this Room. Take it one step at a time and wait for my OK before you move on. 1. Connect Airtable, Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook and Slack. Tell me which ones still need connecting. 2. Ask me who works this desk: the trade compliance lead, the import clerk and the receiving dock supervisor. Help me invite them to this Room. 3. Build an Import Releases App with columns Docs pending, Duty check, Release booked and Cleared. Pull in the current shipments from the Airtable register, one record per shipment. 4. Read each shipment's commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading and certificate of origin from Dropbox against our policy and tariff extract in Google Drive. Propose a disposition, a duty figure and a landed cost for each shipment. Show me every line that is held or flagged. 5. Group ready shipments into daily release batches within the dock capacity posted in Slack. Draft one reply per broker thread in Gmail and each release notice in Outlook. Write nothing to Airtable and send nothing until the trade compliance lead approves each disposition and duty figure and the dock supervisor confirms each release slot. 6. Write the approval order and who approves which send or record change into this Room's guideline so every shipment follows it. 7. After one clean intake week, offer to turn the duty file check into an Automation. Before you start, ask me for our rules one at a time. [Get started](https://app.kylon.io/sign-up) Your first company harness. Where humans and agents run your business together. [Get started](https://app.kylon.io/sign-up) ## More Use Cases [View all](https://kylon.io/use-cases) [ ### Backorder Communications: Customers Hear the Latest Date, Not Last Week's Customers hear the latest supplier date, an approved substitute or a cancellation offer, line by line. Agents work Pipedrive lines against Outlook notices and the Notion substitution table in one Kylon room, and every notice is a draft a rep sends. 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