Help Center
Getting started with The Sentinel Flow
This page is maintained by The Sentinel Flow to answer common product questions. It is not legal, customs, or tax advice.
How the recovery workflow runs
1. Upload a document
Drop a commercial invoice, ACE entry summary, broker statement, CSV, or XLSX into the invoice intake on the dashboard or the First Audit wizard. PDFs and image-based invoices are also accepted.
2. Review the recovery analysis
The platform surfaces potential overpayments, duty-free eligibility, classification concerns, and tariff exposure. Each opportunity opens into a workspace with the underlying signals.
3. Inspect the evidence package
Every opportunity carries a Recovery Rationale and supporting citations — HTS references, agreement rules, and the extracted invoice fields the finding is based on.
4. Decide whether to file
Convert an opportunity into a Claim to start the 12-stage recovery workflow, export it as a CAPE package, or send it to a broker for review. You stay in control of every filing.
What Sentinel Flow analyzes
- •Commercial invoices and entry summaries
- •Duty and tariff lines
- •HTS classifications and classification risk signals
- •Supplier and country-of-origin data (when present)
- •Recovery opportunities and refund candidates
- •Duty-free / preferential-tariff eligibility
- •Tariff exposure and shipment risk indicators
What Sentinel Flow is not
- •It is not a law firm.
- •It is not a licensed customs broker.
- •It does not guarantee refunds or customs outcomes.
- •It does not replace professional customs, legal, tax, or compliance review.
- •AI recommendations support — but do not substitute for — human decision-making.
Upload guidance
Supported file types
PDF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, CSV, XLSX, and structured ACE / broker exports. Multi-page PDFs are supported.
Recommended quality
Text-selectable PDFs give the highest extraction accuracy. Scanned invoices should be at least 200 DPI and legible. Multi-invoice PDFs are processed page-by-page.
What to include
Line items, HTS codes when present, country of origin, incoterms, duties/fees, and any preferential-tariff declarations.
What to avoid
Do not upload personal identifiers, HR records, or other sensitive personal data that is not required for a trade record. See the Security page for handling detail.
Human & professional review
Every opportunity is a recommendation for a human to review. Before you file a refund claim, correct a classification, or act on a strategic response, a qualified internal reviewer or your licensed customs broker / trade counsel should confirm the finding.
Higher-value or higher-risk opportunities can be escalated to a Sentinel Flow specialist for a manual second look — see the Support page for how to request one.
Billing help
Sentinel Flow uses a subscription tier for platform access plus, on eligible plans, a success fee on recoveries that customers actually collect. Invoices, plan changes, and payment method updates live in the in-app Billing Center.
Still stuck?
Reach the Sentinel Flow team through Support, or read how we handle your records.