How to Verify a Customs Broker Invoice (2026 Guide)
A practical walkthrough of what's on a customs broker invoice, how to check each line for errors and overcharges, and how to do it manually or automatically.
A customs broker invoice bundles government charges your broker paid on your behalf with the broker's own service fees. The two are easy to confuse, which is exactly where errors and overcharges hide. This guide breaks the invoice down line by line so you can verify it yourself — and shows where automating the check with Broker Inspector saves time.
What's on a customs broker invoice
Most broker invoices mix pass-through government charges with the broker's own fees. Knowing which is which is the first step to verifying it.
- Duties and tariffs
- The customs duty owed on your goods, based on their tariff classification (HTSUS code) and declared value. Pass-through: the broker pays it to CBP on your behalf.
- Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF)
- A CBP fee tied to the value of formal entries, calculated as a percentage with published minimum and maximum amounts. Pass-through, but a frequent spot for miscalculation.
- Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF)
- A CBP fee on shipments arriving by ocean, calculated as a percentage of cargo value. Pass-through, and only applies to ocean freight.
- Brokerage / service fees
- The broker's own charges for filing the entry and related services. These are the broker's revenue, not a government charge, and vary between brokers.
How to check each line
- 1
Separate pass-through charges from broker fees
Split the invoice into government charges (duties, MPF, HMF) and the broker's own service fees so you compare like with like.
- 2
Confirm the tariff classification and value
Check that the HTSUS classification and declared value used to compute duty match your commercial documents and the goods you actually shipped.
- 3
Recompute the government fees
MPF and HMF follow published formulas and caps. Recalculate them from the declared value and confirm the broker billed the same amount.
- 4
Review the brokerage fees against your agreement
Compare the service fees to what you agreed to pay. Watch for duplicate line items or charges for services that did not apply to this shipment.
- 5
Reconcile against the entry paperwork
Make sure every charge ties back to the entry documents. Anything you cannot trace to a document is worth questioning.
Common overcharges and errors to watch for
- MPF or HMF calculated on the wrong value, or without applying the published minimum or maximum.
- Duty computed from an incorrect tariff classification, inflating the amount owed.
- HMF billed on a shipment that did not arrive by ocean.
- Duplicate or padded brokerage line items for services that overlap or did not apply.
- Charges that cannot be traced back to anything in the entry paperwork.
Doing it manually vs. automatically
You can verify a broker invoice yourself: separate the charges, confirm the classification and value, recompute the government fees, and reconcile everything to the entry paperwork. It works, but it's slow and easy to rush — especially across many entries — and the fee formulas and tariff references change over time.
Broker Inspector runs that same review automatically. You upload the documents, Gemini Vision AI extracts the data and verifies the charges against official HTSUS and CBP fee schedules, compares the broker's amounts to the AI-calculated expected amounts, and returns clear compliance, risk, and savings verdicts you can export as a PDF or CSV report.
Let the AI do the line-by-line check
Upload your documents and get a verified, exportable audit in minutes.