Trade Readiness

Availability: Limited release. The Trade Readiness lens is available to selected customers. Talk to your Altana team about access.

Objective and outcome

Trade Readiness is your home base in a workspace. It tells you how ready your product catalog is for trade against a single import destination, and it is where you do most of the work to get it there. It is both your view into the system of record, showing the trade attributes you hold today, and your view into what Altana has found: where an attribute is missing, where something looks wrong, and where there is a suggestion waiting for you to review.

The outcome you are working toward is every product complete, meaning green across every attribute its import destination requires. When a product is complete, its classification, origin, and other attributes are on file with the evidence behind them, and it is ready to hand to your broker.

Before you start

A workspace with an import destination. Create a workspace, name it, choose the import destination, and select the products to bring in. You can search the catalog by name, external ID, entity ID, HS code, and description. A workspace covers a single import destination.
Products in your catalog. You can add more products, or add lenses, at any time by editing the workspace.
Your data. What each lens can return depends on what you provide. See Data Requirements for what to send at minimum and what more detail unlocks.

Opening a workspace takes you to HS Classification by default. Select any lens to work that lens directly.

Running the analysis

Altana does not recompute continuously. Each lens has a step that triggers the analysis, and in Trade Readiness it is Refresh Trade Readiness. Run it first, before you start working.

The refresh looks across your catalog and every suggestion for anything that has changed since the last run, so the statuses and suggestions you are about to work from are current. Run it again after you load new products, after supplier responses come back, or after you have made a batch of edits.

The flow

Refresh Trade Readiness so you are working from current results.
Read the status bar to see what percentage of your products are complete, and how many need attention or have suggestions waiting.
Start with what needs attention. These are the products where Altana is telling you a person has to be in the loop. Each one carries a reason code explaining why.
Work the suggestions. These are Altana's highest-confidence recommendations. Accept them from the table, or open the side sheet to see the reasoning first.
Fill in what only you know by editing attributes directly in the table, individually or in bulk.
Export when you need the current state outside Altana.

Products that need attention are always surfaced ahead of products with suggestions. On Trade Readiness the two are not mutually exclusive: a product can have a confident suggestion on one attribute and need your attention on another.

Key features

The status bar

The bar across the top of every lens is the quick read on where you stand. It shows the percentage of products that have reached a complete state, the count of products that need attention, and the count with suggestions available. Each is clickable and filters the table below, so the summary and the work list are the same thing.

Suggestions and products that need attention

These are the two signals to work from, and they mean different things.

Suggestions available is Altana's highest-confidence set of recommendations. The intent is that you build enough confidence in them to act directly, in bulk where you are comfortable.
Needs attention is Altana saying a person has to be in the loop. A product needs attention when a suggestion is low confidence, when additional input has been identified as necessary, or when information is missing. A reason code tells you which.

Filters

Two kinds of filter work together.

Filters on what is in your catalog, carried over from the workspace: product name, external ID, HS codes on file, countries of origin on file, free trade agreements on file, PGA flags, and Section 232. These filter on saved values, not on what Altana has suggested.
Filters on status, so you can narrow by the Trade Readiness column itself or by an individual attribute. Filter HS to just the products with a suggestion available, or Country of Origin to just the ones that need attention, and so on across the attributes.

You can also add a custom filter, including on when a product was last computed and on import destination.

Editing attributes in the table

Trade Readiness is a system of record you can write to, not just read from. You can update attributes directly in the table without opening a product. Enter a country of origin as a manual override, add or edit a Section 232 material and its percentage, and update the other trade attributes in place.

Where Altana has a suggestion for an attribute, hovering over it previews the top code along with its confidence. You can accept it from there if you are confident, or open the alternatives directly.

Bulk editing

Select multiple products, or use the header checkbox to select every product on the page, then choose Edit to update them together. Bulk edit covers HS code, country of origin from a list, free trade agreement with its agreement-specific inputs, and Section 232 materials.

Section 232 bulk edit also covers product properties such as automotive use, civil aircraft use, and integrated circuits, which feed the duty calculation. Values are validated as you enter them, so an HS override is checked for validity before it is saved.

Export

Export the current view to CSV. The export carries a status column for each attribute alongside the attribute values themselves: import destination, materials, HS code on file and any suggested HS codes, country of origin on file and any suggested origin, FTA readiness and FTA status, Section 232, PGA, product ID, and external ID.

The product side sheet

Open a product to work it attribute by attribute without leaving the lens. The side sheet has several tabs:

Overview is a snapshot of the product: name, product ID, and its other catalog fields.
Trade Readiness moves you between every trade attribute for that product: HS Classification, Country of Origin, free trade agreement, PGA, and Section 232. This is the same side sheet you get inside the HS Classification and Country of Origin lenses, so you can work a product all the way through from here if that suits you better than working lens by lens.
Value chains shows the value chain behind the product, which matters most for origin work. This tab is in active development.

Product profile takes you to the full product in the catalog.

The guide box

Within each trade attribute, the side sheet shows you two things: the data already on file that matters for that attribute, and the guide box.

The guide box is where Altana tells you what it suggests and what to do next. It carries the suggested value, the confidence behind it, a short explanation of the reasoning, the alternatives, and the option to override. Where confidence is low, it surfaces specific questions you can answer to close the gap, and you can open a chat if you would rather work it through in conversation. See Trade Agent.

Status reference

Status	What it means	What to do
Complete	The attribute is on file with the evidence behind it. Nothing is outstanding.	Nothing. This is the target state for every attribute on every product.
Suggestion available	Altana has a high-confidence recommendation waiting for you.	Accept it from the table or the side sheet, individually or in bulk, or open the side sheet to read the reasoning first.
Needs attention	A person has to be in the loop. The suggestion is low confidence, additional input has been identified, or information is missing. A reason code says which.	Open the product, read the reason, and either answer the questions in the guide box, supply the missing value, or enter your own determination.

A product's Trade Readiness status reflects every attribute its import destination requires, so a single outstanding attribute keeps the product short of complete.

FAQ

Why has nothing computed yet? The analysis runs when you trigger it. Use Refresh Trade Readiness before you start, and again after you load products or make a batch of changes.

Can a product both need attention and have a suggestion? Yes. Trade Readiness spans several attributes, so a product can have a confident suggestion on one and need your attention on another. What needs attention is always surfaced first.

Can I filter by what Altana has suggested? Yes, through the status filters on each attribute. The catalog filters, such as HS codes and countries of origin, work on the values saved on file rather than on suggestions.

Do I have to work lens by lens? No. The side sheet gives you every trade attribute for a product in one place, so you can work product by product from Trade Readiness instead. The focused lenses exist for when you have a large volume of one kind of work to clear.

Can I override a determination? Yes. You can enter your own value on any attribute, in the table or in the side sheet, individually or in bulk.

What does one workspace cover? A single import destination. Create a workspace per destination you import into.

What does the export contain? A status column per attribute plus the attribute values themselves, including both what is on file and what Altana has suggested. See Export above.