Tariff Impact Analyzer
A product-by-product read of what this month's tariffs do to your landed cost and margin, and the three moves that protect the most dollars
The problem
Since 2025 the Canada-US border has been a pricing variable that moves by press release. Steel and aluminum under Section 232, the CUSMA question on every shipment, Canada's own counter-tariffs, the end of the US de minimis break for small parcels. You import drawer slides from Ohio or sell cabinets into Michigan, you read the headline, and you have no idea what it does to your margin on your own forty products. So you do nothing, and the answer arrives as a supplier invoice that's heavier than the quote. This skill turns the headline into a per-line number you can act on.
The tool
Once installed, this skill sits between the tariff schedule and your price list. You tell it what you buy and from where, what you sell and to where, and you paste the duty rates you read that morning on the CBSA or US CBP pages for your tariff codes. It won't quote a rate from memory, because the rate you remember from March is the one that changed in April.
From there it works line by line: the duty on the landed cost, what that does to gross margin at today's price, which lines can absorb it and which can't. Then it sorts the moves into the three that exist: reprice (a surcharge on the lines that carry the exposure, not a blanket increase), re-source (a Canadian or third-country supplier for the two parts that matter), and requalify (the origin paperwork that gets a CUSMA-eligible product its zero rate). It drafts the supplier questions and the customer notice in your voice, with the real reason and a review date. Before you adjust a price list, run it through the Profit Margin Diagnostic so the surcharge lands where the margin is thinnest.
What's inside
- A product-by-product exposure table: origin, tariff code, the rate you supplied, landed-cost change, margin before and after
- A ranked list of which lines to reprice, re-source or leave alone, with the dollars at stake on each
- The CUSMA origin checklist: the questions a customs broker will ask before anyone signs a certificate
- A supplier letter asking for origin documents and a 60-day price hold
- A customer notice for a tariff surcharge or a price change, with the honest reason and the date it gets reviewed
- A monthly re-run routine, because the rates will move again
How to use it
- 1Click "Install skill" on this page and copy the install prompt.
- 2Paste it into your AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, anything that accepts pasted text).
- 3Answer the setup questions once: what you import or export, the countries, and roughly how many product lines you carry.
- 4Paste your product list and the duty rates you read today for each tariff code, then ask for the exposure table.
- 5Pick the moves it ranks, send the supplier letter, and set a calendar reminder to re-run it next month.
Example
A Windsor cabinet shop buys hinges, slides and steel brackets from an Ohio distributor and sells finished cabinets to builders on both sides of the river. The owner pastes 40 lines and the rates read that morning. Six lines carry most of the exposure, the slides and the brackets; the lumber qualifies under CUSMA and the labour is local. The skill recommends a surcharge on those six lines only, a question to the Ohio distributor about the brackets' origin certificate, and two Canadian slide suppliers to quote this week. The builder notice goes out with the real cause, the six affected items, and a line saying it will be reviewed on the first of next month.
Pro tip
Keep a dated copy of every rate you paste in. When a builder asks in March why the slides cost more, you'll have the page you read that day. And talk to a customs broker before you change an origin claim: a wrong CUSMA certificate is a penalty with interest, not a discount.
Related tools
Want this customized and automated for your business?
We take the tools in this toolbox and wire them into your business: your data, your brand voice, running on autopilot.
Talk to Vexlo