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This article applies to:

  • Product: ONESOURCE Global Trade
  • Sub-Product: Global Trade Visibility

What If? Options

The
What If?
 capability in GTV-Import can be used to quantify the impact of potential changes to duties users may need to pay in the future for a variety of reasons. The
What If?
 Options link can be found on any screen where a report has been loaded.
Clicking this link will open the
What If? Data Entry
 pop-up. This pop-up contains two tabs: Tariffs and Sourcing. Each tab contains two grids:
  • The top grid is used for entering What If? scenarios.
  • The bottom grid contains the company’s GTV-Import detail records, which can be used to research past imports and volumes.
More information about the differences between the tabs is provided in the sections below.
Tariffs
The
Tariffs
 tab can be used to enter a hypothetical Duty Rate to be applied into a given Import Country for a given HS Number. HS Numbers can be entered at the 2, 4, 6, or fully-qualified level. This is especially useful in cases where a large number of products fall under one chapter, heading, or subheading.
To add a rate, click
Add
.
Clicking
Add
 will create a new line in the top grid. Select an Import Country, enter the HS Number (at the 2, 4, 6, or full digit level), and assign a Tariff Rate. Click “Insert” to continue.
Sourcing
The
Sourcing
 tab can be used to create more complex scenarios and report the potential impact of moving sourcing from one country to another.
Sourcing
 scenarios can also be created over a sub-set of records (e.g. records over a lone Business Unit or BrokerID). You have the option to:
  • Enter a custom rate
  • Use the ONESOURCE Global Trade Content Main Ad Valorem Rate
  • Use the average rate across all imports over the historical data for the combination of parameters that have been entered
To add a new sourcing change scenario, click
Add
.
Clicking
Add
 will create a new line in the top grid. To begin, choose an
Import Country
.
The
Old Source Country
 will be populated by all countries that are in the database as Export Countries for the chosen Import Country. In the
New Source Country
 field, choose a country to consider moving the sourcing activity to.
If desired, the
New Source Country
 can also be the same as the
Old Source Country
. This will allow a user to enter a record using the added functionality of the
Add What If? Source
 pop-up, such as pulling the ONESOURCE Global Trade Content Main Rate and/or creating more specific changes in scenarios with the
Identifier
 fields within the same source country.
After selecting an
Identifier Type
 from the drop-down list, the
Identifier Value
 field can be filled in with whatever value you wish to further narrow down the records that will be altered in the What If reports.
Finally, you have three choices of which Duty Rate will be applied to the changed record:
Duty rate choices
Description
Use Main Rate
The Main Ad Valorem Rate provided within ONESOURCE Global Trade Content.
Use Average Rate
The average Duty Rate of the client’s own data across all goods imported from historically per the parameters entered in the
Sourcing
” record.
Enter Desired Rate
Whatever rate you manually enter for the purposes of the What If scenario.
Click
Insert
 to continue.
Once the What If? scenario(s) have been entered, the reports based off the scenarios can be generated in the
What If?
 section of the Global Trade Visibility reports.
Scenarios
Description
Tariffs Reports
These reports reflect data that has been created from a combination of the previous actual shipment data and the scenarios entered into the
Tariffs
 tab of the
What If? Data Entry
 pop-up.
Sourcing Reports
These reports reflect data that has been created based on a combination of the previous actual shipment data and the scenarios entered into the
Sourcing
 tab of the
What If? Data Entry
 pop-up.
What If? Best Practices and Suggestions
What If?
 reports provide good visibility into how a company’s costs might look in the future as a result of changes. Listed below are some suggestions for how to best utilize the tool.
To understand how the added
What If?
 records are impacting the report results, it iscritical to understand which type of report is being generated. All What If? reports either replace or add the previous period’s duties with the duties generated based on the added What If? record.
For example, in the
Tariffs
 Category, the reports under
Top Countries of Import by Duty-What If Duties Only
 will show what the duties would look like if the same goods were imported at the Duty Rates that have been entered as records on the
Tariffs
 tab of the
What If? Options
 pop-up.
The reports under
Top Countries of Import by Duty-What If+Previous Duties
 will show what an importer’s duty charges would be if they were assessed the sum of the previous Duty Rates in addition to the rates entered into the
Tariffs
 tab of the
What If? Options
 pop-up.
On a report such as
Tariffs: Comparison Countries of Import by Duty – What If+Prev Duty
, the calculated duties will show this sum in comparison to the actual charges your company paid during the previous period.
If you anticipate that a Duty Rate is going to change from an old ad valorem rate to a new ad valorem rate, load one of the …
What If Duties Only
 reports.
If you anticipate that a new duty has recently been/will be assessed on top of the normal rate you have been paying, load one of the …
What If+Previous Duties
 reports.
The
Sourcing
 Category works the same way.
The …
What If Duties Only reports
 show data that has been adjusted based on the
What If?
 records added into the
Sourcing
 tab and replaces the previous period’s duties for comparison purposes.
The …
What If+Previous Duties
 reports take the new duty and adds it to the duty that was actually paid to come up with a sum to compare to the historical actual amount.
Additional tips for utilizing the What If? reports are listed below:
  • All Duty Rates entered into the “What If?” grids must be entered as hundredths of the rate desired. For example, enter “.15” in the “Rate” field to calculate a 15% Duty Rate.
  • Review what records are currently inserted in the “Tariffs” or “Sourcing” pop-up before loading a report from the corresponding category. This is important because all records in the pop-up will impact the reports regardless of when the record was entered.
    • For example, if there is one record on the “Tariffs” tab reflecting 10% duty on goods under chapter 62 imported into MX and another record for 5% duty on goods under chapter 62 imported into MX, all “Tariffs” reports will be calculated with a “What If” rate of 15% Duty Rate on chapter 62 goods imported into MX.
    • The “Duplicate Row” column in the entry grid provides visibility into how many detail lines will be impacted in this way in reports.
  • Before printing/saving the report, use the
    Notes
     functionality to add information about what has been changed or why this specific What If scenario was run.
  • The Main Rate duty rates that are utilized in the
    What If
     reports are only ad valorem rates. If you have entered a scenario that calls for a Main Rate to be returned that requires a specific rate or a combination of a specific rate and an ad valorem rate to be used to calculate the report, the report will generate this type of error message:
important
If a country has multiple Main Rates used, the
What If
 reports will utilize the most commonly-used rate that is only an Ad Valorem rate.

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