When reporting the US dollar value of your commodity in the Automated Electronic System (AES) make sure  that you do not report the cents. AES doesn’t accept cents. Foreign Trade Regulation 30.6 (a) 17 states “Report the value to the nearest dollar; omit cents.

Fractions of a dollar less than 50 cents should be ignored, and fractions of 50 cents or more should be rounded up to the next dollar.” If you include the cents in the value, it’s a reporting error.

I know what you arethinking, “A couple of cents shouldn’t make a world of difference.” Au contraire, it does. For instance, let’s say that the US value of your shipment was $150,485.70; reporting the value as such is incorrect. Here’s why: after the data is processed, it lands on the desk of an analyst and he or she sees a value of $15,048,570.

Consequently, don’t be surprised if you are contacted by an analyst who wants to verify the information. Misreporting is something that could be easily prevented. Save yourself the trouble of having to make future amendments and get rid of the extra cents.