It has been several months now that exporters have used the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to file their Electronic Export Information (EEI) with the U.S. Census Bureau's AESDirect system. But, did you know there is more you can do with ACE than just file your EEI?

From the ACE Portal it is possible to run reports of the EEI that has been submitted by your company or submitted by someone else on your company’s behalf.  These reports provide easier access to your export data than the previous method, which was to submit a request to Census. The reports can be created any time at no charge. Data for the last five years plus the current year is available.

The reports are run by Employer Identification Number (EIN) and either an export date range or a filing date range. The available reports include:

The 201 Filer Report

This report shows all shipments submitted by the filer who is requesting the report for a given date range.

The 202 USPPI Report

This report shows all shipments submitted on behalf of the USPPI who is requesting the report for a given date range. This option will include shipments filed by the USPPI and shipments filed by others, such as a freight forwarder.

The 203 Routed Report

This report provides a subset of data elements for five previous years plus the current year for shipments flagged as routed export transactions.

An ACE exporter account is required to access these reports (click here if you don't have one), but that is not enough.  You also have to be authorized to run the reports. Some exporter accounts, if they were added to an existing importer account, may already have report authorization.

ou can check this by logging into ACE, clicking the Accounts tab, choosing Exporter in theAccount Type drop-down list, and clicking Go. Under Accounts click the name of your company, so it appears as the Exporter on the right side of the screen. Then look for theAuthorization for Reports account status. The status will tell you if you are authorized for running reports or not.

If you are not authorized, click the button on the right side of the screen that says Request EIN Reports Authorization. You will see a message that says you need to provide additional information to get access to the report features.

Click the link to the Certification of Authority, complete the document, and send it toexportreports@census.gov. You may have to answer additional questions from Census before receiving reporting authorization.

Once you have authorization you can access the reports by logging into ACE and clicking theAccounts tab.  Select Exporter in the Account Type drop-down list, click Go, and then clickReports in the Select Task list. Click Launch Reports. You must use Internet Explorer as your browser for the reports to launch.