CARM Support Services
Welcome to CARM Monitoring program, by JORI Logistics.
The Customs Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) program introduces new requirements for importers to manage their customs compliance actively. To avoid financial and operational risks, importers must ensure timely reconciliation and payment of their GST, duties, and other CBSA balances.
Key Risks of Unpaid CARM Balances
- Interest Accumulation: Unpaid balances accrue daily interest, increasing liabilities over time.
- Audit and Inspection Risks: Outstanding balances flag importers as high-risk, increasing the likelihood of audits and inspections.
- Reconciliation Complexity: Delays in resolving discrepancies can complicate account management, particularly if issues span multiple months or involve multiple brokers.
Why Discrepancies Happen
Discrepancies between the JORI CBSA Statement and the CARM Portal Statement can arise for several reasons. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Customs Clearances by Different Brokers: Transactions handled by other brokers won’t appear on JORI’s statement.
- Duplicate Payments: Payments made by importers or other brokers can result in mismatches.
- Changes to Import Declarations: Amendments made directly on the CARM portal by the importer or another party may cause differences.
- Timing of Payments: Payments not yet processed by CBSA may still show as outstanding.
- CBSA Penalties or Interest: Charges assessed directly by CBSA are beyond JORI’s control.
- CBSA Errors: Payments may be misapplied by CBSA
- Unreconciled Starting Balances: Outstanding amounts from previous months may remain unresolved—especially since payments are applied to the oldest amounts first
- System Glitches: Errors in data transfer between CBSA systems and customs brokers’ software can cause discrepancies.
Understanding these potential causes helps importers identify and address issues efficiently, independently or with JORI’s assistance.
How can JORI assist you in managing your CARM obligations?
At JORI, we’ve developed three tailored service options to help importers manage their CARM obligations effectively, regardless of their familiarity with the program. Importers retain the flexibility to pay the CBSA directly or through JORI, and this decision does not impact their eligibility for any of the options.
If you are looking for a hands-off, business as usual approach, fast-forward to options 2 and 3.
If you are looking to manage CARM without JORI’s support, please fast-forward to option 1.
This option is for importers who have the knowledge, resources, and confidence to independently manage all aspects of their CARM portal. JORI provides minimal involvement and supports only on an on-demand basis for specific tasks such as reconciliation, troubleshooting, or reporting.
Ideal for Importers Who:
- Have a dedicated, trained customs compliance team familiar with CARM and CBSA requirements.
- Want full control over their CARM portal and prefer to handle discrepancies and payments without external assistance.
- Can allocate time and resources to regularly monitor and reconcile their CARM balances.
- Are comfortable addressing CBSA errors, penalties, or system glitches without significant external support.
- Register and maintain access to the CARM portal (log in every 180 days to keep the account active).
- Provide JORI with the appropriate delegation of authority for customs processing.
This is a hands-off solution for importers with the expertise and resources to handle their CARM obligations independently.
What JORI Provides:
- Customs clearance processing.
- On-demand services, including reconciliation, troubleshooting, and reporting, billed at an hourly rate.
Importer Responsibilities:
- Register and maintain access to the CARM portal (log in every 180 days to keep the account active).
- Reconcile and pay balances directly to CBSA or through JORI.
- Investigate discrepancies and resolve them without JORI’s ongoing involvement.
- Provide JORI with the appropriate delegation of authority for customs processing.
CARM Monitoring Option 2: Assisted Monitoring
Summary:
CARM Monitoring Option 2 provides importers with monthly snapshot summaries of their CARM balances, highlighting potential discrepancies. JORI delivers these reports on the 25th of each month, allowing importers to quickly see their overdue balances and transactions from the previous month.
What JORI Provides:
- Monthly Statements:
- CARM Portal Summary Statement (PDF): Shows your overdue balance and consolidated daily account activity from the 18th of the previous month to the 17th of the current month.
- JORI CBSA Statement: Lists overdue balances related to JORI-handled transactions as of the 25th.
- Two complimentary hours annually for troubleshooting and reconciliation assistance (additional hours billed hourly).
Recommended Next Steps:
- Regularly log into your CARM portal to verify real-time overdue balances.
- Investigate any discrepancies thoroughly before making payments to avoid overpayments or future reconciliation issues.
- Promptly resolve overdue balances to avoid daily interest charges and minimize the risk of CBSA audits or penalties.
Important Consideration: Option 2 provides static, snapshot summaries. For enhanced real-time reporting and detailed reconciliation support, consider upgrading to CARM Monitoring Premium (Option 3).
CARM Monitoring Premium (Option 3)
This is our premium CARM monitoring service—designed to keep your customs account clean, compliant, and under control. Here’s what it includes, how it works, and why it matters.
What Is CARM Option 3?
With CARM Monitoring Premium, we access your CARM client portal and download a detailed report showing all CBSA-tracked transactions since your onboarding date – regardless of whether those entries were handled by JORI or another broker.
Note: CARM data only begins from your official onboarding date. Some companies may see records dating back to 2021; others may not have entries until 2025.
How the Payment Status Works
CBSA payments are generally due 10 weekdays after the 17th of each month, though this can vary slightly. Each entry in the report is marked either Paid or Open.
Our system filters out all current but not-yet-due balances, and zeroes in on one thing:
What’s open and overdue.
This gives you a clear, immediate view of what requires your immediate attention.
Why This Matters
Overdue CARM balances are not a minor issue—they come with real risk:
- Interest Charges: CBSA applies interest to overdue amounts.
- Audit Triggers: Repeated late payments increase the likelihood of inspections or audits.
- Compliance Exposure: Unresolved balances can damage your standing with CBSA.
The biggest problem? Many importers don’t know they have overdue balances or other problems until it’s too late. These issues can sit undetected for weeks or months – and by then, the financial and operational impact is significant.
How JORI Supports You
We help mitigate this risk by offering to remit your CBSA payments—as long as:
- We have received your full payment by the 25th of the month
- Your payment covers all JORI invoices, including applicable customs transactions
If funds arrive after the 25th, the CBSA remittance is made at the next payment cycle. Overdue CARM payments received by JORI by the 10th of the following month can be included on JORI’s CARM interim payment.
Currently, CBSA isn’t aggressively penalizing late payments – it is currently unknown when CBSA will tighten enforcement and issue penalties and interest.
We encourage clients to build good habits now: pay on time, clear your account monthly, and stay out of trouble always.
What’s Inside the Report
Every month, you’ll receive a clean, easy-to-read summary indicating:
- Your current overdue balance
- A detailed CARM portal transaction history in .XLS format
- A list of which entries are past due to JORI on the current CARM overdue balance
- Any late or short payments linked to JORI-handled transactions
You’ll know exactly what’s unpaid and why – so you can take swift, informed action.
What We Can (and Can’t) Control
We can only remit payments for entries we’ve processed and for which payment has been received by JORI on or before the 25th of each month. Your CARM balance may be affected by:
- Entries submitted by other brokers
- Interest, penalties, amendments, or refunds issued by CBSA
- CBSA errors or adjustments not shared with us
These factors can alter your balance – and they’re often difficult to identify unless you’re looking closely and know what you’re looking for. JORI has this experience and expertise.
Reconciling Your Account
If your balance doesn’t match your records, we’ll help you figure out why. JORI provides up to four free hours annually to assist your organization with reconciliation. For more complex cases, additional support is available on an hourly basis.
Why Reconciliation Is So Complicated
CBSA does not apply payments to specific transactions. Instead, it applies your payment to the oldest outstanding item – even if it wasn’t submitted by JORI.
This leads to confusion. For example:
- A payment you made to JORI may be applied to an old, unrelated entry.
- You might see open entries for JORI, even if you’ve paid JORI in full.
To reconcile this mess, we have to:
- Match each payment to a set of transactions with the same value
- Flag entries and payments that don’t match
- Identify the truly unresolved amounts
The Paid/Open status on the CARM portal often adds more confusion than clarity. That’s why structured reconciliation is essential.
Why CARM Monitoring Premium Matters
CARM Monitoring Premium is just $50.00/month – the service pays for itself many times over.
CARM Monitoring Premium is your early-warning system. It helps you catch overdue balances fast and understand the cause of the discrepancy before CBSA imposes interest or penalties or flags your account for more scrutiny. No more guessing, no more scrambling, no more surprise fees.
The real danger isn’t the balance itself – it’s not knowing it’s there.
Overdue entries can quietly pile up and sit unnoticed. That leads to:
- Compounding interest charges
- Elevated audit risk
- Damaged compliance records
This program is designed to give you control and peace of mind, so you can stay focused on growing your business – not reacting to customs issues after the fact.
Final Note
Think of CARM Monitoring Premium as your monthly customs insurance policy – a quick, powerful check-in that helps you:
- Identify overdue entries instantly
- Understand what’s unpaid and why
- Act before interest or penalties hit
- Stay fully compliant with CBSA requirements
We’re here to keep your customs accounts clean, your compliance strong, and your business growing.
The Applicable Fees for Each Option:
|
Description |
Option 1 |
Option 2 |
Option 3 |
|
Self-Managed CARM |
CARM Monitoring by JORI |
CARM Monitoring PREMIUM by JORI |
|
|
Monthly Fee (only in month that import occurs) |
$0 |
$30 |
$50 |
|
CARM Portal Initial Setup |
$175 |
Included |
Included |
|
CARM Portal Transition |
Included |
Included |
Included |
|
CARM Summary Report Emailing |
$95.00 per instance |
Included |
Included |
|
CARM Detailed Report Emailing |
$95.00 per instance |
$95.00 per instance |
Included |
|
CARM Portal Reconciliations |
$95.00 per hour |
$95.00 per hour, 2 hours free per year |
$95.00 per hour, 4 hours free per year |
|
Payment of Unreconciled CARM Portal Balance |
$95.00 per instance |
Included |
Included |
|
CARM Portal Troubleshooting |
$95.00 per hour |
$95.00 per hour, 2 hours free per year |
$95.00 per hour, 4 hours free per year |
|
First time RPP Bond Setup |
$450 |
$450 |
$450 |
|
RPP Bond Renewal |
$450 per year |
$400 per year |
$400 per year |
*All bonds that JORI facilitates will automatically renew per the requirements in D17-1-8
*The CBSA review period for RPP calculation is from July 25 of the previous year to July 24 of the current year. Increases or decreases must be submitted in the CCP before that date.
*Per hour fees are based on a 1-hour minimum*
Please, fill the form below to choose your CARM Monitoring option.
Next step, the RPP Bond application.
To keep your goods moving without upfront duty and tax payments, you must post financial security directly with the CBSA under the new CARM system. Our team can also help with that.
Click below to learn more.