DeskOS guide: Customs, freight and IP desk

DeskOS gives clearing agents, freight forwarders, bonded warehouses and trademark practices a free web desk with ten working calculators, a signals list and AI scoring that runs on your own AI key. This guide explains every part and what it does not do.

1. Get your desk

• Go to the DeskOS home page, choose this desk, and enter your firm name, email and country.
• DeskOS emails you a private link. That link is your login: bookmark it and do not share it.
• Lost the link? Use "Email me my desk link" on the home page. If you think someone else has it, open your desk and press "Send me a fresh link": the old one stops working.

2. The ten calculators

Open the Calculators tab. Yellow fields are inputs; results update as you type. Percentages are entered as percentages (15 means 15%). Each result shows the formula it uses.

• C01 Landed duty, excise and VAT: Taxes payable on top of the CIF value when each tax is charged on the value including the previous ones.
• C02 Demurrage and storage exposure: Charges after the free days, with a lower daily rate up to day 14 and a higher one after it.
• C03 Opposition or protest deadline countdown: Days left in a statutory window that starts on a publication date.
• C04 HS reclassification back-duty: Extra duty and penalty if customs reassesses goods under a higher-rate tariff code.
• C05 Bonded warehouse duty deferral value: What it is worth to pay duty later instead of at entry, at your cost of money.
• C06 Rules of origin: regional value content: Share of the export price that is not imported non-originating material.
• C07 Reefer plug-in and spoilage buffer: Port power charges for refrigerated containers plus a reserve for spoilage risk.
• C08 Transit bond utilisation: How much of your customs bond the duty and VAT on goods in transit is using.
• C09 Counterfeit seizure net cost: Destruction and filing costs minus any damages awarded.
• C10 Customs reference exchange rate uplift: Extra duty-inclusive cost when customs values the invoice at its reference rate instead of the spot rate.

The same calculators are in the Excel workbook under Downloads. They are planning estimates: check rates, rules and contract terms for your own jurisdiction before relying on a figure.

3. Signals

There is no automatic feed for this desk yet. Log customs notices, tariff changes or gazette items you come across, and your own AI key can score them against your assets.

• Add your own signals with "Add a signal": a title, the organisation, a deadline, a link and notes.
• Free desks keep up to 25 signals; Pro keeps up to 200. The oldest feed items are removed first; items you added yourself are never removed automatically.

4. AI scoring with your own key

DeskOS does not pay for or supply an AI model. If you add your own key, DeskOS sends the title, organisation, country, type, deadline and your notes of up to ten unscored signals, plus your assets and keywords, to your provider and saves the score (0 to 100), a short reason and a next step it returns. Without a key nothing is scored.

• Google Gemini: Free tier with a Google account. Create a key in Google AI Studio. Sign up: https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey
• Groq: Free tier. Sign up, then create an API key. Sign up: https://console.groq.com/keys
• OpenRouter: Free models available. Sign up, then create a key. Sign up: https://openrouter.ai/keys
• Paste the key in the AI key tab and press Save, then Test. Your key is stored encrypted and is only used for your own desk. Press Remove at any time to delete it.
• Scores come from the model and can be wrong. Read the notice before acting.

5. Plans and services

• Free desk ($0): Ten working calculators for your trade, in the browser and as an Excel workbook; A signals list you fill yourself (up to 25 kept); Score signals with your own Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter key, 10 at a time; Tender desk: open tenders from all 13 sources for one region, your own country first, up to 10 new a day; Award Radar: who won public contracts in your country in the last 30 days, at what price, against how many bidders.
• DeskOS Pro ($19 a month): Everything in the free desk, with up to 200 signals kept; Tender desk: every region you choose, the sources you choose and your keywords, up to 40 new a day; Award Radar for 18 countries and a full year: sector search, the price range of the evaluated bids, and the subcontract radar (foreign firms that just won in your country); Cost to bid on the notice where the portal publishes it (bid security, fee), and Kenya's AGPO reserved tenders as a keyword; The Tender Readiness Pack included: compliance matrix, submission planner, key-expert CV template, technical proposal skeleton; Automatic daily scoring of new signals with your own AI key; A daily email when new matching notices arrive; CSV export of your signals.
• Bid Desk ($69 a month): DeskOS Pro included for as long as Bid Desk runs (Award Radar, the Pack, every region); One Bid / No-Bid Memo a month on the tender you choose ($29 on its own); One Bid Check a month: a person checks your bid pack before you submit ($39 on its own); The subcontract radar for your countries: foreign firms that just won and will need local partners; A monthly win/loss report for your sector and countries: who won, at what prices, and why other bids fell. When: Intake form at once; your first report within 5 working days; each memo within 3 and each Bid Check within 2 working days of a complete request.
• Bid / No-Bid Memo ($29 once): A written memo (1 to 2 pages) on one tender you send us: any public or donor-funded tender with documents; What the client really asks for, in plain words; Eligibility and qualification check against what you tell us about your firm; How proposals will be scored, the effort it will take, the risks, and a clear bid / no-bid with reasons; What similar contracts in that country went for, and how many firms bid, from the award notices. When: Within 3 working days of a complete intake form.
• Bid Check ($39 once): A person reads your bid pack against the tender's own instructions and data sheet; Completeness and eligibility: every form, certificate, power of attorney and signature the tender asks for; Bid security and validity: amount, wording, issuer and dates against what the tender requires; Key-expert CVs against the funder's format and the terms of reference, and the methodology against what will be scored; A written list of what to fix, most serious first. When: Within 2 working days of a complete intake form (send it at least 3 working days before the deadline).
• Desk Setup ($39 once): A 45-minute video or WhatsApp call at a time you choose; Your desk, keywords, assets and AI key set up with you; The calculators and Excel workbook walked through with your own numbers; A written summary of what we set and what to do next. When: Call within 5 working days of your intake form.
• Tender Readiness Pack ($9 once): Compliance matrix workbook: every requirement, owner and status in one place; Submission planner: works backwards from your deadline, with a clarifications log; Key expert CV template with an adequacy-for-the-assignment table; Technical proposal skeleton with prompts for every section. When: Download links by email the moment Whop confirms payment.

Pro is bought on Whop. Use the same email address as your desk so it upgrades automatically; DeskOS also emails you a licence key you can paste in the Plan tab. If Pro checkout is not open yet, the Plan tab says so.

6. Your data

• DeskOS stores your firm name, email, country, the signals in your desk, your assets and keywords, and (if you add one) your AI key, encrypted.
• Ask for deletion at any time and your desk and everything in it is deleted.

7. Help

Questions or problems: email deskos@atomicmail.io.