Already evaluating SAP GTS? You may not need an alternative.

ImportPreflight runs upstream of SAP GTS, pre-screening your product catalog for HTS classification, UFLPA risk, FDA Import Alerts, and Entity List matches before the data ever reaches GTS. Better inputs in. Better outputs from your existing investment.

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What SAP GTS does well

SAP Global Trade Services is the default trade compliance choice for enterprises already running SAP. The platform handles sanctioned party list (SPL) screening, embargo checks, export control classification (ECCN, USML, dual-use), license determination and management, customs filing, customs management, and trade preference / rules of origin determination — all integrated tightly with SAP ECC and S/4HANA so that sales orders, purchase orders, deliveries, and shipments flow into compliance checks in real time. For SAP-native organizations, the master data unification and ERP integration are doing work that any standalone trade tool would struggle to match.

What SAP GTS depends on as input

SAP GTS sits on top of the SAP material master, business partner data, and transaction documents. The cleaner the master data, the better GTS performs. A typical GTS deployment depends on:

• Material master records with current customs tariff and export control classifications
• Business partner data resolved consistently across regions and SAP instances
• Country-of-origin data populated and current
• A point of view on which products carry pre-filing UFLPA, FDA Import Alert, or BIS-related risk before transactions hit the SPL screening and embargo check workflows

When the material master is incomplete or stale on classifications and risk flags, GTS still runs — but compliance teams end up working alerts on data that should have been triaged upstream, and the audit trail GTS produces is weaker than it should be.

How ImportPreflight feeds SAP GTS

ImportPreflight pre-screens your product catalog at the line level before classification and risk data lands in the SAP material master and flows into GTS. Every line comes back with an HTS classification (against the USITC dataset), a UFLPA priority-sector tag where applicable, an Entity List match flag, an FDA Import Alert hit where chapter and origin country trigger one, and a HOLD / REVIEW / CAUTION / CLEAR action recommendation per line.

The result: GTS's SPL screening, embargo checks, and export-control workflows run against material master data that's already been pre-triaged. Less alert noise. Cleaner audit trail. Less time spent in GTS resolving issues that should have been caught at the catalog stage. And during the migration window away from GTS 11.0, an upstream pre-filing screen that's portable to whatever trade compliance layer the organization eventually lands on.

When you'd use both, and when you might not

If you're an enterprise running SAP and committed to GTS or to S/4HANA for International Trade: keep the SAP layer. SPL screening, embargo checks, export controls, license management, and customs management integrated directly with the ERP are doing work that ImportPreflight isn't trying to replicate. Run ImportPreflight upstream as the catalog-level pre-filing screen feeding cleaner data into the material master.

If you're a smaller importer who happens to run SAP and was considering GTS primarily for line-level UFLPA, BIS, FDA Import Alert, and HTS pre-screening: GTS is more capability — and significantly more implementation work — than the question requires. ImportPreflight handles the catalog pre-screen directly. If your business later expands into export controls, license management, or full customs filing inside SAP, GTS or its S/4HANA successor is the natural next step.

A note on the migration window. SAP GTS 11.0 reached end of mainstream maintenance at the end of 2025, and SAP customers are actively migrating to SAP S/4HANA for International Trade or evaluating alternative compliance solutions. During that transition, an upstream pre-filing screen that's portable to whatever trade compliance layer the organization eventually lands on becomes more valuable than usual. ImportPreflight runs against the catalog directly — independent of which SAP-side trade compliance product is the eventual destination for the data.

Quick comparison

Bottom line

ImportPreflight isn't trying to replace SAP GTS. We do the upstream pre-screening on your import catalog that GTS's SPL and export-control workflows aren't built to do at the catalog stage. If you're already on GTS or migrating to S/4HANA for International Trade, add ImportPreflight as the catalog-level pre-filing pass so the SAP-side compliance modules run against cleaner data. If you happen to run SAP and the binding constraint is line-level pre-filing catalog risk rather than full enterprise trade compliance, ImportPreflight is the lighter-weight first pass — and the SAP trade layer is still there when license management, customs filing, and export controls become the binding constraints.

See what ImportPreflight catches that gets cleaner data into SAP GTS · Have questions? Contact us