CPSC Product Registry: Step-by-Step Registration & Product Filing (2026)

If you import regulated consumer products, the CPSC Product Registry is where the actual work happens before July 8, 2026 — and the first time through, the screens can feel a little opaque. This is the plain-English version: exactly what to click, from creating your account to certifying your first product. Every step here follows CPSC’s official eFiling Product Registry User Guide (v3.0, September 2025), so you can follow along with confidence.

Key takeaways

• Registration comes first: you create a Business Account and set a Certifier ID before you can enter anything.
• You need a Product Collection in place before you can add a single certificate.
• Every product gets its own certificate, built across four screens: the product’s identity, its description, its testing, and the certificate itself.
• Nothing counts until you hit Certify — only a certified record is ready to reference at the border.

First, self-register and set your Certifier ID

One person at your company — the Business Account Administrator — owns the account and gets it started. Before you begin, have your Importer of Record (IOR) number handy, because the system asks for it up front.

1. Head to the CPSC Product Registry self-registration page and click Register Now.
2. Read the “Who Should Create a Business Account?” statements, tick the acknowledgement box, and hit Next.
3. Enter your email, company name, and IOR number, then click Submit. That sends an invitation to the email address you just gave. One thing that trips people up: if your IOR number in the format XX-XXXXXXX won’t validate, add the two-digit division suffix and try XX-XXXXXXX00.
4. Open the invitation email, click the link, and choose Create Account.
5. Fill in your profile — name, phone, and your company record — then set a password and confirm via the “Please verify your email address” email. (Your email address becomes your username automatically.)
6. Log back in, accept the legal notice, and you’ll land on the eFiling Dashboard. In your To-Do List, click Set your Certifier ID.
7. Pick a Certifier ID (or take the one the system suggests) and click Save. Keep it short and simple, skip spaces and punctuation, and make it something that obviously points to your business — your broker will quote this back at filing time.

That Certifier ID is the first of three identifiers that pin down each certificate; the Product ID and Version ID come later. If the terminology is fuzzy, our breakdown of the CPSC eFiling data elements spells out what each one does.

Create a Product Collection to hold your certificates

Here’s a small gotcha: you can’t enter any product data until you’ve created a collection. Think of collections as folders — a way to group products by type, or by the broker who needs to see them. Setting one up takes about ten seconds.

1. On the eFiling Dashboard, find the Product Collections section and click Add Collection.
2. Give it a Name in the “Create a Collection” window.
3. Click Create Collection, and it appears on your dashboard, ready for products.

Enter your first product certificate

Each product is its own certificate — you can’t bundle several into one. (The one exception CPSC makes: apparel of the same material in different styles, sizes, and colors counts as a single product when it was made and tested together.) Open your collection, click Add Products, and you’ll move through four screens.

Identify the product

1. Enter the Product Name, an optional trade or brand name, the Product ID Type, and the Product ID. The ID type is one of seven — GTIN, SKU, UPC, Model Number, Serial Number, Registered Number, or Alternate ID — and whichever you enter first becomes the primary Product ID.
2. Need more than one identifier? Click + Additional Identifiers, pick the type, enter the ID, and click Add.

Describe it and name the manufacturer

1. Expand the description section and fill in color, style, a short description, the manufacturer name, the manufacture date, and any production dates or lot number (noting whether the lot number is assigned by the manufacturer or the seller).
2. Choose the manufacturer from the drop-down. If they’re not listed yet, click + Create New Manufacturer and add their details (name, alternate ID or GLN, address, phone, email), then Save. A handy trick: reuse your existing vendor number as the alternate ID so the record stays consistent across every product.
3. Click Next.

Add the testing and citation codes

1. Pick the Certificate Type — a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) or a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC).
2. Enter the Last Test Date.
3. Add the lab. For a CPC, you have to choose a CPSC-Accepted lab from the list. For a GCC, you can use a CPSC-Accepted lab or pick Other for an in-house or third-party lab and create a new record if needed.
4. Enter the test report details, then add your citation codes — start typing or scroll the list to find them. These come straight from your lab’s results summary (think 16 CFR 1303 or ASTM F963), so you’re not guessing.
5. Add another lab if more than one applies, claim a testing exclusion if you have one, and click Next.

Set the version and certify

1. Set the Version — type your own Version ID or let the system generate one. It just has to be unique for that Product ID, and creating a new version archives the old one.
2. Choose your point of contact for test records (importer, manufacturer, lab, broker, or other).
3. Read the certification statement and submit: Certify if you hold certification permission, or Submit for Certification if someone else signs off.
4. Check the status that comes back: Complete means you’re done, Incomplete means a required field is missing, and Awaiting Certification means it still needs a certifier’s sign-off.

What happens after you certify

Once a certificate reads Complete, you’re ready for the border. Hand your three Certificate Identifiers — Certifier ID, Product ID, and Version ID — to your customs broker, and they’ll reference them in the Reference PGA Message Set at entry. Worth knowing: the registry doesn’t talk to CBP’s ACE system directly, so that handoff to your broker is the step that actually connects your certificate to the shipment.

Download the CPSC eFiling Watchlist Guide (free)

Related reading

This screen-by-screen guide sits inside the bigger compliance picture. If you’re starting fresh, walk through the 7-step CPSC eFiling overview first, confirm whether your product is subject to CPSC, and check the July 8, 2026 deadline so nothing sneaks up on you.

Frequently asked questions

How do I register for the CPSC Product Registry?

Go to the CPSC Product Registry self-registration page, click Register Now, acknowledge the eligibility statements, and submit your email, company name, and Importer of Record (IOR) number. You then create a user profile from the emailed invitation and set a Certifier ID to finish.

What is a Certifier ID and when do I create it?

The Certifier ID is a unique, short identifier for your business that links you to your certificates. You create it as the final step of Business Account setup, from the Set your Certifier ID task on the eFiling Dashboard. Avoid spaces and punctuation.

Do I need a Product Collection before adding products?

Yes. A Product Collection must exist before you can enter certificate data. Create one from the Product Collections section using Add Collection, name it, and click Create Collection.

Can I put several products on one certificate?

No. Each product is entered as its own certificate. The exception CPSC recognizes is apparel of the same material in multiple styles, sizes, and colors that was manufactured and tested together, which counts as one product.

Where do the citation codes come from when filing a certificate?

From your laboratory’s test results summary. On the testing screen you add citations by typing or selecting the codes (for example, 16 CFR 1303 or ASTM F963) that the product was tested against.