FFL DIRECT Integration Complete: Answer ATF Trace Requests From Your Phone
APB360’s integration with the ATF’s FFL DIRECT service is complete and fully tested. Manufacturers can now answer the National Tracing Center’s firearm trace requests in minutes, from an email alert and a phone, without going back to the office to pull up the bound book.
A trace request is an urgent law enforcement request. Investigators are waiting on the answer, and the old process meant a call or fax, a manual search through A&D records, and a reply typed out by hand. FFL DIRECT replaces that with a secure, machine-to-machine exchange, and APB360 handles the work in between.
How It Works
- The request arrives automatically — ATF sends the trace straight to APB360 over FFL DIRECT. No phone tag and no fax machine.
- Your records are already searched — APB360 matches the serial number against your electronic bound book and lines up the disposition records that fit.
- Your compliance staff get an email right away — with the full trace details and a link to sign in.
- Review and approve from your phone — check the matched records, choose the disposition, and approve the response from any browser, on any device.
- The response goes back to ATF — formatted to ATF’s requirements, with ATF’s own coded values for weapon type, caliber and country filled in for you.
A Person Always Signs Off
Automation does the searching. It never does the deciding. Nothing is sent to ATF until someone on your team has approved exactly what will be sent. If the selected records change after approval, the approval no longer applies, and the response has to be approved again before it can go. Every request, approval and transmission is recorded with who did it and when, so you have a complete audit trail if a trace response is ever questioned.
Why It Matters for Manufacturers
- Hours become minutes — no manual record searches, and no retyping data into a fax or email
- Respond from anywhere — a trace that arrives while you are on the floor, on the road or out of the office can still be answered promptly
- Fewer errors — responses are built from your bound-book data, not transcribed from it
- Each FFL’s data stays its own — each trace is routed to the right organization’s records and the right people
Manufacturers who keep their A&D records in APB360 can be connected to FFL DIRECT. To get started, email sales@apb360.com or call 251-677-7978.