Turn vendor onboarding into a sequence: what is collected, who owns each item, what expires, and which open points may pass through to a first order.
Collect identity before capability
The first block is about who this is: the business licence and unified social credit code, the registered name in Chinese, the legal representative, the business scope, the bank account in the registered company name, and the factory address if it differs from the registered one. These are cheap to collect and expensive to skip. Where the counterparty is a trading company buying from a factory, record both entities — you will need the second one the day a technical question outruns the first, and asking for it then reads as distrust rather than as routine.
- Licence, code, registered Chinese name and legal representative
- Bank details in the registered company name, checked against the contract
- Both entities recorded where a trader sits in front of a factory
Then capability, against your own specification
The second block is what they can actually make for you: the product categories they run, typical batch sizes, in-house processes versus subcontracted ones, the equipment relevant to your product, and any certification they hold with its issuing body and expiry. Ask directly which processes leave the site, and where they go — subcontracting is normal and is only a problem when it is undisclosed, because it moves your quality control to a place nobody has assessed. Ask the same question about materials: whether the mill or component supplier is fixed for your product or chosen order by order on price, because the second answer means the thing you approved can change without anyone at the factory considering it a change at all.
- Categories, batch sizes and the processes actually done in house
- Subcontracted steps declared, with the site named
- Certificates recorded with the issuing body, scope and expiry date
Give every item an owner and an expiry
Most onboarding files decay silently. A certificate expires, a factory moves, a contact leaves, and the file still reads as complete. Put an owner and a review date against each item, and treat a lapsed document as an open point rather than a historical one. The same applies to the person: record who at the supplier actually understands your requirements, because the day they leave is the day your specification stops being applied by anyone who remembers why it says what it says. Ask for a named second person on the same account, and copy them into the approvals, so that the knowledge is not sitting in one inbox.
- Owner and review date on every item, including certificates
- A lapsed document reopens the item rather than staying filed
- Name the person who holds your requirements, and their named backup
Decide which open points may pass
Onboarding stalls when every item is mandatory and everything is therefore negotiable in practice. Split the list: blockers that stop a first order outright — unverified entity, mismatched bank details, no evidence of your category — and open points that may proceed with a named owner and a date. Write the decision down. An open point that has been consciously accepted is manageable; one that was quietly skipped is what the review after an incident will find.
- A short blocker list that genuinely blocks
- Open points accepted explicitly, with owner and date
- The accepted-risk decision recorded, not implied
Onboarding ends at the first accepted delivery
The file is not finished when the questionnaire is returned; it is finished when a first delivery has been accepted and its baseline recorded — sealed sample, written specification, approved packaging, carton figures and the first inspection report. That baseline is what makes later orders comparable. We can carry out the entity verification, the site check and the first-order inspection, and hold the sealed sample and specification. The onboarding decision itself stays with you: we supply evidence, we do not approve vendors on your behalf.
- Baseline recorded at the first accepted delivery, not at questionnaire stage
- Sealed sample and specification held for later comparison
- The approval decision remains the retailer's
Authoritative references
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