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Supplier CMM Journey

1. What Certified Materials Management helps you achieve

When your customer orders certified materials, such as GOTS or GRS, they need proof that the materials in each order are covered by a valid certificate: a transaction certificate (TC), matched to the right order, product and quantity, together with supporting documents such as invoices and shipping documents. With Certified Materials Management (CMM), you give them that proof in one place, so they can back the certification claims they make about their products.

CMM makes that proof faster to provide:

  • Upload a whole batch in minutes. Instead of going shipment by shipment, around 30 minutes each and sometimes across separate portals, upload many TCs at once.

  • Let AI match TCs to orders. Retraced reads each TC, finds the PO number and quantity it covers, and matches it to your customer’s order, even when one TC covers several orders.

  • See your coverage before you submit. You know exactly how much of each order is covered and what’s still missing.

  • No more back-and-forth emails. Your customer reviews your documents directly in Retraced, without asking which document covers which order.

2. How Certified Materials Management connects to your Retraced profile

Your Company Profile shows that you are certified: your scope certificates show which standards you hold and for which products. CMM adds what your profile alone can’t show: that a specific order, with specific quantities, is covered by the right transaction certificates. Every order you complete adds to your foundation in Retraced. Your transaction certificates stay linked to the orders and products they cover, building a documented record of the certified materials you have actually delivered.

3. How to do it

Prefer to watch? This video covers the whole process below: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_CMM_Upload_and_Submit.mp4

Responding to a request takes three stages. The full guides walk you through each one; here’s what matters most at each stage.

  1. Upload your TCs and supporting documents. Your customer’s requests appear under Traceability → Certified Materials, one row per purchase order. Click Upload Docs and Retraced reads your files and matches them to the right orders. You can upload several at once, and a TC that covers several orders only needs to be uploaded once. Then click Review Docs to check and confirm what the AI extracted. Always check the article numbers and quantities, because they decide how much of each order counts as covered. Full guidance here: How to respond to requests and upload TC documents

  2. Submit for review. Submit once each order is fully covered and all required documents are in. The Submit for review button is available even before an order is fully covered, so check the coverage first. After you submit, you can’t make changes unless your customer changes the status back to In Progress. Full guidance here: How to submit an order for review

  3. Follow it to completion. Your customer either marks the order as done, or changes the status back to In Progress if something needs to be fixed, in which case you update your documents and submit again. Once the order is completed, you can’t change it anymore. → What defines an order as “Completed”

4. Where your information is used

Once you submit, your customer reviews and validates your documents directly in Retraced, with no email thread and no chasing.

From the TCs you upload, Retraced calculates which orders are covered, by which documents and to what quantity. That means you don’t have to match documents to orders in spreadsheets or explain your coverage to your customer: the work is done for you, and your customer sees the result in real time.

Your customer relies on your TCs to back claims about their products, such as recycled or organic content, and to report how much of their range uses certified materials. Every completed order stays on record, so you can show what you have delivered whenever you’re asked, without searching through old emails.

5. Keep it up to date

Coverage only holds its value while it reflects what's actually been shipped. As orders change — new quantities, revised POs, replacement documents — go back into the order and upload the updated files.

If your customer finds a mismatch or needs additional documents, they change the order status back to In Progress. Check the status of your submitted orders regularly, so you can make the changes and submit again.

Watch out for these common issues:

  • Coverage not complete — covered quantity is still less than required (e.g. 0 / 450, 750 / 1500). Upload the missing TC documents.

  • Warning in Collected Evidence — a ⚠️ icon means a required document is missing or still needs confirmation.

  • Orange coverage bar — covered quantity exceeds required. This still counts as fully covered, but it may indicate a document is linked to the wrong order. Review your files to confirm.

  • AI Validation "Needs review" — the AI flagged missing or mismatched content. Correct the affected files before submitting.

One important note: once your customer marks an order as Completed, you can’t change it anymore. If something needs to change after that point, contact your customer directly — only your customer can change the status of the order.

6. What to do next

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