1. What Vendor Compliance helps you achieve
Your customers need proof that your company meets their compliance requirements: the certificates you hold, the audits your facilities have passed, the policies you have signed, and your answers to their questionnaires. With this proof, they can show that their supply chain meets regulations, certification schemes and their own sustainability commitments.
Vendor Compliance is where you keep that proof in one place:
Upload once, share with every customer. Every customer you share a certificate, audit or document with can see it, without you sending the same PDF again.
Let AI do the typing. Retraced AI reads your certificates and audit reports and fills in the details, such as document numbers, dates and issuing bodies, so you only check them instead of entering everything by hand.
Answer each question once, not once per customer. Your company data, certificates, audits and documents you keep in your profile can be used to answer questionnaires, and you can sync your questionnaire answers back to your profile. When the next customer asks the same question, the answer is already there: ten customers don’t mean answering ten times.
Show the suppliers behind you. Keep your own suppliers’ certificates, audits and documents here too, so your customer sees not just your compliance, but your supply chain’s.
An up-to-date compliance profile makes it easier for your customers to approve you.
2. How Vendor Compliance connects to your Retraced profile
Vendor Compliance is your compliance foundation in Retraced. It brings together your company profile, with data such as facility processes and production capacity, and the certificates, audits and documents that prove what your profile says. Every certificate is reviewed by Retraced before it’s approved, so what your customers see is verified proof, not just a file you sent.
Its four sections, Certificates, Audits, Documents and Questionnaires, work together: your company data, certificates, audits and documents can be used to answer questionnaires, and you can sync your questionnaire answers back to your profile.
Your foundation can include your suppliers too: you can upload certificates, audits and documents for them. You’ll find them in each supplier’s profile, or see them across your whole network in the Certificates, Audits and Documents sections, so you can spot what’s expiring at a glance.
You decide how your audits and documents are shared: make them public to your network, or share them only with specific companies. Approved certificates are visible to all companies in your network. Companies outside your network have no access. Every request you answer adds to your foundation in Retraced, so the next one takes less work.
3. How to do it
3.1 Before you start: build your network
Prefer to watch? This video shows how to connect to a company, create a new company profile and unlink a company: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_Network_Build_Your_Network.mp4
Vendor Compliance runs on your network. Connect your customers, so you can share your compliance data with them and answer their questionnaires. Connect your suppliers too, so you can manage their certificates, audits and documents.
Go to Network, click + Add, search the company name, then hover over Connect and choose client or supplier. If the company isn’t on Retraced yet, create a new profile for it. (Full Guide here)
3.2 Certificates
Prefer to watch? This video shows how to upload a certificate manually or with AI, edit it, fix a rejected one and archive it: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_Certificates_Upload_and_Manage.mp4
Upload a certificate. Go to Vendor Compliance → Certifications and click Create with AI to let Retraced AI fill in the details, or Create manually to enter them yourself.
If you use AI, check every field against the certificate: you’re responsible for what you submit.
Choose the right company: your own or one of your suppliers’, and it must be the company named on the certificate.
Choose the right standard, type and version: for example GOTS, scope certificate, version 7.0. If your standard isn’t listed, request it here: New Certificate/Membership Request.
Enter the numbers correctly: the document number and license number differ by standard. The full guide explains which number to enter.
For a product-level certificate, tick the products it covers in the last step.
Transaction certificates (TCs): if your customer requests them through Certified Materials Management or Order Tracing, upload them there. Otherwise, you can upload a TC here like any other certificate. Select the company named as the buyer on the TC, not the seller.
Click Create & Request (manual upload) or Create and continue (AI upload) to submit. (Full Guide: Upload certifications | Retraced Help Center)
Avoid a rejection. Retraced reviews every certificate before approving it.
Certificates are most often rejected because the details entered don’t match the certificate, because the file is an audit report such as BSCI or SEDEX (upload it under Audits instead), or because it’s a confirmation letter rather than the official certificate. Once approved, the certificate appears in your Certifications tab and your company profile.
If it’s rejected, you’ll be notified. Open the certificate, read the comment explaining what to fix, correct it and resubmit. (Full Guide: Responding to rejected certificate claims | Retraced Help Center
After your first upload, you can edit a certificate’s details, renew an expiring certificate, or archive or delete it. (Full Guide: Manage certificates | Retraced Help Center)
3.3 Audits
Prefer to watch? This video shows how to upload an audit manually or with AI, share it, change the next planned audit date and archive it: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_Audits_Upload_and_Manage.mp4
Upload an audit. Go to Vendor Compliance → Audits. You can upload in two ways:
With AI: click Create with AI and upload your audit report. Click Analyze document: Retraced AI extracts the audited company, audit details and key findings for you. Check them and confirm: you’re responsible for what you submit. You can upload several audits at once; they’re processed in the background. Optionally, you can also add a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) file. Most suppliers don’t need this; only add it if your customer has asked you to work on CAPAs in Retraced.
Manually: click Create manually. Select who got audited and the audit type, and attach the report. Then fill in the details, such as the audit date and the auditing company (both required), the reference number, facility score and next planned audit date. You can also attach a CAP file.
If you have a CAP file, upload it while you create the audit. (Full Guide: Upload audits | Retraced Help Center)
Social audit reports such as BSCI or SEDEX belong here, not under Certificates.
Decide who can see it. Every audit has a Privacy Status. A public audit is visible to all companies in your network; a private audit only to the companies you share it with. To share, click View permissions in the Privacy Status column, or Share on the audit page, tick the companies and click Share.
Turn findings into actions. If you added a CAP file during the AI upload, Retraced AI suggests corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) based on it. Review them, select the ones you need and edit them if necessary. This feature may not be included in every subscription.
After your first upload, you can share an audit, fill in missing details, change the next planned audit date, or archive and unarchive it. (Full Guide: Manage audits | Retraced Help Center)
3.4 Documents
Prefer to watch? This video shows how to upload a document, make it public or share it with a customer, and archive and unarchive it: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_Documents_Upload_and_Share.mp4
Upload a document. Go to Vendor Compliance → Documents and click Create new documents.
Choose the right company: your own or one of your suppliers.
Upload the file, then choose its type, such as Code of Conduct or Environmental Policy, and rename it if needed. If the type you need isn’t listed, request it here: New Document Type Request.
Click Save. (Full Guide: Upload documents | Retraced Help Center)
Make it visible. New documents are private by default, so no one else can see them yet. Share the document with specific companies, or make it public to your network.
Making a document public can’t be undone, so if you only want certain customers to see it, share it instead. When a company asks to see one of your private documents, you’re notified by email and under Your active tasks on your dashboard, and you can approve the request from the document’s share dialog. (Full Guide: Privacy and sharing of documents | Retraced Help Center)
After your first upload, you can rename, download, archive or unarchive a document. (Full Guide: Manage documents | Retraced Help Center)
3.5 Questionnaires
Prefer to watch? This video shows how to find a questionnaire, answer it using your existing data, and submit it for review: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_Questionnaires_Answer_a_Client_Questionnaire.mp4
A questionnaire is a set of questions your customer sends you, covering your company information, such as facility processes and production capacity, and your compliance data, such as certificates, audits and documents.
Find your questionnaire. Open it from the email notification, from Your active tasks on your dashboard, from your notifications (bell icon), or from Vendor Compliance → Questionnaires → Requests. Check the About column: it tells you whether the questionnaire is about your own company or another company you’re answering for. (Full Guide: Responding to a questionnaire | Retraced Help Center)
Answer using what you already have.
Use your profile data: when you open a questionnaire, choose From profile to pre-fill the questions that already have an answer on your company profile, or Fill manually to start from scratch. Check the pre-filled answers and update anything that has changed.
Link instead of re-uploading: when a question asks for a certificate, audit or document, select the one already in your profile, or upload a new one. (Full guide: Uploading documents, certificates and audits in a questionnaire)
If a question doesn’t apply, click Not Available and add a comment explaining why. This counts as an answer. Don’t leave it blank.
If a question is unclear, leave a comment for your customer below the question.
Submit for review. Once every question is answered, click Submit for review. The button only becomes active when all questions are answered. After you submit, you can’t edit your answers unless your customer reopens the questionnaire, so check everything first.
If an answer is denied, you’ll be notified. Read your customer’s comment, hover over the answer and click the pencil icon, update it and resubmit. (Full Guide: Responding to a questionnaire | Retraced Help Center)
Update your profile with your answers. Answers you give in a questionnaire are saved in that questionnaire only. To copy them to your company profile, click Sync profile data and choose the answers to sync. (Full Guide: Responding to a questionnaire | Retraced Help Center)
4. Where your information is used
Everything you upload in Vendor Compliance works for you more than once:
Your certificates speak for you. Once approved, your certificates are visible to all companies in your network, so customers find them in your profile without you sending anything. You can link them in any questionnaire answer, and it can feed into your customers’ Digital Product Passports.
Your audits answer the request before it’s made. The customers you share an audit with can review your audit history, findings and corrective actions directly in Retraced, with no reports emailed back and forth. Share one audit with as many customers as you need, and when a questionnaire asks for your latest social audit, link the one already in your profile.
Your documents are ready to share. When a customer asks for a signed Code of Conduct or an environmental policy, share it from Retraced instead of sending it by email, and your customer can always find it there. When a questionnaire asks for a specific policy, link the one you’ve already uploaded.
Your questionnaire answers build your profile. Your customer reviews your answers, and once you sync them, they become part of your profile: a certificate uploaded in a question appears under Certifications, a policy under Documents. You’re building your profile while answering your customer, and when the next customer asks the same question, the answer is already there.
Your compliance data also supports other parts of Retraced. Your scope certificates back the transaction certificates you upload in Certified Materials Management, and your company-level documents can be added to your customers’ orders in Order Tracing.
5. Keep it up to date
Your compliance data only helps you while it’s current. An expired certificate or an outdated policy can hold up a customer’s approval, and your customers rely on what they see in your profile. Here’s when to update each part:
Certificates: renew before they expire. Certificates that have expired or are about to expire show a renew icon in the Actions column, and expired dates are shown in red, so you know when to act. If your certification scope changes, such as new facilities or product categories, upload the new certificate rather than editing the old one.
Audits: upload each new audit as soon as you receive the report, and keep the next planned audit date current, so your customers know when to expect your next one. When you upload a new audit of the same type, the previous one is archived automatically and stays available in the audit’s version history.
Documents: when a policy or signed agreement is updated, upload the file so customers always see the latest version.
Questionnaires: customers often send them once a year or when their requirements change. Check pre-filled answers before you submit, and when your company details change, such as new facilities or production capacity, update your profile so the next questionnaire is easier.
Your suppliers’ data: the certificates, audits and documents you manage for your suppliers need the same care. Check them regularly, so your customer sees a supply chain that’s up to date, not just your own company.
6. What to do next
Turn your audit findings into progress. Track the corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) from your audits in Retraced, so your customers can see you’re improving, not just that you’ve been audited
Put your certificates to work in your customers’ orders. If your customer uses Certified Materials Management, your scope certificates back the transaction certificates you link to their purchase orders
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