1. What CAPA helps you achieve
CAPA stands for Corrective and Preventive Action. After an audit or a factory visit, your client lists the findings that need to be fixed and assigns you actions to fix them: corrective actions, which fix an existing issue, and preventive actions, which prevent future ones. CAPA is where you complete those actions and show your client the proof, in one place instead of Excel sheets and email threads. Done well, it is more than a compliance task: it shows your client that you take findings seriously and can deliver evidence on time, and it helps make an audit a tool for improving the situation of workers and other stakeholders. Your client reviews your evidence, and once they mark an action as Done, it counts as completed and verified.
Prefer to watch? Here is a video: https://emails.retraced.com/hubfs/Supplier%20Help%20Center%20Videos/Retraced_CAPA_Feature_Intro_Benefits.mp4
2. How CAPA connects to your Retraced profile
CAPA follows up on what an audit or visit found. In CAPA, your company is the responsible company, usually the audited company that has the finding, and you or your colleagues are the assignees who work on the action. The client who created the action is the creator, and the reporter, by default the person who created it, reviews your work and decides when it is done. Each action also shows its source, such as an audit or a factory visit, so you can see where the finding was documented.
Understanding the key CAPA terms used throughout this feature, will make it easier to navigate, understand the CAPA journey effectively - start by reviewing them.
3. How to do it
Log in and set up your preferred language in your user profile and turn on notifications, so nothing slips through.
Find and prioritize your actions. You are notified in the app and by email as soon as your client adds you as an assignee. In the left sidebar, open Vendor Compliance → CAPA → Actions, choose Assigned to Me and work through the actions that are To do or In progress.
If your client has set a due date, work backwards from it; if not, start with the highest-severity findings (Minor, Moderate, Major, Critical, Zero Tolerance), which tend to take longer to resolve.
Use the filters if you have many actions. Actions that name your company as the responsible company but have no assignee yet don’t appear under Assigned to Me, and notifications only start once an assignee has been added; you find those actions in the general Actions overview.
Prefer to watch? Here is a video:
Read what is asked. Click the action title to open it and read each field before you respond. The details show who raised the issue and who the reporter is (your contact for questions), the collaborators, the impact area, the source (where the finding was documented, such as an audit or a factory visit) and the plan the action belongs to. The description and the findings tell you what was observed and what needs to change, and the comments show the conversation so far. Pictorial or Documented Evidence of Violation is proof your client or the auditor shares with you; it is not where you upload your own documents.
Prefer to watch? Here is a video:
Respond to the action. To submit your response, two things are mandatory: remediation documentation and a remediation message. First check whether you have already resolved a similar action, even for a different client: if so, link it (see section 4) and its remediation evidence carries over.
Then upload the files that prove the issue has been resolved to Remediation documentation, for example training records, signed attendance sheets, corrected payroll samples, photos or policies, and write a Remediation message that summarizes what you did, when, and how the evidence supports it.
Use the Activity section for comments: switch Show comments between Collaborating (visible to your client) and My own company (internal only) before you post.
Submit for review. Click Save. Only after saving does the Submit for remediation button in the upper-right corner become active; click it to send the action to your client for review.
Until you submit, your client doesn’t see your work. Your client then either marks the action Done or requests changes, usually explaining in a comment in the Activity section what to update, for example the evidence files, the remediation message or further information; update the action and submit it again.
You will see that along with the submission, the status changes to In Review. This means that your client is checking the submission.
Prefer to watch? Here is a video:
Optionally, to share the work, add colleagues as assignees or collaborators on the Details page, or as watchers under Watch settings to keep them informed without making them responsible.
Common mistakes to avoid
Don’t upload your evidence under Evidence of violation. That field holds proof your client or the auditor shares with you; your files go into Remediation documentation.
If you are only a collaborator, leave the evidence upload to the assignee. You can comment and support.
Saving is not submitting. Until you click Submit for remediation, your client doesn’t see your work.
Don’t skip the remediation message. A document alone doesn’t explain what you changed, when, and how the evidence proves it.
4. Where your information is used
What you provide in CAPA is used in two ways:
Your client uses your evidence, together with the comments and history on the action, to check that the finding has been fixed.
And you can use it again: if you have already fixed a similar issue, even for another client, open the Linked actions section inside the action, click Link action and search by topic, and you link that existing action instead of starting from scratch. Only the remediation summary and the attachments are shared, and no details about other brands, collaborators or comments become visible.
This benefits your client, who gets a clear answer to the action, and it benefits you: you don’t upload the same evidence again and again, which matters when one audit leads to a corrective action plan from each of your clients.
Prefer to watch? Here is a video:
5. Keep it up to date
An action only helps your client if its status is current, so keep it up to date. If you are still working on an action but can’t submit it yet, set the status to In progress; it signals to your client that you are actively working on it.
If your client requests changes, you are notified in the app and by email, and they usually explain in a comment in the Activity section what is missing, for example updated evidence files, a revised remediation message or more information. Answer in the comments, update the action and submit it again. You are also notified in the app and by email when an action is overdue, so keep an eye on the due date.
Once an action is marked Done, archive it to keep your view focused on what is still open: select the action and click Archive selected in the toolbar.
Don't worry. Archived actions are still searchable and can still be linked as similar actions later.
Got many actions to work through? You can edit directly in the overview instead of opening each action: hover over the title or status cell and look for the pencil icon. To change several actions at once, select them and use the bulk options at the top of the overview.
6. What to do next
Optionally, upload new or other audits to Vendor Compliance, optionally creating findings and actions already during the upload, so your client can use them in CAPA too. Your client will let you know if they expect this from you. If CAPA is not part of your subscription, you can’t work on the actions created this way.