Supplier verification and factory audits
Three checks, cheapest first, so you rarely pay for the expensive one. We report what we saw, including when the answer is to walk away.
Paper checks
Every Vietnamese company has a business registration certificate carrying a tax code, and that code is public. It tells you the registered name, the address, the capital and the registered lines of business.
The single most common thing we find is a company registered only for domestic trade presenting itself as a manufacturer. That mismatch costs nothing to catch and would have cost a great deal to discover later.
- Registration certificate, tax code and the licences the sector requires.
- Whether the name on the quotation, the certificate and the bank account are all the same company.
- Export history: bills of lading or customs declarations for comparable past shipments.
- Certifications checked with the issuing body rather than accepted as a PDF.
The on-site audit
The rest can only be answered by standing in the building. We go, and we send you photographs and a written report the same week.
- Whether the factory is theirs. A trading company can walk you around someone else's plant, but it cannot produce the maintenance logs or the staff roster.
- Working capacity as opposed to installed capacity: lines actually running, what else is booked in the month your order needs, how full the warehouse already is.
- Whether quality control is a person with records or a poster on a wall.
- Who would really run your order. The sales contact usually is not the production manager.
What you get
A written report with photographs, the documents we obtained, and a clear recommendation: proceed, proceed with these conditions, or do not. We do not pad a report to justify the trip. Several of the most useful ones we have written were two pages saying no.
When an audit is worth it
Roughly: when a failed order would hurt more than the cost of going to look. For a first order with a new supplier above a few thousand dollars, it almost always is. Below that, the paper checks alone are often the right call, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a visit.
If this is close to what you need, tell us the specifics. We will say plainly whether we are the right partner for it, and what it would cost, before anything starts.
Start a conversationQuestions people ask about this
How long does verification take?
Paper checks are usually two to three working days. An on-site audit depends on where the factory is; within a week of agreeing scope for most of the country, longer for remote provinces.
Can you audit a factory in China too?
Yes. Our founder lived and worked in China for two years and speaks with factories there directly, so Chinese audits run the same way as Vietnamese ones, without an interpreter in the middle.
Will the supplier know we asked for this?
For an on-site audit, yes, because we have to arrange the visit. For paper checks, no. Either way your project details stay confidential, including from any other factory or partner we work with.