Supplier check: 12 things to verify before you send money

Every item here is something you can check yourself, from outside China, without paying anyone. If a supplier refuses three or more of them, that is your answer.

• 1. Does the business licence actually cover your product? A licence that says "technology development and consulting" cannot legally manufacture a plastic part. Ask for the scope field, not just the company name. Many "factories" are trading companies with a sales office.
• 2. Does it hold its own import-export right? If the company cannot export in its own name, your goods will be exported under someone else's licence. That is legal but it obscures who actually made the product, and it complicates any claim later.
• 3. Can it show export records from the last 12 months? A bill of lading or customs declaration with the company as shipper, dated within the last year. This single document separates a real exporter from a listing.
• 4. Can the certificate number be looked up at the issuing body? ISO, CE, FCC, FDA registration — each has a public register. Ask for the certificate number and verify it yourself. A PDF with a logo proves nothing. Expired certificates are common.
• 5. Do the workshop photos match the claimed capacity? Ask for the number of production lines, the headcount, and monthly output. Then ask for photos of that line. A supplier claiming 50,000 units a month from three injection machines is not telling you the whole story.
• 6. Is it a factory or a trader? Ask what processes happen in-house and what is outsourced. Ask what equipment they own. A trader answers in generalities; a factory names machines, tonnage, and process routes. Neither is automatically bad — but the price and the accountability are different.
• 7. Will the bulk order run on the same line as the sample? Get this in writing. Sample-to-bulk substitution is one of the most common sources of disappointment, and it is almost impossible to prove after the fact unless you inspected during production.
• 8. Who else does it ship to, and can you contact one of them? Two referenceable customers in your market, or failing that, the export destination countries. A supplier with no export history to your market has no idea what your market's compliance looks like.
• 9. Is there an in-house QC function, and what standard does it use? How many QC staff, do they inspect in-line or only at the end, and do they work to AQL 2.5 or "we check everything". The second answer means nothing was measured.
• 10. Does the payment account name match the business licence exactly? This is the single most effective fraud check. Requests to pay a "friend's" or "branch" account, a Hong Kong account with a different name, or a personal account are the standard shape of a deposit scam.
• 11. Any litigation, enforcement, or abnormal-operation records? Check the company on a Chinese corporate registry and the court judgment database. Enforcement records against a manufacturer usually mean unpaid suppliers or unpaid wages — both predict a delivery failure better than any reassurance does.
• 12. Does the address on the licence match where they say the factory is? Ask for a live video call at the factory gate, with the street sign and the unit number visible. It takes two minutes and it eliminates a whole category of problem.

How to read the answers

Three or more refusals, or two answers that contradict the business licence, is a stop. Not a negotiation point — a stop.

One or two soft answers is normal and usually fixable. Small factories genuinely do not keep tidy documentation. The question is whether they can produce the underlying facts when asked directly, or whether every answer redirects to "we are a big and reliable factory".

This checklist catches the documented problems. It does not catch a factory that answers everything correctly and still ships 11% defects — that needs an on-site audit and an inspection.

Want someone on the ground to check the rest?

An audit covers 32 checkpoints, with live video, dated photos, and a written report.