Trust Center
Evidence needs a label. Uncertainty needs a place to live.
We separate what a source shows from what a buyer may be tempted to conclude. Every material finding should identify its provenance, scope, review date, status, limitations, and next verification action.
The operating rule
A missing signal stays unknown. It is never silently converted into a zero, a pass, or an accusation.
See the standard in a sample reportSeven provenance labels
Provenance answers “where did this come from?” It is separate from status, confidence, and risk. A genuine supplier-provided certificate is still supplier-claimed until its issuer, holder, model, scope, and validity are checked.
- Public-record observed
- A field, filing, status, or event was observed in a named public or official source on a stated date.
- Supplier-claimed
- A statement, image, certificate, capability, or commercial term came from the supplier or its representative.
- Buyer-provided
- A quotation, contract, message, sample result, or other material was submitted by the buyer commissioning the review.
- Third-party verified
- A named independent issuer, laboratory, inspector, registry, or specialist confirmed a defined fact within a stated scope and date.
- On-site observed
- An auditor physically observed a named location, process, asset, record, or sample on a stated visit date.
- Inferred
- An analytical conclusion was drawn from multiple signals. The report must state the supporting rationale and uncertainty.
- Unknown
- Available evidence is missing, stale, conflicting, out of scope, or insufficient for a supportable conclusion.
Can establish
The cited source displayed that information at capture time, within the source's stated scope.
Cannot establish
That the record is complete, current today, linked to the correct similarly named entity, or evidence of production capability.
Can establish
What the supplier represented, and the wording or document version supplied.
Cannot establish
Authenticity, legal ownership, present validity, model coverage, factory control, or performance.
Can establish
What was provided for review and the transaction context represented by that material.
Cannot establish
Completeness, authenticity, or that an omitted page, later version, or off-platform conversation does not change the interpretation.
Can establish
Only the fact, sample, model, location, or period covered by that third party's work.
Cannot establish
Future performance, unchanged production, broader product families, legal advice, or matters outside the verifier's scope.
Can establish
That the described condition was observed at that place and time, subject to the visit plan and access provided.
Cannot establish
Ownership, continuous operation, undisclosed subcontracting, future output, or areas the auditor could not access.
Can establish
Nothing by itself. It is a reasoned interpretation to test, not a primary fact.
Cannot establish
Intent, misconduct, legal status, factory identity, or any conclusion that requires direct verification.
Can establish
That the gap remains open and should be carried into the next decision gate.
Cannot establish
Low risk, high risk, innocence, wrongdoing, capability, or lack of capability. Unknown is not a negative verdict.
The evidence chain
A conclusion without a retraceable chain is not report-ready. The minimum chain is shown below; confidential source material may be withheld from a public page while its metadata and limitations remain visible.
- 01 Narrow claim
- 02 Named source
- 03 Capture date
- 04 Entity / model scope
- 05 Reviewer
- 06 Evidence status
- 07 Unknown + next action
What a report may support
- • A named record was observed in a cited source on a stated date.
- • Submitted names, addresses, beneficiary details, and model identifiers align—or do not align.
- • A defined facility, process, or document was observed within an audit scope.
- • A gap must be closed before deposit, production, shipment, or market entry.
What a report does not guarantee
- • Supplier honesty, solvency, future conduct, output, delivery, or product quality.
- • Ownership of a photographed factory, machine, certificate, or intellectual property.
- • Customs classification, legal compliance, product certification, or market acceptance.
- • That no adverse fact exists outside the sources, dates, languages, and scope reviewed.
Status is not a risk score
Status describes how well the available evidence supports a specific claim. Risk depends on the buyer’s product, order value, payment stage, market, and tolerance—and should not be generated from missing data alone.
- Supported
- The stated evidence is consistent with the narrowly written claim.
- Partially supported
- Some elements align, while a material part remains unverified.
- Conflict
- Two or more sources do not align; the report names the mismatch.
- Unknown
- Evidence is insufficient, inaccessible, stale, or outside scope.
- Expired / stale
- The evidence has passed an issuer date or is too old for the decision being made.
Freshness and expiry
There is no universal “fresh for 12 months” rule. Evidence expires according to its issuer, the volatility of the field, and the decision it supports. Reports should preserve the original capture date and show when a current-state recheck is needed.
| Evidence subject | Freshness rule |
|---|---|
| Legal entity and business status | Show capture and last-checked dates. Recheck before a material payment or contract if the decision relies on current status. |
| Bank beneficiary and payment instructions | Treat as transaction-specific. Re-verify after every beneficiary, bank, currency, or payment-channel change; do not rely on a prior order. |
| Certificates and test reports | Track issuer validity, expiry, holder, factory, standard, product family, and exact model scope. A current date alone does not establish model coverage. |
| On-site observations | Point-in-time only. Refresh when the facility, line, product, subcontractor, or production stage changes materially. |
| Customs and marketplace signals | State publication lag and coverage limits. Absence from a dataset is not proof that no trade or sales occurred. |
Corrections and right of reply
A supplier, buyer, source owner, or affected person may challenge a factual statement, entity match, source interpretation, or stale record. A correction request does not need to agree with our conclusion; it should identify the exact claim and provide the most direct supporting evidence available.
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1. Identify the claim
Provide the report URL or ID, the disputed wording, legal entity name, and a contact able to answer follow-up questions.
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2. Preserve the dispute
We retain the original source metadata and mark a material claim as contested while evidence is reviewed. We do not erase version history to hide a correction.
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3. Publish the outcome
Where warranted, we correct the finding, update its review date and status, record the reason, and distinguish the new evidence from the original record.
Independence and conflicts
Our operating policy
- • A supplier cannot pay for a favorable finding, hidden placement, or removal of a supportable negative or conflicting fact.
- • The party paying for a review and every material supplier-, buyer-, partner-, or contractor-provided source must be identifiable in the work record.
- • Referral fees, commissions, ownership interests, or operational relationships that could affect interpretation must be disclosed or the reviewer must recuse.
- • A paid audit is a defined service, not an endorsement, certification, supplier ranking, or guarantee.
How sponsored evidence is treated
Payment does not change provenance. A document supplied by a paying buyer remains buyer-provided; a document supplied by the reviewed supplier remains supplier-claimed. A contracted on-site visit remains a scoped, dated observation—not proof of continuous control or future performance.
Privacy and retention
Public output
Public pages use the minimum information needed to support a buyer decision. We do not intentionally publish identity-document numbers, personal bank details, private correspondence, confidential pricing, raw paid-API responses, or buyer-submitted files. Public-source availability does not automatically make republication appropriate.
Private work material
Submitted material is limited to the review purpose, accessible only where operationally required, and retained only as needed for the engagement record, corrections, security, contractual duties, or applicable law. Deletion or access requests may be subject to legal, fraud-prevention, and record-integrity requirements.
Read the privacy policyProfessional responsibility boundaries
AllForSourcing reports are decision support, not legal opinions, financial advice, sanctions screening certification, customs classification rulings, product certification, laboratory testing, engineering approval, insurance, or a guarantee of supplier conduct. Importers remain responsible for their contracts, product specifications, market-access obligations, taxes, duties, and final commercial decisions.
Where a decision requires regulated expertise, buyers should use the appropriate qualified lawyer, customs broker, accredited laboratory, product-safety specialist, accountant, insurer, or certification body. We should identify that handoff rather than imply authority we do not have.