Supplier Due Diligence Checklist
Use this before payment or onboarding.
Business license
A plain-English guide to the Chinese business license fields buyers should review before payment.
A license helps only when the buyer reads the fields and compares them with the deal.
Suppliers often send a license image as proof. The buyer still needs to identify the company name, code, representative, address, business scope, operating term, and registration status. Each field creates a comparison point.
The buyer file needs a small set of records. First, it names the exact Chinese legal entity and any English trading name used in the conversation. Second, it stores the transaction documents: quotation, invoice, contract draft, payment instruction, product sheet, and email chain. Third, it records the outside signal reviewed, including source date and the name searched. Fourth, it ends with a short decision note that finance, procurement, and management can read without reopening every attachment.
Do not clean up contradictions just to make the file look tidy. If the invoice issuer differs from the factory, write that down. If the bank beneficiary changed after the first quote, keep both versions. If the supplier gave a broad answer instead of a document, record the answer and the follow-up request. This makes the review useful during approval, shipment, or dispute handling.
A license that does not connect to the transaction should trigger more questions before payment.
For the identity question in this article, start with the exact Chinese legal name and registration number. Compare them with the quotation, contract, website, email domain, stamped documents, and payment details before treating the counterparty as verified. Record the result beside the current order. The named scope is Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
Follow the document trail instead of the brand name. Record the entity behind each document and mark any name, address, seal, phone, or registration detail that does not match the current order. Keep the finding next to the document that triggered the check. The named scope is Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
For the identity question in this article, start with the exact Chinese legal name and registration number. Compare them with the quotation, contract, website, email domain, stamped documents, and payment details before treating the counterparty as verified. Write the unresolved part in the decision note. The named scope is Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
Sources reviewed: Reviewed supply-chain visibility research and applied it to document-based company verification. Source background.
Read this as a buyer-side evidence note. Ask qualified advisers when legal, customs, sanctions, or finance rules control the answer.
Use the exact Chinese legal name and registration number, then compare them with the contract, invoice, website, and payment details. Scope: Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
No. It may identify a brand or sales name, but it does not establish which legal entity signs or receives payment. Scope: Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
It remains incomplete when documents point to different entities and the supplier has not explained the relationship with dated records. Scope: Chinese business license fields buyers should read.
Use this before payment or onboarding.
Keep a record that finance and management can review.
Choose the right depth for the decision.
For this topic, keep the review tied to the actual order rather than a general supplier profile. In the case of Chinese business license fields buyers should read, the buyer should write down the exact decision it needs to make: whether to pay, sign, ship samples, accept a document, or escalate the file for management approval.
A company record only helps when the buyer connects it to the deal. The review should state the Chinese legal name, unified social credit code, registered address, legal representative, business scope, and any recent change that affects the order. Put the English trading name beside the Chinese record so staff do not treat a brand name as a legal party.
If the supplier explains a mismatch, keep that explanation with the license copy and invoice. The file should make one point clear: the buyer knew which Chinese entity it was dealing with before it paid, signed, or shipped customer-owned materials to the supplier.
Do not hide the path the buyer refused. A missing explanation belongs in the file, especially when the supplier avoids the entity behind the order. That rejected answer may later explain why payment, shipment, or onboarding paused.