A final editorial review before publishing a named supplier card

A supplier card can combine dozens of facts, making it easy for a weak claim to hide among well-supported ones. Publication should test the claims that matter most to a buyer.

What the primary source can establish

The U.S. International Trade Administration due diligence guide is the first-party reference for this guide. The guide separates country, company or partner, and purchasing risks and calls for continuing due diligence. It does not investigate or endorse any named supplier on Source Ledger. The steps below are our editorial method for making a buyer-facing field more precise.

A field-level check

Have a second reviewer trace legal identity, product scope, production role, quality wording and any commercial relationship to their original sources. Check dates, links, contradictions and the exact public wording. Remove unsupported superlatives and implied endorsements.

Write down the exact field, the party that supplied the information, the original document or page, the date seen and the scope of the check. If a reviewer took an action, record that action rather than a general “verified” label. Reopen the source when the transaction or underlying document changes.

Where the inference stops

A completed checklist is not a supplier certification. If core company evidence is absent, a directory can publish category methods and leave the named card unpublished; that is Source Ledger's present state.

A missing answer is a question to resolve, not permission to substitute a guess. Separate a statement by the supplier from a public record and from a documented human review. No source in this article proves a quality ranking or an existing buyer relationship.

What to record before deciding

Release only supported fields with labels and review dates. Keep an open-questions list for future work rather than filling a card with plausible details.

This entry describes how to evaluate evidence. It is not a dossier for a real company, an approval decision or a substitute for transaction-specific professional review.

Common question

Why are there no named suppliers on Source Ledger yet?

No company-level evidence package has passed a field-by-field review. Inventing a card would mislead readers, so we publish the evaluation method first.

Related guide

Continue with When should a supplier directory field be checked again? for another field-level check.