Most first orders from China go wrong in one of two ways: the money leaves for an entity that is not the one making the goods, or the goods arrive and cannot legally be sold in the destination market. Both failures are visible in paperwork weeks before they become expensive — but only if you ask for the paperwork, and only if you know which document proves what.

This is the document set to request before a first purchase order, grouped by the question each one answers. The point is not to collect a thick folder; it is to close the four gaps that cause the most first-order losses: who you are actually buying from, whether they can legally export, whether the product can legally enter your market, and whether the shipment matches what you approved.

Layer 1 — Documents That Establish Who You Are Buying From

Ask for these before anything else, because every later document is only as good as the entity behind it.

  • Business licence (营业执照). The scanned licence shows the registered Chinese legal name, the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code, the legal representative, the registered capital, the establishment date and the registered business scope. The Chinese legal name is the one that matters; an English trading name has no legal standing and is often not the entity you will be wiring money to.
  • A screenshot is not verification. Take the credit code from the licence and check it yourself against the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, China's official company register. You are confirming three things: that the entity exists and is in normal operating status, that the name matches exactly, and that the registered scope includes manufacturing of your product category rather than only wholesale or trade.
  • Manufacturing licences specific to the category. Regulated categories carry their own domestic production licence — cosmetics, food contact, medical devices and electrical products among them — and this is one of the clearest signals separating a maker from a reseller. Aozi Cosmetics, a personal-care manufacturer near Langfang in Hebei producing since 1995, holds a Chinese cosmetics production licence (冀妆20160005) alongside its business licence; a trading company selling the same shampoo would not.

If the entity questions do not resolve cleanly at this stage, stop here. The full method, including the address and scope checks, is set out in the supplier verification guide, and the specific tells that distinguish a factory from an intermediary are covered in factory versus trading company. Neither is a reason to refuse to work with an agent — many good supply chains run through one — but you should know which you are dealing with before you price the deal.

Layer 2 — Documents That Show They Can Actually Export

Manufacturing and exporting are separate permissions in China, and plenty of capable factories hold the first without the second. When a maker cannot export in its own name, the shipment goes out under an export agent, and the name on your commercial invoice, your bill of lading and your bank transfer may all differ from the name on the business licence you just verified. That is not automatically fraud — it is a common and legal arrangement — but it must be disclosed and documented before you pay, not discovered when customs queries the consignor.

Request the foreign trade operator record (对外贸易经营者备案) and the customs consignor registration. Aozi, to continue the same example, holds both alongside its production licence, which is why its export documents can be issued in its own name. Where a supplier does not hold them, ask in writing for the name and credit code of the exporting entity, and get the relationship stated in the contract — then check that the proforma invoice, the bank beneficiary and the eventual bill of lading all name entities you were told about in advance.

One rule saves more money than any other in this layer: the bank account must belong to the entity named on the invoice. Requests to pay a personal account, a Hong Kong company you have not been introduced to, or an account whose name differs from the invoice are the single most common vector for payment interception. Confirm any change of bank details through a channel other than the one that sent the request — a phone call to a number you already had.

Layer 3 — Documents That Belong to Your Market, Not the Factory

This is where buyers most often assume too much. Product compliance obligations attach to whoever places the goods on the market — usually you, the importer or brand owner — while the factory supplies the technical evidence you need to discharge them. A supplier saying "we export to Europe all the time" is not a compliance document.

  • Test reports from an accredited laboratory. For the destination standard that applies to your product: EN or IEC standards for electricals, RoHS and REACH for substance restrictions, mechanical and flammability standards for furniture and textiles. Check that the report names your product and model, is dated, and comes from a laboratory with recognised accreditation — an unaccredited in-house report proves considerably less.
  • Declaration of Conformity, where the marking is self-declared. Much of the CE scheme works this way: the manufacturer or the importer signs a declaration supported by a technical file. Ask who is named as the responsible party on it, because for many product groups placed on the EU market that party has to be established in the EU — often the importer rather than the Chinese maker.
  • Registration obligations you cannot delegate. Cosmetics entering the United States sit under MoCRA facility registration and product listing; cosmetics entering the EU require a CPNP notification with an EU-based Responsible Person. Those duties normally rest with the brand or importer rather than the Chinese manufacturer, whose role is to supply formulation, safety and stability data so you can meet them.
  • Safety data sheets and certificates of analysis for chemical, cosmetic and battery-containing products — needed both by the destination regulator and, in the case of an SDS, by the freight forwarder to book the shipment correctly.

Which documents apply is a function of product and destination rather than supplier, and the market-by-market view is in the import compliance requirements guide. Duty treatment is a separate question again, covered in import duties and tariffs.

Layer 4 — Documents That Prove the Goods Match What You Approved

Entity and compliance paperwork say nothing about whether this particular batch is right. Four records close that gap.

  • Signed sample approval record. A photographed, dated and countersigned golden sample with its specification sheet is the reference every later dispute is measured against. The sampling sequence itself is described in the sample order process.
  • Production specification and bill of materials — material grades, finishes, component brands where they matter, and packaging and labelling artwork.
  • Inspection report against an agreed standard. Agree the AQL levels and the defect classification in the contract, then require a pre-shipment inspection report before final payment; how that works in practice is in pre-shipment inspection.
  • Quality system evidence, if you asked for a certificate. Any ISO 9001 certificate should be checked with the issuing body or through the IAF CertSearch database rather than accepted as a PDF, and it certifies a management system rather than the quality of your specific product. Where capability is the real question, the different audit types and what each proves are set out in the factory audit guide, with the on-site version in the audit checklist.

Layer 5 — The Commercial and Shipping Set

These arrive with the order rather than before it, but agreeing their content beforehand prevents most of the friction later.

  • Proforma invoice naming the full legal entity, the Incoterm with the named place, the payment schedule, lead time and bank details. Incoterm precision matters more than buyers expect — the difference a named port makes is the whole subject of the FOB named port guide.
  • Sales contract terms covering tooling ownership, inspection rights, remedies for defects and what happens to moulds if you leave.
  • Packing list and commercial invoice consistent with each other and with the goods.
  • Bill of lading or air waybill, with the consignee and notify party exactly as your customs broker requires.
  • Certificate of origin, in the preferential form where a trade agreement gives your market a lower rate.
  • ISPM 15 treatment marking on any solid wood packaging, pallets included — an omission that strands containers at destination.

Every one of these has a cost consequence, which is why they belong in the landed cost model rather than in a folder: the method is in landed cost calculation.

Three Cross-Checks That Catch Most Problems

The documents individually are less revealing than the relationships between them. Before releasing a deposit, run these three.

  • Name consistency. Business licence, proforma invoice, contract and bank beneficiary should name the same entity, or the differences should have been explained and documented in advance.
  • Scope consistency. The registered business scope on the licence should cover manufacturing your product category — a scope limited to wholesale, import-export or technology services, set against a claim of in-house production, is the discrepancy worth pausing over.
  • Address consistency. The registered address, the factory address given to you, the address on test reports and the address in any audit report should agree. A test report issued against a different plant is evidence about that plant, not this one.

Where a supplier arrives already checked — CMH vets listed factories through document review and on-site audits, and each profile publishes the entity details, categories and audit date, as on the Aozi Cosmetics listing — the first two layers are largely settled, and your effort moves to the product-specific compliance and quality documents that no platform can pre-answer for you. If you are weighing several suppliers rather than checking one, the criteria are easier to hold steady in the format described in the supplier scorecard.

Paperwork answers who and what; it does not answer whether the plant can hold your tolerances at your volume. That question is the one worth travelling for, and the way to structure the day is in the guide to what to inspect during a one-day factory visit.

None of this needs to be adversarial. A competent factory produces this set routinely and reads the request as a sign of a serious buyer. Difficulty producing a business licence, evasiveness about who will be named as exporter, or a bank account in a name nobody has explained are the responses that carry information.

Common questions

What documents should I request from a Chinese supplier before my first order?

Request the business licence with the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code, any category-specific production licence, the foreign trade operator record and customs consignor registration, accredited test reports for your destination market, a signed sample approval record with specification, and a proforma invoice naming the same legal entity as the bank account. Those cover who the supplier is, whether they can export, whether the product can enter your market, and whether the goods match what you approved.

How do I verify a Chinese business licence is real?

Take the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code from the licence and look the company up on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, China's official company register, checking that the registered name matches exactly, that the status is normal, and that the registered business scope covers manufacturing your product category. Verifying the code yourself takes minutes and is more reliable than any document the supplier sends you, since scanned licences can be edited.

Does a Chinese factory need an export licence to ship to me?

A Chinese manufacturer needs a foreign trade operator record and customs consignor registration to export in its own name, and many capable factories do not hold them, exporting instead through an agent. That arrangement is legal and common, but it should be disclosed before payment so that the entity named on your invoice, bill of lading and bank transfer is one you agreed to in advance.

Who is responsible for CE marking or FDA compliance — the factory or the buyer?

Responsibility for placing a compliant product on the market normally sits with the importer or brand owner in the destination market rather than with the Chinese factory, which supplies supporting technical evidence such as test reports, formulation data and declarations. EU cosmetics require a CPNP notification with an EU-based Responsible Person, and US cosmetics fall under MoCRA facility registration and product listing, so treat supplier claims of "CE certified" or "FDA approved" as prompts to ask which document supports them.

Is a supplier's ISO 9001 certificate enough proof of quality?

An ISO 9001 certificate confirms that a management system was assessed against the standard on a given date, not that your specific product will meet its specification, so it belongs alongside a sample approval record and a pre-shipment inspection rather than in place of them. Verify any certificate directly with the issuing certification body or through the IAF CertSearch database, since certificate PDFs are among the most frequently falsified documents in sourcing.