Sourcing DeskThree Lanes of Decision: What We Advise, What Suppliers Claim, What You Approve
The sourcing decisions that belong to you are the ones that commit your money, your product and your name: which supplier you contract with, which specification and which sample you accept, what price and payment terms you agree, how the goods ship, and whether you choose to rely on something a supplier told you. Everything below exists to make that boundary recordable, so that when your brief moves from written material to a person for review, nobody has to argue about who decided what.
Before you use the map, one boundary of our own. Nothing here is legal advice, customs advice or regulatory advice. Where a decision touches contracts, import paperwork or market access, treat any suggestion on this page as an editorial suggestion and route the binding question to your own qualified adviser.
The three lanes
| Lane | Who owns it | What it can do | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Editorial guidance | Sourcing Desk | Explain how due diligence works, what to ask, how to compare two options, and how to read a document you have been sent | Certify a supplier, stand behind somebody else's claim, or be legal advice |
| Supplier claim | The supplier | Describe its own capability, capacity, capacity limits, certifications, lead times and prices, and support them with documents carrying its own name | Count as fact for you until the evidence is attached and checked by whoever you authorise |
| Your approval | You, or somebody you name in writing | Accept the counterparty, the written specification, the sample, the commercial terms, the shipping arrangement and the go or no-go | Be inferred from our checklist, from a screening result, or from silence |
Most sourcing trouble that written material can help you prepare for starts as a lane collision. A checklist item gets read as an approval. A supplier claim gets filed as a fact. A screening result gets filed as clearance. The collision is rarely deliberate; it is usually just nobody writing down which lane the decision lived in.
Why screening sits in the evidence column, not the approval column
The Perform Due Diligence guidance from the U.S. International Trade Administration covers country and company or partner risk research, and links to official screening and commercial-guide resources. Its supported scope is research. A check you run through those resources is a check, not a certification.
That distinction is worth writing on the front of your file, because it decides where everything else goes. Screening tells you what you searched and what came back at the time you searched. It does not tell you that a factory can hold your tolerance, that a business is solvent, or that goods will leave on the day discussed. Quality, financial health and delivery performance are supplier claims. Whether you accept them is your approval.
Incoterms work the same way and are worth their own line in the record. The term you agree tells you who arranges carriage, who carries risk, and where delivery passes between the parties named in the sale contract. It does not prove anything about quality, and it does not set or guarantee payment terms. Put the chosen term in your approval column and keep the promised quality in the supplier-claim column, even when both appear in the same quotation. If you remember only one rule from this page, make it that one.
The responsibility map
Copy this table into your notes and fill it per open decision. The lane column is pre-assigned as a starting suggestion; if you disagree for your situation, change it and note why.
| Decision to record | Lane | The question that settles it | Evidence attached | Approved by | Recorded on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Which legal entity you contract with | Your approval | Is this the same entity named on the quotation, the bank details and the invoice you will pay? | |||
| Written specification, tolerances and materials | Your approval | Does the supplier's written quotation restate your specification back to you, in full, without additions? | |||
| Any change to that specification after samples | Your approval | Who asked for the change, and did it come back in writing before production? | |||
| Pre-production or shipment sample acceptance | Your approval | Which physical sample is the reference, and where is it kept? | |||
| Unit price, currency and validity period | Supplier claim, then your approval | Does the number exist on a written document from the supplier, and does it carry an expiry? | |||
| Payment terms | Your approval | Do the terms you expect appear in writing, rather than in conversation only? | |||
| Incoterm, freight arrangement and insurance responsibility | Your approval | Does each party's duty match what you both believe you agreed? | |||
| Stated production capacity and lead time | Supplier claim | What document supports the capacity claim, and whose name is on it? | |||
| Stated third-party certificate | Supplier claim | Do you have the issuing body and validity dates, and has anyone checked them with the issuer? | |||
| Screening result | Evidence file, not approval | What was searched, against which list, and on what date? | |||
| Inspection method and acceptance criteria | Your approval | Who inspects, against which written criteria, and who pays when the result is disputed? | |||
| What to do when a claim and its evidence diverge | Your approval | What is the escalation path, and who has authority to stop the order? |
Leave the last three columns blank until someone actually fills them. A line with no approver named is not half-finished; it is an accurate record of a decision still waiting.
How a brief moves from writing to a person
Sourcing Desk publishes written material. When written material is not enough for your case, you can send a buyer brief for review. A brief is not a supplier introduction, not a quotation, and not a commitment to anyone; each of those needs case-specific confirmation before it moves.
When a reviewed brief comes back, expect it marked in exactly the three lanes above. We can say which parts are our editorial guidance and stand behind them as writing. We can say which parts remain unverified supplier claims and what kind of evidence would settle each one. We cannot make the decisions in your column, and a reviewer will not do it for you.
Two things make handoff faster when you write the brief. First, name the person on your side who can sign, and separately the person who can only recommend; the gap between those two roles causes more delay than any missing document. Second, attach whatever you already have and describe each attachment in the same words every time, so that a reviewer is comparing documents rather than hunting for them. If you are unsure whether a document matters, send it and mark it as unclear.
Collisions worth catching early
- Checklist read as approval. A point appearing in our written material means it is worth asking about. It does not mean we have agreed to it for your order.
- Certificate accepted without verification. Where a certificate matters to you, one suggestion is to ask the supplier for the issuing body and validity dates and have somebody you authorise confirm them with the issuer. Until that happens, the certificate stays in the supplier-claim lane.
- Verbal price never made written. Prices discussed in messages are convenient and not decisive. The version in a written quotation is the one that belongs in the map.
- Cleared read as approved. A search that returns nothing about a name tells you about that search. It does not promote the supplier into your approval column.
- Capability described without saying who performs it. If a trading company describes factory capability, record both entity names and note which entity performs which step. Then decide whether that structure is acceptable to you.
What to keep for each line
For every decision you put into the map, keep six things together: the decision itself and why it matters now; the lane and who named it; the evidence, kept as attachments rather than as memory; who recorded it and when; where it is stalled, if it is stalled, using only three allowed states, waiting on you, waiting on supplier evidence, or waiting on a specialist you appoint; and what this line has to show before money moves. That last field is the useful one. It turns the map from a filing habit into something you can act on the next morning.
Your next action for this specific problem
Take the map above and write one line for each decision currently open in your sourcing file. Mark which points are your own decisions, which are supplier claims awaiting evidence, and which need professional advice or another approval. Keep the marked brief for a future human discussion; the current on-site worksheet does not send it or promise a review.