The purpose of this guide is to inform auditors on how to conduct audits using ChainPoint in both the desktop platform (online) and the mobile app (offline).
Training Audience
This guide is intended to be a resource for Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) Auditors, Technical Reviewers, and Program Administrators.
Before you begin
After receiving the audit assignment notification from the CAB Program Admin, make sure:
- You are the Lead Auditor assigned in the Audit Coversheet section of the associated audit. CAB Program Administrator is responsible for assigning the lead auditor for the audit during the scheduling process.
- Audits can be conducted online using a web browser or offline using the ChainPoint mobile app, both can be used interchangeably.
- Throughout this documentation, the platforms are identified as desktop (online) or mobile (offline).
- If you are using ChainPoint’s mobile application (offline), instructions are available in the Audit Checklist (Mobile/Offline) section below.
Accessing an Audit
Log in to ChainPoint, navigate to the Audits menu, and select the standard you are conducting the audit against (APS Audits or FPS Audits) or use the audit link provided in notification emails from audits@fairtradeusa.org.
Tip: You can use the filters to filter the list to only audits you are assigned to by using the Lead Auditor column. For more on using filters, refer to the Getting Started Guide.
Audit Tool Sections
The Audit Tool has the following sections:
- Coversheet: audit-related information such as Audit Year, Site Overview, Workforce, and more
- Audit Documents and Photos: documents and photos auditors are required to collect as part of the audit, such as the FTC Constitution, Needs Assessment, and more
- Module Tabs: audit checklist with the compliance criteria from the relevant Standard
- a. Each module from the standard used for the audit is available in a separate tab.
- b. Note that for APS audits, there is a “SF”, “MF”, “LF” designation before the Module name to indicate the size of the farm (small farm, medium farm, large farm) applicable to that module.
Audit Statuses
The audit checklist shows audit progress through several statuses, which indicate who is responsible for editing the audit and the action they need to take.
| Step | Status | Description and Action Required | Person Responsible for Editing and Advancing the Audit Status |
| 1. | Audit Scheduled |
Initial status of any audit indicates all information needed to schedule the audit has been collected and provides basic audit scoping information such as Certificate Holder and Standard. CAB Program Admin must assign a Lead Auditor before advancing the audit to the next status. Notification: CH is notified that their audit has been scheduled. See ChainPoint Notifications documentation for more details. |
CAB Program Admin |
| 2. | Lead Auditor Assigned |
The Lead Auditor assigned to the audit can review information about the audit, such as the Terms of Reference (ToR) and edit prior to the start of the audit. Notification: Assigned lead auditor is notified. See ChainPoint Notifications documentation for more details. |
Lead Auditor |
| 3. | Audit In Progress Desktop (online) | The Lead Auditor indicates that the audit is taking place on the online website. During this status, only the auditor can make changes to the audit checklist. This prevents overriding of information. | Lead Auditor |
| 4. | Audit In Progress Mobile (offline) | The Lead Auditor indicates that the audit is taking place on the offline mobile app. During this status only the auditor can make changes to the audit checklist. This prevents overriding of information and enables Mobile App functionality. |
Lead Auditor
|
| 5. | Create Draft Preliminary Report |
The Lead Auditor advances the status to Create Draft Preliminary Report, once the audit is conducted and all criteria have been evaluated. If needed, an auditor can update the associated NC Review and Closure form with any action the Certificate Holder (CH) has taken during the audit that needs to be reflected on the preliminary audit report. The preliminary audit report. The auditor can review the preliminary report in this status and make any changes prior to advancing the form to the next status in which the final version of the preliminary report is sent to the CH. |
Lead Auditor
|
| 6. | Ready for Technical Review |
This status notifies the CAB Program Admin that the closing meeting has been conducted. CH is emailed the final version of the Preliminary Audit Report. The CAB Program Admin must assign a technical reviewer to advance the audit. Notification: CAB is notified audit ready for assignment of technical reviewer. CH is notified Preliminary Report is available for review. See ChainPoint Notifications documentation for more details. |
CAB Program Admin |
| 7. | Technical Review In Progress |
During this status, Technical Reviewer and Lead Auditor can make updates and save changes to the audit checklist, coversheet, and documents. Only the Technical Reviewer and CAB Program Admin can move audit to next status to generate the Final Audit Report. |
CAB Program Admin or CAB Technical Reviewer
|
| 8. | Final Report Submitted |
Once Technical Reviewer has completed their review, they advance the audit status to Final Report Submitted. In this status, the Final Audit Report is automatically generated and an email is sent to the CH with the attached Final Audit Report PDF. The NC Review and Closure form is also generated in this status. CAB Program Admin must select a CAP Reviewer and advance the NC Review and Closure form from status 'Draft' to 'CH Review' to start the NC review and closure process. Notification: CH is notified NC and CAP management round start. See ChainPoint Notifications documentation for more details. |
CAB Program Admin or CAB Technical Reviewer |
Preparing the Audit Tool for the Auditor
To prepare the audit tool for the audit, the CAB Program Admin must assign a Lead Auditor and advance the audit to ‘Lead Auditor Assigned.’ To start editing the audit tool, click the ‘Edit’ button at the top of the page, select the Lead Auditor from the drop-down list of auditors. To advance the audit to ‘Lead Auditor Assigned,’ select ‘Submit’ from the top left of the form, add any remarks, and select ‘OK’.
Tip: At any point, if any edits have been made and it is needed to save these changes without submitting the audit report to the next step, select 'Save' from the top left of the form.
Tip: Notes can be added in the text box for the Auditor, which will appear as a message pop-up when the auditor accesses the audit.
Once the audit is assigned to an auditor and advanced to ‘Lead Auditor Assigned,’ the auditor will be notified of the assignment and able to edit the audit.
Auditor can review the audit's Terms of Reference in status Lead Auditor Assigned prior to conducting the audit. Once the audit is assigned, the lead auditor can navigate to the assigned audit checklist and from the 'Coversheet' tab 'Reports and Links' section download the ToR.
Tip: Fields containing a red asterisk are required fields. An audit can be saved at any point without the required fields, but the form cannot be submitted for Technical Review unless all required fields have been completed.
Audit Tool (Desktop/Online)
If editing the audit tool in the desktop platform (online), the lead auditor advances the audit to the status ‘In Progress Desktop’ to begin the audit. When the audit is in status ‘In Progress Desktop’ the lead auditor can make changes to the audit coversheet, audit checklist, and audit documents and photos.
Audit Coversheet
The coversheet contains the following information
- Basic audit information such as audit date, CH name, contacts and address completed by the CAB Program Admin prior to the audit.
- Audit Terms of Reference (ToR), Preliminary Report, and Final Audit Report and link to NC Review and Closure form (at Final Report Submitted status)
- Descriptive information that the auditor must collect on are the following:
- Premium Use, the Fair Trade Committee, Premium Projects, Internal Management Systems, Occupational Health and Safety, Wages
- Auditor Notes: Section to add general confidential audit notes including any remarks specific to ToR
Some fields are only displayed for informational purposes.
Audit Checklist
The audit checklist is divided into tabs for each module in the standard used for the audit. Each module tab has a submodule, objective and compliance criteria.
At the objective level, the Lead Auditor can select ‘Compliance’, ‘Not evaluated’ or ‘Not Applicable’ and this evaluation applies to all criteria within the objective.
If the auditor selects Answer Criteria Individually, they must indicate compliance to each criteria in the objective individually.
For each criteria, an ‘Explanation’ field is available to add descriptive information about conditions and compliance at the CH. When raising an non-compliance (NC), the explanation field MUST be completed with a detailed description of the non-compliance. Note that for APS audits, the explanation fields must be completed regardless of criteria compliance. For any type of NC findings, the text entered in the explanation field is visible in the Final Audit Report and NC Review and Closure Form.
When an NC is raised, an ‘Evidence’ field becomes visible for uploading relevant evidence. To add documents or media to an NC, drag and drop the file in to the evidence dropbox or click on the upload icon to browse your computer for the file.
Audit Documents and Photos
The ‘Audit Documents and Photos’ tab provides a list of documents and photos that need to be collected and uploaded by the CAB Auditor during the course of the audit.
Select ‘Drop file(s) or click to upload’ to add a document or photo next to the document or photo title.
Once a file has been uploaded, the file name will appear below the upload button. Multiple files can be added to the same section.
The following file formats are accepted: doc, pdf, txt, rtf, csv, xls, jpg, gif, sql, x2r, xml, png, xlsx, docx, docm, dotx, dotm, xlsm, xltx, xlsb, mp4.
Audit Checklist (Mobile/Offline)
The audit tool is accessible offline through ChainPoint’s mobile app (available for download on smartphone devices in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store). Follow these steps to conduct an audit in the mobile app:
- To make the audit available offline, before the onsite audit or at a point when the auditor has internet access and a computer available,
- a. Access the audit checklist via ChainPoint’s desktop website (online).
- b. Advance the audit to status ‘In Progress Mobile’ by selecting ‘Synchronize to mobile app.’ Note: Making any edits to the audit checklist using the desktop (online) version of ChainPoint when the audit is in status 'In Progress Mobile' may lead to data loss. Best practice is to only edit the audit checklist form in Mobile app when in status 'In Progress Mobile'.
- Download the ChainPoint app from the Apple App Store using the following link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chainpoint/id6474440426or Google Play Store by searching ‘ChainPoint’.
- Open the ChainPoint app on your device and enter your ChainPoint login and password. Note that in order to access the audit checklist offline, you must first follow the next steps to sync the audits into your mobile device and make sure you are logged into the ChainPoint mobile app before losing internet connection.
- Select the three bars on the top left to open the menu.
- Select ‘Synchronize’ to update the audits available in the app (only audits in status ‘In Progress Mobile’ are available). Close the menu when the app has finished synchronizing.
- To find the synced audit, select the CH name from the ‘Filter company’ drop down and choose the applicable standard (note: only one standard is available for most CH audits).
- The audit is listed as a ‘new form’ and is now accessible offline.
- When ready, select the pencil icon to begin making changes to the audit coversheet, checklist, and document and photos.
- To navigate through the audit coversheet, module checklists, and document upload sections, use the dropdown list at the top of the app or the green arrows at the bottom on the page.
- Updates to the coversheet, module checklists, and document uploads are saved automatically in ChainPoint’s mobile app.
Audit Checklist
- a. The ‘Explanation’ field can be used to add descriptive information about conditions and compliance at the CH. When raising an NC, this field MUST be completed with a detailed description of the NC. For any type of NC findings, the text entered in the explanation field is visible in the Final Audit Report and NC Review and Closure Form.
- b. The ‘Evidence’ field for uploading relevant evidence becomes visible when an NC is raised. To add documents or media to an NC, select the camera icon to take a picture or select the pages to browse your mobile device for the file.
- c. The feature to answer criteria at the objective level is not available in ChainPoint’s mobile app. ’ Auditors will need to indicate a compliance finding for each individual criteria while conducting an audit in the mobile app.
Audit Documents and Photos
- a. The ‘Audit Documents and Photos’ tab provides a list of documents and photos that need to be collected and uploaded by the CAB Auditor during the course of the audit.
- b. Select ‘Drop file(s) or click to upload’ to add a document or photo next to the document or photo title.
- c. Once a file has been uploaded, the file name will appear below the upload button. Multiple files can be added to the same section.
- d. The following file formats are accepted: doc, pdf, txt, rtf, csv, xls, jpg, gif, sql, x2r, xml, png, xlsx, docx, docm, dotx, dotm, xlsm, xltx, xlsb, mp4.
11. Select the send form button in the top right corner of the app to submit any information collected in mobile offline to the web desktop version of ChainPoint. The mobile audit form is 'waiting to sync' and edits are no longer possible at this point.
12. When you have stable internet connection and have finished conducting your work in the mobile app (offline), open the menu on ChainPoint's app and begin the synchronization process to update the audit checklist on ChainPoint's website.
13. After syncing, find the audit on ChainPoint’s website. All observations collected on the mobile app are available in the website and the audit will now be ‘In Progress Desktop’. The audit can then be edited in the desktop (online) platform.
14. At this stage, auditors can:
a. edit and save changes in the audit tool
b. make any final updates before advancing the audit to ‘Create Draft Preliminary Report’ status to automatically generate the Preliminary Audit Report. Note: Preliminary Report will be shared with the Certificate Holders when the audit moves to “Ready for Technical Review”
c. send the audit back to ‘In Progress Mobile’ to continue conducting the audit offline
Draft Preliminary Report
When the auditor advances the audit checklist from In Progress (mobile or desktop) to Draft Preliminary Report, the preliminary report will be generated. The preliminary report will contain the list of NCs raised during the audit and can be shared with the CH during the closing meeting. In this status the Auditor can choose to:
- Download a copy of the draft preliminary report from the audit coversheet and share with CH onsite or through email at the time of the closing meeting or,
- Make final changes to the NC findings in status Draft Preliminary Report before advancing to the next status, which automatically emails the preliminary report to the CH (see below).
Technical Review
- Prior to the closing meeting, the Lead Auditor can advance the audit to ‘Ready for Technical Review’ which emails the preliminary audit report to the CH and notifies the CAB Program Admin to assign a technical reviewer.
- Once the audit has the status ‘Ready for Technical Review’ the CAB Program Admin can assign a Technical Reviewer by selecting from the drop-down list in the CAB and Auditor Information in the Audit Coversheet.
- The CAB Program Admin selects ‘Save’ then ‘Submit for Review’ and ‘OK.’ The CAB Program Admin can add a message for the Technical Reviewer in the textbox.
- When the technical reviewer opens the audit, the message shows in a pop-up window at the top right of the page and in the history of changes when selecting the status at the top of the form.
- The assigned technical reviewer can now edit the audit coversheet, modules, and audit document and photos.
- Any criteria changed from a compliance to a NC finding will be included in the Final Audit Report. When changing criteria to NC, the technical reviewer must provide an explanation and evidence of the finding which will be visible to the CH in the Final Audit Report and NC Review and Closure form.
- Any criteria changed from a NC to a compliance finding will not be included in the Final Audit Report. - The technical reviewer can update the audit and save progress by selecting ‘Save’ then ‘Make an edit and save’ and ‘OK.’ The technical reviewer can add notes for the CAB Program Admin and the Lead Auditor in the text box. When the CAB Program Admin or Lead Auditor enters the audit form, the note will appear at the top right of the page and in the history of changes when selecting the status at the top of the form.
- To view a history of changes on the audit form, select the status of the audit and expand the list of changes.
- The format of all changes are:
- ‘Field name’ that was changed is on the left
- ‘Old value’ in the center
- ‘New value’ on the right - If the report stays in the status ‘Technical Review In Progress’ for 21 days, a reminder will be sent to the CAB Program Admin.
- Once the technical review is complete, the Technical Reviewer generates the Final Audit Report by selecting ‘Save’ then ‘Submit Final Audit Report. Technical Review completed’ and ‘OK.'
- The Final Audit Report PDF will be emailed to the CH when the audit reaches Final Audit Report Submitted status. The audit report will be available to auditors, CAB program admins and FTUSA staff in the audit "Coversheet" tab Reports and Links section of the audit. CABS must assign CAP Reviewer and advance the NC Review and Closure form to CH Review status to start the NC review process once the audit has been finalized.