Two ways to work with me

Either you buy a written report, or you hire me to run the order. No hourly billing — you should know the cost before we start, not after.

Send a supplier name — free first look Jump to report pricing

Fixed price · written reports

Pick the report that matches your decision

Scope and price are agreed up front, and the fee is invoiced on delivery. Every report states what was checked, how, and what could not be verified.

Three levels of checking: desk, on-site and ongoing, each with what it can and cannot answer. — Each level answers a different question. None of them answers all of them — and I would rather say that here than have you find out later.

Most common

Supplier verification

$49 per supplier

Are the entity that signs your contract, the one whose bank account takes your deposit and the one that runs the line the same company — and does the evidence match what they told you?

The three entities: registered legal name, unified social credit code, registered address and company chop — compared across the contract, the bank details and the production site
What the registration does and does not prove — a scope listing only sales is a flag to check, not a verdict
Whether the production steps you are paying for run on their own equipment
Capability and QC system review for your product
Red flags section: what concerns me and why
A recommendation: proceed / proceed with conditions / avoid
Not included: on-site visit, sample testing, negotiation, lab work

Delivery: 3 business days from payment

Order this report

Compliance

Compliance gap check

$99 one supplier, one market

Can your supplier actually produce the documents your market requires — and what is missing?

Inventory of the documents the supplier actually holds
Mapped against the requirements of your target market (EU or US)
Certificate numbers checked at the issuing body where possible
Test reports checked for sample name, date and standard
Gap list: what is missing, what is at risk, what to request next
A supplier-facing document request list you can forward as it is
Not included: issuing certificates or test reports, lab testing, customs clearance, legal opinions

Delivery: 4 business days from payment

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Widest scope

Multi-supplier comparison

$179 2–3 suppliers, one product

The same verification work across several suppliers, with a comparison you can actually decide from.

Verification for each supplier, as in the $49 report
Side-by-side comparison of price tiers, MOQ, lead time and payment terms
Capability and compliance readiness compared, not just price
Hidden costs flagged: tooling and plate fees, finishing surcharges, freight basis
My ranked recommendation, with the reasoning written out
Not included: on-site visits, production inspection, negotiating on your behalf

Delivery: 5 business days from payment
Scope note: covers 2–3 suppliers, compared on the same criteria.

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What these prices are, and what they are not

A full factory audit from a large inspection firm runs roughly $600–1,000 per visit, plus travel, and it produces a certificate. What you are buying here is a desk check — a different depth, priced for the first decision rather than the last one. It answers "should I keep talking to this supplier", not "is this batch acceptable".

If your order is large enough that you need the formal audit with the certificate, I will say so and point you at the firms that do it. That is cheaper for you than paying me to do half of it.

How to pay for a report

Payoneer (card or bank transfer in USD, EUR or GBP), bank transfer (T/T), WorldFirst or Wise, or through a platform such as Upwork or Fiverr if you would rather have platform escrow — their fees apply. I never ask you to send money to a personal Chinese bank account with no paper trail. You get a proper English-language invoice either way.

How payment works in detail — the two payments, the timing, and what the invoice contains.

Commission · for orders

5–8% of the order value, charged after the order is placed

If I do not find you a factory worth ordering from, you owe me nothing. A free first look at one supplier costs nothing either. The search itself — screening, verifying the entity, comparing quotations like for like — is written out step by step on sourcing.

What the fee buys

I negotiate in Chinese. Price, MOQ, lead time, tooling and plate fees, payment terms — with the factory, not with a listing page.
I write the order documents. Specification, technical standard, quality agreement, acceptance criteria. This is the work I did for three years, and it is where most disputes are prevented.
I check the sample and the mass production against the same standard — against your spec, not the factory's opinion.
I tie your balance payment to QC passing. No pass, no balance. Many buyers do not know this is negotiable. It usually is.
I am the one who tells the factory to rework it. Rejection, rework and claim conversations happen in Chinese, with me, on your side.
I write it down. Every quotation, promise and spec change stays in writing.

Your money never touches me

You pay the factory directly, on their own proforma invoice, to their own account. I never hold your deposit, your balance or your shipping money, and I take no markup on the factory price. My fee is a separate invoice to you.

How the percentage is set

5–8% is fixed in writing before we start, and does not change depending on which factory you choose.
The exact figure depends on order size and how much of the order I run. Larger orders sit at the lower end.
I do not relay a marked-up price. The factory quotes you; you see their own document, in their name.
I do not front money for you, and I do not buy goods. I am not a trading company.

When you pay

After the order is placed with the factory — not before.
Invoiced in USD, EUR or GBP, with a proper English-language invoice for your accounts.
No order, no fee. I would rather earn your second order than trap you in your first.

You Factory — goods, paid direct The full order value, on the factory's own proforma invoice, to their own account.
You Me — my fee, 5–8% Invoiced to you after the order is placed with the factory.
You Never to me No deposit, no balance, no shipping money, no markup on the factory price.

Two invoices, two accounts. The factory quotes you in their own name, to their own account. My fee is a separate invoice to you, issued after the order is placed.

What the compliance file has to contain, market by market

The same shipment needs different paperwork depending on where it is going. These are the ones I check most often.

European Union

PPWR — the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Recyclability, recycled content and packaging reduction obligations, and they fall on you as the importer.
EPR registration in every member state you sell into. There is no single EU scheme, so a supplier who tells you “EU EPR is handled” has not understood the question.
Germany — VerpackG and LUCID. Packaging cannot legally be placed on the German market without LUCID registration. This is a hard gate, not a formality.
France — Triman. The marking requirement, plus the French EPR scheme, which is separate from the German one.
EU 1935/2004 and the material-specific measures, plus a Declaration of Conformity naming your material and your use conditions — not a generic one.
Fibre-based composite. Paperboard and fibre composite are charged at very different EPR rates. Misclassification is expensive every year, and it is a common one.

United Kingdom

UKCA marking and the post-Brexit food-contact framework.
Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging — including the per-material data you have to report.
Plastic Packaging Tax and the recycled-content threshold that triggers it.

United States

FDA food-contact requirements. Note that no “FDA certification” exists for a packaging supplier — see the FAQ.
Country-of-origin marking and CBP entry documentation.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand

Provincial Canadian EPR schemes, which differ by province.
Australian and New Zealand packaging covenants and the Australasian Recycling Label.

The EU rules above are the reason the European market is worth doing properly rather than quickly: the obligation sits on you as the importer, the supplier usually has no idea it exists, and the gap between the two is exactly what a document check finds.

Boundaries

Compliance undertakings the supplier signs

If your market requires something the factory has to stand behind — a declaration of conformity, a materials statement, a declaration on printing inks and adhesives — I draft it in English and Chinese for the supplier to sign and stamp, and attach it to your purchase order.

This is commercial document drafting, not legal advice. Have your own lawyer review anything you intend to enforce. And a signed clause is a record of responsibility, not a guarantee of payment: enforcement in China is a separate question, and I will tell you honestly what it is worth in your case.

What I do not do

Being clear about this is the point. If your job needs one of the things below, I will say so — and tell you who should do it instead. If you do not have a supplier yet, start on the sourcing page: I find the factory and check it before you pay.

I am not a certification body or a testing lab. I read documents and check factories. I do not issue certificates or test reports, and I do not run laboratory tests.
I do not guarantee a supplier. I tell you what I found and what I could not confirm.
I do not handle your money. No deposits, no balance payments, no escrow, no shipping money, and no buying goods on your behalf.
I am not a lawyer. My compliance work is a gap check, not legal advice, and it is not a customs clearance commitment.
I do not do full third-party inspection with AQL reporting on a mass-production run unless we agree it separately and in writing.
I do not sell supplier contact lists. I do not hand over a supplier's contact details until an order is confirmed — the same way a recruiter does not send you their candidate list before you sign.

The reasoning is in the FAQ: what I can and cannot do · who is liable if a supplier turns out to be bad.

What you get either way

A written English report that states what was checked, how it was checked, and what could not be verified — including the parts that make my own work look less complete. That is the difference between information and a sales pitch.

Orders that need a third-party inspection house instead of me

For large runs, or where a formal accredited inspection is required, I will tell you plainly to spend the money there rather than on me. I would rather say that once than have you find out later.

I will not tell you a supplier is fine

Not to close a job, and not to keep the relationship easy. If a supplier is not worth your time, you will hear it in plain language.

Prices on this page are my direct rates. The same work is also sold as fixed packages on Fiverr and Upwork — those prices cover a different scope and include the platform’s fee.

Not sure which one

Ask me before you buy anything.

Send me the supplier name or the product, and tell me what you are trying to decide. I will tell you honestly whether a report is worth the money — or whether you should just ask the factory a harder question.

Ask me first See sample reports

In short

$49 — supplier verification, one supplier
$99 — compliance gap check, one market
$179 — multi-supplier comparison
5–8% — commission, after the order is placed
Free — a first look at one supplier name

Read the honesty note before the price list

Other things buyers ask me for

I have not sold most of these as standalone products yet. They are here because buyers ask about them — not to make the list look longer than it is. If you want one, I will price it for your actual situation and tell you honestly whether I am the right person for the job, including when the answer is no.

The three reports above and the sourcing work are what I do every week. This page is what I can do. The difference matters, and I would rather you heard it from me.

What I am actually good at — and where I am not the right person

Good at: reading a Chinese factory the way its own quality department does. I spent three years on that side of the table — incoming inspection, batch release, supplier audits, and the customer inspections where a batch gets rejected. I wrote the specifications and quality agreements that suppliers were measured against. That is why I look at the three entities (contract, bank account, production line) before I look at the price, and why I care about what happens on the fifth order rather than the sample.

Not the right person for: pricing your product for your market, design, freight forwarding, or anything that needs a licence — legal opinions, test reports, certificates. I will say so rather than take the work.

What makes this different from a platform check or an inspection agency: I am not selling you a document, and I am not selling you a badge. I am the person on the ground in Guangdong who has to look at the evidence and give you a straight answer — including when the answer is that the supplier is fine and you do not need me.

01On-site work — the part nobody can do from a desk

This is the one thing a remote report cannot replace. I am in Guangdong, and I can stand in the plant while your order is being made.

Coverage: on-site visits in Guangdong and Fujian provinces — the two provinces where most of China’s flexible packaging capacity sits. Further afield, quoted case by case, with travel billed at cost against receipts and never marked up.

What	When it runs	Price
Factory audit	Before you pay any deposit	$220 / day
Pre-shipment inspection	When production is 80% packed	$220 / day
Production follow-up	During the run, at the critical steps	$220 / day
Sample approval, witnessed on site	At first-off, on the line	$220 / day
Interpreting and escorting	When you come to China	$220 / day
Half day	Documentary evidence only	$130
Travel	Any on-site job	at cost, with receipts

How travel works, because I would rather say it now than surprise you later:

Inside Guangdong (Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou): typically ¥100–400 per visit. I bill the actual tickets, not an allowance.
Outside Guangdong: rail tickets plus one or two nights of hotel, at actual invoice value.
Nothing is marked up. There is no per-head travel charge, no daily allowance, no admin fee on top.
If a job needs a certified technician or calibrated instrument, that third party is billed through at their rate. I tell you before booking it.

Asked for a quote, I will give you one line for the day rate and one line for travel. That is the whole invoice.

02The documents your order needs

Most quality arguments are settled by what was written down before production started. These are the documents I write — in English and Chinese, in the form a Chinese factory actually works to.

Document	What it fixes	Price
Product specification	Material, weight, dimensions, colour, print, tolerances, packing — the file the factory is measured against	$149
BOM and market-specific test plan	Every layer, every supplier, and exactly which tests your target market requires	$199
Quality agreement	Acceptance criteria, AQL, defect classes, remedies, and who signs what	$249
Incoming, in-process and outgoing inspection standards	What you check, how often, and what the record looks like	$199
Supplier compliance undertaking	A signed, stamped statement of what the factory is responsible for if the goods fail your market's rules	$199
Mould and plate ownership clause	Who owns the tooling, and the explicit exclusion of the lien a Chinese factory otherwise holds by law	$149
Delay notification clause	Weekly written progress, and a written warning within 24 hours of any risk to the date	$99
Balance release conditions	Ties the last payment to inspection passing, instead of to a shipping document	$149

These are commercial documents, not legal advice. Anything you intend to enforce in court should be reviewed by your own lawyer. And I will tell you plainly that a signed clause is a record of responsibility, not a guarantee of payment.

03Compliance paperwork

What	Why it matters	Price
Declaration-of-conformity check	Whether the document they hold actually covers the product you are buying, for your market	$99
Delivery document checklist	Per market: what is required, who signs it, and which one is missing	$99
EPR material-and-weight pack	Every component's material and weight — the input your packaging reporting actually needs	$149
Fibre-based composite classification	Paperboard and fibre composite are charged at very different rates; getting this wrong is expensive every year	$149

I do not issue test reports or certificates. Those come from accredited laboratories. Arranging a test is part of the compliance document work above, not a separate product — I brief the laboratory, follow the sample through, and read the report against your spec.

04Ongoing — the part that catches batch three

A one-off inspection tells you what batch one looked like. It cannot tell you anything about what changes later. These are the checks that run across the life of the order.

What	What it covers	Price
Batch consistency check	One batch measured against the sealed golden sample, with the differences written down	$99 / batch
Monthly batch follow-up	Retained samples, photographs, measurements archived, and change notifications monitored	$299 / month
Annual supplier re-check	The whole verification, run again a year later — because factories change	$399 / year

If the money is already gone

I am not a lawyer, and I cannot act as your litigation representative in China. Foreign parties in Chinese court proceedings must be represented by a licensed Chinese lawyer.

What I can do is help you decide which route actually has a chance — whether this is a police matter or a civil one, what evidence you would need, and what it costs to pursue. I never promise an outcome, I never take a percentage of what is recovered, and I never offer a refund if an outcome is not achieved. My fee for that work is fixed and does not depend on what happens afterwards. If someone offers you a no-win-no-fee recovery in China, do not sign it.

Ask me and I will tell you whether this is worth pursuing at all. Often the honest answer is that it is not.

Which of these you actually need

Most first orders need two or three of the items above, not all of them. Tell me what you are deciding and I will tell you which ones are worth paying for at your order size — including when the answer is none of them.