Who is this article for?
This article is for companies that are not factories but still receive and fill in our forms — for example, buying offices or converters.
Why do buying offices receive traceability forms?
Brands and suppliers declare the entity they actually did business with. That means traceability doesn't only include production factories, and seeing a buying office in the chain is completely normal.
Check that you are logged in as a buying office
Before you start, please confirm two things on the supplier platform:
The entity name shown in the top right corner
The address listed under the "My company" tab
Both should match your buying office — not one of your production sites or partner factories. This keeps your data consistent and avoids mixing up different entities within your account.
What to remember when filling out the form
Only declare your direct business relationships: your buyer, the factories you subcontracted, and the vendors you bought from. Never declare steps that happened further upstream.
Form section | What to do as a buying office | Watch out |
1. Your buyer's declaration | Review the sale to your buyer: reference, category, composition, PO, quantity, shipping method. | Use a clear internal reference — it will be reused from your catalogue. Fields without * are optional. |
2. Your involvement | Create one | A subcontractor is a factory to which you supplied all the items. If it sourced materials itself, it belongs in section 3. |
3. Your sourcing | List the vendors you bought items from: one component per item and per vendor, with PO, date and quantity. | Never list your own company here — it would generate a new form for you. Declared vendors receive their own form. |
4. AGEC countries (beta) | Give the main country for each key step (e.g. weaving/knitting, dyeing, printing). | Select "I don't know" if you don't know, or if the item wasn't dyed or printed. |
Once every section shows a green checkmark, click Recap, then Validate declaration. If you declared certified materials, upload the Transaction Certificate in My documents within 6 months of validation.
Example: a buying office selling dresses
You are a buying office selling dresses to the fashion brand. You don't carry out any operation in-house. Here is how the production is organised:
You buy dyed fabric from your fabric supplier. The dyeing is coordinated by your fabric supplier: you have no direct relationship with the dyer.
You send this fabric to your printer, one of your partners, who prints it on your behalf.
Then you send the printed fabric to your manufacturer, one of your partners, who sewed it on your behalf.
This is how it translates into your form:
Form section | What you declare |
1. Your buyer's declaration | Transaction between your company (trading office) and the fashion brand 
|
2. Your involvement | A  |
3. Your sourcing | One MAIN FABRIC (KNITTED) component, bought from your fabric supplier with the transaction information between your company and the fabric supplier  |
Not declared | The dyer: it will be declared in the form filled out by your fabric supplier as the transaction took place between them. |
Need more detail?
See the full guide: How and what to fill out in My forms page (standard forms, new format).