Publishing a certificate of analysis for every batch

Your laboratory tests each batch, and each result is its own document. A product page can only show one of them, so whichever certificate is up there is right for one lot and silently wrong for the rest — and the customer has no way to tell which situation they are in.

The usual workaround is support: a customer emails, somebody asks for the lot code, finds the matching PDF in a shared drive and sends it back. Attaching the certificate to the batch lets the customer answer that question themselves, from the code they are already holding.

In the workspace, open the batch and upload the certificate as a PDF, up to 10 MB. You can record the issuing laboratory and the date of the certificate. Customers see the laboratory beneath the link, with the date beside it — the date only appears alongside a laboratory, so record both if you want it shown.

Uploading never publishes. A certificate goes live only when someone with permission to publish certificates publishes it, and that is recorded in the batch's history under their name.

Every uploaded file is scanned for malware, and it cannot be published until the scan has come back clean. A file found to contain malware can never be published. A scan that could not run — a scanner that was unreachable, say — is shown as failed rather than quietly treated as clean, so a file nobody inspected never looks like one that passed.

Before publishing, you can open the certificate from the workspace to check it is the right document for the right lot.

On a lot where the certificate may be shown, the customer sees a link to view it, which opens the PDF in its own tab, with the issuing laboratory (and its date) when you have recorded one. In the workspace you can see how many times each certificate has been opened.

Status always outranks the certificate. Whether it is shown depends on the lot first and the document second:

◷ Pending

Not shown, even if the certificate itself is published. The customer is told the lot is in production checks.

✓ Verified

Shown, once the certificate is published and its scan is clean.

‖ Quarantined

Withheld while the lot is on hold. The customer is told it is temporarily unavailable.

⨯ Recalled

Never shown. The recall notice takes its place, and it stays withheld after the lot is archived.

▣ Archived

Shown, as history — unless the lot was ever recalled.

The check happens when the link is opened, not only when the page was drawn. A customer who loaded the page before you put the lot on hold, and clicks afterwards, does not get the certificate.

A corrected certificate is uploaded as a new revision of the batch's certificate, never written over the old file. The previous revision stays on the public page until the new one is published, so there is no gap in between, and every revision stays in the batch's history.

You can withdraw a published certificate, and that is recorded too. Only a certificate that was never published can be deleted — that exists for the wrong file having been uploaded, not for rewriting what customers were shown.

BatchRoute publishes and hosts the batch information you give it. It is verification and documentation infrastructure — not a testing laboratory, a certification body, or a statement that a product meets any regulation. We don't test your product, review your laboratory results, certify anything or determine regulatory compliance. You remain responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of what you publish.