Document readiness grader
Twelve honest questions across four categories. Two minutes. A plain-English A to F grade for your supplier document programme with a per-category breakdown and the top actions to raise it.
Who this is for and what it solves
- Ops, compliance and procurement leads sanity-checking their setup
- Founders and finance leads working out where to invest effort
- Consultants running a quick maturity check for a client
You know things could be tighter. You just cannot tell where the biggest hole is. Twelve questions across foundations, expiry tracking, chase cadence and sharing map your programme against what mature teams actually do, then tell you the first things to fix.
- 1.Every active supplier has one canonical record in one place (not scattered across inboxes and drives).
- 2.You know today which suppliers have current, in-date insurance certificates on file.
- 3.Supplier documents are shared and stored off email attachments.
- 4.The next expiry date for each supplier document is visible without opening the file.
- 5.Reminders for renewals are set automatically, not held in someone's head.
- 6.You have visibility into your subcontractors' subcontractors (not just tier one).
- 7.For every open document request, you can name the owner and the deadline.
- 8.You have a consistent chase cadence (rather than ad-hoc reminders when you remember).
- 9.When a supplier resubmits an updated document, the old version is archived rather than lost or duplicated.
- 10.You can share a supplier's full evidence pack with a client in under five minutes.
- 11.When you share an evidence pack, the client sees the current version rather than a frozen PDF.
- 12.You could show an auditor who verified each document and when, without hunting.
How it works
- Step 1Answer yes or no
Twelve statements grouped into four categories.
- Step 2Get a grade and a breakdown
A to F overall, plus a percentage per category so you can see which pillar is weakest.
- Step 3See your top actions
Every 'no' becomes a specific action, tagged with the category it lifts.
Questions and answers
A grade is a mirror. Raising it is a project.
Knowing you sit at a C is useful for a week. What actually moves the grade is a system for collection, expiry tracking and pack sharing that runs whether or not anyone is watching.
Credbase gives you that system out of the box, and shows the grade moving as gaps close.
This tool is a plain-English guide for teams handling third-party paperwork. It is not legal, insurance or compliance advice. Confirm specifics with the counterparty or your own adviser before you rely on any output.
Related free tools
- Subcontractor document checklist generator
Answer a few questions about the trade and the job, get the exact document list to request from a subcontractor, plus a request email and a reminder schedule.
- Supplier document checklist
A tidy starter list of the documents most teams should hold for a new supplier. Tick them off, copy or download.
- Expiry reminder calculator
Enter a document expiry date and get sensible reminder dates plus a calendar file you can drop into Outlook or Google.
Related reading
- Featured guideSupplier document management: the complete guide (2026)
A practical, end-to-end guide to supplier document management: what to collect, how to track expiries, how to share proof with clients and how to keep it all effortless.
- Featured guideCertificate of insurance (COI) tracking: the complete guide
How modern teams collect, verify and monitor certificates of insurance from suppliers and subcontractors, without spreadsheets or missed renewals.
- ComparisonCredbase vs shared drives (Google Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox)
How a purpose-built supplier document platform compares to Google Drive, SharePoint and Dropbox, with a fair read on where each is genuinely better and why most teams end up using both.