Fairtrace User Guide

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• The Fairtrace principle

• What to report and what to verify

• When to report and when to verify

• How to switch organization

• Managing your business partners

• The workflow

• How to report transactions

• Edit or Delete your own reported transactions

• How to verify transactions

• How to search for a transaction

• The messenger function

• New allegations channel

• Definition of the reporting fields

• Other definitions

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Pages Content

User Guide’s Content

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Fairtrace is an online platform that follows the principle of collaboration and mutual assurance.

• Collaboration means that users need to interact with each other in the platform by inviting and

accepting invitations from their business partners (Suppliers and Customers).

• Mutual assurance – means that for each transaction, one actor reports and the other verifies

whether the information is correct or not, performing a virtual handshake.

The Fairtrace principle

Trader

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1st TraderProducer Producer

verifies

1st Trader

reports

purchases

Trader

verifies

1st Trader

reports

sales

…

Trader

Trader reports

sales

Trader

verifies

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Report VerifyT

raders

• Report purchases from producers

ONLY (including volumes and price and

premium information). Do not report

purchases made to other traders.

• Report all your sales always, except

sales made as licensee1.

• Note: If you are acting as conveyor,2

include price and/or premium information.

• Verify your purchases from

traders. Your purchases from

traders will be reported by your

supplier as their sales.

Pro

ducers • Generally no need to report

Exception: PC/TC3:

• Need to report only direct purchases from

other certified producers (if any).

• Verify all transactions

reported by your customers

What to report and what to verify

1 Sales as licensee: Not to be reported to FLOCERT but to your licensing body through their reporting tool (for example via Connect).

These sales are related to product on which the Fairtrade Mark is used (mostly finished product).2You are a conveyor when you are transferring payments (of the Fairtrade Minimum Price and/or Premium) from your customer to the

producer; If you act as conveyor you should always report price and premium information.3 PC/TC are producers also holding a Fairtrade trader certification.

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Quarter Purchases and/or sales completed between:Reporting

deadlines:

Q1 January – March April 30th

Q2 April – June July 30th

Q3 July – September October 30th

Q4 October – December January 30th

When to report and when to verify

Please allocate transactions to quarters according to the following criteria:

• Purchases (from producers): once the Price and Premium has been paid to the

producer.

• Sales (when acting as Conveyor): once the Price and Premium has been received

(i.e. paid by the Payer to the Conveyor).

• Sales (all other): according to the invoice date.

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When to report: Mind to follow the below mentioned time frames:

When to verify: You have 30 days (once the transaction has been reported by your business

partner) to verify. Email notifications will be sent once you have new transactions to verify.

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If your email address is linked to more than one organization,

please check that you are using the account of the right

organization before reporting/verifying.

If you need to switch organization, please follow the next steps:

1. Click on the blue arrow on the main menu.

2. Click on SWITCH ORGANIZATION.

3. A new window will open where you can select the

organization you want to switch to.

How to switch organization

1

2

3

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How to check if your business partner is a producer

or a trader

You can check in the Business

Partner section if your Business

Partner (Supplier or Customer) is

a Producer or a Trader.

This is very important as it

determines if you have to Report

or Verify. See slide 4.

In case your supplier is both,

Producer and Trader, please treat

it as Producer and report

purchases from them.

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4. CONFIRM, EDIT or DECLINE the

invitation

How to accept business partners invitations

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1. Go to BUSINESS PARTNERS.

2. Filter by TO DO to see if you have

received any invites from potential

partners.

3. Select an invitation from the list.

Please note that to be able to report, you first need to invite or accept invitations.

2

3

4

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Go to BUSINESS PARTNERS and click on ADD BUSINESS PARTNER

How to invite business partners (slide 1 of 3)

1

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How to invite business partners (slide 2 of 3)

2

Search and select the organization you have a trade relation with and

select its role: CUSTOMER or SUPPLIER. Then click on NEXT.

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How to invite business partners (slide 3 of 3)

3

4

Write a personalized message for your business partner (optional) and click on SEND the invitation.

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Select the product categories you are trading with this partner and click on NEXT.

Actions:

No actions needed

CONFIRM or EDIT

EDIT or DELETE

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Transaction is

reported

VerifierReporter

Transaction statuses:

Confirmed

Actions:

CONFIRM

EDIT

REQUEST

CORRECTION

1

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Please check who has to report in slide 4!

The workflow

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Review

Pending

Correction

Pending

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1. Click on the transaction type that you want to report (PURCHASES or SALES).

2. Click on the ADD SINGLE TRANSACTIONS or ADD MULTIPLE TRANSACTIONS:

− ADD SINGLE TRANSACTIONS (online form): if you want to submit your transactions

one by one.

− ADD MULTIPLE TRANSACTIONS (Excel): this is the best option if you want to report

all your transactions at once, especially if there are many.

How to report transactions (slide 1 of 3)

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1. Please complete all

the requested

fields* as they

appear on your

commercial

documents so that

your business

partner can

correctly identify

and verify the

transaction.

2. Click on SUBMIT to

finish your entry

(this will send the

transaction to your

business partner).

* For further explanations

on the individual reporting

fields please refer to slide

24

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Option 1. ADD SINGLE TRANSACTION

How to report transactions (slide 2 of 3)

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Option 2. ADD MULTIPLE TRANSACTIONS (Excel)

1. Download the Excel

template and fill it out. You

will need to use our product

codes which you can find in

the login page:

https://www.flocert.net/fairtrac

e-login/

2. Upload the completed file.

1

2

How to report transactions (slide 3 of 3)

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You can Edit your reported transactions to make corrections on your information.

Some examples could be:

Note: If your reported transactions were already verified by your Business Partner before you enter

your correction, your Business Partner will be notified to also verify the change.

You can also Delete your reported transactions, if the information which you wish to change cannot be

edited. Please mind that a deletion cannot be reversed, despite it remains visible (read-only).

In case you have deleted a transaction by mistake, you will need to re-enter the transaction.

Some examples when to delete a transaction:

Edit or Delete your reported transactions

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− If there are volume adjustments after the product has been received by you.

− If there are quality claims which lead to changes on the transaction.

− If you have entered a wrong FLO ID of your business partner (edition not possible)

− If you have entered your transaction by mistake.

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General notes

1. Please complete all the requested fields (mandatory entry fields are marked with a *)

2. Make sure that you use information which your business partners can easily understand (i.e.

common contract / invoice numbers etc.) in order to ensure easy identification and correct

verification of the transaction.

3. Please fill the fields as they appear on your commercial documents and try to avoid additional

calculations. Example: Please report the Premium and the Price amounts in the currency stated in

the invoice.

4. If you had no transactions to report (Sales or Purchases) for a certain product and quarter,

please go to the list of pending reports in the home page and click on “Action” and then on

“Nothing to report”. See image below:

Reporting tips & tricks

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1. Click on the transaction type that you want to verify (PURCHASES or SALES).

2. Keep TO DO selected in the View field. In the TO DO you can see all transactions that you need to verify. You will see the transactions with the status “Please Review”.

3. Select the transaction that you want to verify. Check all fields (such as volume, price and premium) and you can use the quick action button to confirm or request correction . If you wish to edit, click on or use the magnifying glass button where you can review the transaction in detail.

(see next page)

How to verify transactions (slide 1 of 2)

Option 1: Verify a single transaction

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4. If you have selected or , and wish to change the transaction information, click on EDIT; you can edit the following parts of the transaction

-Transaction details: Volume, Year and Quarter and Reference documents-Price-Premium.

5. You can also directly confirm a whole transaction by clicking on CONFIRM or you can reject a transaction by clicking on REQUEST CORRECTION.

Note: Please include an explanatory comment when requesting a correction of a transaction

How to verify transactions (slide 2 of 2)

Option 1: Verify a single transaction

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1. Go to PURCHASES or SALES. Keep TO DO selected in the View field. In the TO DO you can see all transactions that you need to verify/review.

− You can use the FILTER option to search for specific parameters – for more information check page 21.

2. Click on EXPORT TO EXCEL.

3. Open the downloaded file. This file contains the transactions extracted for revision.

Use this template ONLY to review transactions - never to report new transactions

(see next page)

How to verify transactions (slide 1 of 2)

Option 2: Verify multiple transactions (Excel)

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4. Check status in column B. Depending on the status you will be able to confirm, edit, requestcorrection or delete. Go to column X and select the action you wish:

− To confirm the transactions please select confirm− If you select edit, you would then change the information by entering new values (You cannot

edit the grey columns). − If you select request correction please add a comment in column Y explaining the reason.

5. After you have finished reviewing your transaction, return to Fairtrace and upload the revision by clicking on UPLOAD REVIEWED TRANSACTIONS

− The action which you have selected in column X will be carried out by the system. Transactions for which you did not select an action will be left unchanged.

How to verify transactions (slide 2 of 2)

Option 2: Verify multiple transactions (Excel)

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1. Click on the transaction type that

you are looking for (PURCHASES

or SALES).

2. Chose in the View selection

between:

− TO DO: Transactions that you

need to verify / review.

− ALL: lists all transactions,

including those sent to your

business partners for their

review.

3. You can use the search bar to look

for transactions by entering:

Company name

FLO ID

Contract number

Invoice number

4. You can also use the filter button

to search by parameters such as:

Year, Quarter and Product

Category.

How to search for a transaction

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1. Click on MESSENGER in the left side menu.

2. Select the organization you want to send a message to. If the organization is not

yet listed, click on Add a conversation.

3. Type your message in the text box and click on SEND.

The messenger function

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Confidential Feedback to FLOCERT - available inside any reported transaction

New allegations channel

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If you are concerned that your Business Partner is not complying with the Fairtrade Standards (e.g.

regarding price/premium payments, traceability, non-member business, unfair trading practices etc.),

please do not hesitate to make us aware.

The field should not be used for corrections of the transaction. Please use this field ONLY if you need

to share information with FLOCERT confidentially (this field is not visible for your Business Partner)

Allegations submitted via this channel are handled by the FLOCERT Credibility Assurance unit. If you

would like to learn more about the process, please refer to the Allegations SOPhttps://www.flocert.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/allegation-procedure.pdf

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Definition of the reporting fields

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• Year and Quarter: The year and quarter in which the transaction was completed, allocate the transaction to invoice date.

• Seller FLO ID: If you are reporting sales, please enter your own FLO ID here as you are the seller. If you are reporting

purchases, please enter your supplier FLO ID here as your supplier is the seller.

• Buyer FLO ID: If you are reporting sales, please enter your customer FLO ID here as your customer is the buyer. If you

are reporting purchases, please enter your own FLO ID here as you are the buyer.

• Invoice Number: Please enter the invoice number of the transaction that you are reporting.

• Invoice Date: If there is no invoice date, please enter the contract date or purchase order date, but add a comment under

the column “Additional Information" mentioning which date was entered.

• Contract Number (optional): Please enter the contract number or alternatively any other important reference.

• Internal Reference Number (optional): You can use add a reference number from your own system. This will not be

visible to your partner.

• Product Code: Please download our "Product Code Table" from our website and choose the code that best describes the

reported volume. Further product descriptions/details may be entered under the column “Additional Information“.

• Conventional/Organic : Please select if the product is Conventional or Organic.

• Total Volume: Please make sure that only Fairtrade volumes are reported. Do not use any thousand separator; check if

you are using the correct decimal mark.

• Total Price (excl. FT Premium): This is the total invoice amount, after deducting the Fairtrade Premium and taxes.

• Incoterm: Please selected the Incoterm that is related to the reported price.

• Total Fairtrade Premium: This is the total Fairtrade Premium paid for the reported volume.

• Additional Information (optional): For any additional information as product details or document info; if reported volume

is retro-certified or reason and complementary information to explain necessary volume adjustments etc.

• Confidential Feedback (online): Please use this field ONLY if you have allegations against your business partner (your

BP is not complying with Fairtrade Standards).

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• Producer Trader (PC-TC): It is a producer also holding a trader certificate which allows them to trade products supplied

by other certified producers.

• Payers: You act as payer if you are a trader with Fairtrade Price and/or Premium payment responsibilities. These

payments can be performed either directly to producers or through another trader who is responsible to transfer these

payments to producers.

• Conveyors: You are a conveyor if although you are not directly responsible for payments of Fairtrade Price and/or

Premium, you are them from your customer to the producer (which is your supplier).

• Non-Payers: You are a non-payer if you do not have a direct responsibility of Fairtrade Price and/or Fairtrade premium

to the producers of your Fairtrade product.

• Payers and Non-Payers: You can be certified as payer and non payer at the same time. This means that you can have

payment responsibilities for some transactions and not for others.

• Licensee: Licensee is a trader who holds a license contract with an NFO to use the Fairtrade label on the Fairtrade

product (mostly a finished product). The license is granted by a National Fairtrade Organization and not by FLOCERT.

Other Definitions

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Change History

Version Author Date approved Changes

10 Luis Pastor 12.10.2017 First version

11 Luis Pastor 06.12.2017 Added information on slide 11.

12 Luis Pastor 01.03.2018 Minor updates in most slides. Swapped slide 5 with 6,

changes to slide 5-6, slide 7 added.

13 Luis Pastor 19.04.2018 Update slides, other minor changes and new slide

(17).

14 Milena Freitas 11.02.2019 Minor changes/updates in most of the slides and two

new slides (4-5).

15 Milena Freitas 15.02.2019 Minor changes on slides: 2, 10, 12-13 & 15-17. Added

new content on slide 5

16 Milena Freitas 08.04.2019 Changes on slides 2, 4 and 16. Added slides 18 and

19

17 Paola Alvarado Prince 28.06.2019 Changes/ updates in most of the slides.

18 Paola Alvarado Prince 25.06.2020 Changes/updates on slide 4, information added on

slide 5, slide 16 added, minor changes on slide19 and

24, information added on slide 25, slide 26 added.

Layout slightly changed.

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