Manage quality.Secure the evidence.
As the owner of a quality label you stand behind a standard – but the data that proves it sits with your licensees, their laboratories and the certification bodies. If you first have to ask a partner for their current status, you cannot make a reliable statement about the chain. fabular brings licences, certificates, audit results and label fees together in one place. A new report across the partner chain takes shape the same way, described to fabAI – on the same audited data, not in another spreadsheet beside the partner portal.
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- Central QA data
- Risk-based audits
- Automated fees
- 100 %
- automated billing
- Real time
- QA data from all partners
- 24/7
- partner portal access
- 25+
- years of experience
Three problems in label management
Quality data sits with the partners
Test reports and certificates are spread across many parties. There is no shared place where the current status is visible to everyone.
One central hub for all audit and certification data.
Audits with no link to risk
Audits are planned across the board instead of by risk. Resources go where they are needed least.
Prioritisation by deviation history and product group.
Fees are billed by hand
Quality assurance services and label usage fees are calculated manually. With complex models that is time-consuming and error-prone.
Billing generated automatically from contract terms and audit result.
This page is aimed at owners of a quality label or standard who grant licences, audit partners and bill fees – fabular brings licence scope, certificate validity, audit result and billing together on one partner record.
What is genuinely difficult in awarding a label
A standard stands or falls with the evidence behind it. It becomes difficult where the data that provides the evidence is not created in your own organisation and still has to be up to date at all times.
- The data sits with the licensees: test reports, certificates and analysis results are created at partners, laboratories and certification bodies – you only see them once somebody sends them.
- The scope of a licence is rarely the whole business: it applies to certain products, sites or raw material origins, and exactly that boundary decides whether a marking is covered.
- Certificates expire at different times: each has its own validity and its own scope. Without monitoring, a partner carries on advertising with the mark while its basis has already lapsed.
- Audit planning has to be justifiable: who is audited and when should follow from risk and history, not from the order of the files – otherwise the audit plan itself is open to challenge.
- Deviations need a follow-up: a deviation is only closed once the action, the deadline and the proof of effectiveness are in place. In email threads that chain regularly breaks.
- Fees depend on moving figures: label fees are based on reported volumes, revenues or the number of licensed products. The billing is only as good as the reports the partners send in.
A standard is only as robust as its evidence
If the current certification status of a partner has to be asked for first, the statement about the chain does not hold up when it matters.
Multi-stage chains
Licensees have upstream suppliers of their own. Without links across the stages, verifiability ends at the first level.
Fees without a data basis
Where volume reports arrive on forms, billing turns into recalculation. Report, audit result and invoice belong on the same partner record.
How fabular handles it
Licence & label
- 1.Licences with term, scope and conditions.
- 2.Usage rights per product and partner.
- 3.Expiring licences are reported in good time.
- 4.Brand use documented and verifiable.
QA hub
- 1.Test reports from all partners in one place.
- 2.Certificates with validity and scope.
- 3.Deviations tracked together with their actions.
- 4.Analyses across the entire partner chain.
Only once the data comes together can a standard also be evidenced.
Partners & billing
- 1.Member and partner management with history.
- 2.A portal for self-declarations and documents.
- 3.Fees calculated automatically by model.
- 4.Membership fees and services billed in one run.
From admission to fee billing
- Step 01
Application and admission
licensing office
The application from a business is recorded with master data, sites and the products the mark is to be used for. Certificates that already exist are stored with their validity and scope, so from the outset it is visible what is evidenced and what is still missing.
- Step 02
Grant the licence and set the scope
with term and conditions
The licence records which products, sites and periods the label may be used for, including any conditions. That makes the question of whether a specific marking is covered answerable at any time, and not a matter of interpretation.
- Step 03
Risk-based audit planning
per planning period
The prioritisation comes from deviation history, product group, origin and the time since the last audit. Audit capacity goes where the risk is, and the plan itself is justified in a way that can be followed.
- Step 04
Audit, deviation, action
auditors on site
Audit results and deviations are documented on the partner, with action, responsibility and deadline. The case stays open and appears in the follow-up until the proof of effectiveness is in place.
- Step 05
Reporting and billing
periodic
Partners report their reference figures through the portal. The report, the contract terms and the licence scope produce the fee invoice in one run, together with membership fees and other quality assurance services.
Label management with fabular
What is the difference between a label scheme owner and a certification body?
The label scheme owner owns the standard and the mark: they set the requirements, grant licences and decide on the use of the seal. The certification body audits on their behalf and issues certificates. The two roles need different data – the label scheme owner needs the overview of licences, partners and fees, the certification body needs order and audit handling. There is a separate industry solution for each side.
How do we keep track of expiring certificates and licences?
Licences and certificates are held with their validity and scope, not as a filed document. When a validity is about to expire, that is reported with lead time so the renewal can be started before the basis for using the mark falls away. Without this monitoring, the expiry is only noticed once a partner advertises with a seal that is no longer covered.
How can risk-based audit planning be justified?
The plan draws on characteristics that are maintained anyway: deviation history, product group, origin of the raw materials and the time since the last audit. From these comes a prioritisation that can be explained if it is ever questioned. The decision still stays in your organisation – the system supplies the sequence and the reasoning behind it, not the judgement.
How does our partners' data get into the system without us typing it in?
Through the partner portal. Licensees upload certificates, self-declarations, test reports and volume reports themselves, and the documents land directly on the partner record instead of in a mailbox. Partners can see which pieces of evidence are missing and when they are due. For you that removes the chasing work that otherwise takes up most of the time.
How are label fees billed when every model looks different?
The fees come from the contract terms and the reported reference figure, such as volume, revenue or the number of licensed products, and they are invoiced in one run together with membership fees and other quality assurance services. Several models running side by side are the normal case. Which figures and scales apply in your model is something we map during implementation.
What happens if a partner does not resolve a deviation?
The deviation remains an open case with action, responsibility and deadline, and it appears in the follow-up until the proof of effectiveness is in place. If that proof does not arrive, the history is documented when a decision is taken on conditions, a follow-up audit or suspending the licence. Your committee takes the decision, the system keeps a complete record of the case.
Companies working with fab4minds
A selection from our customer base – businesses with comparable requirements for traceability, batch management and reporting obligations.
- SONNENTOR
- Donau Soja
- Landgarten
- Taifun Tofu
Before you choose a system
A clearly bounded consulting engagement with a fixed scope, a fixed price and a written result. Worthwhile even if no system change follows at the end.
Digitalisation consulting for label scheme owners
We go through your partner chain: how licences come about, where quality data comes from, how audits are planned and how the fee billing follows from that.
- Record licence and certificate management including scope
- Document the data routes from partners, laboratories and certification bodies
- Put audit planning on a risk logic that can be followed
- Check fee models and reporting processes for billability
Let us talk about your partner chain
How many places have to be asked today to know a partner's quality assurance status? That is exactly where the consulting engagement starts. If the result does not help you, we refund the fee.