COA Proof Academy

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Products and choose a product, or use Add a product.
2. Under Start from a template, pick the preset that fits.
3. Answer the label facts it asks for. Defaults are filled in where they can be.
4. Choose Use this template. The spec becomes active as a new version.
5. Review the table. Change a limit, or choose + Add test for your own.
6. Save your changes, then check Version history on the same page.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Leave a serving weight blank and daily exposure can’t be worked out, so the lot goes to a person instead of guessing.
• The Prop 65 template asks whether to fail or flag. Choose fail only if that is your brand’s no-warning policy, because Prop 65 is a warning requirement, not a ban.
• USP microbial limits depend on the botanicals answer, so answer it for what’s really in the product.
• Amazon publishes no numeric limits for this, so the TIC template’s defaults are a starting point. Your TIC decides, and the template says Ready for TIC review at most.
• Templates are not legal advice. Have your quality lead or counsel confirm which rules apply to your product.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Suppliers. If the supplier is new, use Add a supplier, then Add supplier.
2. On their card, choose Create upload link.
3. Copy the link at once and send it to them. It isn’t shown again.
4. They open it, pick the COA file, optionally fill in Lot number (optional), and choose Send.
5. The file goes through the same read and checks as any other. Look for it under Lots or Review.
6. To end a link early, choose Revoke beside Link active until.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Lost the link? Create a new one and revoke the old one. Only a hash is stored, so it can’t be shown again.
• Treat a link like a key. Anyone holding it can send you files until it expires or you revoke it.
• Suppliers can upload PDF, PNG or JPEG files up to 20 MB, and each link takes up to 50 uploads a day.
• Sending through a link doesn’t confirm a lab wrote the report. Authenticity checks still run on every file.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Count your COAs a month, and the minutes each one takes today, retyping included.
2. Work it out: COAs × minutes saved ÷ 60 × your hourly cost.
3. Compare the result with the plan that covers your COAs and brands.
4. Try it with the live demo, or a 14-day trial with no card.
5. Once you’re in, open Settings, then Plan, invoices and cancellation, to see your Current plan and Plans.
6. If files are waiting after you upgrade, choose Read the held documents on the Billing page.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• The $500 example is an illustration with stated assumptions, not a customer result. Use your own figures.
• Yearly billing is twelve months for the price of ten, and plan and extra-brand items switch together.
• From 13 brands, CMO can work out cheaper than Scale. Nothing switches without your click.
• Maintenance at $49 keeps live pages up and reads no COAs. It’s a way to keep QR codes working, not a cheaper way to check documents.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Lots and read the tiles: Total lots, Released, Quarantined or flagged and Waiting for a decision.
2. Choose Waiting for a decision to go to Review.
3. Under Needs Review, confirm any reads waiting for you.
4. Open each lot, starting with Flagged, then Failed, Missing and Needs review.
5. Read Spec check and Results against the spec.
6. Under Lot disposition, choose Release, Quarantine or Reject.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Passed means the COA was checked against your spec. It doesn’t mean the product was tested by COA Proof, or that it’s safe.
• Ready for TIC review means the documents look ready to send. Your TIC decides.
• Releasing past an open finding needs a reason of at least 20 characters. Write what you checked, for whoever reads it next.
• A new COA on a released lot reopens it, because the decision was made on different facts.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Review. Under Needs Review, look for The two reads disagree.
2. Open the file. Read Where the reads differ, then look at the same place on the document.
3. Correct any wrong value under The read, so it matches what is printed.
4. Check Results too, including Unit, LOQ and Lab limit.
5. Choose Confirm this read and run the checks.
6. Choose Open the lot, read Spec check, and decide.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Copy what’s printed, even if it looks wrong. An odd value is for the spec check to catch, or for you to query with the lab, and a correction shouldn’t hide it.
• “ND” and “<LOQ” aren’t zero. If the LOQ is above your limit, the lot says Needs review because the document can’t settle it.
• Only one read means the second read wasn’t available. Compare it with the page more carefully, since there’s nothing to disagree with.
• Text and image differ isn’t a typo. The PDF’s hidden text doesn’t match what’s shown, so treat it as an authenticity question.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Settings. Under Supplier reminders, tick Chase suppliers for missing COAs, then Save.
2. Make sure each supplier has an email on file, in Add a supplier or on their card.
3. Open a lot. Under Retest and expiry, fill in Retest date and Expiry date, then choose Save dates.
4. Open Calendar and use Add a product with its Product name, ASIN or SKU and Last verified on.
5. After each re-verification, set the date and choose Save.
6. If a formula, label or supplier changes, choose It changed. That product falls due at once.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Chase emails go to a product’s supplier when it has an address and no COA for 90 days. Tell your suppliers they’re coming.
• A reminder goes to owners, admins and QA people. Check your team is set up in Settings.
• Calendar dates are your own record. Your testing company’s requirements decide what’s really due, so check their schedule too.
• A COA’s age is counted from the date on the report, not the day it reached you.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open the lot and go to Authenticity. Read Level: and each signal under it.
2. Start with high signals, such as PDF changed after signing or PDF text differs from the image.
3. Ask the lab for the report directly, or use Check it at the lab when the lab has a verification page on record.
4. Under What did the lab’s page show?, choose what you saw, then Record my check.
5. If you’re satisfied, choose Dismiss with a note and fill in Why does this not matter?, then Dismiss.
6. If not, choose Quarantine or Reject under Lot disposition.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• A flag is a reason to look closer. It doesn’t prove forgery, and it’s worth asking the lab before you accuse a supplier.
• Some flags have innocent causes: a lab’s office software, or a supplier who merged pages and resaved a file. That’s why the level differs by signal.
• Ask for the lab’s original PDF, sent to your Lab-direct address. A passing sender check can count towards lab-confirmed.
• A clean file doesn’t prove a report is genuine either. COA Proof checks documents, and it doesn’t test products.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. On Lots, look for a status such as Flagged: Duplicate chromatogram hash.
2. Open the lot and go to Authenticity. The signal says what matched.
3. Compare the two lots’ products, dates and lab if the earlier lot is yours.
4. Ask the lab directly whether that report and chromatogram belong to this lot.
5. Until you have an answer, choose Quarantine under Lot disposition, with a Note for quarantine or reject.
6. Then choose Dismiss with a note, or Reject, based on what the lab told you.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• A shared parent batch or a blend can honestly reuse a report. Ask, and write the answer in your note.
• The registry stores keyed fingerprints, not your files, and it never tells you which company the match came from.
• Fictional sample files uploaded in a second workspace get flagged too, as they should. Don’t be alarmed while testing.
• If a supplier sends the same report for several lots, ask for a COA per lot, so the reports can be told apart.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Products, then the product. Under Start from a template, answer Serving weight and Most servings per day on the label.
2. Choose Use this template, for example USP <2232> Elemental Contaminants.
3. Open a lot and go to Spec check. Each finding shows Expected and Found.
4. Read Results against the spec for the full table.
5. Where it says Cannot decide, ask the lab for a lower LOQ or a clearer unit.
6. Record what you decided under Lot disposition.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• If the lab’s LOQ is above your limit, “<LOQ” can’t show the lot meets it. The status becomes Needs review, and rightly so.
• Total arsenic and total mercury are upper bounds. If they’re over a limit for the inorganic or methyl form, ask the lab to speciate.
• Prop 65 levels here flag a warning requirement. They don’t say a product is banned or unsafe. Take questions on what you must print to counsel.
• Check the Prop 65 cadmium and inorganic arsenic levels on the OEHHA site before relying on them, and confirm USP limits against your current USP–NF.
• COA Proof compares what the report says. It doesn’t test the product, and passing a check isn’t a statement that it’s safe.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. For each supplier, open Supplier qualification, fill in Qualified on, and choose Record.
2. For dietary ingredients, open the lot and fill in Identity test, then Record and re-check.
3. Before releasing, write a reason anyone could understand under Why release this lot anyway? when it’s asked for.
4. For Amazon work, open the product and complete TIC readiness inputs, then Save and re-check.
5. Keep Calendar current, and use It changed whenever a formula, label or supplier changes.
6. Before an audit, open a lot’s On the record and the product’s Version history, and walk through a sample lot yourself.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Under 21 CFR 111.75(a)(1)(i), a supplier’s COA doesn’t replace an identity test on a dietary ingredient. Record your own or a third party’s.
• A COA Proof record supports your quality system. It isn’t your whole quality system, and it doesn’t replace your batch records or SOPs. Have your QA lead or counsel decide what your inspection needs.
• Amazon accepts supplement verification only through its testing companies, and COA Proof isn’t one of them. Ready for TIC review isn’t a result from them.
• Claim checks on label and listing text are warnings, and they’re not legal advice.
• Decided lots keep the evaluation they were decided on, so changing a spec later doesn’t rewrite history.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open the lot and choose Release under Lot disposition.
2. Under Public batch page, choose Publish batch page.
3. Choose Open the page and read it as a shopper would.
4. Open Pages and download the QR code for that lot from the QR column.
5. Under Embed on your store, copy Any website, or one of the Shopify snippets.
6. To take a page down, open it under Manage, fill in Reason, shown on the public page, and choose Withdraw.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Say “COA checked against [your brand]’s specifications” in your own marketing too. Avoid saying COA Proof or anyone else tested or approved the product.
• A lot with an open high signal can’t be published. A COA saying research use only is refused for everyone, as are categories outside supplements, cosmetics and food ingredients.
• The embed widget comes with Growth and up.
• Going past your plan’s scans never stops a page, but at 120% publishing new pages pauses. See Billing.
• Test a QR code printed at label size, on the real material, before a full print run.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Products and look for a Missing in the Spec column.
2. If the COA is still in Review, open it and correct Product and Lot under The read, then choose Confirm this read and run the checks.
3. If the draft is a genuinely new product, open it and choose a template under Start from a template.
4. If it’s really a product you already have, ask the supplier or lab to reissue the report with that name, then send it in again.
5. To stop it happening, use Import a CSV or Add a product with the names your suppliers print.
6. When a supplier uses an upload link, ask them to fill in Lot number (optional), so the COA is compared with it.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Matching uses the whole product name, ignoring case, punctuation and words like Inc or LLC. Close isn’t a match, and a guess would be worse than a draft.
• If two products share a name, the supplier tells them apart, so keep each product’s supplier set.
• There’s no way to move an accepted COA to another product yet. Don’t release a lot on a draft product just to clear it.
• If you see Unmatched product on a lot, the lot has no product yet, so it hasn’t been checked. Follow Add a spec from there.
• Correcting the product name in a read changes where the COA is filed. Keep the results themselves as printed.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Suppliers and find the supplier’s card.
2. Beside Link active until, choose Revoke.
3. If they should keep sending, choose Create upload link.
4. Copy the new link at once, as it isn’t shown again, and send it to the right person.
5. Check Lots and Review for files that arrived from the old link recently, if you were worried about it.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Revoking stops new uploads only. Files already received stay on their lots, because they’re part of your record.
• A supplier who sees This link is not active may simply have an expired link. Links last 90 days, so sending a new one is often all it takes.
• If you think a stranger uploaded through a link, read those lots’ Authenticity cards and quarantine any you can’t explain.
• A supplier can have several links at once, so revoke each one you no longer want.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Products. The Spec column shows each product’s template and version, so you can see which ones are affected.
2. Open the first product. Under Active spec, change the value in the table.
3. Choose the save button, labelled with the next version, such as Save as v3.
4. Check Version history, and repeat for each product that uses the limit.
5. Open Review. Undecided lots of those products have been checked again, so read their new status.
6. If new products should use the new limit too, update your default from the onboarding spec step, shown as New products use: on Products.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• There’s no bulk edit yet, so each product takes its own save. Plan for that on a big change.
• Lots already released aren’t reopened when a spec changes. If the new limit matters for them, look them up and decide yourself, and record it.
• Prefer changing a value to replacing the whole spec, so Version history tells a clear story.
• Follow your own change-control SOP. COA Proof records the version, and your quality lead still owns the decision.
• For a template update, a fresh Use this template makes a new version from the preset, and overwrites nothing that came before.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Review, and open the file.
2. If the reason is The two reads disagree, compare Where the reads differ with the page.
3. If you can read each value, correct them and choose Confirm this read and run the checks.
4. If it says Could not be read, choose Try reading again.
5. If you still can’t read it, ask the lab or supplier for a clean PDF, and choose Close without a lot.
6. If the file holds several lots, ask for one COA per lot, and send those instead.

What to Watch For / Pro Tips

• Never confirm a value you can’t see on the page. Confirming says what the document shows, and your name goes on it.
• Ask for the lab’s original PDF rather than a scan. It’s often the fastest fix, and it keeps the signature and text layer that the authenticity checks use.
• A re-scan or a photo can’t be lab-confirmed from its signature. Only the original file carries one.
• Two lots in one file can give two results for one test, which shows as The read has a problem. Don’t try to fix that by deleting rows.
• PDF, PNG and JPEG files up to 20 MB are accepted.