A client’s compliance questionnaire: what to provide
A purchasing client - a large customer, a Crown corporation, a group - sends you its compliance questionnaire: policies, attestations, security measures. Answering is a condition of the contract. Here is how to do it without over-disclosing and without bluffing.
Why you are receiving it
Large purchasing clients pass their own obligations down their supplier chain: they must show that their partners hold up. Your questionnaire is their proof - and your answer is a business document that will be kept, compared and perhaps re-checked. It deserves the same seriousness as a bid.
What to provide
- What is asked, and nothing more - answer the question that was asked, not the one next to it.
- Dated documents - a policy adopted with its date, a signed attestation: a document is worth as much for its date as for its content.
- Accurate answers - “in place since”, “in progress, due on”, “not applicable because”: three honest answers that can all be defended.
What not to provide
Data minimization - sharing only what is necessary - is the same rule that Law 25 applies to you:
- No employees’ personal information - a compliance questionnaire does not need names, salaries or individual files.
- Not your complete internal registers - you attest that a register exists and is kept up; you do not send it.
- Not the detail of your infrastructure beyond what is asked - and if the questionnaire asks for sensitive information, request a confidentiality undertaking before sending: serious purchasing clients accept it without discussion.
If a document is missing
“In progress, due on…” beats bluffing every time: an inaccurate answer discovered later costs the contract AND the relationship. A client’s questionnaire is, in fact, the most common trigger of a real compliance effort - this is the right moment.
Every box in the questionnaire has its tool here. Harassment prevention policy, Law 25 compliance, occupational health and safety program or action plan: the free assessment tells you where you stand, and each document is produced dated, in your name, with the section of law that requires it - ready to attach to your answer.