Certification Bodies

Introduction

A key element of the GLOBALG.A.P. Standard integrity is the principle of identifying GLOBALG.A.P. certified producers as unique identities and recording all relevant producer and product information - including the certificate. For this purpose GLOBALG.A.P. operates a database of all GLOBALG.A.P. certified producers worldwide. This section introduces the database tasks managed by GLOBALG.A.P. approved Certification Bodies: registration of producers, products and certification of products. Crucial is the assignment of the GLOBALG.A.P. Number (GGN) during producer registration. This 13-digit number is unique and belongs to the legal entity as long as it exists. It serves as a search key on the GLOBALG.A.P. website for validating certificates.

Training database

GLOBALG.A.P. is operating a training database, available for tests or trainings and works exactly as the “real” database. Note that the data is not saved permanently in this database and any actions executed in the training database are not invoiced. Data in the training database get updated monthly. Every employee of a GLOBALG.A.P. Certification Body can log in to the training database with the same login and password combination as in the regular database.

GLOBALG.A.P. Audit Service

The portal for Online Checklists and Audits allows the certification bodies to fill out checklists and audit reports online. This facilitates the compatibility and can speed up the process.

If you find any bugs or have suggestions to increase the functionality, please submit your feedback with the title ‘Feedback Audit Service’ to [1]. The title will help us to gather the feedback. Thank you for your cooperation!

The portal is available here: https://audit.globalgap.org

Please note that the accesses for users have some important differences to the GLOBALG.A.P. Database: 1. The user names from the Database are not automatically used. 2. There is no linkup to the Database. 3. You may use your Database usernames, but also may use other ones. 4. GLOBALG.A.P. will grant one login to the Scheme Manger with rules that allow to add the auditors who need access. This is quite like the Database (however, the roles differ). 5. Auditors and Scheme Managers will both be able to get a new password without help of GLOBALG.A.P. This saves a lot of time. Please use the link ‘I forgot my password’ on the login page: https://audit.globalgap.org

You can change the language to Spanish in the corner on the very right bottom of the page.

Good to know: Every icon will show what it does when the mouse button is over it.

Once logged in, you will view three possibilities to start:

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Checklists

The Scheme Manager or qualified auditors can edit and publish their own templates for the certification body. The templates can save time when filled out later. There are also templates provided by GLOBALG.A.P.

You can in this view edit existing templates. You can also delete templates that are no longer necessary.

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In case you have many checklist templates available, you can search by name or filter via Module (=Subscope) or Standard (please enter 3 or more character to start the search). Please note that if the search does not seem to work, continue by clicking on ‘Filter’ to continue.

You can of course also create a new checklist template. Please note: The user login needs the role ‘Checklist Administrator’ to do this. The Scheme Manager can add this role if needed.

Please use the button ‘Create checklist’ in the upper right corner. A new window will open. You can enter three information here:

1. Name of the checklist template 2. (Internal) Version of the template 3. Description 4. Now you can either: a. ‘Create checklist from another checklist’ (use an existing template which will then not be overwritten, but modified) b. Or create a completely new template. i. You will afterwards come to a window to choose the standards. Multiple standards can be combined to form your template. ii. Next step: Please choose the modules (SubScopes) iii. After the Modules are chosen, please click ‘Create’ and your new template is ready.

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Edit checklist

Please note that this function changes the template, so it should not be used by auditors to upload the data for a specific client. But if you need e. g. to customize criteria or set some values (not possible for Major Musts) to ‘not applicable’ (N/A).

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You can quickly expand or hide all criteria or all criteria of a specific subset of criteria with ‘Show/Hide All Compliance Criteria’. Please note the icons on the right. They offer the possibility to expand/hide the subsets (icon looking like a list) or to enter values YES, NO, N/A for a subset of criteria (icon that looks like three people).

Audit reports

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Here you can look up lists that have been saved under ‘Audit reports.’

You can select and unselect GGN. Currently only option 1 is available.

On the right, you can access ‘New Audit’ (which is on the main page as well) to create a new audit report. Please note that the user needs the role ‘Assessor’ to do this.

The gear icon will allow you to customize your columns shown and its order. The cloud icon will allow you to download reports you have selected with a tick in the box before each report.

The filter icon will allow you to apply filters. You can enter filters when clicking ‘More filters.’

New audit

This can both be accessed from the main screen or from the ‘Audit reports.’

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Checklist: Please chose a checklist template from the drop-down menu. If it is not available, please contact your Scheme Manager or the person that is responsible for the templates.

Type the GGN: It is very important that this GGN is typed in correctly. The system will validate if the GGN is a valid GGN, e. g. if you enter ‘1234567890123’ it will know that no GGN has this format. But if the GGN format is valid, it will accept it. This means that if you enter a wrong GGN, the checklist will never appear with the producer (without error message). Please therefore make sure that the entered GGN is correct. The producer’s name will be displayed if a valid GGN is entered, so this can give you hints.

Audited Company: Please enter the company name here (name of producer or producer group).

Certification Option: Chose the option that applies.

Country sites assessed are located: Please enter the country here. After you have entered 3 or more characters, the system will search for a country to choose.

Language that will be used to write the assessment notes: Currently only English and Spanish available after you have entered 3 or more characters.

Then click Create.

Entering audit details after 'New audit'

After the new audit is registered, a new page will open.

Assessment

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This site comes after you have created the audit report in the step before.

You can check Standard, GGN and the producer’s name in the top line.

Below the top line, you can change the status of the audit (here named assessment): 1. New: The default new status. 2. In progress: Audit in progress (date planned, audit going on) 3. Open CA: this means ‘open non-conformance’ and ‘corrective actions’ as their solution 4. Closed: Audit is closed, and the decision taken.

Company assessed

Please enter a contact person here. It should comply with the person you have entered in the GLOBALG.A.P. Database. The mail is also needed and should be the same. Leave the field empty if no mail is available.

You can enter the producer’s place directly via Google Maps. After you have clicked a point on the map, the window will close and take the longitude/latitude of that point. Entering a longitude or latitude manually directly into the system will not work.

Assessor Team: Enter the auditor who has conducted the audit.

Assessment details: Please enter a start and end date of the audit(s) here. You can also take notes on the audit.

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Please do not forget to save your work!

Standard (e. g. IFA, FSMA…)

Assessment type: Please enter the type of audit here by choosing from a drop-down menu. Please answer the questions in the ‘IFA Assessment details.’

Products:

Just start typing the name of the product. After 3 letters, suggestions will appear. You can click on them and they will appear as ‘boxes.’ Make sure you save later. The products need to be entered under every section which applies for them. This makes searching for a product ID and choosing from a huge list unnecessary.

Farm Assurer: Please answer the questions asked in this section.

PP/PO: Here the PP/PO should be entered. Also, his trade can be indicated if applicable (just entering products like in the section ‘products.’

Sites assessed: Please register production sites here.

NC/CA

Non-compliances will automatically be shown here from the checklists.

Summary

Summary will show you how many questions are unanswered. Also, it will indicate how many Major Musts, Minor Musts and Recommendations are met or not met.

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Checklists

This is the heart of the app. You can fill the checklist here. Please note that this is only possible when connected to the internet. Saving data that is entered offline is not possible. But this functionality can be added via a third-party-software or your IT. It does not use SOAP as the GLOBALG.A.P. Database, instead it relies on Rest API. This is much easier to handle.

You can find the documentation here: [2]

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When connected to the internet, you can fill out the control points just as you would offline or on a paper list. You can enter multiple fields and save whenever you like.

Please not that this section only (Checklists) has an auto-save integrated, manual saving can be done at the end but is not necessary here between the steps.

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You can show and hide all criteria points and filter for questions answered with Yes, No, N/A or unanswered ones.

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The flag can translate text to the language of the logged in user (English <-> Spanish). Please consider that this is done via Google Translate and is only for convenience. There is no way to guarantee that the translation is correctly done by Google translate.

On each control point, there is a small icon that looks like (three) people). This will allow you to fill in a whole subset of criteria points in bulk. This way you avoid clicking dozens of times the same ‘Yes’ if a producer is compliant to the whole subset.

The icon on each control points or its subsets that looks like a list offers the possibility to show and hide the control points of this subset.

Documents

You can upload relevant documents in this section or directly attach it to the corresponding control point.

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PDF & Send PDF

You can create and download a PDF under ‘PDF’. Or you can enter a mail address under ‘Send PDF’. This saves time as you don’t have to download it first and then upload it to your mail program.

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Copy audit

You can also copy this audit if needed.

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