Engagements
Scope follows the money at risk.
A £40,000 commitment deserves more than a £250 report. A £3,000 trial order should not pay for a group structure map.
Indicative fees
| Verification report | £250 |
| Corporate & control structure | £600–900 |
| Site visit, all-in | £1,200 |
| Qualification programme | £3,500–6,000 |
| Market & supplier landscape | £2,500–6,000 |
| Transaction diligence | £8,000–15,000 |
| Monthly retainer | £1,200–2,500 |
Verification reports can be ordered online. Everything larger is scoped and quoted first, and expenses are never billed on top of a site visit fee.
Where the exposure is material
Four engagements for transactions
Corporate & Control Structure Review
£600–900Five working daysEvery connected entity mapped: who holds the licence, who signs, who invoices, who receives payment. Every mismatch is flagged. Includes equity pledges and frozen equity, which are publicly filed and almost never checked.
Commission this when the counterparty is part of a group, the invoicing entity differs from the operating entity, the order exceeds £30,000, or you are about to sign an exclusive.
Site Visit Report
£1,200Flat, anywhere in mainland ChinaOne fee including all China domestic travel. We are based in China, so there is no travel window to wait for and no expense line afterwards. You receive what was seen, what was refused, and the host’s statements set against documentary evidence.
How it works: you commission us, the supplier hosts us. Agreed in writing beforehand, a member of their team present throughout, kept to the areas they have agreed.
Supplier Qualification Programme
£3,500–6,000Four to six weeksYou have three to five candidates and need to choose. Desk verification across all of them, site visits to the two strongest, then a recommendation setting out what each one gives you at the negotiating table.
Supply Chain Diligence for a Transaction
£8,000–15,000Scoped per dealSupplier concentration, undisclosed related-party supply, the legal standing of the counterparties the target depends on, and the contractual exposure if one of them fails. Delivered to the format and timetable your deal team works to.
On using a Big Four firm instead: a workstream this size sits below their engagement threshold, and they would staff it with juniors outside China.
What a structure review delivers
Four entities. One of them is the one you think you are dealing with.
Why not the alternatives
There are four ways to get this done. Here is where each one stops.
| Approach | What it gives you | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Online verification platforms | Registry data pulled from official databases, fast and cheap | Data without interpretation. No view on whether a finding matters for your deal, and nobody accountable for the conclusion. |
| Local inspection agencies | Someone physically at the factory, low day rates | Quality systems only. They do not read corporate filings or form a legal-commercial judgement, and recourse against them from the UK is theoretical. |
| Big Four advisory | Full methodology, insurance, brand comfort | A workstream of this size sits below their engagement threshold. Commission one and it is staffed by juniors, usually from outside China. |
| Plumbline China | Filings read in Chinese, a judgement formed by the person who signs, an English law contract with a stated liability position, and site visits without a travel window | We do not test products, audit labour conditions, or work in politically sensitive regions. Those we refer on. |
The Big Four comparison reflects our principal’s own experience as a management consultant at PwC.
Before you commission
The six questions we are asked most
Is this legal, given China’s 2026 restrictions?
Reading public corporate and court filings is a commercial credit check, which Decree 834 leaves expressly permitted. Site visits are invited in writing and hosted by the supplier. What the rules restrict is intrusive verification, unsupervised worker interviews and uncontrolled photography, and we do none of those. The full position is set out under Operating in China.
What if you find nothing wrong?
Then the verdict is Proceed, and that is a useful answer. A clean report tells you the counterparty is who they say they are, licensed for what they are selling you, and solvent enough to be worth contracting with. Most reports are not dramatic. The ones that are, pay for all the others.
Can I use the report in a dispute or with insurers?
It is evidence of what the public record showed on the date we read it, and it names the sources. That is often enough to show you took reasonable steps before paying. It is not a legal opinion and does not substitute for one. If you are already in a dispute, tell us before we start so the scope is set accordingly.
How is this different from a £30 online company check?
Those return raw registry fields, usually machine translated, with no view on what any of it means for your order. You get a judgement from someone who reads the originals and signs the conclusion, plus two checks no automated service runs: whether the bank account you have been asked to pay belongs to the counterparty, and whether their certificate numbers exist in the issuing body’s register.
What do you need from me to start?
The counterparty’s name, in Chinese if you have it, and roughly what you are about to commit. If you have a proforma invoice, a business licence copy or certificates they have sent you, send those too. Nothing else is required, and a verification report is back inside 48 hours.
What do you not cover?
Product quality testing, production capacity verification, labour conditions auditing, and anything touching politically sensitive regions. Audited financial statements are not available for private Chinese companies and we do not imply otherwise. Where you need work we decline, we will say so and point you to someone who does it.
Entry and ongoing
Smaller commitments, and buyers running several suppliers
Supplier Verification Report
£25048 hours · two pagesSeven checks plus certificate verification, ending in a verdict. Most clients start here with the supplier they are least sure about.
Not included: product quality, production capacity, working conditions, audited financials.
Market & Supplier Landscape
£2,500–6,000Three to five weeksWho is actually licensed to do this in China, how many of them there are, how large they are on their own filings, who controls them, and which have been sued by their customers. Built from the registry upwards.
Embedded Support
£1,200–2,500Per monthUnlimited desk verification, supplier correspondence handled in Chinese, and one site visit or hosted video walkthrough each month. Bilingual document review at £0.15 per word.