Factory audits in China: what is checked, what it costs, and how to read the report

A factory audit in China is an on-site visit, usually one or two auditor-days, in which an auditor checks that a supplier is a licensed manufacturer with the equipment, capacity and quality controls your order needs. Three inspection firms that publish their prices listed audit rates from USD 279 to USD 398 per man-day when we checked them on 13 November 2026.

A man-day is one auditor working one day at the factory, and prices are in US dollars (USD). This guide is general information and does not replace legal advice.

Four kinds of audit and when each one pays

Audit firms sell several products under the word “audit”. Pick by the question you need answered.

ISO 9001 is the quality management standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). QC Advisor describes its verification audit as a check of the factory’s existence and legitimacy, the link between a trading company and the real maker, in-house capability and subcontracting. Its technical audit adds quality control procedures, incoming, in-process and final inspection, training, maintenance and calibration. Process audits are usually bought as customised audits built on your own checklist.

Social audits run under their own schemes. Our guide to BSCI, Sedex and SMETA covers them.

What the auditor checks on site

V-Trust lists its scope as company profile, organisation structure, production process, production capacity, facilities and machinery, the quality assurance system and research and development. A good audit covers these points.

How to verify an ISO 9001 certificate

ISO says it does not certify companies or accredit certification bodies itself. Certification bodies issue certificates, and national accreditation bodies accredit those certification bodies. In China that body is the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS), whose site lists 384 accredited certification bodies.

1. Read the certificate: company name, address, scope, certificate number, certification body, accreditation mark and expiry date.
2. Search IAF CertSearch, the database of accredited management-system certificates, by company name or certificate number. ISO’s help page notes that it lists only accredited certificates. Its support page says searching is free, while opening a certificate’s status for the first time uses a credit.
3. If you find nothing, ISO advises contacting the certification body or the accreditation body directly.
4. Confirm that the scope covers your product and that the address is the factory you are buying from, since a certificate can belong to a sister company or a head office.

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF), which built CertSearch, ceased operations on 1 January 2026. Its roles passed to Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated (Global ACI), the body that took over the work of IAF and of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). Global ACI’s website links to CertSearch for certificate checks, and CertSearch was still online under the IAF name when we checked on 13 November 2026.

What an audit costs: published prices

Prices below are quoted exactly as each provider’s own page stated them on 13 November 2026. Providers that publish no audit price are left out.

At these rates a one-day verification costs USD 279 to 398 and a two-day technical audit USD 558 to 796. Ask whether the price covers travel, weekend visits and the report language.

Aslan Sourcing also does factory visits and audits on a day rate, quoted in advance, with travel at cost and a report within 48 hours of the visit, as listed on our pricing page.

How to read the report and spot red flags

Read the summary last. Start with the photos: is the name on the gate, the licence and your invoice the same, and is your kind of product being made?

Red flags worth a call before you pay a deposit:

• The licence holder differs from the company that sent the pro forma invoice, which points to a trading company. Our guide on verifying a Chinese supplier covers this case.
• Machines are idle or covered, or no product like yours is in production.
• A key process is subcontracted and the factory did not say so.
• Gauges carry no calibration labels, or calibration records are missing.
• Final inspection records show no rejected lots at all.
• The ISO certificate is missing from CertSearch, or its scope or address does not match.
• The auditor was kept out of some areas, or the visit date was moved at short notice.

What an audit cannot tell you

An audit describes one or two days. It tests no products, so it says nothing about the quality of your specific order. It cannot show how the factory behaves when it is busy with a larger customer, and it does not prove that your product meets EU law; see our guide to CE marking for products made in China. Working conditions are only seen in outline unless you order a social audit.

Audit or pre-shipment inspection?

An audit judges the supplier before you order. A pre-shipment inspection checks a random sample of your finished, mostly packed goods against your specification. Most buyers need both: the audit before the first deposit, the inspection before every balance payment. Our guide to pre-shipment inspection and AQL, where AQL stands for acceptance quality limit, explains the second step.

Checklist before you book an audit

• Write down the question the audit must answer: real factory, quality system, social, or one process.
• Send the auditor the registered Chinese company name and the factory address.
• Share your product specification and drawings so the auditor checks the right line.
• Ask for photos of the licence, the gate and the line making your product type.
• Get the ISO certificate number in advance and search it on CertSearch yourself.
• Agree the price in writing, including travel, days and report deadline.
• Decide in advance which findings would stop the order.