---
id: KB-LE-024
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/the-supplier-sent-a-questionnaire
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: esg
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-LE-019, KB-LE-004]
citadoPor: [KB-LE-025, KB-LE-026]
---

# The supplier sent a questionnaire

_Forty questions from a client who does not negotiate, with a deadline and nobody to ask what they mean._

**Responde a:** client sent a supplier questionnaire · how to answer a sustainability questionnaire · asked for policies i do not have · supplier onboarding questionnaire

An email arrives from your best client with a forty-question questionnaire, a two-week deadline and a note saying it is a condition of remaining a supplier. **You did not negotiate it, it is not in the contract and there is nobody to argue with** — the person who sent it did not write it either. This is now one of the commonest ways documentary demands reach a mid-sized company: not through a rule, but through a customer.

## What a questionnaire actually asks

| Kind of question | What they want to know | What it costs you |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Do you have a policy on X? | Whether the document exists | Little, if it exists |
| Can you evidence it? | Whether there is something to show | Quite a lot, if it was not kept |
| How many cases were there? | Whether you keep records | A great deal, if it was never counted |
| **And your suppliers?** | **Whether you pass the same on** | **The dearest of all** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **A questionnaire is not answered, it is built once and reused.** That is the difference between this position being an annual problem or an afternoon. The first costs weeks because everything has to be hunted down; the second costs little because the answers already exist and only the form changes. What makes a questionnaire expensive is not the questions: it is that every client asks them differently and every time it starts from zero.

## How to make it reusable

1. **Keep the answers, not just send them** — With the date and the document that backed each one.
2. **Know where the always-attached items live** — It is nearly always the same eight or ten documents.
3. **Note down what you did not have** — That list is the year's agenda, and it comes free.
4. **And review before the next one, not during** — The next questionnaire is coming. It always comes.

> [!WARNING]
> The temptation in this position is **answering yes to everything so as not to lose the client**. It is understandable: there is a contract at stake and a short deadline. The problem is that a questionnaire is not a sales conversation — it is filed, it is signed, and in some cases it is verified afterwards with a visit or a request for evidence. An answer you cannot back up is worse than «we do not have this yet, we will by June», which many clients accept without fuss.

> [!NOTE]
> What requirements a client may impose, which of them come from rules that apply to them and reach you by contract, and what signing a declaration of this kind entails **depends on the sector, the country and the contract, and is settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the operational part: how to answer without starting from scratch each time and how to back up what you say.

**Can I refuse to answer?**

You can, and it usually costs the client. Answering honestly tends to work better than either alternative.

**What do I do about what I do not have?**

Say so, with a date if there is one. It is acceptable far more often than it seems.

**Is last year's answer usable?**

As a starting point, always. As an unreviewed answer, no.

## Ejemplos

**A client sends a questionnaire with a two-week deadline.**

- Keeps previous answers and what backed them

→ You start from what was already answered rather than zero.

**The always-attached documents live in five folders.**

- Gathers the company file in one place

→ Attaching stops being half the job.

**Yes is answered to something that cannot be backed up.**

- Shows which document backs each answer

→ You answer what can be evidenced.

**The client later asks for evidence of what was declared.**

- Keeps what was sent, with its date

→ You show exactly what was declared at the time.

**Every client asks the same things on a different form.**

- Reuses the same documentary base for each request

→ The third questionnaire costs an afternoon.

**What was missing last year is still missing this year.**

- Records what was left outstanding

→ The list of gaps gets worked through during the year.