In the fast-moving food and beverage industry, keeping documentation current is essential for compliance and quality assurance. TraceGains offers a structured, yet flexible system for managing document expiry, tailored to real-world document types and regulatory requirements.
This guide explains how expiry is defined within TraceGains and how to manage documents effectively across your supply chain.
Key Standardized Expiry Formats
TraceGains now supports two expiry formats for documents.
Date-Specific Expiry Used when a document shows an explicit expiration or next review date. This remains valid in TraceGains for the exact time period specified on the document.
Key fields:
- Effective Date Date specified on the document
- Expiration Date Date specified on the document
Fixed-Term Expiry
Used when a document does not show an explicit expiration or next review date. This remains valid in TraceGains for a specific time frame.
- 365 days (1 year)
- 720 days (2 years)
- 1035 days (3 years)
Key fields:
- Document Date Date of issue or approval as shown on the document.
- Attestation Customer Management (CM) user confirms the document is accurate, current, and complete (also the Effective Date). Supplier Management (SM) users will see the CM user's attestation as Attested Date and Attested By. These fields are not required when SM users upload documents on their supplier's behalf but may use them to document when they have received written or verbal confirmation.
- Effective Date When CM user attests (CM upload) or when SM user receives and/or approves the document (SM upload)
- Expiration Date Calculated from the Effective Date based on the assigned term (e.g. 365, 720, or 1035 days).
Note: We strongly encourage SM users to add the Format, Document Date, and Attestation DAte attributes to their documents user-defined dashboard. This setup provides greater visibility into expiry logic and help ensure accurate document tracking.
For additional resources, please refer to this article: Managing & Editing User Defined Dashboards in Supplier Management
While the vast majority of documents calssified as fixed-term do not include an explicit expiration or next review date, some do. For those exceptions, traceGains allows users to choose the date-specific expiry format instead. This out is essential to ensure documents with explicit dates are accurately tracked.
Why This Matters
TraceGains' document expiry system ensures the following:
- Accurate and up-to-date document management
- Compliance with global food safety regulations and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) schemes
- Easy tracking and renewal of critical documents
By aligning document expiry with regulatory needs and real-world practices, TraceGains helps ensure you are always audit ready.
Location-Level Standards
These documents and forms tied to manufacturing or facility-level compliance
Item-Level Standards
These relate to specific raw materials or finished product items
Custom Document Expiry
These options give you the flexibility to track compliance your way. Enterprise users can configure custom documents as either:
- Fixed-Term Enter a value in the Days Effective field to enable automatic expiry calculation from the Effective Date.
- Date-Specific Leave Days Effective blank and manually enter both Effective and Expiration Dates.
Need help?
If you are unsure how to apply expiry types to your documents, contact your compliance manager or reach out to TraceGains support for guidance on best practices.