Making compliance labels
Where compliance labels live
Labels are made on the master SKO, once for every organisation that stocks the product. Go to Goods → SKOs, open the master SKO and press Labels. The page has two tabs.
- Labels — what every label must show, the labels already made for this product, and the button to make a new one.
- Compliance — the list of certificates, safety tests, tariff codes and other documents the product needs, each with its reference, the dates it is valid between and whether it is compliant.
One label serves every organisation. When a product is sold both in the UK and in the EU, place both the UK responsible person and the EU responsible person on it. Texts that depend on who imports the goods, such as "Imported from India by…", are filled in by the organisation that prints the label.
Each organisation's SKO also has a Labels page, next to Batch codes. It shows the same labels read only, with a button to edit them on the master SKO.
The factory reaches the same labels from its artefacts. How the label editor itself works — the artwork, the grid of labels on the A4 sheet, the barcode — is explained in designing and printing labels. This guide covers what a compliance label adds.
Who does what
| Position | What they do |
|---|---|
| Compliance Manager | Ticks the information every label of a SKO must show. |
| Compliance Worker | Designs labels and keeps them up to date. |
| Compliance Supervisor | Checks labels and publishes them, so agents can print them. |
Agents never design or change a label. They only see labels once they are published.
Deciding what a label must show
At the top of the Labels tab is the Mandatory information box. The Compliance Manager ticks what every label of this SKO must show — for example the ingredients, the EU responsible person, the warnings in German and the recycling symbols — and presses Save.
Each label in the list then shows every mandatory item as a small chip: green with a tick when the label has it, red with a warning sign when it is missing. A label with a red chip cannot be published.
Sometimes the information is already printed on the supplier's box. In that case tick on artwork on the chip: the label counts it as present without printing it twice.
Placing the information
Press New label, give it a name and, if you have it, upload the supplier's artwork as the background. Then add what the label must show.
- Batch code, Expiry date and Barcode have their own buttons. The batch code and expiry date on the design are only examples: the real ones are typed in each time the labels are printed.
- Everything else is in the + Product information menu. Pick an item and it lands on the label with the text or the symbols taken from the product record. Drag it into place.
An item the product record does not have yet is shown in the menu as not on the product record and cannot be picked. Fill in the product record first, then come back to the label.
The text is copied when you place it. If the product record changes later, remove the item from the label and place it again, so the label reads the new text.
Texts in several languages
The product name, the warnings and the directions for use are offered once per language: Warnings (German), Warnings (French) and so on. Place one block for each language the label needs.
The languages offered are the ones the product record asks for, plus every language the product texts are already translated into. A language with no translation yet is shown as type it in: place it and type the text on the label.
Long texts such as ingredients, warnings or an address should wrap. Select the item, tick Wrap in a box and set the width in millimetres; the text then breaks into lines inside the box and keeps its own line breaks.
Symbols
These are placed as pictures, and each one only when the product record says the product carries it.
| Symbol | Shown when the product record has |
|---|---|
| Hazard pictograms | The hazards ticked on the product. |
| Packaging material marks, such as PET 1 or PAP 21 | Its packaging material codes. |
| CE, UKCA and WEEE marks | The matching mark ticked. |
| Open jar with the months, such as 12M | A period after opening (PAO) chosen as its best before. |
| French sorting logo and instruction ("FR", "Cet emballage se trie") | Sorting / Recycling Information ticked. |
Select a symbol to change its height in millimetres.
Free text
Free text is for anything that is not product information: fixed headings such as "Weight / Peso / váha / Waga / Poids / Gewicht", or "Ingredients / Ingrédients / Inhaltsstoffe". Place it and type what the label should say. Free text is never taken from the product record, so it cannot be made mandatory.
Where the information comes from
| On the label | Filled in on |
|---|---|
| Product name, net weight, ingredients, country of origin, manufacturer, CPNP, UFI, SCPN | The trade unit. |
| Warnings and directions for use | The trade unit, in the GPSR section (Warnings, How To Use). |
| Product name, warnings and directions in other languages | The product in each shop, in its Name and GPSR translations. |
| Languages the label must carry | The trade unit, Labeling & Compliance Marks → Languages. |
| UK and EU responsible person | Our own UK and EU companies' details, offered when the trade unit lists that market under Markets. |
| Importer | The details of the organisation that buys the product. |
| Symbols | The trade unit, Labeling & Compliance Marks and its hazards. |
| Barcode | The SKO's barcode. |
| Batch code and expiry date | Typed in when the labels are printed. |
A label can only be as good as the product record behind it. If a warning is missing in one language, add the translation to the product rather than typing it on one label: the next label, and the website, will then have it too.
Publishing
When every mandatory chip is green or marked on artwork, the Compliance Supervisor opens the label and presses Publish. From that moment the agents who buy the product for us see the label and can print it.
A published label can still be improved. Change it and press Publish again: the changes are live and the label stays published. Unpublish takes it away from the agents until it is published again.