We are receiving a questionnaire from a new customer for the first time, what should we do

The first list from a new customer fills in largely from your own chain file

A new customer means a new portal and a new format, but not automatically new answers. The questions that come in — statutory name, Chamber of Commerce number, number of employees, ISO certification, cyber policy — almost always come down to the same underlying data that was already in other lists. The system recognizes the questions in the new format and fills them in from that one file. What you see is therefore not a blank form, but a pre-filled answer that asks for a yes or no.

Where things more often go wrong with new customers is with questions that are phrased slightly differently than you are used to. "What is the business address of the enterprise" and a question about "headquarters" or "operational address" seem the same, but a customer may want a different level of detail. Check those kinds of fields extra carefully, just like the locations where the enterprise is active — with a list from a customer with international procurement, that is often asked in more detail than you had in your file. If an answer is missing, that field remains open instead of being filled in with something that cannot be substantiated; you confirm or fill in yourself before you submit to your customer's portal.

Why the same file feeds multiple formats

The underlying data — identity, size, certification — does not change per customer, only the question. A question about ISO 9001 certification remains the same fact, whether it appears in a CSRD questionnaire from a customer that reports under Directive (EU) 2022/2464, or in a cyber portal that tests against the ten measures of Article 21(2) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555. The evidence that is requested — such as the ISO 9001 certificate — therefore only needs to be up-to-date once, not resubmitted per customer.