# Compliance Management > EN 10204 compliance software for metals — automate mill cert management, material traceability, and quality documentation. Audit-ready before anyone asks. **URL:** https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/compliance/ **Last updated:** 2026-05-05 --- Stay compliant without slowing down production ## Key Capabilities - **Mill Certificates**: Read, extract, and store data from mill test certificates automatically — no more typing chemical compositions off a photocopy. - **Material Traceability**: Track every piece of material from goods-in to despatch with a complete, auditable chain of custody. - **Quality Documentation**: Capture inspection records and quality checks digitally at the point of work — linked to the right order, every time. - **Compliance Reporting**: Generate audit-ready reports in seconds. No more hunting through filing cabinets the week before an inspection. EN 10204 type 3.1 and 3.2 certificate formats supported as standard. - **Export Your Data Anytime**: GoSmarter is hosted in the EU and built for GDPR compliance. Export all certs, stock records, and audit trails as CSV any time. No exit fees. No lock-in. Your data stays yours. ## The Opportunity *Stop losing sleep over certifications* Nobody gets excited about compliance. It's a necessary evil that eats up time and kills productivity. Turn it from a burden into a background task. GoSmarter reads mill certificates automatically: heat numbers, grades, chemical compositions, and mechanical properties. Every cert links to the relevant stock item in your live inventory. No typing. No filing. No hunting for a PDF the day before an audit. When a job calls for S355J2 bar and the cert says S275, GoSmarter catches it before the material leaves the rack. Wrong grade, missing properties, heat number that doesn't match the delivery note. GoSmarter catches it automatically. Your best engineer can stop squinting at spreadsheets. Whether you're a rebar supplier, a plate processor, or a cut-to-length service centre, the cert workflow is the same headache. The fix is the same too. Start with certs. Most customers are live within a day, processing their first batch automatically within the hour. Once your certs are linked to stock, the rest follows naturally: cutting plans, order traceability, audit reports. ## Why GoSmarter *Compliance doesn't have to suck* We take the pain out of compliance. Save time and stop making mistakes. - **Fast Processing** - 60% faster certificate processing. Teams handling 200+ certs a month typically recover 8–12 hours of admin time per week within the first month. Stop typing, start working. - **Catch bad stock before it hits the saw** - GoSmarter does not just read your certs; it checks them against what you ordered. Wrong grade, missing mechanical properties, a heat number that doesn't tie to the delivery note. GoSmarter catches it before the job starts. That is the difference between a data extraction tool and a metals-specific compliance platform. - **Optimised Yield** - Stay compliant and profitable. Stop wasting material just to be "safe". - **No rip-and-replace** - GoSmarter reads certs from your email inbox, shared drives, or ERP attachments. It works with whatever cert workflow you have today. You do not need to change how your suppliers send certs. ## Who Benefits Most From GoSmarter Compliance GoSmarter is built specifically for the metals industry. It handles the certificate types, traceability requirements, and audit pressures that metals businesses face. It was not adapted from a generic document management tool. ### Quality Managers Before GoSmarter, a quality manager preparing for a customer audit typically spends two to three days on evidence gathering. They pull paper files. They cross-reference heat numbers against delivery notes. They assemble evidence packs. GoSmarter reduces this to a search and an export. Every cert, every stock movement, and every despatch record is linked and searchable. Audit preparation that took two days takes 30 minutes. During production, the quality manager gets automatic flags for any cert that does not match the job specification. Wrong grade for the application. Missing mechanical properties. Heat number that does not tie to the delivery note. These catches happen before the job starts. They do not appear after a non-conformance report arrives from a customer and triggers a full investigation. ### Store Managers and Goods-In Teams Every stock item in GoSmarter carries its certificate history from the moment material arrives. When a delivery is received, GoSmarter reads the cert, extracts the data, and links it to the stock record automatically. The store manager does not type a heat number. They do not file a paper cert. They do not spend Friday afternoon hunting for the certificate for material that arrived on Monday. Material that has since been cut into five pieces across three separate jobs. GoSmarter builds traceability in from day one. Not bolted on when an audit is announced. ### Sales and Technical Teams When a customer asks for the cert for a specific delivery, the sales or technical team retrieves it in under a minute. This is a daily occurrence in the metals business. With GoSmarter, they can. The cert is linked to the despatch record, which is linked to the production job, which is linked to the original stock item. The full chain is one search away. That response time is a competitive differentiator. Customers who care about quality documentation notice when your team responds in 60 seconds instead of 60 minutes. The businesses that cannot find their certs quickly lose quality-sensitive customers. Those customers go to competitors who can. GoSmarter puts you in the first group. ## Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel Midland Steel transformed their compliance process. By automating certificate handling and yield tracking, they saved hundreds of hours on manual inputting and reduced errors. They used GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader to stop wasting time and start moving metal. Read more ## Common Questions ### What is mill certificate management and why does it matter? A mill certificate (also called a test certificate or material certificate) is the document a steel mill or metals supplier issues to prove that material meets a specified grade and standard. Without it, you cannot prove the material you used was fit for purpose. GoSmarter's [MillCert Reader](https://www.gosmarter.ai/products/mill-certificate-reader/) reads these certificates automatically — extracting heat numbers, grades, and mechanical properties — and links them to the relevant stock and order, so you always have proof when you need it. ### Does GoSmarter support EN 10204 compliance? Yes. GoSmarter is built specifically for the metals industry, where EN 10204 certificate types (2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2) are standard. The system recognises these certificate formats and stores the relevant data fields, making it straightforward to demonstrate compliance during customer audits or regulatory inspections. ### How does GoSmarter help during a customer audit? Instead of spending days before an audit pulling certificates from filing cabinets and cross-referencing them with despatch records, GoSmarter lets you search and retrieve any certificate instantly. Traceability records are maintained automatically from goods-in to despatch, so the audit trail is always complete and always up to date — not assembled in a rush the week before. ### Does GoSmarter work with ISO 9001 or IATF 16949 quality systems? GoSmarter captures and stores quality data in a way that is compatible with ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and similar management system requirements. It does not replace your quality management system, but it eliminates the manual data collection and re-entry that makes maintaining records under those standards so time-consuming. ## Start Managing Compliance Without the Paperwork GoSmarter is free to trial for 14 days. No credit card required. Most teams process their first batch of certificates automatically within an hour of signing up. Your existing certs can be uploaded directly — GoSmarter reads them from PDFs. There is no re-keying, no setup fee, and no long-term contract. Once your certs are linked to stock, the rest follows naturally. Cutting plans pull cert data to verify grade compliance before any job starts. Order traceability links cert records to despatch notes. Audit reports generate in seconds from data captured automatically. Not assembled in a rush the week before an inspector arrives. ## Go deeper - [Mill Certificate Automation: The Complete Guide](https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/mill-cert-automation/) — how GoSmarter reads, extracts, validates, and stores every cert automatically - [Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability](https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/integrated-cert-traceability/) — building a complete, auditable chain of custody from delivery to despatch - [Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study](https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/midland-steel/) — how a leading rebar supplier automated certificate handling and cut audit prep time - [GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates](https://www.gosmarter.ai/blog/gosmarter-vs-generic-ocr-mill-cert/) — why metals-specific AI is the right choice for cert processing - [Integration Strategy](https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/integration-strategy/) — how GoSmarter connects to your existing systems, from standalone use to full REST API integration with your ERP