AC-04 · our practice ref · series-structure

Monitor the supplier and accept deliverables

Practice AC-04 in the Acquisition Management group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: AC-04
Process: Acquisition Management
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Acquisition ManagementThe monitoring record and the checkpoint dates
Acquisition ManagementThe acceptance or rejection decision with the evidence
Acquisition ManagementThe defect and rework record

Questions before you sign

What have we received so far?
Did it pass the acceptance test?
What is still open, and who owns it?

The practice, in our words

Monitor the supplier against the agreement, inspect or test what arrives, and record the acceptance decision. The VSE's accountability for the system does not move to the supplier when the invoice is paid.

What it means in a VSE

Set a checkpoint at each deliverable, not only at the end. Test what can be tested and read what cannot. Record the acceptance, the conditional acceptance and the rejection with the reason.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, monitor the supplier and accept deliverables has to earn its time. The test for AC-04 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Monitor the supplier and accept deliverables row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for AC-04 is The monitoring record and the checkpoint dates. A named person must produce it on request.

For AC-04, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The acceptance or rejection decision with the evidence. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for monitor the supplier and accept deliverables.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the monitor the supplier and accept deliverables practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For AC-04, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for AC-04 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

Deliverables accepted on the supplier's word
The final payment made before the acceptance test

What changes from the 2019 report. For AC-04, acquisition management is named in the public abstract. The transition work is to put the technical content and the acceptance evidence into the purchase, not only the price.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places monitor the supplier and accept deliverables inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For AC-04, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for AC-04 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the AC-04 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.