amfori BSCI audit ratings explained: 13 performance areas, A to E, and what each grade means for your order

An amfori BSCI audit gives a factory a grade from A to E, not a pass, a fail or a certificate. The auditor answers 81 questions, 20 of them marked crucial, grouped into 13 performance areas. Each area gets its own grade, and published counting rules turn those 13 grades into one overall rating. That grade sets how long the result counts: two years for an A or B, 12 months for a C, D or E, which also needs a follow-up audit. This guide explains each step from amfori's own documents, checked on 23 September 2026, and what each grade means for an order placed in Bangladesh.

What an amfori BSCI audit is, and what it is not

amfori is a business association based in Brussels. BSCI stands for Business Social Compliance Initiative, launched in 2003. amfori reports more than 2,400 active BSCI members, more than 58,000 BSCI suppliers and more than 40,000 social audits carried out in 2024. The audit checks one production site against the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct.

Three points trip buyers up:

• It is not a certification. amfori says so plainly: there is no pass or fail verdict and no BSCI certificate, only an audit report with a grade, held on the amfori Sustainability Platform.
• It covers one site. The standard manufacturing audit is for one production site with more than 35 workers; smaller sites get a Small Producers Assessment. A grade for one address says nothing about a sister unit or a subcontractor.
• It is a snapshot. amfori itself says an audit shows conditions at one point in time and cannot capture hidden or emerging risks.

For how BSCI compares with WRAP, SMETA and SA8000, see our comparison of social audits. This guide covers BSCI grading only.

How the audit is built: 81 questions in 13 performance areas

The auditor gathers evidence from a site tour, a document review and private worker interviews, then answers each of the 81 questions Yes, Partial, No or Not applicable. Not applicable counts the same as Yes. Twenty questions are crucial: amfori says they represent the most significant risk of harm to workers, and they weigh more in an area's grade than the other 61. Some guides still count 11 performance areas; amfori's current documents list 13.

Two things follow from the table. Health and safety holds 25 of the 81 questions, and four of its five crucial questions are about fire-fighting equipment, clear escape routes, first aid and drinking water. And three of the four working-hours questions are crucial, so an overtime problem moves PA 6 quickly. The formula that turns answers into an area grade is not published: amfori keeps it private so that nobody can aim for a grade by fixing only the questions with the most weight.

How 13 area grades become one overall rating

The overall grade is not an average, and it is not simply the worst area. amfori's rating overview, dated December 2023, sets out counting rules. Read them from the top: the site receives the first grade whose condition it meets. amfori describes A as very good and E as unacceptable.

Worked through, the rules give results that surprise people:

• Twelve areas at A or B and one area at D: the site is C, not D. One weak area does not pull the whole grade down to its own level.
• Seven areas at A and six at B: A. Six at A and seven at B: B, because an A needs at least seven areas at A.
• Four areas at C and the rest at A or B: C, because a B allows only three areas at C.
• Three areas at D and none at E: D.
• A single area at E, however good the rest: D. One E rules out A, B and C.

So the letter alone tells you little. A C made of four middling areas and a C made of two D areas in pay and working hours are very different risks, so always ask which areas scored low. The 2022 edition of amfori's System Manual also describes grades as percentage bands (A from 86%, B from 71%, C from 51%, D from 30%); the grade printed on the report is the one that counts.

How long each grade lasts, and when the follow-up is due

An amfori BSCI audit cycle lasts two years and starts with a full audit. What happens next depends on the grade.

Three details matter when you plan an order:

• The follow-up is narrow. The auditor does not ask all 81 questions again. They re-check only the areas with findings, plus a minimum check of pay, working hours and health and safety (PAs 5, 6 and 7).
• It cannot be rushed. amfori's System Manual says it should come at least two months after the full audit, because fixes to wages and hours need new payroll and time records as proof.
• Only one follow-up is required. The member responsible for the site must arrange one follow-up in the cycle; any further visit is left to its judgement of risk.

So "valid for two years" is true only for A and B, and nothing lasts three years. Where amfori's documents word the timing differently, go by the validity date shown on the platform.

What a C, D or E means for your order

amfori does not tell members to stop buying at any grade: its System Manual calls disengagement a last resort, after other solutions have been tried. The threshold that matters is the one in your own sourcing policy or your retail customer's supplier manual.

A separate track sits outside the grade. When an auditor finds child labour at the site, an imminent risk to workers' health or lives, or flagrant misrepresentation such as falsified records, amfori's Zero Tolerance protocol requires an immediate alert through the platform; the manual adds that prison labour will be a zero-tolerance issue in most countries. Treat a zero-tolerance case as a reason to stop and investigate, whatever the letter says (see our guide to forced labour rules for importers). An audit the factory blocked or cut short is recorded as "access denied" or "partially conducted" with no final rating: a missing grade is a finding in itself.

Claims about BSCI that are wrong or out of date

Several points still repeated on sourcing sites do not match amfori's current documents:

SA8000 no longer stands in for BSCI (since February 2026)

Until early 2026, amfori gave system recognition to three other schemes: SA8000 (Social Accountability International), Equalitas and GlobalGAP. It ended that recognition from 3 February 2026, with a grace period to 13 February 2026. amfori's reasons: benchmarking other schemes is heavy, recurring work, and uploaded PDF certificates can be forged, contain errors or be out of date. Certificates uploaded before 13 February 2026 stay on the platform unchanged, and suppliers can still attach certificates to their Social Risk Assessment, for risk evaluation only.

amfori says it stays neutral between schemes, so this is not a verdict on SA8000. It means the amfori system no longer counts an SA8000 certificate for you: accepting one instead of BSCI is now your own policy decision, and if your customer requires a BSCI grade, an SA8000 certificate alone will not meet it.

How to check a factory's BSCI audit

The full report reaches the amfori Sustainability Platform within 10 business days of the audit. The supplier, the member who requested the audit and every amfori member linked to that supplier can read it there. It cannot be downloaded or shared outside the platform. What the factory can give you is a PDF extract, valid only as an acknowledgement of the results, which still shows the audit date, the monitoring ID, the announcement type, the auditor's general description, worker numbers, wage information and the findings.

If your company is an amfori member, link the supplier on the platform and read the full report. If it is not, check the extract against these points:

1. The site name and address match the factory named for your order, not a sister unit.
2. The audit date and grade give a result that is still valid on your shipment date, using the table above.
3. The announcement type is semi-announced or fully unannounced. In a semi-announced audit the factory knows only a window of at least four weeks, which starts at least two weeks after the request, not the day.
4. The auditing company is one of amfori's approved monitoring partners; amfori works with 13.
5. The findings show which areas scored lowest, and a follow-up has been held or booked where the grade was C, D or E.

amfori does not set who pays for an audit or what it costs. For WRAP, OEKO-TEX or GOTS documents, see how to verify a factory certificate and our certifications guide.

BSCI audits in Bangladesh garment factories

Several questions test the site against national law as well as the Code, so in Bangladesh the Labour Act 2006 sets the legal baseline for hours and rest. As published on the government's laws database on 23 September 2026:

• Section 100: an adult worker ordinarily works no more than 8 hours a day, and up to 10 hours with overtime.
• Section 102: no more than 48 ordinary hours a week; with overtime, no more than 60 hours in any week and an average of no more than 56 a week over a year.
• Section 103: one day off every week for factory workers.

These line up with the crucial questions in PA 6: overtime within the Code's limits, rest breaks every working day and at least one day off in seven. In PA 5 the crucial questions are paying at least the legal minimum wage and making only lawful deductions; for the current garment minimum wage, see our guide to garment worker wages in Bangladesh. For the separate building and fire safety inspections in Bangladeshi factories, see what changed after Rana Plaza. The Act is amended from time to time, so confirm the current text with a Bangladeshi lawyer.

amfori asks for the audit window to fall in normal operations or peak season, and audit length rises with the workforce. The System Manual sets these minimums for a full audit, including half a day for writing the report, with 20% more time allowed where an interpreter is used:

Check the worker count in the report too. The manual tells auditors that a headcount far from the one given when the audit was booked may be misrepresentation, and a count far from what you see on a factory visit deserves a question.

What to do next

If your customer or your own policy requires amfori BSCI, say so in your enquiry, with the lowest grade you accept. CMB Sourcing Ltd. is a buying house in Narayanganj, Dhaka. We do not own sewing lines; orders are made in audited partner factories. Before production we name the factory making your order in writing, with its address, certificates and audit reports, so you can check the grade, the date, the site and any open findings yourself. Our compliance and factory audits page explains how orders are matched to factories holding the audits your buyers require; see also our pages for EU brands and German brands. Our own orders start at 500 pieces per style and colour. When you are ready, send a quote request; a founder replies within one working day.