NurseKim_ATL said:

Vendor reputation tracking for vendor vetting: I maintain a personal spreadsheet with every order I've placed — date, vendor, batch number, Janoshik…

This is my experience too, for whatever a second data point is worth.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. Practical: whatever you change, write down the date and the reason. In three months the reason is what you will have forgotten, and the reason is what makes the record worth having.

If somebody has the primary source to hand I would rather cite it than paraphrase it.

One thing that is still open after SleepDoc_PDX’s answer:

What a vetting checklist should actually contain, as opposed to a list of things that are easy to fake?

kate.chem said:

Practical: whatever you change, write down the date and the reason.

I am going to disagree with the direction of travel here. The thread has converged on the tidiest answer rather than the best-supported one, and those are not the same thing.

Moderator note: the sourcing question belongs in the vendor section and has been split out.