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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Copy link

CPC recordkeeping requirements

Federal recordkeeping rules require the certifying party to keep Children’s Product Certificates and the supporting test records for at least five years from the date of issuance, and to provide them promptly when the CPSC or Customs asks. In practice that means one organized file per product: the CPC, the test report, the lab’s accreditation proof, and the product specification it all refers to.
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What counts as a recordOrganization beats volume

What counts as a record

  • The CPC itself, and every version issued for the product.
  • The complete test report from the CPSC-accepted laboratory, including appendices.
  • Proof of the lab’s CPSC acceptance for those rules.
  • Product specifications, material lists, and any supplier declarations the testing relied on.

Organization beats volume

Records scattered across email threads fail exactly when they are needed: during a marketplace audit, a Customs query, or a CPSC information request. The workflow this site supports is deliberately simple: generate the certificate, store it in the vault with its test date, attach or archive the report beside it, and answer any request in minutes. Records you can produce quickly are records that protect you.

Questions people ask

Is five years from issuance or from manufacture?

The recordkeeping rules run from the date the certificate was issued (and related records from their creation). Mark the certificate date clearly: that is the clock.

Can I keep records digitally?

Yes: electronic records are acceptable as long as they are complete, legible, and promptly producible. The vault’s cloud edition keeps the PDF and its data together.

What if my lab closed and I cannot get the report again?

That is why the report itself must be in your archive: the certificate cites a report you must be able to produce. If records are lost, the safe path is re-testing.

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