Claims Platform User Manual

As of December 18, 2023, the Claims platform is accessible directly through the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) and replaces Marketplace 2.0 for all trademarks and claims approvals.

Here are the highlights of the Claims platform:

• Access directly through the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP). No additional credentials required. 
• Control the access of your users thanks to the addition of new Claims user roles. 
• Get an overview of all Claims submitted by your organization and, if applicable, on your behalf. 
• Create one request for multiple products.
• Save time and add your brands & products directly in the approval request form. 
• Create and use Claims templates.
• Submit approval requests faster by using the ‘Copy Request’ function to pre-fill automatically forms of similar requests.
• Extend requests more easily.

Please be reminded that to receive approval, your material must meet the rules in our Labeling Policy and Seal Graphic Guidelines.

1. Access

In this section you can find more information on how to access the Claims platform:

• If you are a Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certificate Holder (Farm, Supply Chain Actor, Retailer), go to section 1.1.
• If you are a Forest Allies member, go to section 1.2.
• If you are a Design Agency, go to section 1.3.
• If you are an organization that does not fall under any of the above options and you are either taking ownership of the legal agreement for a group of entities or only submitting trademark requests and are out of scope for certification, go to section 1.4.

1.1. Access for Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certificate Holders

To access your Claims account, log-in to your Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) account here and enter your username and password.

Click on the tab “Claims” in your RACP account.

In the next screen, you can find a button to access your Claims account.

Furthermore, you can delegate an organization to submit approval requests on your behalf (see section 2 for more information).

To add a new user to your Claims account, click on the Dashboard button and follow the steps in the RACP user manual for farm Certificate Holders, or for Supply Chain Actors/Retailers.

Your organization doesn’t have an RACP account yet? Start your certification process by registering for an account with us.

If you are a farm Certificate Holder, find more guidance here.

If you are a Supply Chain Actor or Retailer, find more guidance here.

1.2. Forest Allies members

To access your Claims account, log-in to your Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) account here and enter your username and password.

You will land on your RACP Dashboard. In this section you can:

• access your Claims account by clicking on the button “Go to your Claims account”.

• delegate an organization to submit approval requests on your behalf (see section 2).
• add a new user to your Claims account: click on the button “Organizations” on the top bar and then click on “Users”. On the next screen, click on “Add New User” and complete the form.

Your organization doesn’t have an RACP account yet? Register for your Forest Allies account here.

1.3. Design Agency

To access your Claims account, log-in to your Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) account here and enter your username and password.

On the next screen, you can:

• access your Claims account by clicking on the button “Go to your Claims account”.

• see which organizations have delegated your design agency to submit approval requests on their behalf (see section 2.2 for more guidance).
• add a new user to your Claims account: click on the button “Organizations” on the top bar and then click on “Users”. On the next screen, click on “Add New User” and complete the form.

Your organization doesn’t have an RACP account yet? Register for your Design Agency account here.

1.4. Other organizations

To access your Claims account, log-in to your Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) account here and enter your username and password.

Click on the tab “Claims” in your RACP account. 

In the next screen, you can find a button to access your Claims account.

Furthermore, you can delegate another organization to submit approval requests on your behalf (see section 2 of this user guide for more information).

Your organization doesn’t have an RACP account yet? Register for your account here. For guidance on how to sign a Legal Agreement click here.

2. Delegation

Any organization (e.g., brand owners, retailers) that delegates the submission of approval requests to other organizations (such as private label manufacturers and design agencies) are responsible for setting up delegations in the RACP, before they can start submitting claims on their behalf.

Delegation is set up only once by the delegating organization. See the table below for more information.

In the next sections you can find instructions on how to delegate and receive a delegation from another organization.

2.1. How to Delegate An Organization

To set up a delegation, log-in to the RACP and go to the tab “Claims” (see Section 1 for more guidance on how to log-in).  

In the section “Delegate to Another Organization”, click on the button “Add a delegate”.

In the next screen you can authorize an organization to submit claims requests on your behalf. To do so, click on “Add delegate”.

A pop-up window will open where you can search for the organization (this organization must have an account in the RACP), select the right account, and then click on “Continue”.

The delegated organization will now appear in your list of Delegated organizations.

To edit the delegation details of an organization, click on the button “Delegate organization” under the section “Delegate to Another Organization”, then click on the pencil iconnext to the organization’s name. Here you can adjust the role, set the start date to the present or future, and change the status from active to inactive and vice versa.

To remove a delegated organization from your list, click on the button “Delegate organization” under the section “Delegate to Another Organization”, then click on the bin iconnext to the organization’s name. To confirm the action, click on “Remove”.

2.2. How to Receive a Delegation

To check which organizations have granted permission to your organization to submit approval requests on their behalf, log-in to the RACP and go to the tab “Claims” (see Section 1 for guidance on the access).

In the section “Organizations I can submit claims on behalf of”, click on the button “Organization authorizations”.

The organizations listed here have authorized your organization to request approval of claims on their behalf. You are not able to edit this section.

If you need to receive a delegation, please contact the delegating organization, and request them to follow the steps in section 2.1. Once your organization has been delegated, the administrator of the account will receive an email confirmation.

3. Your Claims Account

To access your Claims account, log-in the RACP (see section 1 for more information), and click on the button “Go to your Claims account”. A new window will open with a navigation panel on the left-hand side.

In the next screenshot you can find more guidance on each button.

Extra tips and guidance

4. Home

In this section you can find the approval requests submitted in your account.

Below you can find an explanation of each button:

5. Brands and Products

In this section you can find the brands and products that have been created in this account by any user. This refers to brands that have a claim related to the Rainforest Alliance and all products sold as Rainforest Alliance Certified, whether or not this product carries the Rainforest Alliance trademarks. You can create new brands and new products as needed.

5.1 Add a new Brand

To add a new brand, go to “Brands and Products” and click on the button “Add” under “Brands”.

A new pop-up window will open. Fill in the fields and then click on “Save”.

5.2. Add a new Product

To add a new product, go to “Brands and Products” and click on the button “Add” under “Products”.

A new pop-up window will open. Fill in the fields and then click on “Save”. You can use the button “Save and New” to start creating a new product right away.

5.3. Export list

The “Export List” button is available both under “Brands” and “Products”. Click on this button to download an Excel file with all the brands / products active in your account at the time of the download.

If you add a filter before downloading the Excel file, only the filtered items will be listed.

5.4 Archive

The “Archive” button is available both under “Brands” and “Products”. This button allows you to archive/deactivate a brand or product that is now obsolete or created by mistake.

Simply click on the line of the brand/product you would like to deactivate, and then press the button Archive.

6. Manufacturers

If the product(s) you are requesting an approval for are manufactured by a different organization outside of your certification scope, in this section you can add the organization(s) responsible for manufacturing your product(s).

6.1. Add manufacturer

To add a manufacturer, go to the tab “Manufacturers” and click on the button “Add Manufacturer”.

A new pop-up window will open. Fill in the fields and then click on “Save”.

6.2. Archive manufacturer

The “Archive” button allows you to remove a manufacturer from your manufacturers list, if you stopped working with this organization, or if this was added by mistake.

7. Claim approval requests

7.1. Create a new request (Rainforest Alliance Certification seal and logo)

To create a new approval request, click on the button “New Request” on the left-hand side menu and fill in the required fields.

Proceed selecting the type of trademark you are using on your material and when ready click on the button “Next” to proceed.

Now that you have created your new approval request, you can continue with adding more information about your product and uploading your artwork.

At the top of your screen, you will see the following buttons:

The “Request Details” section contains an overview of your request. This includes among others your request number/ID, the status of your request (see section 7.6 for more information), the name of the requestor and date when the request is created.

In this screen, you will be asked if this material relates to specific product(s).

For your next steps, navigate to section 7.1.1 if your material relates to a specific product, or section 7.1.2 if your material does not relate to a specific product.

7.1.1. Material relates to a specific product

If your answer to this question is “Yes”, please select a brand from the list (or create a new Brand by clicking on “Add Brand” if it hasn’t been created yet), and indicate if you are the manufacturer of the product.

If you are not the manufacturer of the product, please click “No” and select a manufacturer from the list.

The next step is to indicate the product you are requesting approval for. Click on the button “Add”:

Fill in the required information, upload your file and click on “Save”.
To upload multiple products (SKU’s) in the same request, click on the button “Add” or “Copy Product”. When copying a product, click on the newly added product and then on “Edit” to modify the information and upload your file.

To edit the information in the product(s) you have just added to your request, select the product, and click on the button “Edit”.

To delete a product from your approval request, select the product and click on the button “Delete”.

When ready, click on the “Submit” button on the top right of your screen. The Rainforest Alliance team will review your request.

7.1.2. Material does not relate to a specific product

If your answer to this question is “No”, please select a Brand from the list (or create a new Brand by clicking on “Add Brand” if it hasn’t been created yet) and fill in the required information about your material.

Click on the button “Upload your file(s)”, then click on the “Add file” button to upload your file(s).

When your request is ready for submission, click on the “Submit” button on the top right of your screen. The Rainforest Alliance team will review your request.

7.2. Create a new request (Forest Allies seal)

On the left-hand side menu, click on the “New Request” button to create a new approval request.
Fill in the required fields, select the type of trademark you are using on your material and then click on the “Ok” button to proceed.

Now that you have created a new request, you can add more information about your product and upload your artwork.

At the top of your screen, you will see the following buttons:

The “Request Details” section contains an overview of your request. This includes, among others, your request number/ID, the status of your request (see section 7.6 for more information), the name of the requestor, and date when the request is created.

In this screen, you are asked to indicate the purpose of your material in the dropdown menu.

1. For Advertising and Website material, fill in the required fields and upload your file(s). When ready, click on the “Submit” button on the top right of your screen. The Rainforest Alliance team will review your request.
2. For On-pack Designmaterial, fill in the required fields and indicate the product you are requesting approval for. Click on the “Add” button, fill in the required fields, upload your file(s) and click on “Save”.

To upload multiple products (SKU’s) in the same request, click on the button “Add” or “Copy Product”. When copying a product, click on the newly added product and then on “Edit” to modify the information and upload your file.

To edit the information in the product(s) you have just added to your approval request, select the product, and click on the button “Edit”.

To delete a product from your approval request, select the product and click on the button “Delete”.

When ready, click on the “Submit” button on the top right of your screen. The Rainforest Alliance team will review your request.

7.3. Resubmit your request

If the Rainforest Alliance team requests changes to your approval request, you receive an email notification and are required to review and resubmit your request.
Navigate to “Home” and then “Tasks”. Here you can find the requests where your action is required. Select the request to review and click on “Open task”.

Your approval request will open. The required changes are in the email you have received and can also be found under the button “History”. Implement the required changes and when ready, click on “Save and Resubmit”.

Your request will now move from the section “tasks” into the section “All Requests”.

The Rainforest Alliance team will review your resubmitted request.

7.4. Download your approval letter

When a request is in status approved or approved with exception, you can download your approval letter. This is also possible for requests submitted by other organizations on your behalf.

Navigate to “Home” and then to “All Requests.” Here you can find the approved requests. You can also use advanced filters, by clicking on “Show Advanced Filter”.

To download the approval letter, select the request (in status approved or approved with exception) and click on “Download Approval Letter”.

A pdf file will be downloaded on your computer.

7.5. Expiring approvals

Approvals that will expire in 3 months or have expired in the last 3 months can be extended on the Claims platform. A prerequisite is that there are no further changes to the request (e.g., certified crop percentage, distribution countries, product, brand information, etc.) and the uploaded material.

To extend a request, navigate to “Home” and click on “Expiring Approvals.” Here you can only find requests that are eligible for extension.

Open the request you want to extend and click on the button “Request Extension”.

The platform will automatically approve the request. You will find it under “All Requests” in status Approved.

7.6. Approval request status

Your approval request can have different statuses. In this section you can find out more about each status and what they mean for you.

*Within 3 months after the approval request is expired.

7.7. Copy request & Save as template

To submit your approval requests in a faster way, you can create a copy of an existing request. If you have similar requests in the future, you can also save the request as a template for future submissions.

To copy a request, navigate to “Home”, click on “All Requests”, and open the approval request of your choice, then click on the button “Copy Request”.

A new approval request will be generated, where all fields are pre-populated based on the information entered in the original (copied) request.

Furthermore, to save a request as a template, open the approval request, and click on the button “Save As Template”.

You can save as many templates as you wish, and you will find the overview of all claims templates saved in the organization’s account on the left-hand side panel, under “Claim Templates” (see section 7.8).

7.8. Claim Templates

In this overview you can find all claims approval request templates created by any user in the organization’s account.

Here you can start a new approval request from a template. To do so, navigate to “Claim Templates”, select the template you would like to use, and click on “New request from template”.

A pop-up message will inform you that a new approval request has been created from the template, and you will now be redirected to the new request, to continue with your submission.

To remove a template, click on the button “Archive”. Once a template is on status “Archived”, you won’t be able to create a new approval request from that template.

8. Seal downloads

In this section you can download the Rainforest Alliance trademarks with certified crops in different languages.

Use the filters to find the trademark you want to include in your artwork, then download the file by clicking on the "Download" button.

9. Help/FAQ

This section redirects you to this article in the Rainforest Alliance Knowledge Hub. Here you can find guidance material and FAQs related to the approval requests process, delegations and how to navigate the platform.

10. User settings

In this section you can set up your preferences regarding the email notifications about your approval requests, and you can choose the default language for your Claims account.

10.1. Email updates

By default, as a user you will receive updates about your approval requests via email.

To deactivate all notifications coming from the Claims platform, select “No” in the field “Receive email updates”, and then click on “Save”. You can still access all notifications about your approval requests in the tab “Home”, under “Notifications”.

10.2. Languages

By default, the Claims platform will be set in English. To change this into your preferred default language, select the language in the drop-down menu, and then click on “Save”.

11. Change history