A customer has told you to register with Achilles and complete a prequalification. Before registering, establish which community they belong to, what subscription level they expect, and whether the services you supply fall into a tier that requires an audit.
| First question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What is Achilles? | A network of sector-specific supplier prequalification communities. One profile is visible to every buyer in the community. |
| Is it a sustainability score? | No. It checks that you are a legitimate, capable, compliant supplier; ESG is one dimension among several. |
| What does it cost? | An annual subscription, renewing yearly, varying by community and supplier. Get the figure from Achilles. |
| Is there an audit? | For higher-risk services, a Verify audit against your documents and practice. |
| What decides who sees me? | The service codes you register under. |
Platform details and links checked 14 July 2026.
What Achilles is
Achilles operates buyer-supplier networks for procurement-heavy sectors: utilities, energy, oil and gas, construction, rail, mining, and similar. Each network is a community — a group of large buyers in one sector or region who have agreed a shared prequalification standard. Buyers require their suppliers to register, and a completed profile is visible to every buyer in that community.
Prequalify once, be visible to every buyer in the network. Instead of a separate PQQ for each customer, you maintain one Achilles profile. It is a prequalification and risk-management network rather than a sustainability score such as EcoVadis: Achilles checks that you are a legitimate, capable, compliant supplier across several dimensions, of which ESG is one.
The best-known community is UVDB, for the UK utilities sector. More than 30 utilities buyers use it, including National Grid, Thames Water, and SSE, so one UVDB registration reaches most major UK utilities procurement teams. Other communities cover other sectors and regions. Your buyer's invitation names the one that applies.
How the process works
- Join the community named in the invitation. You register for that specific community, not for Achilles in general.
- Pay the annual subscription. Membership is a recurring cost. Levels vary by community and supplier; get the current figure from Achilles.
- Complete the prequalification questionnaire. You register under service codes — standardized categories for the products and services you offer. Buyers search by those codes. Too narrow and you are invisible for work you could do; too broad and you face requirements that do not apply.
- Undergo a Verify audit if required. For higher-risk services the questionnaire alone is not enough. Achilles may require a Verify audit covering corporate social responsibility, safety, health, environment, and quality, against your actual documents and practice.
Requirements differ between communities: questionnaire depth, whether an audit applies, and the subscription level. The buyer's invitation names the community and the level expected. Treat that as the specification.
What the questionnaire asks for
Content depends on the community. Typically:
- Company information — legal entity, structure, ownership, financial basics
- Health, safety and environment — policies, safety statistics, incident history, environmental management; heavily weighted in utilities, energy, and construction
- Insurance — current certificates: employer's, public, and professional liability as relevant
- Quality and certifications — ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, sector accreditations
- ESG — environmental policy, carbon and energy data, labor and human rights policies, ethics and anti-bribery, supplier code of conduct
- Financial standing — accounts or credit information
- Compliance and legal — modern slavery statements, data protection, sanctions and anti-corruption where required
Higher-risk suppliers can be moved into the Verify audit tier. Answer as though everything will be checked against evidence. If safety statistics or policies would not survive an auditor reading them next to your documents, fix the documents first.
The subscription
Achilles is a paid, annually renewing membership. You pay to join and pay each year to keep the profile live. Levels vary by community, by what you supply, and by the tier the buyer requires.
Think of it as the price of qualifying for a whole sector's buyers, not one customer. Weigh the annual fee against the pipeline the community represents. For one marginal customer, ask how firm the requirement is before paying. For your core market, it is a cost of doing business.
Preparing
Assemble the evidence pack before filling in fields:
- Insurance certificates — current, at the required limits
- HSE records — safety policy, incident statistics, method statements or risk assessments, training logs
- Certificates — ISO and sector accreditations, in date
- Policies — environmental, health and safety, supplier code of conduct, anti-bribery, modern slavery, data protection
- Financial documents — recent accounts, or the details for a credit check
- ESG data — basic energy and emissions figures and any environmental targets
Settle the service codes first. List what you deliver in the buyer's language and map it to the codes on offer. This determines which buyers see the profile.
With the evidence pack ready, the questionnaire is data entry rather than a multi-week search. If the ESG figures are uncertain, the carbon calculator produces a defensible baseline.
Keeping the profile live
Prequalification is not one-off. Expired insurance, lapsed certificates, or out-of-date safety statistics can drop qualification status and buyer visibility, and the subscription renews regardless. Set reminders to refresh documents before expiry; update ESG data annually.
Most of what Achilles asks for overlaps with other buyers and platforms. A response system lets the same policies, certificates, and data serve Achilles, Avetta, EcoVadis, and direct questionnaires from one source. If your customer runs a different network, the Avetta supplier compliance guide covers that model.
What not to do
- Do not register for the wrong community or codes. Confirm both from the invitation.
- Do not let documents lapse. An expired certificate can silently drop your status.
- Do not invent HSE statistics. Safety data is what a Verify audit examines.
- Do not submit a thin ESG section. A basic policy and a real emissions figure beat blanks.
- Do not treat the subscription as the whole cost. Budget the time to keep the profile current.
The bottom line
Achilles is a network of sector prequalification communities. Join the one your buyer names, pay the subscription, register under the right service codes, and complete one structured questionnaire covering company, HSE, insurance, certificates, financials, and ESG. The profile qualifies you with every buyer in the community; higher-risk services may add a Verify audit. Assemble the evidence first, answer as if it will be verified, keep the profile current.