Supplier due diligence · Calculator
How long does supplier due diligence take? Time and cost calculator (2026)
A thorough manual check of one UK supplier takes around 3 hours. We measured it, and the time varies from company to company. With Senserity the same check takes about 15 minutes of your time.
A business checking 50 suppliers a year saves around 138 hours, about 18 working days. At £25 an hour that is worth £3,440, or £2,300 a year after paying for the Insight plan that covers them.
Last reviewed
Work out your own figures
Enter how many suppliers you check in a year and what an hour of staff time costs you. The manual check uses our measured times for each step, which you can change to match your own.
Time saved a year
138 hours
About 18 working days
- By hand
- 150 hours
- With Senserity (15 minutes a supplier)
- 12½ hours
- Value of the time saved
- £3,440
- Insight plan, up to 60 companies (ex VAT)
- £1,140 a year
Net saving a year, after paying for Senserity
£2,300
Where the time goes in a manual check
These are the steps in a thorough check of one UK company using the free public registers and a commercial credit report, with the average time each took when we measured them. A small company with a tidy filing record is quicker; one with several layers of ownership, a long history or a common name is slower.
| Step | Average time | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Companies House records and accounts | Average time30 minutes | What it coversStatus, filing history, directors, owners and the latest accounts |
| Credit check | Average time10 minutes | What it coversA commercial credit report: score, suggested limit and county court judgments |
| Sanctions and disqualified directors | Average time15 minutes | What it coversThe company, its directors and its owners against the UK Sanctions List and the disqualified directors register |
| The Gazette and insolvency notices | Average time10 minutes | What it coversWinding-up petitions, insolvency proceedings and strike-off notices |
| Court records | Average time15 minutes | What it coversJudgments and legal proceedings involving the company |
| HSE and Environment Agency enforcement | Average time15 minutes | What it coversEnforcement notices and prosecutions on the regulators' public registers |
| ICO, FCA and Modern Slavery registers | Average time15 minutes | What it coversData protection registration, FCA authorisation where needed, and a current Modern Slavery statement |
| Accreditations and cyber security | Average time20 minutes | What it coversISO, SSIP and Cyber Essentials certificates, and the security of the website and email |
| News search | Average time20 minutes | What it coversAdverse media about the company and the people who run it |
| Writing it up | Average time30 minutes | What it coversA dated record of what was checked, what was found and what was decided |
| Total | Average time180 minutes (about 3 hours) |
With Senserity, the same supplier takes about 15 minutes: add it to your watchlist, read the grade and the evidence, save the report, and review any alerts during the year. The supplier due diligence checklist sets out what each check looks for and where to find it.
Worked examples
One full check per supplier a year, staff time at £25 an hour and a 7.5-hour working day. The plan is the cheapest one whose watchlist holds every supplier. Prices exclude VAT.
| Suppliers a year | By hand | With Senserity | Time saved | Value of time saved | Plan, per year | Net saving a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | By hand75 hours | With Senserity6¼ hours | Time saved69 hours (9 days) | Value of time saved£1,720 | Plan, per yearGrowth, £540 | Net saving a year£1,180 |
| 50 | By hand150 hours | With Senserity12½ hours | Time saved138 hours (18 days) | Value of time saved£3,440 | Plan, per yearInsight, £1,140 | Net saving a year£2,300 |
| 100 | By hand300 hours | With Senserity25 hours | Time saved275 hours (37 days) | Value of time saved£6,880 | Plan, per yearProfessional, £1,980 | Net saving a year£4,900 |
Time is not the whole story
In practice, few small firms spend 3 hours on each supplier. They skip the checks they do not have time for, and that is where the risk sits. Senserity runs those checks anyway, so for many businesses the bigger gain is coverage rather than time.
The manual estimate also leaves out tracing a supplier's directors and owners through their other companies, looking for links to failed or sanctioned businesses. Senserity does this from its network graph; by hand it is rarely practical.
And a manual check is out of date the day after it is done. Senserity re-checks monitored suppliers automatically and alerts you when something changes, such as a winding-up petition, an overdue filing or a new director.
How we worked it out
- We timed thorough manual checks of real UK companies, step by step. The times above are the averages. They vary by company, so treat them as a typical case and change the steps in the calculator to match your own experience.
- With Senserity, 15 minutes per supplier a year covers adding it, reading the grade and evidence, saving the report and reviewing alerts. Automated re-checks need no staff time.
- By hand, every re-check is a full check again. Set the number of full checks per supplier a year to match how often you would re-check.
- A working day is 7.5 hours. Staff cost per hour should include on-costs such as employer's National Insurance and pension.
- The plan is the cheapest whose watchlist holds every supplier at once. Prices are those on the pricing page, billed monthly, shown here as a yearly total and excluding VAT. Saving PDF reports uses action credits, which come with every plan.
- Not counted: buying credit reports for manual checks, which would add to the saving, and dealing with what a check finds, which takes the same time however the check is done.
- Hours are rounded to the nearest quarter below 20 and to the nearest hour above. Money is rounded to the nearest £10.
The Lighthouse Keeper
Suppliers sail in looking shipshape. Below the waterline, they are not.
Watch with transcriptQuestions
How long does it take to check a supplier by hand?
About 3 hours for a thorough check of one UK company, on our measurements. It varies from company to company: a small company with a tidy filing record is quicker, and one with several layers of ownership or a long history is slower. The longest steps are the Companies House records and accounts (30 minutes) and writing up the result (30 minutes).
How long does a check take with Senserity?
About 15 minutes of your time per supplier: adding it to your watchlist, reading the grade and the evidence, saving the report, and reviewing any alerts during the year. The automated checks themselves run in a few minutes once the company is added, and later re-checks need no staff time.
Does Senserity pay for itself?
On staff time alone, from about 5 suppliers a year at £25 an hour with one full check each. Below that, the plan costs more than the time it saves, and the case rests on the checks that get skipped when they are done by hand and on monitoring between reviews.
Which plan does the calculator assume?
The cheapest plan whose watchlist holds all of your suppliers at once: Starter for up to 12, Growth for up to 25, Insight for up to 60, Professional for up to 125 and Enterprise for up to 600 companies. Prices are those on the pricing page, billed monthly and excluding VAT.
What does the calculator leave out?
The cost of buying credit reports for manual checks, which would add to the saving, and the time spent dealing with what a check finds, which is the same however the check is done.
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