Frequently asked questions

1. Check to see if it is already listed

   - Use the free bulk inventory status summary so you can see which of your chemicals might already be listed. This can be done even before you register - all you need is a list of CAS numbers.

   - If listed you can introduce it immediately, subject to any listing conditions or obligations

2. If not listed, categorise your chemical according to AICIS Guidelines.

   And if using Chemintro:

   - Obtain a login, if you don't already have one, by registering your company with Chemintro

   - Optionally bulk-import chemicals and products, or enter them one at a time

   - Enter necessary chemical and product information including annual volumes and ingredient proportions

   - Chemintro will auto-categorise as Exempted, Reported or Assessed (AICIS link) after you select the Introduction Report.

   If visiting that AICIS link, note that Chemintro applies every step of AICIS guidance including all the exceptions like Reported < 10Kg, soaps and cosmetics, flavour blends, R&D and chemicals subject to international treaties, etc.

3. If you decide to introduce it, register your company with AICIS

   - Obtain your permanent AICIS Business ID (NIC... number)

4. Produce the Chemintro Introduction Report for your chemical

   - Use this to guide your pre-introduction report (PIR) or post-introduction declaration (PID) on the AICIS portal and introduce your Reported or Exempted chemical

   - Use the Chemintro IUCLID6 style checklists and dossier management for Assessed category. That dossier informs the AICIS assessment.

5. Be ready to answer AICIS questions if/when they ask

   - Chemintro computes which questions will/may be asked so you can confidently prepare for them.

   - If you don't have easy access to supplier information, Chemintro produces a Memorandum of Understanding to dovetail with AICIS's recent (2024) relaxation of their approach to trade secrets. See the compliance page.

The codes in the first two links represent the current version of the legislation. If you visit these three government links, use your 'back button' to return. Otherwise, right-click and open them in a new browser tab or window.

• Industrial Chemicals Act 2019 (C2024C00495)
• Industrial Chemicals (General) Rules 2019 (F2024C00679) and
• Industrial Chemicals Categorisation Guidelines (AICIS website latest)

If you are a chemistry expert, the answer is a resounding 'Yes' because Chemintro saves you so much valuable time and provides the ideal information management system for AICIS compliance.

If you are not a chemistry expert, the answer is probably still 'Yes' because Chemintro doesn't make mistakes. If you have the necessary information you can do your own introductions. The only caveat is having the right information. If you reach a point where you are not sure, you should ask or hire/employ an expert.

The key to introducing any single chemical is knowing the annual quantity AND how it is being used.

But that chemical may be in many products at different concentrations and have many uses. Chemintro is designed for such real world complexity.

In real life there is only one product per SKU and only one chemical per CAS number (or similar identifier). In Chemintro therefore nothing is duplicated. Multiple product volumes, concentrations and uses are translated into a single chemical volume and accurate risk calculations. Data are entered or acquired once and used everywhere they are required. Change anything and it ripples through. This is a hallmark of any well designed tool in the information system arena.

Then Chemintro applies the law, regulations and AICIS Guidelines to correctly categorise each chemical. Unless already Listed of course - in which case it simply creates a Listing note and Useful link to its AICIS reporting obligations. If there are special Listing requirements the Listing note may require an acknowledgement.

But then, Listing conditions might change. So Chemintro will notify you by email if any of your Listed chemicals are re-touched by AICIS. Chemintro covers all the AICIS compliance bases.

In short, if you are introducing chemicals, Chemintro is exactly right for the job!

There are of course many more questions. Feel free to ask anything.

Start on the home page. Hover your mouse over buttons for more information. Click links in the page footer. Some are repeated in the top-left triple-bar menu.

This part of the site does not require 'breadcrumbs' because most pages are only one level down from the home page and are reachable from the home page.

Clicking CHEMINTRO in the header always gets you back to the home page. Clicking CHEMINTRO in the footer always gets you to the top of the current page.

After login (top right) in the data entry part of the site, there is always a Main menu and 'breadcrumbs' navigation near the top of each page.

Look for the Chemical menu (Author role required) and click the Industrial chemicals + Add button.

The chemical screen is a single page for all your data entry where (SHOW) and (HIDE) links keep things neat.

Introduction category in the Chemical page can be computed when sufficient data, including product volumes, have been entered.

What you can see and do at the 'Main menu' depends on your assigned roles. Check them in your user profile or hover your mouse over the 'Main menu' or 'Logout' links (top right).

To get back to the website home page or this FAQ page from data entry, click the 'Website home' or 'FAQ' link visible at the top and bottom of every data entry page.

• Information management for all your AICIS compliance needs
• Securely stores and protects all your information against unauthorised access
• Gives your Admin user complete control over who sees what
• 'Ask AI' data retrieval function
• Auto-processes a list of CAS numbers to provide bulk AICIS inventory status
• Searches the AICIS inventory to see if a chemical is Listed and if so ...
• Creates an inventory listing status note for that chemical
• Tracks changes to AICIS listing terms and keeps that note current
• Provides auto-notification of changes so you don't miss them
• and if not ...
• Provides a useful link to search for an existing AICIS assessment or evaluation
• Categorises it as Exempted, Reported, Reported 10kg or Assessed
• Provides a bulk data entry facility for products and their ingredient chemicals
• Produces a chemical data report to show entered, auto-collected and generated data
• Produces an introduction report so you can make the AICIS declaration correctly
• Produces an annual summary so you can correctly make your AICIS annual declaration
• Saves an online information snapshot to reflect each year's annual declaration
• Produces a chemical-specific list of studies/tests which may be requested by AICIS
• Produces a Memorandum of Understanding for a supplier to satisfy the new (2024) AICIS rules
• Produces an automatic Chemical information holder: Basis of expectation template for your statement required for the new (2024) Rules
• Useful links for each chemical for online research and document management
• Checks your chemical against local and international reference tables - including for cosmetic ingredients
• Handles chemical blends as well as individual chemical ingredients
• Products can be branded for more detailed enterprise information analysis
• Generates workflow management notes under IUCLID6 headings for AICIS assessments including links to assembled documentation
• Provides a "what if" capability for product volumes and ingredients to help with business decisions

No. The Act requires that you make a declaration. Software should never declare anything on your behalf.

On the other hand, a good information management system should always deliver information in the format required and that is what Chemintro does for all your AICIS declaration needs including annual declarations.

If Chemintro categorises your chemical as Assessed, and you decide to introduce it, you then apply to AICIS for an assessment certificate. You need a dossier with your application to detail your risk assessment findings.

That dossier will need a specific layout of sections taken from AICIS's partial adoption of IUCLID6 section headings. Some will be mandatory while others are of interest to AICIS only if the information is available.

Chemintro constructs the dossier layout depending on the precise categorisation. It uses mandatory and "if available" headings to build two workflow management checklists to help keep research on track.

AICIS may request clarification or more information before issuing an Assessment certificate and after which you may introduce the chemical accordingly.

The AICIS fee for assessment varies depending on the health and/or environment focus. See our free AICIS fee calculator.

As it happens, you may choose to have your Exempted or Reported categorisations assessed by AICIS for your own reasons and the calculator shows those fees as well.

In 2022, AICIS changed the Rules to allow introductions up to 10kg per year with some non-negotiable hurdles but more relaxed rigour around proving the categorisation.

You still need to declare what you know in a pre-introduction report. But AICIS will not insist on studies and test reports - unless your declaration worries them

Chemintro will categorise your chemical as Reported <= 10 kg - Low risk if you wish. It will also create a note for you detailing any hurdles not cleared and - if so - will re-categorise into the correct category.

No ... but it helps. Chemintro uses it to collect information from the internet on the first save. Having the CAS number means essential knowledge about the chemical is obtainable by AICIS.

Also, not knowing the CAS number when it exists means you need a reasonable belief that the person who does know will provide it if requested by AICIS.

If a CAS number does not exist for your chemical, you need to know enough about its properties to allow the Chemintro software to categorise it from scratch.

AICIS cares about declared end-uses and maximum concentrations of introduced chemicals in actual products to really understand the risk. Chemintro therefore needs that same product information to categorise the chemical.

Chemintro accurately keeps track of all your chemicals in all your products at all the different concentrations and accurately calculates total introduction volume for each chemical ingredient and considering product end-uses, computes AICIS categorisation for each chemical.

This functionality provides a bonus "what if" ability for chemical categorisations around volume tipping points.

Chemintro can categorise equally accurately based on a single pseudo-product per chemical with declared volume, product end-use and maximum concentration. Please note that pseudo-products are not permitted if chemical identity is opaque.

Yes, but ... for data entry efficiency, chemicals first or products first depends on commonality of ingredient chemicals in your product portfolio. If in doubt, chemicals first - or get in touch to discuss!

AICIS guidance is absolutely clear. They are only interested in individual chemicals being introduced in a blend. The only concession they offer is that you can submit a single Pre-Introduction Report for a Flavour or Fragrance blend provided all chemicals in it meet the criteria. See blends

If you have many products with the same subset of chemical ingredients. Assemble them as a blend and (for efficiency) add that to each product. Hey presto!

The new (2024) rules have simplified salts and esters somewhat.

If your chemical is a salt or ester, AICIS have published short lists of chemicals for various health and environment hazards and require that you confirm your chemical is not a salt or ester of the chemicals in those lists.

If it is, the hazard is established as belonging to your chemical.

Previously, there were no such lists and salt/ester 'parents' had to be identified and have their hazards added to your chemical's hazards.

In line with the new rule, the software now detects whether your chemical is a salt or ester from its name and creates a note listing those AICIS nominated chemicals for you to more easily take responsibility for that confirmation or otherwise.

The Chemintro roadmap includes algorithmically determining if your chemical is a salt or ester from the SMILES and/or Standard InChI to more precisely create that note. See also Chemintro Ticket #100

It is often difficult to obtain information from suppliers and it would be nice occasionally to ask someone a question. Chemintro has deployed AI and for many chemical property fields you can "Ask AI".

Enabled fields have a drop-down selector with an option "Ask AI". For AI enabled numeric fields, enter -9 instead.

With "Ask AI" set in one or more fields, click . Each AI response will appear in a note with the same title as the field label.

AI interactions have a cost but Chemintro is declaring "Ask AI" to be a 'beta-test' feature until at least September 2026 and will not charge anything. Positive and negative feedback is critical for improvement so please don't hesitate to contact us.

Inventory status delivers the listing summary for each CAS number in a list of numbers you provide. That list can be pasted in or uploaded as a text file.

This service is provided as a public service. No login required

See also Inventory monitoring

Bulk import lets you import multiple CAS numbers and multiple products simultaneously. You can paste CAS numbers or upload a text file.

Product Linking: Optionally link all imported chemicals to one or more products and/or blends by providing product names and/or IDs. This creates the ingredient relationships automatically.

Efficiency: Chemicals and products are never duplicated - if a CAS number or SKU already exists, it's reused. This keeps your data coherent when the same chemical appears in multiple products.

What's Included: Basic chemical and product records are created. You'll still need to add product volumes and chemical proportions manually.

This is part of the subscription service for all Chemintro users.

If you switch it on, Chemintro will send you an email notification when the inventory status of your chemicals gets changed by AICIS.

Switch on monitoring by entering your regulatory team's email address in the Division or Company record in Chemintro.

Individual email notifications prompt you to visit the affected chemicals to acknowledge the changed AICIS Listing note.

Notification will be repeated every 13 weeks (default) if not acknowleged. That can be shortened to as little as a week. For testing purposes, we leave a 'canary' note unacknowledged and receive a weekly notification.

Bulk import of all your CAS numbers is the fastest way to get started with inventory monitoring.

Chemintro generates multiple report types:

• Chemical Data Report (all entered, generated and collected data)
• Introduction Report (categorisation and AICIS declaration guidance)
• Memorandum of Understanding (template for a supplier)
• Annual Summary Reports (for annual declarations)

See also the Useful link creator and Checklist creator section nearer the top of the chemical page. It has a Link creator selector which can make useful links to various public databases around the web for your chemical.

The software knows how to transfer responsibility to you! This happens automatically when an important note needs to be acknowledged. Such a note gets "Not yet acknowledged" appended when created. The software immediately detects that on saving and raises an error to bring it to your attention.

Any error forces you to deal with it before proceeding. If you alter "Not yet acknowledged" (NYA) you defeat the error and thereby acknowledge that you have seen the information.

That's not all ...

There is an opt-in email reminder system triggered by NYA noted chemicals. Typically this is used for notification that terms of an AICIS listing have changed.

But it can be used for other reasons. You can include your own notes in that system by appending "not yet acknowledged" to a note. Notice the lower-case. That bypasses the error on the next save and gets changed to "Not yet acknowledged" which re-enables it for the following save.

This lower-case trick lets you save without acknowledging. While this apparently defeats responsibility transfer, we are all adults here! You obviously want to keep NYA alive - maybe for ongoing notifications?

Document management in Chemintro assumes completed documents are accessible via URL

1. In the Checklist creator field, select 'Generate a Note for every item in the Required checklist'
2. Acquire the document specified in a generated Note and upload to your private storage
3. Put the URL in the Note, change the Link field from 'No' to 'Yes' and

   The Note will be converted into a Useful link. If a URL is detected in the note, it will become the Link URL.

Notes represent documentation yet to be acquired and Useful links point to completed items.

While this can always be done manually, if a chemical is categorised as 'Assessed', the process commences automatically and Chemintro creates two chemical checklist Notes

• AICIS 'Required' items
• AICIS 'If available' items

These particular AICIS notes are used to trigger generation of a separate note for each item. Thus we get a number of notes representing documents to be prepared or acquired for the dossier and eventually converted to Useful links when completed.

The triggers to generate those IUCLID6 checklists and convert them into notes are found in the drop-down selector of the Checklist creator field on the Chemical data entry page.

NB: Any Note can be converted to a Useful link in this way, making it an ideal mechanism for any workflow management.

AICIS guidance includes a page of links to acceptable in-silico applications for QSAR/read-across chemical characteristics for both health and environment ...

https://www.industrialchemicals.gov.au/guide-categorising-your-chemical-importation-and-manufacture/appendix-silico-predictions-categorisation

For test guidelines, Chemintro has an OECD role which reveals (in the main menu) all the OECD tests which AICIS finds acceptable. Ask your Admin to give you that role.

Yes.

Here are the instructions for making brands work in Chemintro.

Best practice is to create a separate company for each client.

It is necessary for you to create your own company in Chemintro as well to become a "base" for managing your own clients. This does not compromise security.

Chemintro handles both individual chemicals and chemical blends.

You can create products with links to multiple ingredient chemicals. Each link carries the ingredient proportion of that chemical

Blends are links between the blend chemical and other chemicals. Each link carries the proportion of the chemical in the blend.

If a blend is linked to a product at a particular proportion, each component of the blend is linked to the product with the pro-rata proportion it has in the blend. If the product already has one or more of the blend chemicals as ingredient(s), then product proportions will be automatically adjusted so that categorision volumes remain accurate

If a blend has its own CAS number and/or chemical properties, it can be categorised and introduced as a separate item. Otherwise, AICIS is only interested in the blend use and blend components.

When adding a new user please observe the following security rules:

1. Add the new user with their correct email address. See 5 below
2. Protect the account with any strong temporary password - no need to write it down or remember it. See 4 below
3. Assign only the roles required for the new user to perform their work
4. Pass on the website URL (https://chemintro.com) to the new user BUT NOT the password
5. Ask the user to click 'Forgotten password' at login to get a password reset token via email

and

• Always disable the user login when someone leaves or takes holidays

Only if you leave your machine unattended in an insecure environment. Best practice is to lock your screen or log out manually when appropriate. Your in-house policies will define responsibilities here.

Chemintro securely stores and protects all information against unauthorised access. Admin users have complete control over who sees what data. The system includes role-based access control, secure authentication, and data encryption to maintain confidentiality of sensitive chemical and business information.

Yes ... name the day and time and we can launch the Time Machine with your data loaded.

Also. Annual summaries have archived copies of Introductions for each year. These are archived on the Date submitted which is documented in each annual summary report.

View/edit chemicals and products
and produce key reports

View Introduction reports and
Annual Summary reports

View OECD test guidelines and other
reference data.

Edit own User profile, change own
password and view own company