Audit Methodology
- The stages of the audit process
- Deadlines to be observed
- Documents required in the audit process
- Administrative conditions for carrying out the audit
- Audit packages
- Verification of compliance with the audit standards
The audit is carried out continuously, over calendar periods of 3 months corresponding to each calendar quarter, and has the following stages:
- registering the media product for audit by completing and submitting the audit application
- submitting the information on the printing of the publications required for carrying out the on-site control of the gross print run
- completing the circulation declaration and submitting it to BRAT, together with the documents required for verifying the circulation figures.
- verification by BRAT of the circulation declaration in accordance with the provisions of the rules of the Departmental Group;
- publication of the circulation figures on the BRAT website in accordance with the provisions of the rules of the Departmental Group;
a. Registering publications for audit.
In order to register a publication for audit, the publisher must be a member of BRAT and of the Circulation Audit Departmental Group (GDAT). Membership of the association and of the department is obtained by submitting the membership application form and paying the fee for the current year. The publisher may register any of the publications it publishes at any time, but no later than 6 months after obtaining GDAT membership.
Publishers are required to have all the publications they publish audited, with the exception of:
- publications with an average gross print run per issue below the threshold of 2,500 copies, in the case of national publications
- publications with an average gross print run per issue below the threshold of 1,000 copies, in the case of local and regional publications
- publications with fewer than 6 issues per year
- supplements and derivative products of a main publication
- publications whose purpose is not to generate revenue from the sale of advertising space (this requires the approval of the GDAT Technical Committee)
GDAT publisher members must have at least one of the publications they publish audited.
In order to register a publication for audit, the publisher must submit the audit application to BRAT within a maximum of 6 months from obtaining DAT membership.
b. Submitting the information on the printing of the publications required for carrying out the on-site control of the gross print run, in accordance with the provisions of the GDAT rules.
The required information on the printing of the publications is an integral part of the audit application. The information must be submitted together with the registration of the publication for audit, and subsequently on a quarterly basis together with the circulation declaration, or whenever changes occur in the printing process.
c. completing the circulation declaration and submitting it to BRAT, together with the documents required for verifying the circulation figures
The circulation declaration is completed and submitted quarterly, within 30 days from the end of the quarter. The circulation declaration is completed electronically and submitted on the BRAT website, through the electronic declaration submission system.
The documents required for carrying out the audit are submitted together with the circulation declaration. The documents are submitted electronically through the electronic system for submitting circulation declarations.
d. verification by BRAT of the circulation declaration
BRAT audits the circulation declarations according to the methodology agreed within the GDAT rules.
e. publication of the circulation figures on the BRAT website
The circulation figures are published after the successful completion of the audit, on the same date for all the publications for which the audit process has been completed, as follows:
- 15 March (circulation figures for the October-December period)
- 15 June (circulation figures for the January-March period)
- 15 September (circulation figures for the April-June period)
- 15 December (circulation figures for the July-September period)
The deadlines to be observed within the circulation figures audit process are the following:
- Submission of the audit application and of the information required for carrying out the on-site control - within a maximum of 6 months from joining GDAT and subsequently on a quarterly basis, within a maximum of 30 days from the end of the calendar quarter
- Submission of the circulation declarations and of the documents required for the audit - within a maximum of 30 days from the end of the calendar quarter
- Carrying out the audit - within a maximum of 45 days from the expiry of the deadline for submitting the circulation declarations
- Publication of the results - on fixed dates, in accordance with the agreed rules.
The documents required for carrying out the audit are the following (extract from the Rules for the control of circulation figures):
Supporting documents required for verifying the gross print run
a) for a publisher that prints its copies at its own printing house, the publisher must hold all the documents below:
- The list of paper purchase invoices for the printing of the issues in the period verified
- Paper purchase invoices in electronic format
- The account record for each paper supplier from the period verified, covering a period from the first month verified until the present date.
- Proof of payment of the paper purchase invoices
- The printing house report, stating, for each printed issue: the gross paper consumption for the printed publication, the net paper consumption and the gross print run achieved in the period verified;
- The paper consumption slips for the issues printed in the period verified
- A declaration from the printing house regarding the paper weight of an issue and the technological losses
- The physical collection of the publications for the period verified
b) for a publisher that prints the publication at other printing houses, the publisher must hold all the documents below:
- The list of printing invoices for the issues in the period verified
- The printing invoices for the issues in the period verified, in electronic format (pdf)
- The account record for each of the printing houses that printed the issues in the period verified, covering a period from the first month of the period verified until the date of submission of the circulation declaration
- Proof of payment of the invoices for the issues in the period verified
- The physical collection of the publications for the period verified
For the certification of digital copies distributed against payment
- the list of all the persons who purchased the digital issues, shown individually, for each issue number
- supporting documents attesting to the invoicing and collection of at least 30% of the price of the digital issue
- proof of having received a request from the user for the purchase of the digital issue
For the certification of digital copies distributed free of charge
- the list of the persons to whom the copy was distributed, shown individually, for each issue number
- proof of having received a request from the user to access the digital issue
The list of the persons who received any type of copy of the digital issue is drawn up separately for each issue of the digital edition and contains, for each user, at least the following information:
- name
- user account
- telephone number
- e-mail address
In addition to these documents, BRAT may request further information, explanations or additional documents required for carrying out the verification procedures. The publisher sends BRAT by e-mail only the additional documents requested, where applicable.
The circulation audit activity is carried out within BRAT, in the Circulation Audit Departmental Group of the Print Press Department. Publishers wishing to have the publications they publish audited must be members of the Association and of GDAT and must pay the membership fee in accordance with the provisions of the rules and of the BRAT statute. Information on the membership process can be found on the dedicated page.
Agencies, advertising sales houses and advertisers have access to the results of the circulation audit on the basis of their BRAT membership
5. Audit package
The audit package for the January - December 2026 period can be downloaded here:
Audit package
The audit package for the January - December 2026 period can be downloaded here:
Audit package
BRAT carries out the verification of compliance with the audit standards directly, through its own staff, in accordance with the provisions of the rules of the Circulation Audit Departmental Group (GDAT). The verification involves analysing the circulation declarations submitted by publishers together with the related supporting documents (paper or printing invoices, account records, printing house reports, proofs of payment, the physical collection of the publication, as well as the lists and supporting documents for digital copies distributed against payment or free of charge), in accordance with the Rules for the control of circulation figures.
Where necessary, BRAT may ask publishers for information, explanations or documents in addition to those initially submitted, in order to clarify and correctly validate the declared figures.
Where discrepancies are identified between the supporting documents and the declared figures, or where the deadlines and conditions established by the GDAT rules are not observed, BRAT may request the correction of the circulation declaration, may postpone the publication of the results until the situation is clarified, or may apply the measures provided for by the rules of the Departmental Group, including the exclusion of the publication from the circulation figures published for that period.
By carrying out these verifications directly, BRAT ensures the application of a uniform, objective and independent standard for auditing print press circulation on the Romanian market