Press
Everything you need to write about us accurately.
Including the parts that don't flatter us. If something here is unclear or you need a claim demonstrated in a live account, email mike@ndt.llc and you'll get an answer the same day.
Boilerplate
Short
TRACE is compliance software built for nondestructive testing. It date-tracks every technician, certification, and compliance item so nothing expires unnoticed and audits take minutes.
Long
TRACE is compliance software built specifically for nondestructive testing. It date-tracks every technician, certification, and compliance item across a firm's programs, gives each client company a secure portal to its own records, runs Nadcap accreditation work against the published AC7114 checklists, and builds and grades certification exams. Founded by an NDT practitioner, TRACE serves consultancies and in-house quality programs across North America.
TRACE is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by PRI, the Nadcap program, or ASNT. AC7114 checklist content is referenced as published audit criteria.
Fact sheet
- What it is
- Compliance and certification tracking software for nondestructive testing
- Who uses it
- NDT consultancies, independent Level IIIs, and in-house quality programs
- Founded
- 2026
- Founder
- Mike Gardner
- Pricing
- Free; Plus $9.99/mo; Pro $49.99/mo; Enterprise on custom terms. Each add-on module is $49.99/mo: Certification Testing, Tool Control, NDT Question Bank, Safety Compliance, Project Management, QMS, Ledger, HR Records and CRM
- Trial
- 30 days of Pro, with the Certification Testing, Tool Control, NDT Question Bank, Safety Compliance, Project Management, QMS, Ledger, HR Records and CRM modules included. No credit card, code NDT30
- Standards modeled
- NAS 410, SNT-TC-1A, CP-189, ASME, ABS, NAVSEA, and Nadcap AC7114 audit criteria
- Notable
- Client and technician data isolation is enforced in the database with Postgres row-level security rather than in application code
- Press contact
- mike@ndt.llc
Spokesperson
Mike Gardner is an NDT practitioner and the founder of TRACE, compliance software built for nondestructive testing. He built TRACE after years of tracking technician certifications, client audits, and Nadcap preparation the way most of the industry still does — in spreadsheets.
Available for interviews on certification currency, Nadcap audit preparation, what the published standards do and don't govern, and the limits of automation in compliance work.
Questions journalists actually ask
Answered here so nobody has to chase them.
Are you Nadcap approved, or affiliated with PRI or ASNT?
No, and no software company is. Nadcap accreditation is granted by PRI to organizations performing special processes. TRACE tracks a company's accreditation work against the published AC7114 criteria. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by PRI, the Nadcap program, or ASNT.
Should AI be anywhere near compliance records?
Only in the role it has here. It reads documents and drafts records for a person to accept or discard, citing the document and the quote behind every value. It cannot create, edit, or delete anything on its own. And it deliberately refuses to fill in required training or experience hours from NAS 410 or SNT-TC-1A, because the employer's written practice governs those and is routinely stricter than the published minimum. A confidently wrong required-hours field is the one thing that would actually hurt somebody.
What happens to client data?
Client and technician logins are scoped inside the database using Postgres row-level security, not filtered in the application — so there is no URL to edit your way into another company's records. Internal notes are not exposed to client-facing views at all. Two-factor authentication is available and there is an audit trail.
Can the online exams stop someone cheating?
No, and neither can anyone else's. A phone camera is outside what any web page controls. What the module does is deterrence and attribution: content watermarked with the taker's name and time, copy and right-click disabled, and every switch away from the tab logged for the examiner to review. Where secrecy matters, the same test prints for a proctored room with a separate answer key.
Does Code Watch guarantee you hear about every standard revision?
No. It checks publicly reachable publisher pages weekly and reports a failed check loudly rather than going quiet. It tells you a revision exists; buying the document remains between you and the publisher.
You are one person. What happens if you are hit by a bus?
A fair question, and the same one worth asking about the spreadsheet this replaces. Data exports at any time and is never held hostage; nothing is deleted, even on cancellation. It is a real risk of buying from a small company, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.
Current research
We are running what we believe is the first survey of how the NDT industry tracks certification currency. Findings, methodology, and the aggregate response tables will be published in full. If you would like an early look under embargo, email mike@ndt.llc.
See the survey