The Super Admin and any Local Group Administrators have the option to setup an approval process for buyers registering in their local group(s). These 'Buyer Approvals' allow you to regulate who joins your enterprise as a Buyer while maintaining flexible registration processes. If you are using buyer approvals, buyers will not be able to access supplier lists, create requests or tenders, or access any of their related information or documents until they are approved.
Options
- Buyers are invited to register by a Local Group Manager or an Admin. Once they register and complete their profile, their administrator is required to approve them.
- Buyers can join via a self-registration link. Once they've completed their account, the relevant administrator can approve them.
- Restrict self-registrations to a specific email domain (e.g., @organisation.com). This ensures that only people using an email address from your organisation can register.
- Monitor and approve changes to the email address linked to a Buyer's account (once they're already registered and active).
Key aspects
- Buyer Approvals need to be enabled on an enterprise level by VendorPanel. Please contact your Customer Success Manager or VendorPanel Support to arrange this.
- If allowing self-registration for Buyers, people registering with a specific email domain can be allowed to bypass the approval process, through the use of a whitelist.
- Email domain whitelists are set at an enterprise level (for organisations with one or two email domains) or at a Local Group level (for organisations or associations with multiple email domains).
- If a Buyer is invited to register, the approval is done by the person inviting the buyer (Local Group Manager; Local Group Administrator; or Super Admin).
- Buyers who register via the self-registration link are approved by the owner of the Local Group (Local Group Administrator; or Super Admin).
Buyer Registration Approvals
- Select Local Groups and Users under the Admin Tools menu (either in the top menubar or on the homepage on the left-side menu).
- Against the required list, click on the blue arrow icon to bring up the options. Select Edit local group.
- Under the User Settings section, change the 'Do users have to be manually approved' setting to Yes - Manually approved.
- Decide what type of registration you want to approve. You can select both options so both types of registrations require approval.
- Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page. Once saved, any new buyers in the Local Group will be required to be approved before they view supplier lists and create requests.
Approvals for Email Address Changes
- Select Local Groups and Users under the Admin Tools menu (either in the top menubar or on the homepage on the left-side menu).
- Against the required list, click on the blue arrow icon to bring up the options. Select Edit local group.
- Under the User Settings section, adjust the selection for 'Do approved users need to have their email address manually approved if changed?'
- Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page. Once saved, Buyers will need their change of email address to be approved if updated.
Email Domain Whitelist (for the whole Enterprise)
Buyer Registration approval whitelist can either be configured at an Enterprise level or at a Local Group, it cannot be configured on both. This is managed in your enterprise settings.
The below steps are only applicable if this has been set at the Enterprise level.
- Hover over Admin Tools in the top menubar and select Global Settings.
- Here, click the Global Buyer Approval Domain Whitelists link.
- Enter the required email domain. This is the part of the address including and following the '@' symbol, for example: "@email.com.au". Make sure the Active checkbox is ticked (on the right) and then click the Save button.
Email domains that have already been added can be made inactive or deleted from the whitelist as required from this page.
When applied at an enterprise level, the whitelisted domains can be disabled per Local Group within the Local Group settings.
Email Domain Whitelist (per Local Group)
Buyer Registration approval whitelist can either be configured at an Enterprise level or at a Local Group, it cannot be configured on both. This is managed in your enterprise settings.
The below steps are only applicable if this has been set at the Local Group level.
- Select Local Groups and Users under the Admin Tools menu (either in the top menubar or on the homepage on the left-side menu).
- Against the required list, click on the blue arrow icon to bring up the options. Select Edit local group.
- Go to the User Settings section and ensure that buyer approvals are turned on (see steps above).
- Under 'Local Group Email Domain Whitelist', click the create and manage link.
- Enter the required email domain. This is the part of the address including and following the '@' symbol, for example: "@email.com.au". Make sure the Active checkbox is ticked (on the right) and then click the Save button.
This will need to be repeated for each Local Group.
Email domains that have already been added can be made inactive or deleted from the whitelist as required.
Approving a Buyer
When a new Buyer requires approval, the relevant Administrator will be sent an email notification. The Buyer will see the below in their account while they are waiting for approval:
The below steps go through how to approve a new Buyer:
- On the homepage, under Critical Tasks in the left-side menu, click the New users to approve link.
- Here, you will see the new registrations requiring approval.
- To approve a registration, click on the Approve link on the right.
- To decline, click Decline. You will then be asked to provide a reason as to why you are declining the registration.
The reason can include instructions about what changes you would like the Buyer to make before you approve them (e.g., change to a corporate email address or complete a purchasing training course).
If you do not want the buyer to re-register, tick the box next to the comment field to permanently delete their account. They will also receive an email informing them of the reasons why they cannot re-register.
If the Buyer's registration has been declined but the account has not been deleted, they will receive an email. When they log in to their account, they will see the decline message and will be able to make the required changes:
Approving a Buyer's Email Change
When a Buyer changes their email address and it requires approval, they can continue to use their account using the old email address until the change is approved. If the Buyer goes to their Edit your email address page during this period, they will see the following message:
We have your current email address as: [CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS]
You have recently changed your email address to [NEW EMAIL ADDRESS]. This is pending approval by your administrator.
You will be notified via your current email address once approved. At that point, your updated email address will be applied and you will need to validate it.
If you wish you cancel this change and revert to your current email address, please click here.
When a Buyer's email change requires approval, the relevant Administrator will be sent an email notification. On their dashboard, a new task titled Email changes to approve will appear under their Critical Tasks list.
- Click the Email address changes to approve link.
- Here, you will see the proposed changes requiring approval
- Select either the Approve or Decline button to the right of the relevant email address change.
If approved, the Buyer will receive an email and will be able to log in with their new email address.
If declined, the Buyer will receive an email and will be able to log in using their old email address to make any required changes.
Note: If a Buyer cancels their proposed email change prior to approval, the Buyer's manager will be sent an email advising them that the requested change has been cancelled.