If a Supplier is registered on a List where they are required to report on their sales activity, they may be asked to do this using the Supplier Self-Reporting functionality on VendorPanel.
If turned on by the List Owner, they will be required to report their activity on a monthly basis. They will receive on-screen prompts as well as reminder emails.
They can access the Self Reporting Dashboard under their Admin Tools, which are accessible on the homepage or in the top menubar.
You can find steps on how to submit their reporting here: How Suppliers complete a Supplier Self Report (SSR).
Below are some frequently asked questions that should help them complete their reports successfully:
- How do they contact the List Owner if they have a query with regard to reporting requirements?
- How do they amend a previously finalised/submitted report?
- How do they lodge a NIL activity report?
- What do they do if the Buyer (purchasing organisation) does not appear in the list of buyers to select?
- How do they view my previously submitted report data?
- I am asked to report monthly but my LGA contract stipulates quarterly reporting. Why is this?
- How do they nominate someone other than the VendorAdmin to report for my business?
- Why are some months greyed out when they go into my reporting view?
- Why can't they finalise a sales report for the current month?
How do they contact the List Owner if they have a query with regard to reporting requirements?
From their Supplier Self Reporting Dashboard, they are able to view the contact details of the List Owner by hovering and then clicking on the name of the Supplier List.
They can then email them directly with any queries they have.
How do they amend a previously finalised/submitted report?
Once they have finalised a sales report or NIL activity report they are no longer able to edit this report without contacting the List Owner to request an amendment. To do this, they will need to follow these steps:
Step 1 - Find the List Owner's contact details
See the details above on how they can find the List Owner's contact details.
Step 2 - Contact the List Owner
They can copy the email address from the List Owner Details view and email them directly requesting for a report to be unlocked from their side so that they are able to make amendments. In their message to them, they should detail the list and period (month) that they need to amend.
Step 3 - Amend and Resubmit the Report
Once unlocked, the report will appear on their list of reports to finalise again. It will retain any previously entered sales activity so that they can edit or remove any entries.
The new data they enter for this report will supersede any data that was previously entered and finalised (prior to the unlock request). If they want to keep a record of what was previously entered, then they should go to their report export page for the list, download the data in CSV format before they make the amendments to the report and re-submit.
If the report they are requesting to be unlocked falls within a ‘closed off’ period (e.g. a reporting month or quarter that has been closed off by the List Owner) then they will not be able to resubmit or amend this report.
How do they lodge a NIL activity report?
For any reporting periods where sales are not yet entered, they can lodge a NIL activity report. When they first enter the reporting view for the period (month) they will see the option to lodge a NIL activity report on the right-hand side.
Once they have entered sales activity entries, the NIL activity submission will be removed. If they have entered sales by mistake and want to lodge a NIL activity report for the period instead, they must first delete all sales entries upon which the NIL activity submission will become visible again and they can proceed to finalise the NIL report.
As per the sales activity entries and finalisation, once submitted, they will no longer be able to make changes to the report for the period without first contacting the List Owner.
If there are multiple overdue reports, they can submit a Bulk NIL report for all months that appear on the Overdue reports view. This will apply to ALL overdue reports that are yet to be finalised and that have no sales activity reported.
Overdue reports view with Bulk NIL activity submission
Bulk NIL activity (detail view)
What do they do if the Buyer (purchasing organisation) does not appear on the list of Buyers to select?
If they need to enter a sale against a purchaser that does not appear in the dropdown list of purchasers for that contract/list, they can manually type into the dropdown menu and add the name of the purchaser.
Detail of dropdown list of purchasers
Type the new purchaser name into the dropdown field item
Continue with sales entry to add to the current entries for the report
The purchaser they enter will not be saved for future use and will not appear in the dropdown menu of purchasers for future sales reports.
How do they view their previously submitted report data?
To view and download any reports they have submitted, they can navigate to the reporting overview for the list by clicking on the report overview icon on the dashboard.
Report entries icon/link detail view
On the reporting overview page, they can download all entries in CSV format by clicking on the Itemized Sales button. This will download all entries/itemized sales, listing each sale against purchasers.
Below this, they can view the status for each report, listed by period, sales total and finalisation date. To get a view of the itemized sales made for a particular period, click on the Show Details link.
Reporting entry view
Hovering over each entry will show details of who the sales entry was submitted by and when along with any comments that were added.
Report details (itemized sales) for the list and period
Report views and downloads are on a list-by-list basis. they are unable to download or view submitted data for ALL lists in one view/download.
What if they are asked to report monthly, but their LGA contract stipulates quarterly reporting?
VendorPanel Supplier Self Reporting has been designed to accommodate monthly reporting. They will be encouraged to report monthly (via email reminders and dashboard alerts for overdue reports).
Some LGA’s will require monthly reporting whereas others will accept quarterly reporting. Their exact obligations may differ depending on the contractual requirements of the List.
List Owners (the LGAs) may communicate this to them via the Important Information section in the sales entry view and detail their contractual obligations, These may or may not fall into this monthly frequency. For quarterly reporting, the List Owners will extract the information on a quarterly basis.
Important Information notice
If they have any questions, reach out to the List Owner.
How do they nominate someone other than the Vendor Admin to report for their business?
If they want to nominate someone other than the Vendor Admin to report sales activity for their business for a given list, then they must contact the List Owner. The List Owner is the only one who can add the new user.
They will need to provide the name and email address of the nominated Self Reporter and the Supplier List that they want them to report for so that the List Owner can send them a self-registration invitation. They will then need to complete their profile information before proceeding to self-report.
Once they have registered, they may be used for any other lists that they wish them to report for on behalf of their business.
This person will become a Supplier Self Reporting (SSR) Reporter user within VendorPanel. Their user account will only have access to report sales for the list(s) that they nominate, all other functionality will be turned off (e.g. responding to RFQs).
The Vendor Admin or a nominated Self Reporter are the only two types of users who are eligible to report for a business. Colleagues are not currently supported within Supplier Self Reporting.
This new SSR reporter can’t currently exist in the VendorPanel system as a Vendor Admin, Colleague or Buyer with the nominated email address for their account.
There can only be one person who reports for a specific list. It’s either the Vendor Admin or the external SSR reporter, not both.
If an external SSR reporter is unlinked from a business on a list then the reporting obligation falls back to the Vendor Admin.
Why are some months greyed out when they go into their reporting view?
Disabled/inactive periods (these are greyed out on the interface ) are periods that they as a Supplier are either not required to report on (they may have a custom ‘start’ date for reporting, and as such previous months are not required) or the period has been ‘closed’ by the List Owner.
Overdue reports with disabled periods in grey
List Owners have the ability to close reporting periods (months) so that data can no longer be entered by a Supplier. Typically this would be done for periods where they want to close the reports and invoice to collect the rebate/management fee, and as such do not want any new reports to be finalised and lodged within the closed-off period.
they will still be able to view and download any reported sales activity that falls within a closed-off period.
Why can't they finalise a sales report for the current month?
They may lodge sales activity for the current month, but the report may not be finalised until the month has passed. Similarly, NIL activity reports may only be lodged for months that have passed.
The interface will not include the finalise section, or the NIL activity report section for any current months.