The Questions or Statements of Acknowledgment functionality enables Super Admins to set up questions or acknowledgments that are displayed to Suppliers, either before they access a Request or prior to them submitting a response to a Request.

This functionality gives Buying organisations the opportunity to include terms and conditions relating to their Requests (eg. protecting the confidentiality of the Request).

When Accessing a Request

If an acknowledgment has been configured to display before the Supplier can access the request, the acknowledgement will display if a Supplier tries to:

• View the details of the RFx
• Request more information
• View attached documents
• Download the ZIP request
• Create a response 

Suppliers are still able to Decline to respond without the need to read/respond to the statement or question.

Once accepted, they will be navigated to the option they originally selected. This type of Acknowledgement should only display once per Request (if accepted). The caveat to this is if the Supplier clicks the Cancel button in which case the acknowledgement will appear upon the next interaction.

When Responding to a Request

If an acknowledgment has been configured to display before the Supplier can respond to the request, it will display on the last step in the Response Wizard.

Configuring Questions or Statements of Acknowledgment 

1. Select Supplier Statements or questions under the Admin Tools menu (either in the top menubar or on the homepage on the left-side menu).

   
   

2. Click on the blue Create new statement or question button to create a new statement or question. 
   
   
3. You will be presented with five options/data entry fields, they include the following:
   
   
   • Where will this statement or question appear?
     
     • Before the supplier can access the request
     • Before the supplier can respond to the request
       
       
   • Statement or question heading
     • In this free-text entry field, you can enter a heading that Suppliers will see above the acknowledgment. This heading will show to the user as part of the statement or question that they need to complete. It will also show on the Response download PDF file. 
       
       
   • Statement or question text
     • In this free-text entry field, you can add additional instructional text that will display to the Supplier. This could be an excerpt from a policy document or any other information that the user could reference when evaluating their response to the statement or question. 
       
       
   • What format do you expect Suppliers to answer the question in?
     • This drop-down menu includes three options consisting of:
       
       • Statement only - Suppliers are only required to view and acknowledge the statement.
       • Yes/No - The Supplier can answer the question in the form of a YES or NO answer.
         Selecting the Yes/No option will open-up two additional options consisting of the following:
         • Does this statement or question require an acknowledgment or answer?
           • Yes. Suppliers answer this question (if this radio button is selected, Suppliers are told that an answer to the question is required).
           • No. This question is optional (if this radio button is selected, this means that the question is optional for Suppliers).
         • What are the acceptable answers to this question?
           • Yes or No (if this radio button is selected, Suppliers can choose yes or no).
           • Yes (if this radio button is selected, Suppliers >must choose yes).
           • No (if this radio button is selected, Suppliers >must choose no).
       • Checkbox - The Supplier can answer the question by ticking (or leaving unticked) a checkbox.
         
         
   • Publish settings
     • Flicking this switch to the right (indicated by blue colouring) will publish the statement or question, and apply it to all Local Groups and Buyers (and the requests they create) within the enterprise. 
       
       
4. Once you have published your question or statement, you will return to the Supplier statements or questions page. On this page, you will be presented with a list of questions or statements you have created on the left of the page. To the right of the title of each statement or question are three headings consisting of status, placement, and actions.
   
   
   • Status refers to whether the statement or question has been published or unpublished.
   • Placement can either be Access or Submit.
     
     • Access refers to statements or questions being displayed to Suppliers before they access the Request. 
     • Submit refers to statements or questions being displayed to Suppliers before they submit their response to the Request. 
   • Actions include an edit link where you can edit your statement or question.