There are three options for accepting a Supplier’s late submission to a Request or Tender. Your choice will depend on your situation, your organisation's VendorPanel settings, and your internal procurement policy. The options are as follows:

If the Supplier responses are still locked:

• Option 1: Re-open the Request or Tender to all Suppliers. This allows all invitees to either submit their responses or edit an existing one.

or

• Option 2: Send a unique late-response link to the relevant Supplier(s). This allows you to accept late submissions from the Supplier(s) of your choice.

If the responses have been unlocked:

• Option 3: Create a duplicate Request. If the Supplier responses have been unlocked, you cannot use the above two options. Instead, we suggest creating a template from the original Request and using the template to create a new request with the same details. You can select only the suppliers that need to send a late response and set a shorter open time for the supplier to respond.

See below for more information on each option.

Reopening the Request or Tender

You can reopen any Request or Tender for Supplier submissions provided that responses remain locked and the original decision date has not yet lapsed.

1. Click the blue arrow icon to the right of the relevant Request or Tender, and select the Edit this request option in the pop-up box.
   
   
   
   
2. You will be taken directly to the Submission Dates tab. On this page, adjust the closing date as required by clicking on the field and selecting a new date from the calendar. You can also change the close time if required. Click the Save and Continue button, which will take you to the Save and Update tab.
   
   
   
   
3. On the Save and Update tab, you add a comment to notify Suppliers of the submission date extension in the Notify Suppliers of Changes textbox if required. Click the Save Changes button to apply your changes.
   
   

Using the 'Late Response' token

If enabled for your organisation, you will have access to a Late Response link that can be used by Suppliers to submit their response, after the Request has closed. The current Supplier responses must remain locked to use the late response link.

1. To access the link, click the blue arrow icon to the right of your Request and select the Get 'late response' token link within the pop-up box.
   
   
   
   
2. On the next page, click on the Copy link to clipboard button and then send this to the Supplier(s) who need to submit a late response.
   
   

Notes:

• The same link can be sent to multiple suppliers.
• Once a Supplier clicks the late response link and clicks on Continue, they will have four hours to submit their response.
• The request will reappear on their dashboard and will be listed as Time Extended.
• If you make changes to the closing date, unlock the current responses, or finalise the Request, the late response link will be made invalid and cannot be used by Suppliers.

Creating a Copy of the Request or Tender

If the responses to a Request or Tender have been unlocked, then it cannot be re-opened for submissions.

Instead, you will need to create a template from the Request and use the template to create a new Request. You can send the Request to only the Supplier(s) that needs to submit their response. At the decision-making stage, you can attach documents to both Requests/Tenders to record their relationship.

You can find steps on how to create a template from a request here: Creating and Utilising RFx Templates. Follow the steps under 'Creating Templates from an existing Request' and then 'Utilising Templates' to create your new request/tender.

Your previous information will be copied across into this new Request and you can make any changes where necessary.