Trustpilot

October 2023

Latest updates and innovations released!

In our latest release of updates we have been making even more improvements for our buyer members. These improvements enable you to customise your suppliers profiles by:

  • adding notes,
  • internal references,
  • documents,
  • and more,

helping your internal teams keep all the information about your suppliers in one place.

See what we're talking about this month

Product updates for all Buyer members

Add internal supplier reference ID’s

This feature allows businesses to better connect suppliers within their platform, to their own internal systems, greatly enhancing user experience and boosting efficiency.

Benefits:

  • Ease of Identification: Internal references can make it easier for you to identify and track suppliers. This is especially useful if you have a large number of suppliers or if multiple departments interact with the same supplier. For example, this could be a system reference for an internal finance system.
  • Improved Communication: If customers use certain codes or references internally, adding these to the suppliers’ profiles can make communication smoother and more efficient.
  • Time Efficiency: It saves time as internal users don’t have to cross-reference supplier details with their own internal documents or databases.
Video: How to add your own internal references.

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. Find the supplier you want to add a reference for by searching in the Find Supplier app, or in your Supply Chain app, and go to their profile.

  2. To add an internal reference, just click Actions at the top right and Add Reference.

  3. After you have added the reference, it will appear at the top.

  4. When you go back to Find Suppliers, you will now see the option to search using your reference.

Who can use it:

  • From a data point of view, admins, procurement, and finance teams will benefit from using this feature, to search for suppliers and link them to their other internal systems.
  • Users who need to search for a supplier – anyone in your organisation can do this.
  • Your admin can assign who has permission to assign internal references.

Upload internal supplier documents

This new feature enables buyers to attach/upload docs to document the history with supplier, like email pdfs, add credit scores, professional indemnity and other relevant docs, so that important docs about their suppliers aren’t lost

Benefits:

  • Organise documents into folders/tags by naming the ‘Document Type‘ eg NDAs, Financials, Legal, Emails etc

  • You can search and filter based on document tag

  • There are no limits on the number of documents you can upload

  • You can download the documents by clicking the ‘generate zip file’ button and ‘go to download manager’

Video: How to upload internal supplier documents

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. To upload a document, go to Documents on a supplier’s profile. Click Upload Document.

  2. You will be prompted to choose a document type – these are the tags you add to documents to filter and sort them.

  3. Either click the drop-down menu to select a document type or click New Type to add a new tag. Then you can upload the file and click Add.

  4. Once you have created a new document type, you will then be able to select this from the list again.

  5. You can view the document or remove it with the buttons on the left. You can also filter the documents using View By.

Who can use it:

  • All your internal users can see the documents,
  • Your admin can assign who has permission to upload or remove internal documents by selecting MANAGE – SUPPLIER DOCS in their permissions area.

Add private supplier notes

This feature allows users to have a way to communicate with other users of the platform about a particular supplier. No need to post it notes or memos getting lost in emails, if you have an update that you would like anyone to see who views that profile, this is where you can add it.

Benefits:

Internal notes against a supplier profile can greatly assist your internal staff in various ways:

  • They provide valuable context about previous interactions, issues, preferences, or particular conditions related to that supplier.
  • Streamline communication within the team, reducing the time spent on catching up on a supplier’s history and speeding up the time during sourcing.
  • This provides an audit trail that can show who has added or made changes to notes.
  • Lastly, they promote a unified approach, ensuring every user has access to the same information, which leads to consistency in the decision-making process.
Video: How to add private notes

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. You will now see a new tab on the supplier’s profile called Notes.

  2. Select this tab to view notes left by your organisation. If you are an Administrator, you can add a new note by clicking Add Note.

  3. Once you have added your note, you can edit and remove notes via Edit.

  4. The Notes will include the name of the user and when the note was left, allowing you to keep an audit trail of all internal notes on a profile.

Who can use it:

  • All your internal users can see notes, but only admin users/users with permission can add/delete them.
  • Your admin can assign who has permission to add private notes by selecting MANAGE – SUPPLIER PROFILE NOTES in their permissions area.

Join us for our Latest Innovation Release webinar

We will be running a 60 min session to give you an overview and live demo of these latest features and improvements to the platform, and answer any questions you may have.

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Product updates for Buyer members with Private Goals

Edit custom fields

This new feature gives businesses the ability to edit custom fields to their suppliers’ profiles, so internal users are able to search by the custom field and provide a list of all suppliers that match, such as date, DBA owner, trade, size of company, performance or whatever fields the business wants to create.

Benefits:

  • It allows businesses to be able to search and filter their supply chain based on their own internal criteria customised to what they need
  • Allows a buyer to look at a supplier in a way that is not linked to their compliance
Video: How to edit custom fields

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. To edit your custom fields, go to Custom Fields on one of your supplier’s profiles. Then click Edit – you will now be able to complete the fields as needed.

  2. Then click Save.

Who can use it:

  • Contact the Constructionline team who will add any custom fields you need.
  • Admin users can edit existing custom fields
  • Users can search, view and add a value to the custom field
  • Your admin can assign who has permission to edit or delete Custom Fields by selecting MANAGE – SUPPLIER CUSTOM FIELDS in their permissions area.

Delegate supplier approvals to your team

Create a verification queue with our team to help manage supplier approvals

This new feature gives database admins the ability to allocate suppliers to be approved by other team members in their organisation.

Benefits:

  • To help delegate the approval of suppliers to team members, creating a verification queue for suppliers who have submitted to your private goal.
  • This will help with workflow management, but adding an administration/management layer on top of the approval process allows admins to share the workload of approving suppliers with other team members.
  • Provide documentary evidence supporting their response.
Video: How to delegate supplier approvals

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

1. In the menu, go to Manage Supply Chain and then select Supply Chain. Here you will find the new Compliance & Approvals tab.

2. When a supplier makes a submission, the Admin Users for your organisation will be notified.

3. Click the View button to see all submissions and Allocate to assign the submission to another User in your organisation.

4. Use the drop-down menu to search for and assign the submission to another user in your team, or you can clear the assessor.

5. Users will be notified when something has been allocated to their queue

6. To view the submissions assigned to you, go to My Approvals, then click View and Resolve.

7. This then takes you to the verifications page. From here, you will be able to review the answers from your supplier, and either Approve, Approve with Advisory or Reject.

8. If you Approve with Advisory, this will leave a note on the submission for the supplier to view, whilst keeping the question approved.

9. If you reject a question, this will send the submission back to the supplier to amend as needed. Again, you will need to leave feedback for the supplier.

10. After you have approved or rejected all questions, just click Return to Supplier to send the requirement back.

Who can use it:

  • Users with Approver permissions can use this feature to delegate approvals.

Add assessment notes

This new feature enables you to add notes when a supplier has been assessed to give context why a supplier has been approved or if there are any reasons for not approving.

Benefits:

  • Helps give internal teams more detail on why suppliers have been approved, declined, or if you are waiting for a decision.

Video: How to add assessment notes

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. When you are in the verifications page of a Private Goal, you will see the option to Add Note at the top right.

  2. You can add any information here that will only be viewable to those in your organisation. The supplier will not be able to view these notes in their submissions.

  3. Once you have added the note, complete the approval and then click Return to Supplier. The supplier will not be able to view these assessment notes in their submissions, only the feedback you leave after rejecting or approving with advisory.

  4. If we go back to the supplier’s profile, we will be able to see the note we just left.

  5. Once you are on the supplier’s profile, click Compliance, then Show Details under Buyer Connections and click on the segment.

  6. From here, click See Responses.

  7. Here you can see the assessment notes from your team, under the requirement name.

  8. It will include the name of the assessor and the date the note was left.

Who can use it:

  • Users with Approver/Assigned Approver permissions can add assessment notes to supplier profiles.

View supplier submission history

This new feature enables you to access previous submissions to prove due diligence if there are any HSE issues onsite or for auditing purposes.

Benefits:

  • To help prove due diligence, showing what you have previously assessed in detail
  • Prove to auditors how you manage the assessment of your supply chain
  • View required HSE assessment and docs
  • View professional indemnity – for historical insurance
  • Provides you with a backup of what has happened previously, if it is an item that has been submitted multiple times, they can see what has been rejected/edited/resubmitted etc.
  • Provides you with a view of your private goal submissions.
Video: How to view supplier submission history

Here is a quick walk-through to show you where to find this feature and how to use it.

How to guide:

  1. Once you are on the supplier’s profile, click Compliance.

  2. Then click Show Details under Buyer Connections and click on the segment.

  3. Next, click See Responses. You can see here the name of the requirement, when it was last submitted and any assessment notes left by the assessor.

  4. Click View History to see the submission history for the requirement.

  5. You can use this feature to see past rejections or compare previous submissions and evidence.

Who can use it:

  • All users within your organisation can view a supplier’s submission history

Check out these new features

Log in to Constructionline to try out these new updates today.

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