How to let a supplier's rep confirm their orders

Outside access on a supplier's page, under Buying › Suppliers, lets you invite that supplier's rep. They sign in to a page of their own that lists your purchase orders with that supplier, and they answer each one with an arrival date and what they can ship. The rest of the supplier's page is in How to add and set up a supplier.

Before you start

• The Store and Suppliers modules must be on, and you need View suppliers.
• The Outside access section shows to people with See who outside the company has access, which starts at member.
• Inviting a rep needs Invite a supplier or buyer, and taking access away needs Remove a supplier or buyer's access. Both start at lead.

All of these are rows in Settings › Permissions. See How to set who can do what.

What does the rep get to see?

Your purchase orders with that one supplier, and nothing else in your workspace. The invite dialog puts it plainly: not your catalog, not your other suppliers, not your margins, and no chat.

Every purchase order linked to the supplier appears, drafts included. Each shows its PO number, its total, Ship date, Expected arrival, Revise by and Status, and the products on it with Item, SKU, Qty and Unit cost.

When you have revised a quantity, the rep sees the original crossed out beside the new number.

How do you invite a rep?

1. Open the supplier's page from Buying › Suppliers.
2. In Outside access, press Invite their rep.
3. In Their email, type the rep's work email address.
4. Press Send invite, then Done.

Until they sign in, the Outside access list shows their email with a note that they are invited and have not signed in yet.

Does Tideswell email the rep?

No. Tideswell creates the invite and sends nothing, so tell the rep yourself.

Give them the address your team signs in at and the email you invited. On the sign-in page they type that email and press Email me a 6-digit code, then enter the code from their inbox. That first sign-in starts their access.

Ask them to sign in within 14 days. After that the invite lapses and leaves the list, and you can invite the same address again.

How does the rep confirm an order?

They land on Orders from Fairgreen Golf Co. (your workspace's name), every time they sign in. Under each order:

1. When will this arrive? starts on the order's expected arrival. They change it if they cannot make the date.
2. Each product shows how many you asked for and at what cost, with a box already filled in with that number. They change it to what they can ship.
3. They press Confirm this order.

Your answer on the order then reads Sent with the date. To change it later they edit the answer and press Update your answer, which replaces the last one. Once you close an order, they can no longer answer it.

Where do you see their answer?

On the purchase order page.

• Supplier said in Properties reads Answered with the date, or Not yet.
• The Supplier says column in the product table shows the quantity they can ship on each line. It is theirs to fill in, so you read it rather than edit it. See How to add products and choose your columns.
• The date they gave becomes the order's arrival date, and the order's history records the change.

An order that has gone to the supplier, is past its revise-by date and has no answer shows No supplier reply. It clears as soon as the rep answers. See How to find late orders and plan revisions.

How do you take access away?

In Outside access, press Remove access on the rep's row. They lose that supplier's orders straight away.

When that was the only supplier they could see, they lose access to your workspace entirely. Do it the day a rep leaves the supplier, and invite their replacement.

Is a rep the same as a contact?

No. A contact in the Contacts section is someone you deal with, for your own reference and for sending purchase order revisions. A contact never gets a sign-in.

A rep under Outside access has a sign-in and answers orders. The same person is often both, so add them as a contact as well when you invite them.

Your workspace may use its own words for suppliers and purchase orders; Settings › Terminology shows both.