Approving Supplier Registration Updates

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to approve a supplier registration update

About Approvals in Supplier Registration Updates

Internal and external questionnaires can have different approval flows depending on whether they're in a new registration or are being updated after the new registration is completed. After a recipient submits an update to a registration questionnaire, the supplier remains Registered. If the updated questionnaire is either an external questionnaire or an internal questionnaire that affects registration status, and the update requires approval, the supplier has a separate Pending Approval registration update status. When no remaining tasks are in progress for the questionnaire that’s in approval, the update status is Approved. Submitting an update only starts the tasks associated with the updated questionnaire, and the process flow graph in the Registration detail area of the supplier's profile shows the tasks associated with the current update.

For internal or external questionnaire updates, or if you've requested more information from the recipient during an approval, the approval task details page shows the answers in the latest, unapproved update and the previous versions. You can view and compare different questionnaire versions.

How to Approve an Updated Supplier Registration Questionnaire

If you're in the approval flow for an updated supplier registration questionnaire, use these steps to approve it. Questionnaire approval is part of the overall approval process for new supplier registrations and registration updates.

There is no option to deny registration updates, but you can request additional information from the respondent.

Business Scenario

NSM Global has configured its supplier registration process to require approval on registration updates. Supplier manager Amy Chen is in the approval flow for registration updates, so she must review revised questionnaires and determine whether to approve them.

In this video, you’ll watch Amy approve and request additional information about an updated supplier registration questionnaire.

Steps

  1. Open the approval task details page by performing one of the following actions:

    • Navigate to the Registration detail area of the supplier's profile. Choose Take Action in the Tasks table.
    • Choose the link in the approval notification e-mail.

  2. Review the answers to the questionnaire.

  3. Perform any of the following actions if you’re reviewing a questionnaire update:

    • To display only the questions with updated answers, choose Updated.
    • To display all questions regardless of whether they have updated answers, choose All.
    • To compare the current answers with versions of the questionnaire the respondent submitted before the previous version, choose the version number in the Previous Version column and select a version. The Latest Version column always shows answers from the current update.

  4. Perform one of the following actions:

    • To approve the questionnaire, choose Approve, enter an optional comment, and choose Approve.
    • To request additional information from the respondent, choose Request Additional Info, enter a comment explaining what information you want, and choose Request Additional Info.

Result

If you're the final approver for an external or internal questionnaire update and you approved it, the approved update shows as the latest version and the questionnaire reopens for further updates.

Depending on your site's configuration, updates to approved internal registration questionnaires can be added to mapped database fields and synchronized to an integrated system immediately after the questionnaire is submitted or only after approval.

Approved updates to an external registration questionnaire are always added to mapped database fields and synchronized to an integrated system after approval. If your registration project includes tasks in one or more update phases, updates to an external registration questionnaire are added to mapped database fields and synchronized to an integrated ERP system after all tasks associated with the questionnaire are completed, regardless of the status of the overall update phase or other questionnaire tasks in it.

If you requested additional information rather than approving the questionnaire, the questionnaire reopens so the recipient can provide the requested information. By default, the current approval flow for the questionnaire resets, and the process flow graph for the registration reverts to the previously completed new registration workflow. After the recipient resubmits the questionnaire, the approval task becomes active again, the approval flow restarts from the beginning, and the process flow graph shows the update workflow again. If the enhancements to the workflow for requesting additional information feature (SM-3492) is enabled in your site, requesting additional information restarts the current node of the approval flow rather than resetting the entire approval flow.

The supplier remains in Registered status. After all tasks associated with the current update are completed, the supplier also has a registration update status of Approved.

Any comments you or other approvers added during questionnaire approval show on both the questionnaire and approval task details pages, which you can see by viewing the questionnaire or task. Questionnaire details pages show all comments for all tasks in the project, and you can filter them to show only the comments for the current questionnaire. Task details pages show only the comments associated with the current task. Depending on how your site's notifications are set up, approval comments can also be included in approval notifications to suppliers.

If your organization uses different phases to manage tasks for new questionnaires and questionnaire updates, the questionnaire details page only shows comments for tasks in the current phase.

If you requested additional information during approval of an external questionnaire and entered a comment, the supplier sees the most recent approval comment when they revise their response.

Approve a Supplier Registration Questionnaire Update

In this exercise, you’ll approve a supplier registration questionnaire update.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. From the Registration detail area of the PLC Enterprises supplier profile, choose Take Action in the Tasks table.

  2. Review the answers to the questionnaire. To display only the questions with updated answers, choose Updated.

  3. Approve the questionnaire update.

    1. Choose Approve.

    2. Choose Approve to confirm your approval.

  4. Choose Done.

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