Internal Forms Versus Internal Questionnaires
It's important to distinguish between internal forms and internal questionnaires. While both can be used to gather information in supplier management processes, they serve different purposes and have distinct functionalities:
- Internal questionnaires are modular questionnaires that you send to internal recipients as part of a process project. They are used to collect discrete sets of information from internal users. For example, the supplier discontinuation process could include an internal questionnaire focused on supplier offboarding that asks if the supplier’s building or network access has been revoked and if they’ve turned in their equipment.
- Internal forms are integrated into modular questionnaire projects. They are designed to gather information to supplement the questionnaire project's key questionnaire. For example, a modular questionnaire project can have an external questionnaire asking a supplier to provide a critical certificate and include one or more internal forms so that internal task owners can perform due diligence on the certificate.
Note
This lesson focuses on how to fill out internal forms in modular questionnaire projects. To learn more about completing internal questionnaires, refer to Filling Out an Internal Questionnaire for a Supplier Management Process.Internal Forms in Modular Questionnaire Projects Used in Process Projects
In a modular questionnaire project, you may encounter one or more internal forms in addition to the key questionnaire. The key questionnaire is the main questionnaire of the project, and its recipient can be a supplier contact (for external projects) or an internal user at your company (for internal projects).
Internal forms can have To Do and approval tasks associated with them. If an internal form has no To Do or approval tasks, filling it out is optional. However, if the form has a To Do task, the task owner must complete and submit the form to finalize the task. Similarly, if the form has an approval task, either the task owner or someone else with editing permissions must submit it to get it approved and advance the project.
You can edit an internal form in the following circumstances, as long as the project doesn't have a Denied status:
| Questionnaire Project Stage | Editability |
|---|---|
| New | Internal forms are always editable from when the project is created until it's approved. To Do task owners who aren’t also the project owner can edit the forms only while their task is active. |
| Update | After the project's initial approval, internal forms without To Do tasks remain editable, even if the key questionnaire does not allow updates. Internal forms with To Do tasks become editable only when the key questionnaire recipient submits an update and the project returns to Pending Approval status. This is only possible if the key questionnaire allows updates. The forms remain editable until the update workflow that includes the key questionnaire is finally approved and the project returns to Approved status. This behavior applies regardless of whether the associated To Do task is reactivated. If the key questionnaire does not allow updates, internal forms with To Do tasks can’t be edited once the project reaches Approved status. |
If an approver denies any form or questionnaire within the modular questionnaire project, the entire project moves to Denied status. At this point, all forms and questionnaires are closed to further updates.
If a To Do task on an internal form is assigned to a project group, all group members can potentially edit the form. The first member to submit the form and complete the task becomes the owner of the completed task.