How to invite new vendors or suppliers

Vendors (or suppliers, depending on your terminology) are located or invited to Felix using email addresses. With the right permissions at your organisation, you can access the "Invite vendor" functionality and utilise email contacts you have to find and invite vendors to your vendor list.

This guide explains the process to find and invite a single vendor.

Looking to import a large quantity of vendors at once? See our bulk import feature, outlined here.

Before we start, some background

Vendors in Felix have control over their account structures. They can choose to centrally manage all Felix activities in one account, and may also choose to claim their email domains so that all organisation invites are routed to a central account.

In this scenario, you might see this alert below.

You are still able to request that your specific contact be added to the central vendor account, and that vendor will receive your invite to action.

How to invite a single vendor to your vendor listing

There are tens of thousands of vendors that already exist in Felix. We call this network the "Felix Marketplace".

As you look to create or augment your vendor listing, we recommend you start by Searching the Marketplace. You can search by email address, business name or business number. If you find the company you're looking for, there is a good chance that the existing account is familiar with Felix already, has existing users to help complete your onboarding, and are experienced in responding to RFQs in Felix.

If you cant quite find what you need, then "Invite by email" is the path forward.

Your organisation may require you to complete an Invite Justification, depending on their settings. This process is intended to manage the flow of vendors into the vendor listing and maintain your organisation's strategies relating to vendor management.

To invite a vendor to your organisation:

1. Navigate to your Vendors > View all vendors or Suppliers > View all suppliers from the main menu.
   
   
2. Click the Invite Vendor or Invite Supplier button at the top right corner.
   
   
   
   

   If your organisation has the "Internally managed profiles" feature enabled, you may see an additional step here first.

   
   
3. Go to the Invite by email tab.
   
   
4. Update the following:
   
   

   Your organisation may require you to complete an Invite Justification, depending on their settings. This process is intended to manage the flow of vendors into the vendor listing and maintain your organisation's strategies relating to vendor management.
   

   
   
   • Email - Enter the email address of the contact you wish to send the invite to.
     
     
   • Vendor Business Name - Enter the vendor business name as you/your company know them. (The vendor can later confirm their business name and entity per their business registration)
     
     
   • Panel - Select a panel by clicking the field.
     
     
   • Sign-Off Templates - Select a template by clicking the field. This may be required based on your Panel(s) selected in the form, according to your organisation's settings.
     
     
   • Vendor tags
     • This field will be visible if the Add Vendor Tag feature setting is enabled for Invite Justifications. Adding a tag is intended to support the case (justification) for a new vendor request, e.g. we need this vendor to achieve net zero targets, or local content targets, etc. It then becomes visible to sort vendors later in your vendor lists.
       
       
     • If desired, select a tag from the dropdown. You can also add a comment by hovering the selected tag and click the Add Comment button to enter the comment.
       
       
   • Invite Justification
     • These fields can be set as Optional or Required by the organisation. The organisation can also decide whether to request a free text comment or a file to be attached. These settings are managed by Felix on behalf of organisations. 
       • If the Enforce New Vendor Justification - Comment is enabled, this field will be present and required. Enter any related vendor invite justification notes or comments. The Invite Justification text box will be disabled if the Attach 'New Vendor Justification' file is enabled.
       • If the Attach 'New Vendor Justification' file is enabled, there will be a "dropzone" to drag and drop or select (click) and upload a file. Your organisation can also make this upload mandatory using the Enforce Justification File option.
       • Your organisation can choose to offer a template for your use when they have the Manage New Vendor Justification Template sub setting enabled.
5. Click the Send Invitation button.

• Zip files are not supported. For file types that are accepted, refer to File Type Support.

• A vendor justification template needs to be added first via the Vendor Settings.

In order to manage the downloadable template in the above form: Navigate to Settings > Vendor Settings. Scroll to the bottom and go to Vendor invite justification template file section. Click the dropzone link to attach a file and click the Update button.