An overview of onboarding vendors in Felix

The purpose of this article is to provide you with an overview of the onboarding and approval process for getting vendors into your network and list in Felix. It is intended to guide you throughout the various processes and settings that are outlined in other articles in Felix support.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Organisation configurations
• Inviting a vendor
• Onboarding approval
• Communication back to vendors
• Adding a vendor to more panels
• Relevant organisational settings

Different organisations have different configurations

Each customer of Felix has the option to customise their configuration, so your configuration may include various combinations of the below features related to onboarding vendors into your organisation:

• Required or optional fields to capture Invite Justifications from staff requesting new vendors
• Mandatory, optional or no Payment Details capture from vendors
• Mandatory, optional or no Job History capture from vendors
• Compliance questionnaire sign off templates - prefilled or not
• Compliance questionnaire sign off workflow - to require compliance questionnaires to be signed off or not once submitted by vendors.
• Requirement for vendors to provide directors' details during onboarding

In addition, your organisation might have configurations set at a Panel level, including:

• Mandatory, optional or no Standard Rates capture from vendors
• Mandatory or optional application of a sign off template when inviting a vendor

Inviting a vendor

Inviting a vendor to Felix is possible in a few ways. And depending on your organisations configuration, you may be required to complete a few steps before the vendor receives their application email:

1. Inviting a vendor via email
2. Inviting vendors in bulk, via a CSV import (with email, ABN and business names)
3. Searching for vendors in the Felix Public Marketplace and inviting them

As part of the invite form, you will be required to select at least one "Panel" to invite the vendor to. This panel (or these Panels) determines what services the vendor can select to offer your organisation, as well as the type and quantity of compliance questionnaire questions they will need to complete. It may also drive whether they need to provide certain compliance documents (e.g. insurances).

In any method, based on your organisation's configuration, you may be required to also:

• Complete an Invite Justification form including comments and attachments - to justify the need for another vendor
• Select a Sign off Template - to ensure that assignees are added to the compliance questionnaire as soon as its received.

Vendors can also make their way into your vendor list themselves via Registration Panels.

Onboarding approval

Depending on your organisation's configuration, the "Approval" process for a vendor in Felix is typically made up of:

1. A compliance questionnaire sign off,
2. Compliance documents review, and
3. Payment details verification

When a vendor submits their application, the following occurs immediately:

• The email stored in Settings->Vendor Settings ("Notify this address when new application submissions are received") receives an email about the submission.
• If a Sign off template (or templates) was assigned when the vendor was invited, then those assignees will be emailed about a new submssion for review (the compliance questionnaire)
• The email address Felix holds/configures for your accounts payable department receives an email about new payment details requiring verification.
• If an email has been set under Settings->Vendor Settings ("Notify when a vendor adds, archives or replaces a Compliance Document"), then this email will receive notification of new compliance documents for review.
• An alert banner will be visible in the vendor profile for Approvers (with the right permission) to Approve or Decline the vendor

If a sign off template was not assigned during the invite, then it can be assigned after the submission is received following this guide. 

Once all reviewers have reviewed the compliance questionnaire, any required/submitted compliance documents have been reviewed & approved, and payment details (if mandatory for vendors) verified, then the following occurs:

• The email stored in Settings->Vendor Settings ("Notify this address when compliance sign-off is complete") receives an email about the finalised and reviewed submission. This email address is typically for an individual or pool of individuals who have permission to approve a vendor in Felix.

Finally, approvers with the right permissions can approve or decline the vendor's application for the panels they were invited to.

Communication might be required back to the Vendor

Often vendors make mistakes or slips on applications due to a misunderstanding of the requirements. In these cases, you can use a process we call "Unlocking" to prompt a vendor to update their application

Felix also offers a messaging system to vendors, however it goes to all vendors on a certain Panel, of a certain status.

Adding a vendor to further panels

Once you have onboarded a vendor to supply you with services for a specific panel, you can always add them to more panels later to provide more services in more contexts.

Refer to this guide for details on adding more panels after the initial approval.

Relevant organisational settings

There are a number of key settings to be aware of in the vendor onboarding and approval workflow:

Available under Settings->Vendor settings in the Felix user interface (with the right permissions):

• Email to be informed when vendor is compliant and ready for approval
• Email to be informed when a vendor submits a compliance document
• Email to be informed when a vendor submits an onboarding application (in response to an invite) (all Panels)

Available under Settings->Panel Management in the Felix user interface (with the right permissions):

• Whether a panel requires a vendor to mandatorily or optionally submit Standard Rates, 
• Whether a panel is Listed or not, 
• Whether a panel requires a Sign off template to be assigned at Invite stage or not,
• The email to be informed when a vendor submits an onboarding application (in response to an invite) (this panel only)

Available via request to your Customer Success Manager or via a Help Desk request:

• The email to be informed when a vendor submits a payment detail for review