🛠 Create Your Own - Vendor Onboarding Workflow

   Estimated Read Time: 18 minutes

☑️   Requires: Vendor Portal

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Sections in this article:

• Introduction
  • Workflow Diagram
• 🛠 Mandatory Configuration 🛠
  • Add the Template
  • Create Workflow Groups
  • Assign Approver/s
  • Configure the Pre-built Forms
  • Set the Vendor Type

• 🛠 Additional Configuration 🛠
  • Add Custom Metadata
  • Set AutoAction Values
  • Set Visibility Rules
  • Configure Rejections
  • Add Market IQ Data
  • Add a NetSuite Sync
  • Add Extra Phases
  • Start the Workflow with a Trigger
  • Disable the Public URL Request Form
  • Hide Phases from the Vendor and Employee Portal
  • Amend the Workflow Description
• ⚡️Getting Started ⚡️
• Additional Reading

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Introduction

This workflow helps you digitise your vendor onboarding and risk assessment process. It offers a flexible structure that can be adapted to your organisation’s policies and requirements. By using this workflow, you can ensure that all new vendors are thoroughly documented and risk-assessed, giving you the data required to make informed business decisions.

See the video below for a demonstration of the workflow process once configured:

 

Workflow Diagram

🛠 Mandatory Configuration 🛠

The steps in this section outline the essential setup required to make your workflow fully functional. Complete the steps below for a fully operational, end-to-end vendor onboarding workflow:

• Add the Vendor Onboarding workflow template to your tenant as the starting point for the build
• If needed, set up the workflow groups you'll use to grant access, update form data, and approve requests
• Decide who needs to approve the request at each of the two approval phases
• Build out the internal request form and the vendor-facing onboarding questionnaire
• Make sure every new vendor record is classified with a Type before it reaches your repository

See the Additional Configuration section for optional additions that expand the scope of your process or align the workflow with your organisation's policies and procedures.

Add the Template

To get started, add the template workflow:

1. From the navigation menu, click Workflows.
2. Click Add, then select Workflow Template.
3. Click Create on the Vendor Onboarding template.
   
4. Amend the title if needed, then click Create.

Create Workflow Groups

Workflow groups can be used in your vendor onboarding workflow to:

• Grant access to groups of users to perform actions, such as updating form data, or providing approvals
• Send notifications to groups of users

For example, you may require groups such as a Data Privacy Team, Vendor Management Team. 

If you haven't already created workflow groups in your tenant, see Manage Workflow Groups for step-by-step instructions on creating groups and adding users.

Assign Approver/s

There are two phases where vendor onboarding forms require approval:

• Approval/s ✅: This phase reviews the initial scope of the vendor onboarding request. It helps prevent unnecessary work later in the process, for example if the vendor is not within budget, or if an existing vendor already provides the same service. It's recommended to use a dynamic approver (such as a team owner) or a single workflow group (for example, the Procurement team) for this phase.
• Onboarding Review ☑️: This phase performs final checks and risk approvals. By this stage, all required data and documentation should be available, enabling reviewers to assess, catalogue, and approve any potential risks. Include all groups or users who need to assess risks or manage interactions with third parties at this stage.

There are multiple ways to configure approvals, depending on your requirements:

• Simple Approval: only one user or group needs to approve the onboarding form
• Parallel Approvals: multiple users or groups all need to approve
• Conditional Approvals: different users need to approve depending on the scope of the request. You can configure either conditional simple, or conditional parallel approvals.

Follow the instructions in the articles linked above to assign approvers to both phases in the workflow. 

 

Configure The Form

The Vendor Details section has already been added to the form, which captures the core data fields that are used to build the vendor record in the repository.

Two additional form sections have been added as placeholders to help build your onboarding questionnaires:

• Request Form: This is designed for internal users to provide details about the new vendor, beyond the core metadata. Where possible, this should follow the format of any existing intake form used by your organisation. It should capture context about the purpose and nature of the new vendor relationship, for example:
  • Reason for new vendor request [Multiline text]
  • Relationship type [Dropdown: One-off purchase, ongoing/recurring services]
  • Estimated budget [Monetary value]
  • Service category [Dropdown: Software, transportation, maintenance, etc.]
• Vendor Onboarding Form: This is designed for vendor users to provide information about their organisation and compliance standards. Use this form to collect any details or attachments from vendors that do not need to be stored in the final vendor record as metadata.

To configure these forms:

1. Click the New Vendor Request Form phase to edit it, then navigate to Form.
2. Build your questionnaire within each section as follows:
   
   
   1. Click + ADD FIELD to add new form fields.
   2. Expand the 3 dots then click the  pencil icon to edit existing fields.
   3. Expand the 3 dots then click the  delete icon to remove existing fields.

Set the Vendor Type

Vendor Type is a mandatory field for vendor records in your Gatekeeper repository. To ensure this is captured for all new vendors, configure your workflow to populate this field using one of the methods below:

• Make the Type field mandatory at the New Vendor Request Form 🗳 or Approval/s ✅ phase, before the Create Vendor AutoAction runs. See the Manage Field Visibility for full steps.
  
• Set up a backup value within the AutoCreate Vendor phase's AutoAction, so Type is populated even if left blank on the form. See the Edit AutoAction Values for the full steps.
  

🛠 Additional Configuration 🛠

This section covers optional steps to adjust the workflow's scope or default settings, helping you tailor it to your organisation's needs.

Add Custom Metadata

If you have created custom vendor data, you can add it to the workflow form to capture additional data that will be stored on the final vendor record. This is ideal for due diligence forms and other key data points you typically collect about vendors.

To add custom data to the workflow form, click the start phase to edit it, then add a new form section, selecting Vendor from the Predefined dropdown, and the relevant group from the Custom Data Group dropdown.

See Add Sections to a Form for the full steps, including how to reorder sections.

Set AutoAction Values

For any additional custom data sections, ensure the vendor record is updated with the values from these fields in any AutoAction phases.  In the template, you can configure these values on the following phases:

• 🛠 AutoCreate Vendor 🛠 and 🛠 AutoUpdate Vendor 🛠: These phases exist near the start of the workflow to create/update the appropriate values before the Vendor Portal onboarding form is sent.
• ✅ Vendor Onboarded ✅: This is the Done phase of the workflow. It captures any updates made after the previous two actions (for example, by the vendor or approvers) and publishes them to your finalised vendor records.

To configure this:

1. Click a phase of the workflow where vendors are created/updated.
2. From Actions, click Edit AutoAction Values for the enabled AutoAction.
   
3. For any new fields, select the corresponding Take Value from Form checkbox.
4. If required, select an optional backup value in case the field is left blank.
5. Click Save.

Set Visibility Rules

The default fields on this template already have visibility set for each phase. You can adjust these if needed, for example to make additional fields mandatory, or to hide them in certain phases.

For any new fields or sections you've added, you'll need to set up visibility yourself. To do this:

1. Click the settings icon to access the Configuration View.
   
2. To set the section visibility, hover over the relevant section box and select from the dropdown list.
   
3. To set the field visibility:
   1. Hover over the section box and select the appropriate checkbox to apply the visibility to all fields within the section.
   2. Hover over an individual field box and select from the dropdown list to apply the visibility to fields one-by-one.
4. To copy a section/field visibility settings to other phases, click the copy icon. Then, select the checkboxes to determine which phases you want to copy the settings to, and click Copy.
   

Configure Rejections

This workflow template includes two phases where a vendor onboarding card can be rejected:

• Approval/s ✅: Near the start of the workflow, an internal user reviews the onboarding request. A rejection here transitions the card to ❌ Vendor Rejected ❌ DONE, marking the request as closed with no further action. To change this, see the recommendations in Workflow Resubmissions and Appeals.

• Onboarding Review ☑️: At the end of the workflow, the completed vendor onboarding form is assessed. A rejection here sends the card back to Vendor Onboarding Form 👷 for updates and resubmission. However, you may want a rejection to close the request entirely, with no further action. To support this, you can add a Review Rejection phase where an admin user decides the next step:

  • Return the form to the vendor for updates, or
  • Send the form to the ❌ Vendor Rejected ❌ DONE phase.

Add Market IQ Data

If your organisation uses Market IQ Advanced, you can add the financial and cyber data fields to the workflow form to help users with assessing vendor risk.

Part 1: Add Market IQ Sections to the Form

1. Click the start phase of the workflow to edit it. 
2. Navigate to Form, then click ADD SECTION.
3. Enter a section name (e.g MIQ Financial Data or Creditsafe Data), then select the following from the dropdown lists:
   1. Predefined: Vendor
   2. Custom Data Group: Market IQ | Financial or Market IQ  | Cyber
      
4. Click Save.
5. Click REORDER to move the new section to your preferred position in the form.
6. For each phase, set the visibility of this new data section. As these fields will only be populated by the action configured in Part 2 below, it is best to set them as Hidden in all phases until the action has run.
   

 

Part 2: Enable the Sync Action for Market IQ Financial

For Market IQ Financial, you'll need to add an action to the workflow to connect the vendor. However, for Market IQ Cyber, all you need to ensure is that the vendor website is populated and published to the record in the repository, so you can skip this section.

1. Click the phase where you wish for the vendor to be linked to Market IQ. If this is not suitable for an existing phase (such as Onboarding Review), you can add a new phase.
2. From Actions, select the Update Vendor with Market IQ | Financial checkbox.

You can also use Market IQ data to trigger conditional approvals, so that only high-risk vendors require review by a designated user or group.

Add a NetSuite Sync

If your organisation uses the NetSuite integration, you can connect the vendor as part of the onboarding workflow: 

1. Click on the phase where a vendor should be synced to NetSuite to edit it. It's recommended to configure this after the Onboarding Review phase to prevent syncing vendors who may not meet compliance requirements.
2. Navigate to Actions, then select the Update Vendor checkbox.
3. Select the Sync to NetSuite on Action checkbox.

 

Add Extra Phases

This template is designed with minimal phases, with flexibility to expand within these. For example, the single Onboarding Review phase can accommodate multiple reviews and approvals, depending on your team structure. However, you can also add phases to your workflow to support additional processes, such as:

• Adding a new phase before Onboarding Review to link the vendor to Market IQ Financial
• Adding a new phase after Onboarding Review to sync the vendor to NetSuite

To do this:

1. Navigate to the right-hand side of the workflow board.
2. Next to New Phase, click ADD.
   
3. Enter a phase title and description if needed, then click Save & Next.
   
4. Click Reorder to move the phase to the appropriate point in your workflow.
5. Complete the configuration for the phase depending on its purpose, and reconfigure transitions from other phases to ensure your new phase is included in the end-to-end form workflow.

Start the Workflow with a Trigger

By default, the Vendor Onboarding template starts with an internal request form to capture who requested the vendor, why they are needed, and key information about the relationship from the outset. 

However, depending on how onboarding fits within your Procurement, Vendor, and Contract Management lifecycle, you can choose to initiate the workflow with a trigger instead. 

Part 1: Change the Form Access

To prevent this process from being manually initiated:

1. Click to edit the start phase of the workflow.
2. From Form Access, select the Internal radio button under Authorisation Type.
3. Select the radio button for the relevant stakeholder who should be responsible for completing the start form. If an internal vendor owner is assigned, they are the recommended choice, with Card Creator as a backup. Alternatively, select a team such as Procurement or Vendor Management.

Part 2: Change how the workflow starts

1. From the navigation menu, click Workflows.
   
2. Expand the 3 dots on the relevant workflow, then select Workflow Triggers.
3. Click ➕ ADD TRIGGER.
4. Enter a name, then click Create.
5. Click ➕ ADD to set the trigger conditions.

 

Disable the Public URL Request Form

If you are using the authenticated Employee Portal form to start the workflow, you may want to disable the Public Form to prevent users from accessing the less secure option. To do this:

1. Click the start phase of the workflow to edit it.
2. From Form Access, deselect the Public Form checkbox.
   

 

Hide Phases from the Vendor and Employee Portal

If your workflow is long, or includes AutoAction phases, you can hide certain phases to simplify the Progress tracker view for Employee Portal or Vendor Portal users.

1. From the navigation menu, expand  Modules, then click Vendor Portal or Employee Portal as required.
2. In the Vendor/Employee Portal Workflows section, expand the 3 dots on the relevant workflow, then click Edit.
3. Select the Hide checkbox for the phases you wish to hide.
4. Click Submit to save your changes.

Amend the Workflow Description

When using this workflow in Employee Portal, users will see a description on the request form tile on the Submit Requests dashboard. To amend this:

1. From the navigation menu, click Workflows.
   
2. Expand the 3 dots on the relevant workflow, then select Edit this Workflow.
3. Enter a summary in the Description box to explain to users what the workflow is for, and use HTML tags to format the text.
4. Once finished, click Save.

⚡️Getting Started ⚡️

Once your workflow is fully configured, follow the guidance below to start using it.

If Using the Employee Portal

Once your workflow is configured, users can initiate a new vendor onboarding request via the Submit Requests dashboard. To share the form URL, right-click the Submit Form button to copy the link.

If Using a Public Form

You will need to copy and distribute the form URL. To do this:

1. Click the start phase of the workflow to edit it.
2. From Form Access, copy the URL to share with users.

If Using Triggers

Once your workflow is fully configured, activate the triggers to make it live:

1. From the navigation menu, click Workflows.
   
2. Expand the 3 dots on the relevant workflow, then select Workflow Triggers.
3. For any trigger with a Pipeline status, click on the trigger's name.
4. Click the  pencil icon on Trigger Status.
5. Select Live from the dropdown list, then click Update.
6. Click < Back to return to the list of triggers.
7. Repeat steps 3-5 until all triggers are live.

If triggered by Self Registration, you'll need to make sure vendors have access to the registration link. To copy this: 

1. From the navigation menu, expand  Modules, then click Vendor Portal.
2. Switch on the Enabled toggle under SELF REGISTRATION.
3. Click Copy to store the URL in your clipboard. You can then share the link to the Vendor Portal Registration, for example on your website or email signature.

    

Additional Reading 📚

• ⚡️Vendor Portal Expert - Invitation Emails - Learn to configure how vendor users are invited to the Gatekeeper platform. This is a simple but important step to help set clear expectations and ensure transparency in new relationships.
• ⚡️Vendor Portal Expert - Workflow Phase Notifications - Learn useful tips to ensure every automated email your vendors receive is clear, informative, and well-received.
• ⚡️Vendor Portal Expert - Workflow Phase Reminder Emails - Learn how to configure automated reminder emails for your vendor phases, reducing the need to chase responses.