Learn how to set up a workflow which allows your Vendors to submit request forms, similar to Employee Portal!
Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes
Estimated Configuration Time: 20 - 30 Minutes
☑️ Requires: Vendor Portal
Sections in this Article
Configuration
Configuration Steps to make "Vendor Portal Request Form" workflow
▶️ Building a "Vendor Details Update" Form
▶️ Building a "Contract (/payment/Invoice/SoW) Request" Form
Enabling a form for all your Existing Vendors
Enabling a form for your New Vendors
Introduction & Demonstration
This article walks you through a method for adding a type of "self-serve" workflow form for your Vendor Portal users
Of course, you may want to be the one to dictate the initial set of tasks/forms presented to your Vendor...
💡 For most Gatekeeper clients, this usually takes the form of Onboarding & Due Diligence Assessment Forms
However, once you have completed your required workflow tasks, you can use the guidance from the below article to enable your Vendors to submit workflow cards to you when they need!
In the below guidance, this takes the form of simpler processes like a "Vendor Details Update Request", allowing Vendors to request changes to the metadata you have on record for them
But there's also guidance for Contract Requests - these could be adapted and applied to more complex processes such as PO/Invoice Payment Requests, or even more advanced like Sales Partnership Referrals, Recruitment Referrals
Example Diagram
Configuration, Step-by-Step
Preliminary Note
It might go without saying, but you should design and build the workflow you want to facilitate your process before applying these steps to make your workflow into a form available to your Vendor Portal users
⬇️ Below ⬇️ we will have some example use case complete configuration videos, but the below step-by-step instructions only cover how to get these request forms made available to your Vendors
Part 1 - Configure the Start Phase
Form Access Settings:
Authorisation Type: 🔘 Vendor Portal
Assign Card Owner to: 🔘 All Vendor Users
NB. If a particular form should only be available to a specific user from your Vendor, you can choose a dedicated Stakeholder by using an option like 🔘 Vendor | Owner
Form Settings:
Add a "Vendor Portal Guidance (& Context)" Form Section
See ⚡️ Vendor Portal Expert - Workflow Instructions for additional guidance
Add the predefined Vendor Core Data form section
Add any other Metadata required for your workflow
e.g.
For a Vendor Update Request Form, any suitable Custom Vendor Metadata sections
For a new Contract Request Form, the predefined Contract Core Data (& any additional Contract Custom Metadata) form sections
Transitions Settings:
On submission: Send to next phase of workflow
Part 2 - Configure a "Workflow Status" Custom Field
This new "status" field will provide 3 uses & benefits
1) It will allow you to control the criteria for which Vendors have the form available to them
2) It will allow you to view while on the Vendor record whether the form is available for Vendor input or the form has been submitted
3) It will allow you to trigger the workflow en-masse to make your forms available to all Vendors (see the ⬇️ below section ⬇️ for more context)
Step 1) Go to Settings > Configuration > Custom Data
Step 2) Open (or create) a Vendor Custom Group where you want to add your field
Step 3) Hit ➕ Add New Custom Field
Label: [Workflow Name/Request Form Name] + "Status"
Type: Dropdown
Options:
Request Form Available ✅
Request Form Being Processed ⏳
N/A
Part 3 - Configure your Trigger
Step 1) Go to the Workflows page
Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option
Step 3) Hit ➕ ADD TRIGGER
Step 4) Name your trigger then hit ✅ Create
Step 5) Use ➕ ADD to select the Custom Field from part 2 as the Condition
Step 6) Change your Trigger Status from Pipeline to Live
Part 4.1 - Vendor AutoAction after Forms are Submitted
After your Vendor Portal Form Phase, you should add a new AutoAction phase
Step 1) Add your new phase
Label: ⚙️ AutoUpdate Status ⚙️
Step 2) Reorder your form to position this phase straight after the Vendor Form
Step 3) Configure the AutoAction | Update Vendor on your new phase
☑️ Submit Card on Action
Edit AutoAction Values: Set your new Status field to Form Being Processed ⏳
Step last) Repoint the Transition from your Vendor Form phase to this new phase
Pictured: Configuring the AutoAction (Step 3)
Part 4.2 - Vendor AutoAction on the Done phase
Depending on your workflow, you may have one of these already. If so, you simply need to update the setting for what this AutoAction does to your new status field from Part 2
Step 1) Edit the Done phase of your workflow
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Enable ⚙️ AutoAction | Update Vendor
Step 4) Hit Edit AutoAction Values
Step 5) Alongside your custom Status field, select the Request Form Available ✅ option
Step 6) Hit ✅ Save
💡 This AutoAction could also be used to automatically save other updates made during the workflow form (using ☑️ Take Value From Form)
However, the main purpose should be to set the above Status which will re-trigger a new form for your Vendor
Workflows Build Walkthroughs 👨🏫
Walkthrough Video: Setting up a Vendor Update Request Workflow
Walkthrough Video: A "Contract" Request Workflow for Vendors
💡 Want to request a new walkthrough for this type of use case?
For Example,
A "Site/System Access requests" for Vendors
A "Referral Form for Recruitment & Partnerships Consultants"
Then submit a new request here & we'll review it for a new knowledgebase guide!
Retroactively adding Request Forms for for already-live Vendors
Once you have set up your workflow & status fields, you can use this field to bulk trigger all pre-existing vendors, meaning both new and old vendors will have access to your new "Request Forms"
Step 1) Go to the Vendors repository
Step 2) Hit Export > CSV | All Pages
Step 3) Open this CSV in an editor like Excel or Google Sheets
Step 4) Find the column for your new Custom Status field & populate the value for all vendors which will cause the workflow to trigger
✋ CHANGE NOTHING ELSE IN THE DOCUMENT 🤚
Step 5) Export your excel/sheet to a new CSV file
Step 6) Back in your Vendors repository, hit Add > Bulk Import then use your newly created CSV as the Import File
Adding the Request Forms to your Vendors' Gatekeeper Lifecycle
Once you have configured a Vendor Portal Form and made this available to all your current Vendor Portal users, you should make sure that this will run on autopilot for any new vendors you add to Gatekeeper
And - as long as you have a Gatekeeper workflow to facilitate creating new Vendor records - you can automate this!
Step 1) If it is not already present, add the Custom Group containing your Form Status field to the Form of the Vendor setup workflow
Step 2) In your Vendor Setup Workflow, if you do not already have this, enable AutoAction | Update Vendor on your Done phase
Step 3) For this Done phase's AutoAction, hit Edit AutoAction Values
Step 4) For your custom status field, set the value in the AutoAction to be "Form Available ✅"
FAQ 💬
Q: I want to use the Vendor Data Update Request Form, what if the Vendor's data is changed elsewhere (e.g. another Workflow or manually in the repository)?
A: While, unlikely, this is technically a possibility and may cause issues because the Form data from this workflow will not automatically update to reflect changes in other processes
This is why we recommend using the manual Update Vendor action: You will be able to see exactly which fields have been amended from the repository value and (hopefully) this will be limited to a small number of expected changes
Pictured: The view from a workflow card screen when performing the Update Vendor action
Q: Are "Data Update Requests" the main application of this guide?
A: Definitely a useful application, but no - you could enable this for any intake forms you wish to be available for your Vendors, including new contract requests, invoice submissions and so on