The Request Approval workflow is an approval step whereby the Requestor must seek approval from the business, before the new supplier is sent an invite to complete their profile on Canopy. It prevents new suppliers being invited to join your supply chain without prior approval.
NB. Request Approval is an optional workflow step and my not be active on your instance of Canopy. Please consult with you Administrator for more information.
In this article you will learn:
What is the Request Approval workflow
Why Request Approval may be required
Configuration options for the Request Approval workflow
Who is responsible for approving the request
What is the Request Approval workflow
The Request Approval workflow step comes prior to the supplier being invited to fill out their profile on Canopy. Request Approval governs which suppliers will be permitted to 'apply' for access to your supply chain. It is an exchange that takes place internally to the customer, between the Requestor (i.e. the business user requesting that a new supplier is added to the system) and the Request Approver (i.e. the person with authority to approve the request).
Once approval has been granted and the supplier is invited, all the usual approval gates remain in place to review the supplier's profile prior to publication. Request Approval sits as an additional preliminary step that allows you to govern which new suppliers are allowed to be invited to complete a profile on Canopy.
Why Request Approval may be required
In some cases, companies are looking to expand their supply chain and actively encourage new suppliers into Canopy. For these companies, the Request Approval step is often disabled.
However, most companies will want to introduce a degree of control over when a new supplier is allowed to be invited into Canopy.
For example:
- You may have too many suppliers in a particular category or geography, and would prefer to encourage repeat trade within your existing supplier base before adding new suppliers.
- You may want to introduce an approval gate for high spend suppliers as a means to control expenditure.
- You may want new suppliers who flag as High Risk to receive formal approval before they are invited to Canopy.
Configuration options for the Request Approval workflow
There are three different configuration options for the Request Approval workflow, which are detailed below. To understand how Request Approval has been configured on your instance of Canopy, please consult your Administrator.
Option 1: All suppliers are invited with no approval
All suppliers, regardless of who they are, may be invited to Canopy without prior approval.
In this case, the Requestor will experience the following behaviour:
- Complete the Request Form
- Click the Invite Supplier button at the bottom of the page
- Supplier will be sent an email inviting them to complete their Supplier Profile
All suppliers will still need to submit their profiles and go through the formal approval process before they are 'Published' and made available for trade.
Option 2: Approval is governed by rules, such as spend, risk, category, supplier type, etc.
Suppliers may be required to go through an approval gate depending on a set of conditions. For example, you may wish high spend suppliers or high risk suppliers to require approval before they are invited, whereas low spend and low risk suppliers can be invited straight away. The exact configuration of these rules will be determined by your Administrator.
In this case, the Requestor will experience the following behaviour:
- Complete the Request Form
- At the bottom of the Request Form, you will either be presented with an Invite Supplier (which means the supplier will be invited without requiring approval), or a Request Supplier button (which means approval will be required)
- If Request Approval is required: the Request Approver will be notified, and will need to approve the new supplier request
- Once the request has been approved, the supplier will be sent an email inviting them to complete their Supplier Profile. The Requestor will also be notified that their request has been approved.
All suppliers will still need to submit their profiles and go through the formal approval process before they are 'Published' and made available for trade.
Option 3: All new supplier requests require approval
All new supplier requests will need to be approved before the supplier is invited.
In this case, the Requestor will experience the following behaviour:
- Complete the Request Form
- Click the Request Supplier button at the bottom of the page
- The Request Approver will be notified, and will need to approve the new supplier request
- Once the request has been approved, the supplier will be sent an email inviting them to complete their Supplier Profile. The Requestor will also be notified that their request has been approved.
All suppliers will still need to submit their profiles and go through the formal approval process before they are 'Published' and made available for trade.
Who is responsible for approving the request
The Request Approver is responsible for approving all new supplier requests. This is a dedicated user role in Canopy. Request Approvers will be notified by email when they have new supplier requests to review, and they will be able to see a list of all outstanding new supplier requests in their Worklist.
Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to complete Request Approval