Section Approval is a workflow step that is triggered when a supplier submits their profile for review. It allows for multiple specialist teams to run in parallel, each reviewing their own section of the Supplier Profile.
In this article you will learn:
When is Section Approval triggered
Responsibility of Section Approvers
What happens once Section Approval is complete
Configuration options for the Section Approval workflow
What is Section Approval
The Supplier Profile contains a wide range of information covering each aspect of the supplier relationship. This may include:
- Financial information
- Compliance information, such as Health & Safety, Modern Slavery and Information Security
- Contractual information
- ESG and Diversity information
As a result, approving a supplier is likely to involve input from multiple teams within your organisation, each with responsibility to review the sections to the profile that is relevant to them.
Section Approval allows for multiple teams to review the Supplier Profile in parallel.
Each Section Approver team will be notified by email and through their Worklist when they have a supplier awaiting their review. They may enter the Supplier Profile, conduct their review, and complete their assessment independently of the other Section Approval teams.
Once all Section Approval teams have finished, the supplier will move to the next step in the workflow.
Who are the Section Approvers
Section Approvers are any user of Canopy who has been assigned to the relevant ‘approver’ User Group(s). Assigning someone to one of these User Groups will grant them the appropriate approval permissions.
When is Section Approval triggered
Section Approval is triggered in three scenarios:
- New suppliers who submit their profile for the first time. Section Approval is the first workflow step after the supplier submits.
- Existing suppliers who update information on their profile and resubmit. If new information was entered into a section of the profile that requires reapproval, the relevant Section Approval team(s) will be informed.
- Suppliers who have been asked to clarify information on their profile, through the Return To Supplier process. Upon the supplier resubmitting their profile, the relevant Section Approval team(s) will be informed.
Responsibility of Section Approvers
The Section Approver is responsible for completing 2 core tasks:
- Completing each of the Approvals that have been assigned to you, which are indicated by the presence of blue Approval buttons.
- Completing an overall profile review by navigating to the Review tab and clicking the blue button ‘Approved for [section approval name]’. This tells Canopy that you are satisfied with your review.
Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to complete Section Approval
What happens once Section Approval is complete
Where your specific configuration includes a Final Approval step, the Supplier Profile will pass from the Section Approver to a Final Approver before it can be published. In cases where the Final Approval work step is not active, the last Section Approver to complete their review will ‘publish’ the supplier.
Configuration options for the Section Approval workflow
Section Approval is governed by the Approver User Groups. You may have as many Section Approver User Groups as you wish.
By default, Canopy comes with the following 5 Section Approver User Groups:
- Procurement - responsible for approving the general supplier information, and assessing the supplier’s Anti Bribery & Corruption. Procurement is also responsible for approving ESG and Diversity information
- Finance - responsible for approving the supplier’s banking and tax information, and defining the Finance Settings for correct downstream setup
- Health & Safety - responsible for assessing the supplier’s Health & Safety Risk and reviewing the mitigating evidence they have provided
- InfoSec - responsible for assessing the supplier’s Data Protection & Security Risk and reviewing the mitigating evidence they have provided
- Modern Day Slavery - responsible for assessing the supplier’s Modern Day Slavery Risk and reviewing the mitigating evidence they have provided