To submit your response to a Buyer’s Request or Tender, Suppliers will need to Create a Response using the Response Wizard in VendorPanel. This allows you to send documents and any other necessary information to the Buyer.

Creating a Response

To create your response you will need to click the pen and paper icon to the right of the Request or Tender.

This will open up a Response Wizard where you will be able to create your response. Steps for completion are outlined at the top of the page.

You will need to follow the prompts to complete each step. You will need to finish all the required fields and steps before you can submit the response.

As you progress through each step, clicking on Update (or Save) & Continue at the bottom will save your progress as a draft response. You can come back to your draft before the closing date and time to complete and post your response.

Supplier Details

The first step is confirming the Supplier List you are responding against and the Supplier you are responding as.

In most cases, there will only be one option for both and will be automatically selected. If multiple Supplier Lists were selected on the Request then you will have multiple options to choose from. If you are registered on the same list as a Vendor Admin and as a Colleague to someone else using different business details then you will have multiple options to choose from.

Once you've made your selections you can press the Save and Continue button to proceed to the next step.

Response Details

The next step is Response Details. You must ensure that you complete the ‘Enter the details of your response’ section as this is required.

Anything relevant to your response can be entered here, however, if you’re attaching documents as the core of your response then you can use this field to indicate this to the buyer (eg. "Refer to attached documentation").

The remaining fields are optional but can be used if needed.

Select Update and Continue to head to the next step.

Answer Questions

The Answer Questions step will only be visible if the Buyer has elected to add questions to your request. Questions that you are required to answer will be marked as red where required.

Once you have answered the questions, you can press the Update and Continue button to proceed.

Add Files

The Add Files step allows you to attach documents. The Multiple file upload mode allows you to attach up to 50 files to upload at the same time at a maximum of 15Mb each.

If the file size of your documents is above this limit you can click the Switch to large file upload mode button. Switching to the large file upload mode allows you to attach a total of 5 documents (one at a time) greater than 15Mb up to 150Mb each in size.

You cannot upload documents larger than 150Mb to your response.

Once you've uploaded all of your attachments you can press Update and Continue.

Pricing Mode

On the Pricing step, you will be asked to choose to use either the Detailed pricing Mode or the Summary pricing Mode.

Detailed pricing allows you to build a detailed quote providing prices line by line, whereas the Summary mode allows you to enter an overall value.

You can find an overview and instructions on how to use the Detailed mode here: Responding to a Detailed Quote using QuoteBuilder.

When selecting the Summary mode, you'll need to enter your overall price, tax component and select if the price is estimated or fixed. You'll also have the ability to add any notes or comments into the textbox (eg. "Refer to attached pricing schedule").

When Buyers are creating a request they will select whether it's mandatory for a Supplier to provide a price with their response or not.

• If it states on the page that the buyer has requested you to provide the following pricing details, this will mean the buyer has made providing a price mandatory and you will need to enter a value to progress to the next step.
• If providing a price has been set to Optional by the Buyer then you will see this listed on the Summary Prices page.

You can click on the Update and Continue when you've entered your price.

If you have selected one of the methods and wish to switch to the other, you can use the button in the top right to do so. Switching from one mode to the other will mean you lose any progress you made on that mode.

Account Details

The Account Details step requires you to check and confirm your business number and name that will be invoiced are correct. These details are prepopulated by what is set on your profile. You can update these fields if required.

You can click on the Update and Continue button to move on to the final step.

Save Response

The final step is Save Response. Here you can choose to either post your response or save it as a draft.

By clicking the Save as draft button, your response will not be sent to the Buyer. To submit your response to the Buyer you will need to click the Post to Buyer >> button before the Request/Tender closes.

Response Sent Confirmation

Upon submission of your response, you will receive the following confirmation window that your response has been submitted.

On your dashboard, you should also notice that the Create a response button has now highlighted green and a confirmation notice below stipulates that You've responded.

Response Wizard Controls

At any point during the Response Wizard, you can Preview, Delete, or Exit the Request.

• Preview: Shows the version of the Response that Buyers will see.
• Delete: Will delete the Response you are working on.
• Exit: Will take you out of the Response Wizard. All saved changes will be kept as a draft. Anything unsaved will be lost.