How can I use Supplier Documentation?

Supplier Documentation is a unique ecratum automation tool of which requests, collects and archives all of your supplier documentation for you. Having Supplier Documentation activated while working on ecratum, you will:

• Increase the quality of your documentation.
• Avoid wasting any more time chasing supplier documentation and let ecratum chase your suppliers for outstanding documents.
• Have a transparent overview of all your supplier documentation.
• See timelines including past status and activities of documentation status.
• Access archived documents/ previous versions of documents.
• Be 365 audit-ready.

Supplier Documentation supports the following document types:

• ISO certificates, HACCP, GMP, BRC certificate, IFS Food certification, Document on Environmental policy, Organic certificate, Declaration of conformity
• Organizational charts
• Insurance policies
• Trade register documentation
• Factory floor plans
• Unsigned declarations of self-commitment

• Send a document task
  • Select document types
  • Create a document task
• Reply to your business partner's response
• Re-validation/ Expiry of the document tasks 
• Supplier Documentation status
• Supplier Documentation timeline
• Supplier Documentation automation
  • How to set up automation for Supplier Documentation

Send a document task

Using Supplier Documentation Module you will be able to send supplier related document tasks to your suppliers in order to requests needed certificates or company documents. You can achieve this by creating a Document task and sending it to your chosen supplier, indicating a need for their response. To be able to use this module:

• Your company must hold the subscription of a Custom Plan.
• You are given permissions to use the module by the plan subscriber of the Custom Plan.

Once you meet the criteria described above, then you can start using the module. To start with sending a document task to your supplier, firstly you need to have at least one selected document type.

Select document types

You can reach the view to select document types in two different ways:

First way: Through Configuration

• Go to Configuration and click on Document Types under the tab called Documents.

Second way: Through Document Task View

• Click on the Add New Task button and select the Document Task option.
• On the new view, click on Add Document Type.

After taking either path, you will be taken to the page where you can view the list of document types that you selected in advance and a button to select new document types.

• Click on the Select Document Types button and select the preferred document types from the drop-down menu and complete your selection by pressing the Update button.

Create a document task

On the view to create a document task,

• Select a receiver company from the drop-down list
• State a receiver group for the selected business partner
• Select a document type
• Press the Create button and the document task will be sent to your business partner.

Reply to your business partner's response

After the task is created and sent to your supplier, the status of the task will remain pending until any action from the receiver is done on the task. When the receiver has responded and uploaded the file; you can review the task and decide to Accept or Reject the document.

• If you accept the file, then automatically you are setting the task to "Done" and hiding it from the view afterward.
• If you reject the file that is uploaded by the receiver, the task will be sent back to the receiver's Inbox. The receiver can again upload a new file or press the button I Don't Have This Document.

When the receiver of the task that you have created responds with: "I don't have this document", in that case, you will have two option to respond in the task: 

1. Acknowledge the response of the receiver, or
2. Re-Request which requires you to leave a comment and then the receiver will be asked again to upload a file.

Re-validation/ Expiry of the document tasks 

Document types define whether a document will have a re-validation or expiry date. Each document type needs to have either an expiry or re-validation period.

Expiry: A date is set manually on the task, defining when the uploaded document will expire.

Re-validation: A system-wide interval for the document kicks in once the document is accepted by you as a sender company user. The interval is defined and managed by ecratum. The receiver company can add a new file here, re-validate the file or say "end of life cycle".

Dates of expiry and re-validation are checked daily and re-validation or expiry tasks are then automatically created by ecratum.

Supplier Documentation status

Supplier Documentation Status is a list of all the supplier documentation of your company with the current task status. You can access this view from the Module Status entry in the sidebar by clicking on Supplier Documentation.

For each Supplier Document task, on this page the following details are shown: 

• Document Type Name
• Company
• Status 
• Valid Until
• Actions: Download, View Task, View File

Each task on this page can have the following status:

• Accepted: When you as a sender accept the task that the receiver sent to you.

• Rejected: When you as a sender reject the task sent by the receiver.

• Pending: This status occurs when you ask the receiver for a document or when you get a document from the receiver, but does not accept it or reject it yet.

• Expired: Document is expired and a new version has not been uploaded yet.

Supplier Documentation timeline

The Supplier Documentation Timeline allows you as a sender user to trace the documentation status of a supplier over time. It can be accessed through:

• My Suppliers by clicking on a supplier's profile

The timeline page shows the document types per supplier and a calendar view. You can see all Supplier Document Types that ecratum has data for regarding a given receiver company, showing a row per supplier document type and all the months of a calendar year.

Supplier Documentation automation

The Supplier Documentation Module enables you to automate the process of requesting documents from your multiple business partners and let you do it all at once. By adding company group automation to your business partners, instead of sending the same document tasks to different business partners on an individual basis, you can send those tasks to them at once and each new company you add to that particular group will be sent out those tasks automatically.

How to set up automation for Supplier Documentation

• Click on Supplier Groups and select My Suppliers out of the group list for which you want to implement automation.

• Select the Automate Document task type by pressing the New Automation button.

• Select document types for document task automation.

• Press the Create Automation button and automation will be created