Vendor Rating > Audits > Start Audit

Through an audit you can easily request all kinds of information from your vendors. The vendor receives an invitation to the VendorLink Supplier Portal, where the information request can be fulfilled. We call this process an 'Audit'.

An audit can be started in two ways:

• By the client user via Vendor Rating > Audits > Start Audit
• By the supplier via the Supplier Portal*

*if activated in the client (Admin > Vendor Rating settings > Audit default settings > 'Audit creation in Supplier Portal').

New or edited information by the vendor will be processed automatically in Vendors after the approval of an Audit. After this has happened, the audit will be archived. Read more about assessing audits here. Archived audits will be moved to Vendor Rating> Audits> Archive.

The following information can be part of an audit; Supplier data (address details), documents, contacts, contract products, categories and surveys.

Start Audit 

Follow the instructions below to set up an audit.

(1) Creating an audit

1. Navigate to Vendor Rating > Audits, and click 'Start Audit'.
2. Enter the basic settings of the Audit. These are explained in the table below.

   Setting	Explanation
   Audit name	De naam van de audit.
   Language of vendor	The language that will be used in the audit.
   Workflow	Select a workflow for the audit. Via a workflow you can have the audit approved by multiple people. Workflows can be set under Admin > General settings > Workflows.
   Notification user	The user who will receive notifications regarding this audit.

3. Click 'Add' to create the audit.

(2) Settings

1. After creating an audit, you end up directly on a page with some basic audit settings. Check the settings you have just set.
2. Enter a signal date. On this date a reminder about the audit will be sent to the notification user.
3. Choose which pieces of information you want the vendor to manage in this audit. Click to move the slider to the left (off) or to the right (on).
   

(3) Vendors

1. In this tab you determine which vendors are part of the audit. In the left column, select the vendor(s) you want to participate in this audit. Selected vendors will be shown in the table at the bottom of the page.
2. If you want to remove a vendor from the audit, select the vendor in the column on the right and click 'Delete'.
3. An e-mail address will also be shown in the table at the bottom of the page. This is the e-mail address the audit invite will be sent to. If you want to change that e-mail address, click on the relevant supplier in the table. Even though the invite is only sent to one e-mail address, all Supplier Portal users of the selected vendors will be able to see this audit once they log into the Supplier Portal.
4. Edit this e-mail address if desired. To do so, click the e-mail address and select or enter a new one.
5. Follow step 1 to 4 until you have set up all vendors and respondents.

(4) Documents

1. This overview shows all checklist items that are linked to the selected vendor(s). You can also link existing checklist items that have not yet been linked to the selected vendor(s) yet so that they will be added to the vendor in Vendor Management once the audit is succesfully completed. Existing checklist items can be found in Admin > Vendors settings > Tables > Checklist items.
2. Check if all the desired checklist items are present in the audit. You can edit and delete checklist items by clicking on a checklist item. In the table below all details of the checklist item overview are explained. These changes will also be saved in Vendor Management once the audit is accepted via a workflow.

(4) Products

1. This overview shows all contract products that are linked to the vendor(s) in the audit. You can edit current contract products here. Changes made here are only applied to the current audit and will be processed in Vendors once the audit is accepted using an audit workflow.
2. Click 'Add' to link a contract product to vendors in the audit. A pop-up window opens where all available contract products are displayed. You create and manage contract products with the relevant contract in Contracts (Contracts> Contracts> Details> Contract Products).
3. A contract product can be removed from the audit by selecting the contract product in the overview and clicking 'Delete' in the pop-up window.
4. If you want to edit a contract product for this audit, click on the desired contract product in the contract products overview.

(5) Surveys

1. In this overview you can add survey templates to the audit. All available survey templates are shown in the column on the left, and all survey templates that are already added are displayed on the right. Linked survey templates apply to all suppliers / respondents.
2. If you would like to add surveys, select one or more survey templates in the left column and click 'Add'. To remove a survey template from the audit, select it in the right column and click 'Delete'.

(6) Send

1. In the last step you can edit the subject and the content of the e-mail sent to the respondents. The mail that is shown here by default is set under Admin > Vendor Rating settings > Audit default settings > Audit e-mail settings.
2. If the e-mail is set up as desired, click 'Send audit' at the top right of the page.

The audit has been sent, and is now visible for all Supplier Portal users that are registered to the Vendors that are part of the audit. For you, the audit is now visibile in Vendor Rating > Audits > Sent.