Running a campaign
Received
The Received table, filters and saved views, accept and reject, and telling suppliers once.
10 min read
When a campaign closes, every submitted item becomes yours to decide. You work them in one filterable table, each item ends up accepted or rejected, and suppliers hear about it in one consolidated email each.
When review opens
Review opens at the close, not before. Until then the Received tab says so, because a decision on an item the supplier can still edit is a decision about something that no longer exists.
Three ways a campaign closes:
- By reaching its deadline. This is the normal one and it needs nobody present.
- By you pressing Close submissions early under Additional actions. Suppliers are notified.
- By a supplier attempting a write after the deadline. The write is refused and the campaign closes on the spot.
At the close, every Submitted item becomes Pending, with you.
The Received table
Every item across every supplier, one row each. The Received tab opens here.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Reference | The item's reference ID, linking to its detail screen. |
| Supplier | The supplier tag the line belongs to. |
| Item | The first field's value, which is what makes a row recognisable without opening it. |
| Status | Plain coloured text. Communicated and revised are flagged alongside, and so is Late: a line filed after the campaign closed, under Accept late or under an edit grant. |
| Decision | Accept and Reject, both visible. Pressing one stages a draft; pressing it again clears it. |
| Any form field | Every field of the campaign's form gets its own column. Change which ones under Filters and columns; the choice is in the URL, so a configured table is a link you can send. |
Drafts and commit
Decisions in the table are two-phase, on purpose.
Set decisions on the rows
Nothing has happened yet. You are marking up a list.
Save decision drafts
Stores your markup without applying it. Come back tomorrow, or hand the campaign to a co-manager, and the drafts are still there.
Commit decisions
Applies every draft at once. The items change status. Suppliers hear about them when the send rule says so, four hours later by default, or sooner if you press Send now.
For a straight run of obvious items, tick the rows. A bar appears above the table with Accept selected and Reject selected, and the keys A and R do the same thing. Either way the decisions are staged as drafts, so Commit decisions is still the step that applies them.
Filters and saved views
Every filter, the sort key and the column selection live in the URL. A filtered view is a shareable link and it survives a reload.
| Filter | Filters on |
|---|---|
| Search | Free text across the reference ID, the supplier name, and every field value. |
| Received from / to | The date the item arrived. |
| Supplier | One supplier. |
| Status | One item status. |
| Origin | How the item was created: submitted online or uploaded from a workbook. |
| Supporting file | Items with, or without, an attachment. |
| Decision communicated | Whether the supplier has been told the current decision. This is your "what still needs sending" filter. |
| Flag | Revised after decision, Incomplete (missing a field the form made required after submission), or Repeats an earlier line. |
| By form field | Per field: contains for text, exact match for pick-lists, and a min/max range for numbers, currency and dates. |
When a filter is active the table says how many of the total it is showing and offers Clear filters, so a filtered table never gets mistaken for an empty campaign.
The two decisions
| Decision | What happens |
|---|---|
| Accept | The line becomes Accepted. It can then be sent a detail-form request. |
| Reject | The line becomes Rejected. Your note is the reason the supplier reads. |
The Note to supplier goes into the decision notification. On a rejection it is the reason; skip it on a plain acceptance. If a line needs a correction rather than a verdict, ask about it in Questions & notes on the item, or grant the supplier edit access to that one line. See Suppliers, tags and access.
Lines that repeat
A workbook uploaded twice, a block of rows pasted again, or a resubmission that adds rather than replaces all leave the same line in a campaign twice. Adding rather than replacing is deliberate, so nothing used to notice, and the repeat was usually found by accepting both.
The table now marks the second one. Two lines from the same supplier are a repeat when every required field of the form holds the same value. The first keeps its place and the later one wears an amber repeats an earlier line badge, so you can tell which is which. The Repeats an earlier line flag filter narrows the table to them.
Suppliers are told at submission time as well, while the workbook is still open in front of them. See Collecting submissions.
Asking about a line
Every item carries a conversation. Open the item and write in Questions & notes; the supplier contacts holding that line's tag are notified and can answer in the same place. The Received table shows a note count on any line that has one, so you can see an open question without opening every line.
This is the question that used to live in Outlook. Keeping it on the line means the answer is still there when somebody else picks the campaign up, and nobody has to search a mailbox for what was agreed.
Telling suppliers
Committing a decision and telling the supplier are two steps, and the gap is deliberate: a committed decision can still be changed until it is sent. The outbox beside the Received table shows how many decisions are waiting and when they go, and carries the rule that decides it.
| Rule | When decisions go out |
|---|---|
| After 4 hours | The default. A decision sends itself once it has sat unchanged for four hours, so a campaign worked through in one sitting reaches suppliers on its own. |
| When I send | Nothing sends until you press Send now. For a review you want fully settled before any supplier hears. |
| On a milestone | Everything settled sends once the chosen milestone's date passes. A review that promised decisions by a date keeps that promise without anybody remembering it. |
Send now works under every rule and sends everything waiting at once.
The Decision communicated filter shows you exactly which items are outstanding. The wording comes from the decision_notification template at Email templates, and every send is in the email log.
Detail forms
For accepted items you can request a detail form: the workbook or document that turns an approved line into something executable.
Attach a template, ideally
Under Setup & formsDetail-form settings you can upload one, pick one from the shared library, or reuse one from a previous campaign. Without a template the supplier sees only your written instructions.
Request them
Request detail forms for accepted items lists every accepted item with a tickbox, all ticked. Untick any that do not need one and press the button. Each item becomes Accepted, with the detail form due.
Track them
The tracker reads Detail forms: 6 of 14 received, listing outstanding and received side by side. Forms appear the moment a supplier uploads, and you and every co-manager are notified.
Chase the stragglers
Remind suppliers with outstanding forms mails only the suppliers who still owe you one.
When it is all done
| Then | Where |
|---|---|
| Look at the numbers | The campaign's Report tab: counts by status and by supplier, with a CSV export. |
| Export the items | Excel or CSV from the campaign, one row per item. |
| Export everything | Data export, one workbook covering the whole workspace. See Admin modules. |
| Archive it | Hides the campaign from the everyday lists and from suppliers entirely, without deleting anything. Restorable. |