Teams: areas, modules and sign-off rules

Teams let different groups work in one SupplierVault the way they actually work. For example, an IT procurement team runs requirements, sourcing and onboarding, and when a supplier goes live it passes to the IT supplier management team, while Facilities looks after its own suppliers. Each team covers its own areas, sees its own modules and can set its own go-live sign-off rules. Teams are included from the Professional plan.

With no teams set up, everyone works as one team, exactly as before. Small organisations don't need to set up anything.

Set up a team

1. Go to Settings › Teams (admins only) and select Add a team.
2. Team: choose one of your teams. These are the teams on the Stakeholders page, so a person's team is the one on their stakeholder record.
3. What the team does: Procurement, Supplier management, Procurement and supplier management for a team that does both, or Another team, such as Finance or Legal for teams that sign off or review but don't run suppliers.
4. Areas it covers: tick the areas, such as Technology or Facilities. Leave them all unticked for a team that covers every area.
5. Modules this team sees: untick any the team doesn't use. Only modules switched on for everyone in Modules & forms are listed.
6. For a supplier management team, tick Handover if someone in the team must accept each supplier handed over at go-live and name its supplier manager.
7. For a procurement team, or one that does both, set Go-live sign-off for each tier: who signs off ("As in Process" keeps your tier policy) and an optional Second sign-off from another team, such as Finance.
8. Select Save teams. "Not saved yet" shows until you do, and Undo changes puts things back. Every change is kept in the audit trail.

What each team sees

• People in a team that covers set areas see the suppliers in those areas, plus any supplier whose Managed by team is their team. A banner names the team.
• Their lists, Dashboard, charts and totals cover their own suppliers. An Across the company panel on the Dashboard shows numbers only for every area: suppliers being onboarded, live suppliers, committed spend, contracts ending in the next 90 days, contracts past their end date and open tasks. It never shows other teams' supplier names, and leaves out any number that describes fewer than 3 suppliers: an area with fewer than 3 suppliers shows only how many there are, a currency with fewer than 3 suppliers' spend in it isn't added in ("part hidden"), and counts under 3 show as a dash. That way no single supplier's details can be worked out. The panel only appears once teams are set up.
• A team that covers every area, such as procurement, sees every supplier. Admins always see everything.
• People whose team isn't set up here. Once any team covers set areas and access by area is on, someone whose team isn't listed in Settings › Teams (for example Finance or Legal, a team that has been renamed, or someone who is Unassigned) sees only the areas an admin has given them in the Team tab, and nothing if they're on "All areas". Settings › Teams lists any such teams. Add them as "Another team" covering every area if they should see all suppliers.
• When access by area is off (Account › Organisation), a team's areas only set what its people see first: Show all suppliers on the banner shows everyone's, and anyone can still open any supplier. Settings › Teams offers Limit each team to its areas to turn access by area on.
• When access by area is on, the database enforces it: people can't open, change or download suppliers outside their team's areas, or anything linked to them (tasks, invoices, files, history, portal links and signatures). The calendar feed and email reminders follow the same rules. Areas an admin gives someone in the Team tab are added to their team's areas.

Modules for each team

A team sees only the pages for the modules ticked for it, and the matching sections on a supplier record are hidden: Payments & accounts, Spend & consumption, Purchase requests and orders, Third-party risk, AI use, Governance and Continuous improvement. Opening a hidden page goes to the Dashboard. The Dashboard, onboarding, tasks and stakeholders are always there.

Modules decide what a team sees, not what it may change, and they don't change a supplier's go-live gates. To limit what someone can change, use Custom roles.

Go-live sign-off and a second sign-off

A supplier follows the sign-off rules of the procurement team covering its area. Where that team hasn't set a rule for a tier, the tier policy in Process applies.

1. When the go-live gates are green, the first approver selects Give the first sign-off. The supplier stays in onboarding and a task, "Give the second go-live sign-off for …", goes to the second team.
2. Someone in the second team, or someone covering for them, selects Give the second sign-off and go live. The supplier becomes Active and both names are in the log.

The second sign-off must come from a different person, in the team the rules name, after the first. Nobody can give the second sign-off on behalf of the person who gave the first. The database checks all of this, and also that the first (or only) sign-off comes from the tier's approving team. Changing a supplier's tier or area in the same save as signing off can't loosen the rules: the stricter of the old and new rules applies. If a supplier's tier or area changes while it's still being onboarded, any sign-off already given is cleared and must be given again. Whenever a supplier arrives in Active or Under review (including coming back from Offboarded), its sign-offs are checked against its current tier and area. A supplier that goes back to onboarding needs a new named sign-off to go live again: "in use before SupplierVault" only applies to suppliers that are already live. Only a signed-in person can record a sign-off, a handover or a go-live: SupplierVault's own connections (the supplier portal, the API, accounting software) can't. Once a supplier is live, only an admin can move it to a tier or area whose rules its sign-off doesn't meet. With no second sign-off set, the button is Sign off and go live as usual. See Onboarding.

Handover at go-live

• When a supplier goes live it passes to the supplier management team covering its area, or to its Managed by team if one is chosen.
• If that team must accept handovers, the supplier record shows "Waiting for … to accept this supplier" and the team gets a task, "Accept the handover of … and name its supplier manager". Someone in the team chooses the Supplier manager and selects Accept the handover. Only people in that team, or an admin, can accept, change or remove a handover that's waiting. A supplier can only be handed to the team the rules give it, and a team that must accept can't be skipped. Changing a live supplier's area or Managed by team to a team that must accept starts a new handover waiting for them. A handover that's still waiting follows the supplier to its new team, or is completed straight away if that team doesn't need to accept. Every change of Managed by team is recorded in the supplier's activity. The database checks all of this.
• If the team doesn't need to accept, the supplier is handed over straight away.
• A team that does both procurement and supplier management keeps its suppliers, with no handover. If no supplier management team covers an area, those suppliers stay with procurement.
• Procurement keeps full access to suppliers after handing them over, for example for re-tendering at renewal.

Managed by team

Only supplier management teams (or teams that do both) can manage a supplier, and only they get access through "Managed by team". To give one supplier to such a team that doesn't cover its area, for example a Technology supplier that Facilities looks after, open the supplier, select Edit details and choose the Managed by team. "Team for its area" uses the team covering the supplier's area. The supplier's tasks, invoices, files and history go with it. Only someone who covers the supplier's area, or an admin, can change it. In the same way, only someone who covers both the old and the new area can move a supplier to another area: being in the team that manages a supplier isn't enough.

Good to know

• Who gets each task is still set by the team and by Settings › "Who reviews what, by area".
• If your plan stops including teams (for example you move to Essentials), team areas and "Managed by team" stop applying, and everyone goes back to the areas set for them in the Team tab. Your team settings are kept for when you move back.
• Teams are confirmed by an admin, for a particular person. Anyone who can edit can add a stakeholder and choose their team, for routing tasks. But a team only gives access, team areas or sign-off rights once an admin has confirmed it: when an admin adds the stakeholder, or with Confirm team on the Stakeholders page, which says who it will apply to (the person signed in with that address, or "no one has signed in with this address yet"). Editing anything else doesn't confirm a team.
• A stakeholder record belongs to a person, not an address. It's linked to someone's sign-in when an admin confirms it, when they join through an invitation or your identity provider, or when they add their own record. After that, changing a sign-in address to match someone else's record gives no access, team or sign-off rights, and a leaver's address passed to someone new doesn't carry their team. Only an admin can change the email of a stakeholder who has a team or signs in. Two stakeholders with the same address are flagged "Same email as another stakeholder: review" and neither is linked until one is removed or corrected. Email addresses must be plain (no spaces or special characters).
• Moving someone to another team on the Stakeholders page changes what they can open straight away; their banner and lists catch up the next time they open SupplierVault. Only an admin can change the team of someone who signs in.
• Removing every team puts things back to one team, with the sign-off rules in Process.
• API keys aren't limited by team: a key sees every area.
• On the Essentials plan the Teams settings are shown but can't be saved.
• A document can only be replaced or deleted by someone who can see the supplier it belongs to.
• Only an admin can import or add suppliers that are already in use (Stage Active or Under review), because they skip the go-live sign-off. Others can import suppliers to onboard (Stage Intake and so on).