• Introduction
• Setting up Company Folders
• Setting up Company Files
• Creating a List
• Creating a Project
• Reviewing Document Responses
• Document Roles

Introduction

The Authenticate Document Management module enables you to create a central store and provides a management tool for sending documents to and requesting documents from suppliers, eliminating the need to manage this through time-consuming processes such as e-mail. 

The module has several key concepts: 

• Documents: This is a store of folders and sub-folders determined by your organisation/business. These folders contain ‘files’.
  
      Read/Approval Document - a document to send to a supplier to obtain a read receipt with an electronic signature.
      Request Document - Create a ‘document request’ to request a specific document to be provided by the supplier.
  
  Files contain a level of metadata, this should be given a lot of consideration as you may want to be able to track and report against supplier compliance over time. 

• Lists: The Lists area of Document Management allows users to create a list of individuals within a defined distribution list for the purposes of sending one or many documents too. Lists can be added too over time and are defined by various filters such as risk, function, location, and supplier relationship. 

• Projects: When you want to send out documents to a group (or many groups), you create a Project. A Project is a convenient way to combine both the documents and recipients into an area allowing you to track progress. Each Project can contain multiple documents and multiple recipients. Projects may be used to group by the process – for example, “Supplier Onboarding” where each new supplier is required to accept and provide several documents to be compliant.

Setting up Company Folders

The first step is to create your folders. From the main menu, select “Document Management” then click the ‘Add Folder’ button.

Folders and sub-folders can be determined by your organisation on set-up. Each folder requires a Name. To create a sub-folder, simply select the parent folder for which you wish to add the sub-folder within and select ‘Add Document’. To amend a folder name or to delete it completely, simply select the ‘3 dot icon’ and amend, as necessary. (Please note that you can only delete a folder that contains no files).

Setting up Company Files

Now that you have your folder structure set up, you can now start to populate your files. There are 3 different types of file that you can add.

1. Read – Read documents are where you upload a file to send to a supplier to obtain a read receipt with an electronic signature – for example; terms and conditions, animal welfare policy, ethical policy, or any other standard you require your suppliers to adhere to.
2. Approval – Add a document for the recipient to read and approve
3. Request – Request Documents are placeholders for information that you require a supplier to provide such as a ‘Modern Slavery Statement’ , pesticide reports, or business plans.

To add a file, select the folder/sub-folder that you wish for this to be stored in and select the ‘Add Document’ button.
After selecting ‘Add Document’ the platform will prompt you to select the functionality that the document will relate to (Read, Approval, or Request).
When adding an ‘Approval or Read Document’ – it will ask you to select the specific file and then provide some further data.
The file name will auto-populate based on your existing file name. You can amend this if required. You can also add a ‘category’ to your file to better manage and store documents. These are pre-defined lists based on previously added data – for example, if you add a category of policies, this will then show on further files added as a drop-down option. A start date and an end date can be added where a file requires review and/or updating periodically. Keywords are a lower level of categorisation to aid reporting (for example, 2020 or “Contingency Plans”). Now that you have your file stored, you can update this as required by selecting the ‘3 Dots’ at the end of the file details.
When adding a ‘Request’ File, you follow the same process, the only difference is you will not be asked to add your own file. Once you have files stored, you can update the ‘Versions of these’. This essentially means that you are replacing the original file with a new version. For example, you update your terms and conditions annually, so you want to update the version of the document. This can be achieved by selecting ‘New Version’ Next to the file name.

Creating a list

Lists are the second step when setting up your Document Area.

Lists are defined as a static list of recipients for whom you wish to categorise into groups – For example by product, location, or relationship.

To set up Lists, go to the Lists Area and select the option ‘Add List’.

At this stage you are selecting the various filters that apply to the group of recipients for whom you wish to send one or many documents.

Apply your filters as required selecting from either those already in your network (those companies that you have already mapped a product to) or from the Authenticate Directory.

In order to ensure that when you are sending out the various tasks for Documents, these are receive and responded to by the correct recipient, you either select from the existing ist of recipients or add a new contact with an e-mail. If you choose to not select a specific recipient, it will notify you that:  ‘If you do not specify an individual recipient, there is no guarantee that the correct person will receive an e-mail alert to complete the required tasks by your specified due date when sending requests’. You can ignore this warning, but we advise defining a specific recipient for each company you wish to send documents to. You can create a group and publish it or simply save it as a draft. Once you have a published group, you can add further recipients and companies to this list by selecting the ‘3 dots’ to add to an existing group.

Creating a Document Request

Now that folders, documents, and groups are set up, we can now move on to sending out document requests.

The ‘Document Requests’ area is the method of sending out a number of documents to a

number of groups.

To create a new ‘Project’ and send out your requests, go to the ‘Document Requests’ area and select ‘Request New Documents’.

Your Project requires a subject and a description – this information will appear in the email to suppliers as well as on their homepage task. 

At this point, you are now going to select the Documents from your folders that you wish the supplier to provide or confirm.

You can select multiple documents at this stage by navigating through your folders and selecting the required files which will then populate at the bottom to show ‘Selected Files’.

Now that you have the required files/tasks, you will now need to select the List(s) that you wish to be sent the task to complete.

You can select one or many groups at this stage.

You have now set up your ‘Project’ ready to send. Simply review the information set up by documents, lists, and e-mail description, along with providing a ‘Due Date’ for when you require your suppliers to return the required documents by. You must also select at least one ‘Assignee’ from your company to be responsible for the project.

Once you are happy, select the ‘Send’ button. This will create the tasks for each of the recipients. Each recipient will receive an e-mail notification along with a task on their Company Profile to complete.

Reviewing Document Responses

Once you have created a ‘Project’ you can view the progress and responses from

your suppliers.

Once a supplier has responded to your ‘Project’ you will be able to see this via the

progress on the individual request.

A supplier can create a ‘query’ if they are unsure of the required task or simply want to ask something about the document, this will appear in their response.

From this query, you can respond back to the supplier, ensuring that you maintain full transparency and communication through the Platform. Simply add a response to the query and send back to the supplier.

This can also be used to query a provided document from a supplier. If they have added an incorrect document, you can raise a query in response to the supplier's submission.

If you are happy with the provided documents and read receipts provided by your supplier, simply open the individual response on the Space and select the ‘Approve Project’. This allows you to track supplier responses you have approved and checked.

Document Roles

Now that you have access to the Document Management module, you may not wish to grant every platform user within your organisation with access.

We have therefore set up Document Roles; Documents

1. Document Admin – This user role allows for full access
2. Document Reader – This user role only allows the user to view existing documents and folders

Any user with Company Admin rights in your business can set Document permissions for your users.

In order to set this up, simply go to the user profile under “Settings” > ”Users” on the

main menu and amend as required.