Use case · Vendor onboarding
The supplier file, assembled by the supplier.
Vendor onboarding is the process that crosses the most boundaries — the vendor has no login, legal is often external, finance needs the paperwork, and procurement needs the whole thing evidenced. Requester handles all four without an email chain.
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OPS-56
External · ops@northwind.example
Vendor onboarding — Northwind Logistics
- Legal entity name
- Northwind Logistics Ltd
- Registration number
- SC-4471902
- Category
- Logistics & fulfilment
- Documents
- MSA (signed), insurance cert, W-9
- Data processing agreementprocesses personal data
- Required — handles customer addresses
Submitted through a public intake link. No account, no seat, full attribution.
An email chain with eleven attachments and four people on cc
Every vendor onboarding is a small project managed entirely in an inbox, and the person who managed it is the only one who knows where anything is.
Onboarding by email
- The vendor sends documents in three separate replies, two of them to the wrong person.
- Legal reviews a contract version that finance has already renegotiated.
- Nobody can say whether the insurance certificate was ever actually checked.
- The whole file exists in one person's mailbox and leaves when they do.
Onboarding as a request
- The vendor fills a structured form and attaches everything in one submission.
- Legal and finance approve in sequence, each seeing the same current record.
- Required documents are required fields — the form cannot be submitted without them.
- The file is the request: documents, approvals, questions, and decisions in one place.
Four parties, three of whom don’t work here
This is the process that breaks tools which assume every participant has a login. Requester assumes the opposite.
Vendor onboarding — execution
intake:external-link
Vendor submits
Public tokenized URL. No account, no seat, external attribution.
approval:team
Procurement review
Confirms the vendor is one we actually want to onboard.
condition
processes_personal_data == true
Pulls in the DPA path only when the vendor touches personal data.
approval:external
Outside counsel
Approves by email. Single-use link, no login, recorded as external:<email>.
approval:group
Finance — payment terms
A reviewer group; any one of them can set terms and approve.
action:set-status
Status: Approved supplier
A custom workspace status, mapped to the Approved category.
In a group chat
3–6 weeks
Most of it spent waiting on a document that was sent to somebody's personal inbox.
On Requester
Days
The vendor submits everything at once; approvals run in sequence with reminders on each step.
Illustrative. The compression comes from removing the round trips, not from rushing the reviews — legal still takes as long as legal takes, but it starts on day one with a complete file.
Link it to what comes next
Typed request links let every purchase against this supplier point back at the onboarding that approved them. When procurement asks how a vendor got authorised, the answer is one click from the purchase, not an afternoon in an archive.
A supplier file that survives the person who built it
One record, everything on it
Documents, approvals, questions, and the AI-written decision narrative on a single request.
External sign-off, internally evidenced
Outside counsel's approval carries the same audit weight as an employee's — actor, timestamp, and all.
No seats for outsiders
The vendor submits free, external approvers decide free. You pay only for internal reviewers.
A queryable supplier list
Saved views by category and status, exportable to CSV when procurement wants the whole register.
What this process leans on
External intake links
A tokenized public URL per template, so the vendor assembles their own file.
Learn moreExternal approvers
Counsel and other outsiders decide by email with single-use links and no account.
Learn moreAttachments & signature fields
Contracts, certificates, and signatures captured on the form with presigned access.
Learn moreRequest linking
Typed relations tying purchases back to the vendor approval that authorised them.
Learn moreOn vendor onboarding
- How does the vendor give us their details without an account?
- An external intake link — a tokenized public URL for that template. The vendor fills the form, attaches their documents, and submits with no account and no seat. The submission is attributed to them as an external submitter and lands in your queue like any other request.
- Can our outside counsel approve the contract step?
- Yes. External approvers decide by email with no login. They get a branded message with single-use magic links, and their decision is recorded in the audit log as external:<email> — as traceable as an internal one.
- Where do the vendor's documents live?
- Attached to the request, with presigned access and previews. Insurance certificates, W-9s, signed MSAs, and security questionnaires all sit on the same record as the approvals, so the file is one link rather than a folder someone has to assemble.
- Can we link the vendor record to the purchases that follow?
- Yes, using typed request links — relates to, blocks, blocked by, parent of. A purchase request can point back at the vendor onboarding that authorised the supplier, which is exactly the trail a procurement audit walks.
- Can we white-label what the vendor sees?
- Branded emails and public pages carry your workspace logo and name on all plans; removing the Requester mark entirely from external-facing pages is a Business plan feature.
Other processes teams start with
Purchase approvals
Spend requests routed by amount, approved with the numbers attached.
IT access requests
Tool and permission requests with an auditable grant history.
Time off & HR requests
Leave, equipment, and people requests that stop living in DMs.
Expense approvals
Receipts, amounts, and cost centers captured before anyone decides.
Client & external intake
A public link that turns outside requests into tracked work.
Send the next vendor a link instead of an email chain.
One public form, one routed approval chain, one file at the end. External submitters and external approvers never cost you a seat.