If a Supplier requires more guidance or clarity when filling out a Questionnaire, they can raise a Clarification Question, which are linked to specific sections. You can then answer these for the supplier.


You can also create your own Clarification Questions and Answers for suppliers view.


Answering Clarification Questions

When a supplier asks a clarification question on a Questionnaire, users that are set as Clarification Q&A respondents for the Questionnaire will receive a notification and will also have a management task on their homepage.

N.B: Clarification Q&A respondents are set when publishing the Questionnaire in the Manage Questionnaire screen. Please see here for more guidance on setting Clarification Q&A respondents for a Questionnaire.


To access Clarification Questions, either:

  • Navigate to Supplier Management > Clarification Q&A
  • Click on the Clarification Q&A Notification
  • Click on the Clarification Q&A Management Task on your homepage


Here you will find a list of all questions asked about the Questionnaires on your site.

  • You can tick the Include expired publications checkbox to also see Q&As for expired Questionnaires.
  • These are categorised into two tabs: by RFX and by Question.

N.B. Suppliers will only be able to raise Clarification Questions up until the Clarification Q&A deadline set when publishing the Questionnaire in the Manage Questionnaire screen. Please see here for more guidance on setting Clarification Q&A Deadline.


By RFX tab

This tab shows you a numerical breakdown of Clarification Questions asked and their status by Questionnaire. 

  • Each Publication is listed by name and the number of questions are shown to the right.
  • All questions are categorised into the following columns:
    • Unanswered: All questions that haven't been answered yet.
    • Answered: All questions that have already been answered.
    • PendingAlert: All questions that have been answered after the last alert was sent out to suppliers. 
    • Private: All questions that have been privately answered.
  • For Questionnaires with PendingAlert Q&A's, you can click 'Send Alert' to send an e-mail notification to suppliers, informing them that new Q&A's are published.
    • This will open up a new window with the alert e-mail template.
    • Here you can edit the subject and body of the e-mail.
    • All relevant Interested Providers will automatically be Bcc-ed into the email. 
    • Click Confirm and Send to send the email.

N.B . When you publish an answer a question, suppliers won't be notified unless you manually send an alert this way.

  • The Create Question button allows you to create your own Clarification Questions and Answers. Please see Creating your own Clarification Question and Answer below for steps on how to do so. 
  • Clicking on either the Publication name, or the numbers listed under the categories, will take you to the by Question tab which will show a list of the relevant Questions.


By Question tab

This tab allows you to view each individual Clarification Question and provide an answer. 

  • You can filter Q&As by 
    • Publication - the Questionnaire the question was asked in
    • Section - the section the question relates to
    • Supplier - the supplier that raised the question
    • Question type - whether it's a private or public Q&A
    • Answer status - whether the question has been Answered, Unanswered or is PendingAlert.
      • Answered Questions have a View/Edit button next to them, where you can view the Q&A or edit an already published answer.
      • Unanswered Questions have an Answer button next to them, where you can provide your answer and publish.
        • You can also edit the question answered to correct any typos or reword the question.
        • You can save your answer as a Draft or Publish.
        • By clicking Publish, all participating suppliers will be able to view the Q&A.
          • They can see this by going to Supplier Interface > My Questionnaires.
        • You can tick Treat as Private if the answer is only relevant to the supplier that asked the question. 
          • This will send an e-mail notification to just that particular supplier and no other suppliers will be able to see the Q&A.
          • This box will automatically be ticked if the Supplier has requested that the Q&A is treated as Private.
  • Once you've filtered your Q&As, you can download a PDF or Excel spreadsheet of all the Q&As listed by clicking Export Filtered Q&A to PDF/ Export Filtered Q&A to excel. 
    • This will list the publication name, section, question and answer for each Q&A.


Creating your own Clarification Question and Answer

You can create and answer your own Clarification Question and Answer for suppliers to view. 

  • Go to Supplier Management > Clarification Q&A
  • Go into the By RFX tab
  • Next to the relevant questionnaire, click Create Question
  • Select the relevant section of the Questionnaire your Q&A relates to from the drop-down list
  • Enter your Question and Answer, then click Publish
  • You can then send out an alert e-mail to prompt all participants to check the published Clarification Q&A screen

NB: When a clarification question is answered a notification will be sent to the supplier organisation. This will contain a link to the answer allowing the user to access it quickly without the need for an 'Alert' email.