Procontract Buyer Help

This section contains a listing of the most commonly asked questions in relation to ProContract version 3.

The FAQs are broken down into the two main acting roles of the system:

General

• How do I view and create new Contracts as I could in Version 2?

• Where have my Templates & Steps gone in Version 3?

• Which internet browsers are supported for use with Version 3?

• What is the list of file types that you will be restricting as I need to ensure that it will not impact on our tenders as we send out CAD files and others when tendering IT we have sent scripting via the portal?

• On Contracts Finder Award Notice, when I have submitted, it is saying 'Awaiting Internal submission.'  What does this mean?

• What is the purpose of the Create Contract Function from the menu bar if you have run a project? It should automatically pull through the finished project data?

Managing Projects

• How do I reopen an event that has been marked complete by mistake?

• I have created a new project but I cannot start any events as I am informed I haven’t completed all mandatory project information, what have I missed?

• I cannot publish my RFx without a linked advert event, why not?

• As a verifier I don’t have an option to release supplier RFx responses back to the buying team, why not?

• When creating a project or editing project details what does ‘Limited to Mutuals’ mean?  You have to select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and cannot leave this option blank.  Presume this means subsidiary or partner companies but can you confirm please?

• Why is there now a seal on non-verified procurements exercises in V3?

• In version 2 approvers could quickly find projects to approve by clicking on View My Projects to Approve. This does not seem to be in version 3 and approvers have to search through all projects to find the relevant project they need to approve.

Evaluations

• When I produced an evaluation template recently I selected one section to not show but it still did when it was advertised and allowed the supplier to answer the questions.  As A system admin person, I’m of the impression that there will be times when a department wishes to evaluate a tender based on their own internal opinions.  We’d consider things like “How did you rate the supplier presentation?”  We can’t have things like that showing.  If I set the section not to show shouldn’t that prevent it happening?

• I don’t have the option to create lot template ranking scenarios when preparing my evaluation as I could in version 2, why not?

• When creating/reviewing an evaluation template for an online evaluation, I can’t seem to discover how you edit questions e.g. change it from ‘Pass/Fail’ to ‘Scored’ or edit the question type (text, attachment) etc.  You used to be able to do this in V2.  However, in V3, it looks like you have to delete the old question and create a completely new bespoke one.  Is there a way to simply edit an existing question on the template?

• Not sure if I am missing something but is it still possible to copy question set template once they have been published through the RFx event?  In V2 you would have to manually copy the template and reattach to the amended RFx.

• When creating/adding a new question to the evaluation template, what is the difference between a ‘Questionnaire Question’ and a ‘Question’?  I opted for Questionnaire Question which appeared to do the trick but wondered what the difference was?

Managing Suppliers

• I now need to select supplier company workgroups rather that supplier company contacts, what is a workgroup?

• From the home page, when I try to click into ‘Supplier Approval’ in the ‘Suppliers’ section, it is stating I am not authorized.  What is this area and should I have access?

• I have no option to add additional suppliers to my quick quote, why not?

• Supplier Ring Fencing - What is this?

Contracts Register

• When you export the Contracts Register to Excel most of the contract values appear as £0.00, why is this?

• When adding a contract to register (a quick contract) a new Project with a dashboard was created.  Does this have to happen for every contract we wish to add?  We will have some contracts not procured via ProContract which we will want to add to the register without creating a project.

• Government Transparency Agenda - What does the amber indicator mean?

• Currently on V2 contracts register there are 2 sections namely current and redundant contracts, I cannot see this in V3 so do current and redundant all list together or do redundant contracts disappear?  If so this is a concern as we may still need to access redundant contracts?

Messages

• A colleague has accessed one of my projects and on the messages it says that there are 22 unread messages. I have accessed messages on this project on my log-on and  there are no unread messages, as I have already read them.  When my colleague has access the messages there are no indicators to say that I have read them, why is this?

• There is now no email option to send to specific addresses outside system (only internal to team members once they've logged in)?

• A supplier message hasn’t appeared in message area, but I have received a notification of a new message, why can’t I see it?