Order Updates

Have conversations with your customers about your Orders

Order Updates/Expediting is a new feature allowing Buyers and Suppliers to converse and provide updates through ShipServ (decreasing the number of times you have to look at your email), associating the particular updates directly to a transaction, not to a specific user account. More details about the Inbox can be found here.

 

These two videos will guide BUYERS and SUPPLIERS through setup and use of the Expediting/Order Update feature. Details are found below the videos.

Contents:

(Tap the section you wish to jump to)

From the Buyers' Perspective:

1. Who can send Update Requests?

2. Updates and Requests as seen in Updates drawer

3. Email Notifications

4. To request an update on the shipping of your order

   1. Configuring your automatic order updates

   2. Requesting a manual order update

5. Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list

6. Viewing the Status of the Order Updates in the Document view

From the Suppliers' Perspective:

1. Who can send Order Updates?

2. Who receives Expediting Update requests?

3. Viewing the Status of the Update Requests in the transaction list

4. Viewing the Status of the Order Updates in the Document view

5. A supplier can send the buyer an update

Questions and Answers

 

From the Buyers' Perspective:

Who can send Update Requests?

Buyers, contact your Relationship Manager to activate Order Updates/Expediting. Only Buyers who are opted-in can request updates and receive supplier updates. If the Buyer is not opted in, then the button to "Request Update" will not be shown on Buyer's PO/POC documents (and the supplier will not see the button "Send "On Schedule" Update" or "Order Updates" on PO/POC documents.)

Updates and Requests as seen in Updates drawer

The Requests and Updates can be viewed and exported to a .txt file by both buyer and supplier, showing a clear audit trail of the conversation.

 

Expediting Order Updates will be shown in the same drawer, clearly indicating which party sent the update.

 

Email notifications

An email notification referencing an order update will contain a link which will redirect the user to the transaction and the order update information.

 

The Expediting/Order Update Email notifications and CC email notifications are set by the buyer admin under Settings/Notifications/Expediting and Order Updates by filling in email addresses and ticking the box for "Expediting and Order Updates".

The box must be ticked to ensure the emails will be sent to the email address. Tap "Save" to finish.

Additional emails can be added on the Cc'd Emails drawer (again tick the box) and save.

 

Below image shows how the Order Update email notification will look.

Click the link in the email to view the response from the supplier.

 

To request an update on the shipping of your order:

Within the ShipServ Trade platform, you can either schedule automated update requests from select suppliers or you can manually request an update from the supplier. These communications are associated with the transaction and can be exported to provide the update history in a .txt file.

 

Configuring your automatic order updates

Go to Settings/Transaction Settings/Expediting & Order Updates

1. Turn on Automated Update Requests.

2. Set the anticipated generic lead time for all your orders

3. Set how many days prior to the lead time (as established in 2 above) you want the update requests to begin.*see below for how lead and notification criteria determine when automatic update requests are sent out

4. Select which of your suppliers you wish to send automated updates requests to. You can manually send an update request to any of your suppliers.

5. Turn on optional automatic reminders with the toggle.

6. Set how often you wish the suppliers to get reminders for the update requests (both manual and automated will trigger reminders per these settings).

7. Set how many reminders you wish to send. Reminders will continue until the number of reminders is exhausted or the supplier sends an update.

*How lead and notification time determine when automated update requests are sent out:

• If the Generic lead time is set to a # of days, then use Created date (of the PO) + generic lead time - notification period to send automated update request.

• If the Generic lead time is set to "Any lead time" and the Delivery date (of the PO) is populated, then use Delivery date (of the PO) - notification period to send automated update request.

• If the Generic lead time is set to "Any lead time" and the Delivery date (of the PO) is blank, then use Created date (of the PO) + notification period to send automated update request.

 

 

Requesting a manual order update

A manual update request is sent to the supplier when the “Request Update” button is tapped. Alternately, tapping the "Order updates" button will open the conversation drawer where the "Request Update" button can also be tapped. After requesting an update, either manually or automatically, the “Request Update” button will be greyed out.

 

 

Viewing the Status of the Update Requests in the transaction list

When viewing the transaction list (POs/POCs), Document Status column indicates if there is an “Update Pending”, the order has been “Shipped”, is “Ready to Ship”, is "On Schedule", is “Delayed”, or "Other". "No Response" indicates there has been no response to a buyer's request (after the prescribed # of reminders, the request will have been reverted to its original status). Select the desired criteria in the Status filter to limit the view to a subset of the transactions. You can select multiple statuses and tap done to list all transactions of those statuses.

 

If you cancel the "Update Request" in the conversation drawer, the Document Status will revert back to its former status of "Confirmed" for a POC or "Sent" for a PO.

 

 

Under "Add filter", you can filter on transactions which have had an update by selecting the "Has update" filter and tapping "True". Statuses that have no response or have been canceled are included in the has update filter.

 

Viewing the Status of the Order Updates in the Document view

The Order Update pill in the document view indicates "Unread Updates" if there are new updates from the supplier. Once a user has opened the drawer on the right and seen the message or update, the "Unread Updates" will disappear. The status of “Update pending” indicates the PO/POC is awaiting input from the supplier.

 

When reporting the order status as "Shipped" or "Ready to Ship", the supplier may also provide a Tracking Number and Tracking URL for your convenience. Clicking the Tracking link will open the link in your browser.

From the Supplier's Perspective:

Suppliers can share updates on the shipping of an order in response to a request from the buyer or to notify the buyer of a change in the status (without a request from the buyer).

 

Within the ShipServ Trade platform, you can reply directly to the buyer’s request from the Purchase Order Confirmation. You will be prompted to confirm a PO before being able to send an update to the buyer.

 

You can send the buyer multiple updates if desired.

 

Who can send updates?

Only Buyers who are opted-in can request and receive Order Updates. If the Buyer is not opted in, then the supplier will not see the button "Send "On Schedule" Update" or "Update requests" on PO/POC documents.

 

Who receives Expediting Update requests?

You control which email addresses receive copies of the Expediting and Update emails. The trading email will receive an email notification alerting them to the update request. See below for adding additional cc email addresses.

 

If users do not want to receive these notifications, they can be switched off under profile settings. Tap the avatar (square) to the bottom left of the Trade application to bring up a menu, tap Profile Settings, then tap Edit Notification Preferences. On the drawer, you will see a check box for "Requests for Order Updates for documents you're assigned to". Unselect these boxes to stop receiving emails and tap Save.

 

 

💥* Note: If you are an Administrator, you can switch these settings on and off for the Trading email account and any email addresses that are on the CC'd list under Settings/Notifications:

 

 

The buyer may choose to send automated reminders which will continue for a given number of days/number of reminders or until an update is provided by the supplier. An “update” from the supplier will halt sending of the reminders.

 

If the supplier does not send an "update" before the request expires (either the last reminder has been sent or the buyer has canceled the request), the "update request" will be considered unactioned and will revert back to the original status of Confirmed for a POC or Sent for a PO.

 

 

Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list

If an update request is pending, the buyer cannot send another update request until after the supplier has responded, the earlier update request has been cancelled, or the maximum number of reminders was sent without response. The supplier can send multiple updates as needed.

 

When viewing the transaction list (POs/POCs), the Document Status column indicates if there is an “Update Pending”, the order has been “Shipped”, is “Ready to Ship”, is "On Schedule", is “Delayed”, "Other" or "No Response". "No Response" indicates no update has been sent to the buyer and the last reminder was sent (if they were turned on). Select the desired criteria in the Status filter to limit the view to a subset of the transactions. You can select multiple statuses and tap done to list all transactions of those statuses.

If the buyer cancels the "Update Request" in the conversation drawer, the Document Status will revert back to its former status of "Confirmed" for a POC or "Sent" for a PO.

 

 

Under "Add filter", you can filter on transactions which have had an update by selecting the "Has update" filter and tapping "True". Statuses that have no response or have been canceled are included in the has update filter.

 

Viewing the Status of the Order Updates in the Document view

The Order Update pill in the document view indicates "Unread Updates" if there are new updates from the supplier. Once a user has opened the drawer on the right and seen the message or update, the "Unread Updates" will disappear. The status of “Update pending” indicates the PO/POC is awaiting input from the supplier.

 

A PO must be confirmed before a supplier can provide a status update. The supplier will be prompted to confirm the PO, after which the update drawer will open allowing the supplier to provide the update.

 

A supplier can send the buyer an update by:

• Tapping the shortcut menu in the upper right corner “Send 'On Schedule' update", or tapping the down arrow to reach the alternative update option to open the full update drawer.

• 

   

• Clicking on the "Order Updates" button on the left of the document view, opens the update drawer. Clicking the blue “Send update” button or the lighter blue “Provide update now->” button opens the Update drawer.

 

When sending an order update, choose an “Update type” from the dropdown menu, then select a date and fill in a comment if applicable. The comment box can contain up to 500 words. If the “send update” button is grey, then more information needs to be populated. If the “send update” button is blue, pressing it will send the update to the buyer.

 

If choosing "Shipped" or "Ready to ship", you will have the option to also add the Tracking Number and the Tracking URL for the buyer to get the up-to-date status of the shipment.

 

Where appropriate, the Additional comments field will allow you to add free text to the update. Note the maximum number of words typed out of the maximum number of words allowed in the lower right corner.

 

Questions and Answers

 

Q. Is there a limit to the number of words I can send in an order update comment?

A. Yes, there is a limit of 500 words.