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The vendor portal

When you assign a questionnaire, the vendor answers it in a separate, secure portal, not in your SolveGRC workspace. This page walks through what your vendor experiences, so you know what to expect and can help if they get stuck.

Accepting the invitation​

The vendor clicks the secure link in their email and lands on an account-setup page showing who invited them and what they've been asked to complete. They enter their name, set a password, accept the terms, and their account is created. From then on they sign in at the portal login.

ScreenshotThe vendor's account-setup page: the invitation summary, a password field with a strength meter, and the terms acceptance checkbox.

The vendor dashboard​

After signing in, the vendor sees a dashboard of the questionnaires assigned to them, with counts for what's pending, in progress, completed, and overdue.

ScreenshotThe vendor dashboard: assigned questionnaires as cards, with a banner highlighting anything overdue or needing attention.

Answering the questionnaire​

The vendor opens an assignment and works through it section by section. Answers auto-save as they go, so nothing is lost if they step away. Where they've answered similar questions before, the portal offers their prior answer as a suggestion they can apply, but never fills it in automatically.

ScreenshotThe questionnaire viewer: a section navigation sidebar, question cards with the answer types, an auto-save indicator, and per-answer evidence upload.

Attaching evidence​

The vendor can attach supporting files to an answer (a policy, a certificate, a report). They need to save the answer first before the uploader turns on. Uploaded files are validated and scanned before they're accepted.

Review and submit​

When the vendor is ready, a Review and Submit page summarizes their progress, lists any required questions still unanswered with links to jump to them, and asks them to type their name as an attestation.

ScreenshotThe vendor's review-and-submit page: completion summary, any incomplete required questions, and the typed-name attestation before submitting.
An incomplete questionnaire can't be submitted

Completeness is enforced on the server, not just in the browser. If any required question is still blank, the submission is refused, so a questionnaire can't come back to you looking complete when it isn't.

Once submitted, the vendor sees a confirmation with a reference number, and the assignment flips to submitted on your side, ready for review.

A reminder for your vendors

For security, the portal keeps the vendor's session in memory only. If they do a full browser reload partway through, they'll be asked to sign in again (their saved answers are safe). Tell vendors to use the in-page navigation rather than reloading.

With a submission in hand, the work moves back to your team. Continue to Review and findings.