Overview

You issue a questionnaire to a vendor by creating an assessment against them from a template in Master Data. Depending on the date you choose, Vendor Pulse either sends it to the vendor straight away or holds it until the scheduled date and sends it then.

This guide covers how to create and send an assessment, how to read the three assessment states, how an assessment moves between them, and how to track progress and chase a vendor who is running late.

Prerequisites

• At least one vendor added, with a SPOC email on the vendor profile
• At least one assessment template in Master Data (see How to Create Assessment Templates (MasterVault))
• vendor:view to open the vendor and vendor:assessment:view to open its Assessment Process tab
• vendor:assessment:add to create an assessment, edit it or send a reminder

Creating and Sending an Assessment

Navigation: Sidebar → Vendors → [select a vendor] → Assessment Process tab

1. Click Vendors in the sidebar.
2. Click the vendor you want to assess.
3. Open the Assessment Process tab.
4. Click Create Assessment. If the vendor has never had an assessment, the tab shows "Oops!!! No Assessment Sent Yet" with the same button in the middle of the page.
5. Fill in the form using the table below.
6. Click Create Assessment. The button reads Adding... while it works.

Tip: Choose the template that covers the risk areas relevant to this vendor's engagement with your organisation, rather than sending the same questionnaire to everyone.

What happens next

There is no separate "send" button. What happens depends on the date you set:

Scheduled assessments are released by a job that runs once a day, so a scheduled assessment goes out during its scheduled day rather than at a precise time.

Who receives the email

The assessment email goes to the vendor's SPOC. Copied in are:

• the vendor's risk manager, if one is assigned and still active
• any addresses in the vendor's additional vendor emails field
• the vendor's business owner

The email contains a personal link to the vendor portal, where the SPOC answers the questionnaire and uploads evidence. See Vendor Assessment Portal Guide (For Vendors) for what the vendor sees.

On on-premise deployments the vendor portal link is not included. The email carries the questionnaire as an Excel attachment instead; the vendor fills it in and sends it back, and you load the answers with Import Assessment. See How to Import and Export Data in Vendor Pulse.

If the vendor has no SPOC on their profile, creation is refused with "Please add vendor's SPOC email to send the assessment to". Add the SPOC to the vendor profile and try again.

The Three Assessment States

The Assessment Process tab has a status dropdown at the top left with three options. Every assessment sits in exactly one of them. The tab opens on Ongoing assessment.

How an assessment moves between states

1. Upcoming → Ongoing when the scheduled date arrives and the assessment is sent.
2. Ongoing → Completed when the vendor's Admin clicks Submit Answers in the vendor portal. The vendor's risk manager is emailed. The vendor's portal session ends and they can no longer change answers.
3. Completed → Ongoing when you click Submit Reviews in the review workspace. Your review outcome is emailed to the vendor and the assessment is reopened so the vendor can respond to it and submit again.

An assessment therefore stays under Completed assessment only while it is with you. Sending your review hands it back to the vendor. See How to Review Assessment Responses.

A vendor accumulates one assessment per cycle, so the same vendor's list grows over time. Use the Scheduled Date to tell the rows apart.

Tracking Progress

The columns you see change with the status dropdown.

Under Ongoing assessment:

Under Completed assessment: Assessment Name, Review Progress, Compliance Percentage, Due Date and Sent By. Review Progress reads No Review Required when no question in the assessment needs a rating, and Compliance Percentage reads Not Available until at least one answer has been rated.

Under Upcoming assessment: Assessment Name, Scheduled Date, Due Date and Sent By.

You can also filter the list by date using Choose Scheduled Date (Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, Last 3 Months, Last 6 Months, Last 1 Year or a Custom Range), and search assessments with the search box.

Reading the Days Left column

• While the assessment is still within its due date, the column shows the number of days remaining.
• Once the due date has passed, it turns red and reads Overdue with the number of days.
• Once the vendor has submitted, it reads Assessment Completed.

Why an assessment can stay Ongoing after the vendor has finished

An assessment only moves to Completed assessment when the vendor submits it, and only a vendor Admin can submit. The vendor's main contact (SPOC) holds the Admin role; anyone they invite through Add Collaborator is a Collaborator unless the Admin chooses otherwise, and Collaborators and Viewers do not get a Submit Answers button at all.

So an assessment worked on entirely by a colleague of the SPOC can reach 100% Completion Progress with zero Pending Questions and still sit under Ongoing assessment, because nobody with the Admin role has pressed submit. If a vendor reports that there is no submit option, this is almost always the reason.

Two ways to resolve it: ask the vendor's SPOC to sign in and submit, or — if the person doing the work should be the main contact — update the vendor's SPOC Email on the vendor profile to their address. The vendor's own Admin can alternatively change that person's role to Admin from the Team Members dialog inside the portal.

An assessment also returns to Ongoing assessment after you send your review, as described above.

Chasing a Late Vendor

Navigation: Sidebar → Vendors → [select a vendor] → Assessment Process tab

1. Set the status dropdown to Ongoing assessment.
2. Click the ⋮ menu at the end of the row and choose Send Reminder.
3. The dialog states that the reminder goes to the vendor SPOC and the additional vendor SPOCs. Optionally type extra addresses under Additional Recipients and press Enter after each one. You can add up to five, and they must be business email addresses.
4. Click Send Reminder.

The reminder re-sends the assessment email, with the subject starting "Reminder!", to the SPOC and copies the risk manager, the additional vendor emails, the business owner and anyone you added.

Limits:

• Send Reminder does not appear under Upcoming assessment, because the assessment has not been sent to anyone yet.
• It is refused once the due date has passed, with the message "The following assessment's due date is over." Extend the due date with Edit first, then send the reminder.
• A reminder does not change the assessment's state.

Extending the Due Date

1. Set the status dropdown to Ongoing assessment or Completed assessment.
2. Click the ⋮ menu on the row and choose Edit.
3. The Assessment Name and Assessment Template are shown marked (Not editable). Change the Assessment Due Date.
4. Click Edit Assessment.

The due date is the only thing you can change on an existing assessment. Once a due date has passed the vendor can no longer open the portal for that assessment, so extending the date is how you let a late vendor back in.

Removing an Assessment

The ⋮ menu on every row offers Delete, which opens a confirmation dialog. Deleting needs the vendor:assessment:delete permission and discards the vendor's answers. Read How to Manage Re-Assessment Schedules and Remove an Assessment before you use it.

Reviewing the Responses

Click any assessment row to open the review workspace, where you go through the vendor's answers question by question and rate them. See How to Review Assessment Responses for the full walkthrough.

Where ZIN Advisor Fits In

Navigation: Sidebar → ZIN Advisor

ZIN Advisor is a separate area, used for questionnaires your organisation has to answer rather than ones you send out, and for turning a regulation into checklist questions. It has three tabs:

See How to Use the ZIN Knowledge Base and Checklist and How to Use the AI Questionnaire Assistant.

Troubleshooting

I can't see the Create Assessment button → Creating assessments requires the vendor:assessment:add permission. Ask your administrator to grant it.

The Assessment Process tab shows "Unauthorized" → You are missing vendor:assessment:view.

Creation was refused because of the SPOC → Add the vendor's SPOC email to the vendor profile, then create the assessment again.

The template I need is not in the list → Type part of its name to search. If it still does not appear, create it under Master Data first.

The vendor says they never received the assessment → Check that the SPOC email on the vendor profile is correct, ask them to check spam, then send a reminder from the row's ⋮ menu.

The assessment is sitting under Upcoming assessment and hasn't gone out → It has a future Scheduled Date and will be sent automatically during that day. Check the Scheduled Date on the row.

Completion Progress has not moved → The vendor has not saved any answers yet. Send a reminder, or contact the SPOC directly.

The vendor says there is no Submit option in their portal → Only a vendor Admin sees Submit Answers; collaborators do not, and the button is hidden rather than disabled. Ask the SPOC to submit, or change the vendor's SPOC email on the vendor profile to the person actually doing the work. This is not a display or browser-zoom problem.

Completion Progress is 100% but the assessment is still Ongoing → Nobody has submitted it. Either the Admin has not pressed Submit Answers, or a mandatory question is still incomplete on the vendor's side — most often a question that requires supporting evidence where no document has been uploaded, which blocks submission even though the answer looks filled in.

A completed assessment went back to Ongoing → Someone on your team clicked Submit Reviews. That sends the review to the vendor and reopens the assessment for their response.

Send Reminder is missing or refused → The option does not appear under Upcoming assessment, and it is refused once the due date has passed. Extend the due date with Edit, then try again.

The reminder was rejected because of an email address → Additional recipients must be valid business email addresses, and no more than five.

The vendor says the portal tells them the assessment has expired → The due date has passed. Extend it with Edit and send a reminder.

I can't delete an assessment → Deleting requires the vendor:assessment:delete permission. The Delete option is shown to everyone, but the action is refused without that permission.

I can't rate answers in the review workspace → Rating requires the Assessment Review permission (vendor:assessment:review).

Need more help? Contact support@zeron.one