When NDA Gated Access is enabled for a Sourcing project, every RFQ under that project is gated by default: an invited vendor must acknowledge the project's NDA before opening the RFQ brief. This article covers the actions available at the level of a single RFQ: turning the NDA requirement off for just that RFQ, manually authorising a vendor invited to that RFQ, tracking each invited vendor's NDA status, and downloading a vendor's signed NDA and acknowledgement.

NDA Gated Access must already be enabled for the project before any of the actions in this article are available. To enable it, see How to Set Up and Manage NDA Gated Access on a Sourcing Project. To download the CSV audit record of every agreement, decline, and authorisation, see How to Download and Read the NDA Agreements Report.

 

Prerequisites & Permissions

• NDA Gated Access is enabled for the project the RFQ belongs to, with an active NDA document uploaded. If NDA Gated Access has not been enabled for the project, none of the RFQ-level controls in this article are gated or available in the way described below.
• You have edit permission on the specific RFQ you want to manage. This is a separate permission from the project Settings-edit permission that governs project-level setup: an Organisation user can hold RFQ-edit rights without holding project Settings access, and vice versa.
• To manually authorise a vendor, you do not need any additional permission beyond RFQ-edit; the Reason / note field is mandatory when authorising (up to 255 characters).

TIP: If your organisation uses custom terms, the words Vendor, RFQ, and Project in this article appear as your organisation's configured terms (for example Supplier and Tender) on every NDA Gated Access screen, button, toast, and message.

 

Disable NDA on a Specific RFQ

When a project has NDA Gated Access on, an Organisation user with the relevant permission can turn the NDA requirement off for an individual RFQ while other RFQs on the same project remain gated.

1. On Detailed/Legacy RFQ Step 1, use the NDA checkbox; on the Quick Form / RFx request detail step, use the NDA toggle. Both default to on (NDA required).
2. On an already-open RFQ, use the NDA preference checkbox on the Job Details tab to toggle the NDA requirement off or back on.
3. If you do not have permission to change the RFQ-level NDA setting, the checkbox or toggle is shown inactive with an explanatory tooltip.

 

NOTE: Disabling NDA for one RFQ means vendors (users and guests) can access that RFQ without acknowledging the NDA. Vendors invited to other, still-gated RFQs on the same project continue to see the NDA gate for those other RFQs. Disabling NDA for an RFQ does not change any vendor's existing NDA agreement records.

 

Detailed/Legacy RFQ form, step 1.	Quick Form/RFx

 

Manually Authorise a Vendor for a Specific RFQ

Manual authorisation grants a vendor access to the RFQ without requiring that vendor to complete the in-portal NDA acknowledgement. To grant a vendor access to every RFQ in the project at once instead, use the project-level version of this action documented in the companion Settings article.

1. Open the RFQ on the Vendors page for a project that is currently NDA gated. Confirm that you have edit permission on the RFQ.
2. In the header, alongside other actions such as Send Reminders, select the Authorise Access button (shown with a file-signature icon).
3. The Manage NDA Access modal opens, scoped to the candidates for that RFQ. The candidate list contains the vendors invited to the RFQ, excludes vendors who have already agreed or been manually authorised, and lists declined vendors first.
4. Use the vendor selector to identify the vendor company.
5. Complete the Reason / note field. The Reason / note field is mandatory and accepts up to 255 characters. The note you enter appears in the agreements report, and records why the vendor is being authorised (for example, the offline NDA reference in the box).
6. Optionally, upload the custom (offline) NDA document for that vendor in the NDA document dropzone. To remove an upload before submitting, select the trash-can icon in the dropzone. Uploading a document is optional, since a custom NDA may be a sensitive format that other RFQ owners do not need to see.
7. Select Authorise vendor. If a mandatory field is empty, an inline “This field is required” error is shown against that field.
8. When all mandatory fields are complete and you select Authorise vendor, a manual-authorisation record is created against the project, the Manage NDA Access modal closes, a success toast reads “Vendor RFQ access granted,” and the Manually authorised counter on the project's NDA gated access card increments.

If NDA gating is disabled for an RFQ (see Disable NDA on a Specific RFQ above), the Authorise Access button, the NDA progress icons, and the per-vendor NDA ellipsis actions are hidden for that RFQ.

 

 

NOTE: Responding to a vendor decline. When a vendor or guest declines the NDA, all users at that vendor company are blocked from accessing the project's RFQs until the decline is handled offline. As the RFQ owner, you receive an NDA decline notification email the first time a vendor or guest creates a decline record on your RFQ; the email identifies the declining vendor (where known) and the project, includes the decline reason where provided, and links to the RFQ vendors tab. Follow up with the declining vendor offline to agree a custom NDA, then manually authorise the vendor using the steps above (or from Project Settings) to restore access.

Track Per-Vendor NDA Status on the RFQ

1. Open the RFQ on the Vendors page for a project that is currently NDA gated.
2. In the Progress column, each vendor row shows a file-signature icon. The file-signature icon is orange when the vendor has agreed to the NDA or been manually authorised, and red when the vendor has declined the platform NDA.
3. Hover the file-signature icon to see the status tooltip: NDA not yet signed when pending; NDA completed by {vendor user name or guest email} on {date} when agreed; Access authorised by {Organisation user name} on {date} when authorised; Platform NDA declined by {vendor user name or guest email} on {date} when declined. Dates display in the Organisation user's local time.

 

NOTE: If NDA gating is off for the RFQ, no NDA progress icons are shown on that RFQ's vendor rows.

 

Download a Vendor's Signed NDA and Acknowledgement

1. Open the RFQ vendors tab for a gated RFQ, and locate the row for the vendor whose NDA you want to download.
2. Open the row actions (the ellipsis menu) for that vendor. When NDA gating is active for the RFQ and the vendor's NDA is required, a Download NDA option appears as the last action item.
3. The Download NDA option is enabled when the vendor has signed the NDA in-platform. The Download NDA option is disabled, with a tooltip explaining that there is no signed NDA, when the vendor has only been manually authorised, because a manually authorised (offline) vendor has no stamped acknowledgement PDF.
4. Select the enabled Download NDA option. A ZIP file is delivered, named Project_{felix_project_id}_Vendor-{sanitised_supplier_title}_NDA.zip. The ZIP file contains both the original NDA PDF and the stamped acknowledgement PDF, each retaining its original filename. The stamped acknowledgement PDF carries project branding and the acknowledgement details captured when the vendor signed.

 

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause and resolution
I do not have permission to change the RFQ-level NDA setting.	The checkbox or toggle is shown inactive with an explanatory tooltip when you lack edit permission on the RFQ. This is a separate permission from project Settings-edit; ask an administrator to grant RFQ edit permission.
The Authorise vendor button in the Manage NDA Access modal does nothing.	A mandatory field is empty. Confirm a vendor is selected and the Reason / note field is completed; empty mandatory fields show an inline “This field is required” error and the authorise action does not fire.
A vendor I want to authorise is not in the candidate list.	The RFQ-scoped candidate list contains only vendors invited to that RFQ, and excludes vendors who have already agreed or been manually authorised, since no further authorisation is needed for them.
A vendor declined and is now blocked from every RFQ in the project.	A decline blocks all users at the vendor company from every RFQ in the project, not just the one they declined on. Agree a custom NDA with the vendor offline, then manually authorise the vendor to restore access.
The Download NDA option is disabled for a vendor.	The vendor was manually authorised rather than signing in-platform, so there is no stamped acknowledgement PDF to include. A stamped acknowledgement PDF exists only for vendors who acknowledged the NDA in-portal.

 

Related Resources

• How to Set Up and Manage NDA Gated Access on a Sourcing Project
• How to Download and Read the NDA Agreements Report