NDA Gated Access lets an Organisation user require every vendor invited to a project to acknowledge a non-disclosure agreement before that vendor can open any RFQ under the project. Once NDA Gated Access is enabled with an NDA document uploaded, every invited vendor sees a click-wrap acknowledgement screen before the RFQ, and Felix records every agreement, decline, and manual authorisation against the project for audit. Use NDA Gated Access when a project contains commercially sensitive information or documents that vendors should not see until they have agreed to your non-disclosure terms.

This article covers setting up and managing NDA Gated Access from the project's Settings tab. To disable NDA on a single RFQ, authorise a vendor from within an RFQ, or track per-vendor NDA status, see How to Manage NDA Gated Access on an RFQ. To download the CSV audit record of every agreement, decline, and authorisation, see How to Download and Read the NDA Agreements Report.

 

Prerequisites & Permissions

• You are an Organisation user with access to the project you want to gate, and you can open the project's Settings tab. Any Organisation user who can edit project settings can enable NDA Gated Access and manually authorise a vendor from Settings.
• NDA Gated Access is available to your organisation. If the NDA gated access card does not appear on the project Settings tab, NDA Gated Access has not been enabled for your organisation. Contact your Felix Customer Success Manager to request access.
• You have a final NDA document saved as a PDF file. NDA Gated Access accepts PDF files only, up to 10MB in size.

 

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).

 

Enable NDA Gated Access and Upload the NDA

1. Open the project you want to gate and select the Settings tab.
2. Locate the NDA gated access card, then switch the NDA gated access toggle on. When the toggle is switched on, a Setup required badge appears on the card and a dropzone area is revealed with an inline warning prompting you to upload an NDA document.
3. Invited vendors are not gated yet at this point: until an NDA document is uploaded, vendors invited to an RFQ can still view that RFQ. NDA Gated Access begins gating vendors only after the NDA document upload succeeds.
4. Drop a file onto the drop zone, or select a file through the drop zone. If the file is not a PDF or is larger than 10MB, you will see an error on the drop zone reading one of: “Only PDF files accepted.”, “This file is not a PDF format, please try another.”, or “PDF must be less than 10MB in size.” While a valid PDF uploads, the drop zone shows an uploading state.
5. When the upload succeeds, the uploaded PDF becomes the active NDA for the project. The dropzone shows the filename with a download link, plus Replace and Preview as vendor text links, and the NDA gated access card shows the Manage NDA access button (and, subject to the report-download permission, a Download agreements report button). A success toast confirms that vendor RFQ access is now gated for the project.
6. If prior declined agreement data exists for the project, the NDA gated access card also shows a “{x} vendors require authorisation” label so you can act on declined vendors.
7. If the upload fails, NDA Gated Access shows an error and the drop zone remains available so you can retry the upload.

 

Download the Active NDA from Settings

1. On the NDA gated access card, locate the active NDA document in the dropzone.
2. Select the filename. The active NDA downloads with its original filename.

 

Replace the Active NDA Document

1. On the NDA gated access card dropzone, select the Replace text link. A replace component opens above the dropzone, and the dropzone hides its Replace and Preview as vendor links while still letting you download the current NDA.
2. To abandon the replacement, select Cancel, which reverts to the current NDA filename with the Replace and Preview as vendor links restored.
3. To replace the NDA, drop a valid PDF into the replace component. Invalid files show the same errors as the initial upload (“Only PDF files accepted.”, “This file is not a PDF format, please try another.”, “PDF must be less than 10MB in size.”).
4. When a valid PDF is dropped, the new file becomes the active NDA for the project, the prior NDA document is soft-deleted, a success toast is shown, and the drop zone shows the new filename with the Replace and Preview as vendor links.

 

NOTE: Replacing the NDA does not reset activity history. The prior NDA document is retained for audit, and agreements and declines recorded against the prior NDA document remain counted (see Read the NDA Activity Counters and History below).

 

Preview the NDA as a Vendor

1. On the NDA gated access card drop zone, select the Preview as vendor text link. A new browser tab opens showing the vendor-facing NDA preview page, including project branding. The preview page mirrors the live vendor NDA agreement page.
2. To close the preview, select Close Preview, which closes the preview browser tab.

 

Read the NDA Activity Counter

The NDA gated access card shows a counter indicating how many vendors have declined the standard platform NDA and have requested a custom NDA to be agreed.

 

Manually Authorise a Vendor from Project Settings

Manual authorisation grants a specific vendor access to all RFQs in the project without requiring that vendor to complete the in-portal NDA acknowledgement. Use manual authorisation when a vendor has signed a custom NDA with your organisation offline.

 

1. On the NDA gated access card, select the Manage NDA access button. The Manage NDA Access modal opens with an explanatory note stating that manual authorisation grants the vendor access to all RFQs in the project without requiring an in-platform NDA agreement.
2. Use the vendor selector to identify the vendor company. The vendor selector lists only the vendors that have declined the NDA or are yet to agree, decline, or be authorised on this project. Vendors who have already agreed or been authorised do not appear in the vendor selector.
3. When the project has one or more vendors in a declined state, the vendor selector groups results under a Declined NDA section (shown first) and an All other vendors section. When the project has no declined vendors, the vendor selector shows no section headers.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Select Authorise vendor. If a mandatory field is empty, an inline “This field is required” error is shown against that field and the authorise action does not fire.
7. 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,”.

 

 

 

IMPORTANT: When you manually authorise a vendor who had previously declined the NDA, that vendor is no longer treated as declined for gating purposes, the vendor's prior decline row is suppressed from the agreements report, and the agreements report shows the vendor's current status as Access Authorised

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Respond to a Vendor Decline

When a vendor or guest declines the in-platform NDA, all users at that vendor company are blocked from accessing the project's RFQs until the decline is handled offline. To keep RFQ access flowing, follow up with the declining vendor and then manually authorise the vendor.

 

1. 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 decline notification email identifies the declining vendor and the project, includes the decline reason where provided, and links to the RFQ vendors tab where you can manually authorise the vendor.
2. Follow up with the declining vendor offline to agree a custom NDA.
3. Once the custom NDA is signed offline, manually authorise the vendor, either from Project Settings (steps above) or from the RFQ itself, optionally attaching the signed custom NDA. After manual authorisation, the vendor regains access to the project's RFQs.

 

NOTE: A decline blocks every user and guest at the declining vendor company from the project's RFQs. Manual authorisation of the vendor is the way to restore access after an offline NDA is agreed.

 

Turn Off NDA Gated Access

1. On the NDA gated access card, switch the NDA gated access toggle off.
2. If an NDA document is currently active, a confirmation modal opens, warning that disabling NDA Gated Access will allow vendors to view RFQs without agreeing, and that existing records will be kept for audit. When you confirm, the active NDA is soft-deleted, a success toast confirms that the NDA requirement is disabled, and the NDA gated access card updates.
3. If the toggle is on but no NDA document has been uploaded yet (the Setup required badge is showing), switching the toggle off shows no confirmation modal and the dropzone simply collapses.
4. If the project has agreement data on record (agreed, declined, or authorised), then after you confirm the toggle-off, a blue information alert reads “Gating is off. New vendors are not required to sign. Historical agreements below remain on record.” The Download agreements report text link remains available (subject to the report-download permission).
5. If the project has no agreement data, the post-toggle-off panel collapses and no information alert, or download link is shown.

The NDA gated access card remains visible while any agreement or manual authorisation exists for the project, even when NDA Gated Access is toggled off, so the agreements report stays available for audit.

 

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause and resolution
The NDA gated access card does not appear on the project Settings tab.	NDA Gated Access is not enabled for your organisation. Contact your Felix Customer Success Manager to request that NDA Gated Access be enabled for your organisation.
Vendors can still open the RFQ after the NDA gated access toggle was switched on.	Either no NDA document has been uploaded yet (vendors are not gated until an NDA PDF upload succeeds, upload the NDA PDF on the NDA gated access card), or NDA has been disabled for that specific RFQ.
The file will not upload.	The file must be a PDF with a valid PDF MIME type and under 10MB. The dropzone shows which rule failed (“Only PDF files accepted.”, “This file is not a PDF format, please try another.”, or “PDF must be less than 10MB in size.”). Correct the file and retry.
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 vendor selector.	The vendor selector lists only non-deleted vendors that have declined or are yet to agree, decline, or be authorised. Vendors who have already agreed or been authorised are excluded because no further authorisation is needed.
A vendor declined and is now blocked from every RFQ in the project.	A decline blocks all users at the vendor account. Organise a custom NDA with the vendor offline, then manually authorise the vendor from the NDA gated access card (or from the RFQ itself) to restore access.
The counters seem too high after replacing the NDA document.	The counters tally every record across all NDA documents ever associated with the project and do not reset when an NDA document is replaced.

 

Related Resources

• How to Manage NDA Gated Access on an RFQ
• How to Download and Read the NDA Agreements Report