Respond to a buyer's onboarding form
When a buyer sends you an onboarding form, fill in every field, attach any documents they ask for, and submit or decline. Here is exactly what each step does and what the buyer sees afterwards.
What you'll learn
- Understand why a buyer sends an onboarding form and what it unlocks
- Fill in every field type correctly, including document uploads
- Submit, decline, or ask the buyer to send the form again
- Know what the buyer sees and what happens after you respond
Before a buyer can trust you with real orders, they usually need to know a few things first: your trade licence, your certifications, the contacts who will handle their account, maybe a bank letter. Off the platform, that means a back-and-forth of emails, a PDF questionnaire you fill in by hand, and a scan you email back that sits in someone's inbox. Weeks pass before you are an approved vendor.
An onboarding form on VEXORS replaces all of that. A buyer builds the form once, sends it to you, and you answer it directly in your browser. Every answer and every document lands in one structured record the buyer can review and approve in a few clicks. When they accept, you are added to their registered supplier directory and the relationship is live.
Onboarding forms are always started by the buyer. As a supplier you only ever receive a form and respond to it. You never send an onboarding form to a buyer. If you want to reach out to a buyer first, that is what a service offer is for.
Why this matters
Getting onto a buyer's approved vendor list is often the gate to every order that follows. A form you complete quickly and correctly moves you through that gate fast, with no lost paperwork and no chasing. Because your answers are structured, the buyer can compare you against their requirements at a glance, which works in your favour when your details are in order.
How a form reaches you
You will know a buyer has sent you a form in two places:
- A notification, with a link that opens the form directly.
- The Onboarding Requests tab on your My Customers page, where every form a buyer has sent you is listed with its status.
Opening either takes you to the form itself. You will be asked to sign in first if you are not already, because a form is tied to your company and only your team can answer it.
Onboarding formBefore you start
A few things make the form quicker to finish:
- Have your common documents ready as files: trade licence, tax registration, certifications, bank letter. The form may ask you to upload one or more.
- Know who on your side owns this relationship, in case the form asks for a primary contact.
- Read the buyer's note first, if there is one. Buyers often attach a short message explaining why they are reaching out, especially if this is a second invitation.
Filling in and submitting the form
Open the form and read the buyer's intro
The top of the form shows which buyer sent it, named by their company. If they attached a message, it appears in a highlighted card just below. Read it first: it usually tells you what the buyer is looking for and how this onboarding fits into a wider conversation.
Below the intro, the form title and description tell you what this particular form is for, for example a new-vendor registration or a compliance refresh.
Answer every field
The form is a numbered list of questions. The field types you may see are:
- Short text and long text, for names, descriptions, and notes.
- Single choice, where you pick one option from a list.
- Multiple choice, where you tick every option that applies.
- Yes or no, a simple two-way answer.
- Number, for figures such as years trading or annual capacity.
- Date, picked from a calendar.
- File upload, covered in the next step.
A short progress bar appears on longer forms so you can see how many of the required answers you have filled in. Some questions only appear once you answer an earlier one a certain way, so the form adapts as you go. Answer what is in front of you and any follow-up questions surface automatically.
Upload any documents the buyer asks for
When a question is a file upload, you get a drop area. Click it, choose your file, and it uploads in place. Each file must be under 10 MB. Once it uploads, you see the file name with the option to remove and replace it before you submit.
Upload the exact document the question names. A buyer reviewing dozens of suppliers will move faster, and look more favourably, on a form where the trade licence field actually holds a trade licence rather than a generic company brochure.
Submit, or decline if it is not a fit
When every required field is answered, select Submit response. If a required field is still empty, the form tells you which one so you can fill it before submitting. Required fields are marked with an asterisk.
If you decide this buyer is not a fit, choose Decline instead. You can add an optional reason, which the buyer will see. Declining is a normal, neutral action: it simply closes this request and does not affect your standing on the platform.
What good looks like
A strong response is complete on the first pass. Every required field answered, every requested document attached and correctly matched to its question, and a quick turnaround. Buyers notice suppliers who respond promptly and cleanly, and that impression carries into how they treat your bids and offers later.
If the buyer attached a note explaining the context, a response that clearly addresses what they asked for, rather than a generic submission, sets the relationship off on the right foot.
What happens after you submit
Once you submit, the buyer sees your full set of answers and documents in one review screen, with your company name and Trust Score attached. They then make one of two decisions:
- Accept, which adds your company to their registered supplier directory. You are now an approved vendor and the relationship surfaces on your My Customers page.
- Reject, if your details do not meet their requirements. They can include a short message explaining why, which you will see.
If a buyer rejects your form but leaves feedback you can act on, you may be able to ask them to send the form again so you can resubmit with the right details. That option appears on the rejected request in your Onboarding Requests tab when the buyer has left actionable feedback.
If you declined a form earlier and later change your mind, the buyer can send you a fresh form to invite you again. You simply respond to the new one.
Making your onboarding work for you
- Respond quickly. Onboarding is the buyer's first real test of how you operate. A same-day response signals reliability.
- Match documents to questions exactly. A misfiled certificate is the most common reason a clean supplier looks careless.
- Read the buyer's note before you start. It often reveals what they care about most, so you can lead with it.
- Treat a decline as a clean exit, not a failure. A short, professional reason keeps the door open for a future invitation.
- Keep your supplier profile complete. A complete profile and a healthy Trust Score make a buyer more comfortable accepting you the moment your form arrives.
Next steps
- Manage your customers and connectionsTrack every onboarding request, connection, and offer in one relationship hub.
- Send a service offer to a buyerReach out to a buyer proactively with the items and services you can supply.
- How buyers onboard suppliersSee the same flow from the buyer's side, so you know what they are building.
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