Send and track orders

Tracking a PO in Silkline starts with sending the order to the supplier. Send orders in just a few clicks.

In most cases, messages and orders sent through Silkline will be sent from your company email address. However, if your company's domain has not yet been configured to work with Silkline, emails will come from [e-mail]

Actions

The actions bar the top right allows users to take key actions for a request.

Download PDF

Downloads a PDF copy of the Purchase Order to send to a supplier or keep for records.

Order inbox

Launches a modal with a unique click-to-copy email address for this order. Use this address on the CC line of an email or forward emails to this address to track correspondance with suppliers in the Activity feed for the order.

Follow order

Subscribes to following the purchase order for the logged in user. Followers receive email updates when there's new activity for an order, or when an items in an order are received.

Activity

Displays the activity feed for the order. Note: the activity feed is automatically displayed on order screens. For smaller screens, the activity feed can be launched as a sidebar by clicking this button.

Send Order / Message

Send the purchase order to the supplier via Silkline, or message the supplier to share updates. When an order has not yet been sent, the default button shows "Send Order" and "Message Supplier" is the secondary option. Once an order has been sent to the supplier, these buttons are reversed.

Sending an order through Silkline

Buyers can send an order to the suppier with just a few clicks. Silkline automatically tracks correspondences with suppliers and captures order confirmations.

Orders must be in the OPEN state to send through Silkline.

1

Click "Send Order"

Start sending an order by simply clicking "Send Order" in the Actions bar

2

Select the recipients and customize your message

Select the supplier contacts (or add new supplier contacts) to send the order to and customize the email to the supplier.

Tips for composing messages:

• Personalize the message by using the recipients name

• Identify your company in the subject and body of your message

• Be sure to add a signature to help confirm your identify with the recipient

  • You can set your default signature for message in your user profile

  • We recommend adding your phone number to your signature

• Rather than cc'ing team members, we suggest adding interested partners, like the requester, as a follower of the order

• By default, BCC myself is toggled on so you also receive the message sent to your supplier

3

Click send and whoosh!

Your suppliers will receive an email that looks like this:

Example of the email a suppier receives

The order is sent from the user's email address, provided we are authenticated to send from your organization's domain. The sender receives a BCC of the outgoing email by default, but this can be toggled off.

4

Sit back and relax

Sit back, and relax – we'll let you know when the order is confirmed. The buyer for the order will receive an email confirmation that looks like this:

Example of order confirmation email notification

Workflow tacker

A unique feature in Silkline is the ability to track workflow steps (or milestones) for an order. The workflows and steps within each workflow are configurable.

Example workflow tracker

Organizations can also configure multiple workflows for different types of orders. For example, a workflow for machined parts could include a step for outside processing. Similarly, a simplified workflow for COTS parts could only include Acceptance, Processing, Transit, and Received.

Timeline tracking is enabled when an order is moved to the OPEN state. All order items are set to the default workflow configured for the Organization.

Currently, workflows must be configured by Silkline admins. Contact [e-mail] for assistance changing an existing workflow or configuring a new workflow.

Workflow tracker statues

	Step is complete for all items
	Step is complete for some items
	Current step
	Future step

Activity feed

Key events, order confirmation, supplier views/downloads, notes, emails, check-ins, and status changes are all logged in the activity:

What the supplier sees

The supplier's view of the PO looks like this:

Suppliers can edit the ETA for line items for up to 72 hours after an order is sent. After that, the ETA field on the order page is locked and suppliers can provide updated ETAs via Check-ins.

Helpful tips:

• The "View Order" button bring the supplier to the digital purchase order view using a secure tokenized link so your suppliers never need to login or create an account

  • Tokens expire 30 days after sending

  • Selecting "Download PDF" brings suppliers to the same place but automatically generates a PDF copy for download

• As long as your supplier replies all, we'll capture their responses

• If your supplier forgets to reply all, you can click the Order Inbox button to copy the tracking email for the order