My Activities

There are four phases in the life-cycle of each education.co.uk procurement project. You'll see these in the 'Phase' column of the My Activities page, as well as on a progress bar at the top of each project page.

• Phase 1: Submission - suppliers have until your chosen deadline to submit their quotes
• Phase 2: Shortlisting - you reject quotes that are unsuitable and choose others to make your shortlist
• Phase 3: Evaluation - you compare the shortlisted quotes, make notes and decide who to go ahead with
• Phase 4: Award contract - you send contact details to the winning supplier to arrange finalising the contract and scheduling delivery - the project is complete!

We want to make it really easy for you to find and interact with your procurement projects, whatever phase they're in. That's why we've arranged the key details about your projects into an easy to read table, with info you can sort in different ways by clicking the column heading several times. So on the 'Active projects' tab you'll see the following columns:

• Project name: The name you entered to identify the project. Clicking the column heading will sort these alphabetically, then reverse alphabetically.
• Budget: If you entered a budget, it will show up here. Clicking the column heading will arrange the ones without a budget at the top, then the opposite.
• Closing date: The date you chose for receiving quotes by. The window for quotes runs until midnight on this date; we'll email you when time's up! Clicking the column heading will sort these by soonest to end, then furthest from the deadline.
• Phase: This shows you which phase of its life cycle the project is in. Clicking the column heading will sort these first by the closest to finish (i.e. any projects in phase 4 - Award Contract would appear at the top), and clicking again will show any in phase 1 - Submission at the top.
• Updates: This is where you'll see useful information about new developments with a project. So for example you'll see notifications of new proposals in the Submission phase, and be prompted to message your winning supplier in the Award Contract phase.
• View: Click the links to see your project details page!

A red envelope beside a project name indicates there's a new question or answer from a supplier. This icon is a link - clicking it will take you to the project page in question, where you'll see a red notification bubble on the questions icon by the supplier who has sent you the message. Clicking this icon will take you to where you can view the new question or answer!

A grey envelope tells you that a supplier has asked a question but you haven't yet responded to it. It's also a link to take you to the project details page, where you'll see a grey notification bubble on the questions icon to mark the message in need of attention. Clicking this icon will take you to where you can respond!

The archive is where your completed procurement projects are stored. When your project is complete and you've filled in the survey, your project will move to the archive tab on your My Activities page. You can access completed projects any time if you need to check any details of your order, or produce evidence for your finance department of the quotes you've received and the decision-making process leading to your final choice. All your quotes, notes and reasons for rejection are stored with your project details - whether the suppliers were successful or didn't make your shortlist.