Overview

The RFx creation workflow (Step 1 and Step 2) supports adding external guest contacts alongside existing vendor users. A guest contact is defined as an external email address that is not a user on the Vendor account, which receives a time-limited, token-based link to access and respond to the Request for Quotation (RFQ) directly, bypassing the requirement for a full vendor user account on the Felix platform.

Who this article is for: This article is for Felix organisation users who create or manage RFx events and hold the Manage request for quotations permission, and who need to invite external vendor contacts that do not have a full Vendor user account on the Felix platform.

 

Prerequisites & Permissions

Before beginning the guest contact configuration, confirm that the following environment parameters are met:

• User Permissions: Your active user role must possess security group permissions to create RFx events (specifically the "Manage request for quotations" permission).
• Project and Folder Level Access: Your user account must have direct access, or as part of a Team, to the specific Project and Folder where the RFx event is being initiated.
• Project Settings: The Guest vendor contact project setting must be actively enabled for the project to which the RFx event belongs. If the Guest vendor contact project setting is disabled, the + Add guest contact buttons will remain hidden within both the Vendor Search results and the Selected Vendors panel.

IMPORTANT: If the Guest vendor contact project setting is turned off after guest contacts have already been appended to an RFx event, the RFx event can still be sent to those guests, and the system permits the removal of those existing guest contacts. However, the system blocks the addition of any new guest contacts while the Guest vendor contact project setting is disabled.

 

Add a Guest Contact from Vendor Search

1. Inside RFx Step 2, navigate to the Search vendors input field and type your target search term.
2. When the filtered vendor results generate, locate the specific vendor corporation to which you intend to attach a guest contact. Every individual vendor result card displays an + Add guest contact button, provided the Guest vendor contact project setting is active.
3. Click the + Add guest contact button on the target vendor result card. This action triggers the Add Guest Contact modal window.
4. Input the external guest's target email address into the Email Address field.
5. Click Send. The system evaluates the input using the following logical forks:
   • New External Domain: If the entered email domain does not match any existing, non-deleted users registered under that specific vendor account, the system displays a Confirmation Modal. Review the provided system warning, then click to confirm and advance.
   • Duplicate Verification: If the entered email address matches an entity already designated as a recipient on the current RFx event (either as an existing guest or an established vendor user), the system surfaces an inline validation error on the Email Address field. Enter an alternate email address to proceed.
6. Once the system successfully validates and adds the guest contact, the guest contact populates within the Selected Vendors panel directly underneath the associated vendor entry, accompanied by a specific guest indicator label.
7. If that same vendor entity appears in any subsequent vendor searches, the interface marks the guest contact as Added within that vendor's search result card.

 

Add a Guest Contact from the Selected Vendors Panel

1. Navigate directly to the Selected Vendors panel and locate a vendor entity that has already been included in the current RFx event.
2. Click the Add more contacts button located beneath the targeted vendor entry. This action reveals a contextual search field and a dropdown menu populated with existing, non-added vendor users.
3. Type into the search field to filter contacts by name and email address. The system executes a "contains" match algorithm, dynamically updating the visible results with every character typed, beginning from the very first character.
4. To add an existing vendor user: Click the target user's name within the generated dropdown list. The system appends the user to the contact list for that vendor and changes the button state to Added.
5. To add a guest contact: Click the + Add guest contact option nested within the dropdown menu. Note that the + Add guest contact option is visible within the dropdown list only when the Guest vendor contact project setting is toggled on.
6. The system subjects this workflow to the exact same Add Guest Contact modal, Confirmation Modal, and inline validation rules detailed in the previous section.

 

Understand the "Existing Contact Added" Flag

1. If the email address typed into the Add Guest Contact modal matches an already existing vendor user account (as opposed to an external email address unaffiliated with the vendor), the Felix platform automatically maps the transaction to the existing vendor user. The platform will not generate a token-based guest entity.
2. The interface surfaces a flag notification reading "Existing contact added" to inform the user that an established vendor user was appended instead of a new guest contact.
3. The system lists the existing vendor user under the corporate vendor entry in the Selected Vendors panel, displaying the user's full name, registered email address, and assigned system role.

 

Remove a Contact from the Selected Vendors Panel

1. Navigate to the Selected Vendors panel and hover your cursor over any listed contact (regardless of whether the contact is a guest contact or a standard vendor user) to expose the contextual Remove action.
2. Click the Remove button to clear that specific contact from the active RFx recipient list.

NOTE: Removing a contact during the initial RFx creation stage is completely silent; the action does not send any cancellation or removal notification emails to the removed contact or to the Vendor Administrators.

 

Send the RFx and Understand Email Notifications

1. The Felix platform holds all guest contact emails and vendor administrator notification emails in queue; the platform never dispatches emails at the time a guest is added during the creation phase. Automated communications trigger exclusively when the RFx event is formally executed and sent.
2. Upon formal transmission of the RFx event, the system dispatches the following targeted communications:

Recipient	Email Content & System Behavior
Vendor Administrators (Users possessing the 'Manage Users' permission on the Vendor account)	Receives a single, consolidated notification email listing every external guest contact invited to quote on behalf of their vendor organisation. All guests linked to a vendor are batched into this single transmission.
Each Guest Contact	Receives an isolated, individual email containing a unique, token-based link. This link grants direct security clearance to view and respond to the specific RFQ without forcing the guest to register or log into the Felix platform.

NOTE: Guest contacts are added to the RFQ at the point of sending. These guest entries can be reviewed by clicking the Vendor Contacts modal inside the Vendors tab of the corresponding Open RFQ.