Work with your suppliers and customers

When your suppliers and customers also use A-REX, a connection lets the lots you exchange keep their history from one company to the next, and lets a recall reach every company that may hold an affected lot. Each company decides what it shares, and nothing is shared without a connection.

Connect with a supplier or a customer

Connected with a supplier, its lots arrive with their history and certificates; connected with a customer, you deliver lots to it without setting anything up on its side; and in a recall you know which lots came from yours.

1. Open Connections in the side menu. Companies of your organization are already there while the organization setting Connect companies automatically is on.
2. For a supplier, open the tab Suppliers and customers and select Connect on its tile, or select Connect with the sender on a lot it delivered to you in Received.
3. In Connect with, tick what you share, choose how the company appears in your directory under They appear in your directory as, add a note if you like, and select Send request.
4. The connection shows Waiting until the other company accepts. Until then you see nothing of its company. Select Withdraw request on the connection's page to cancel it.

Answer a request to connect

When a company asks to connect, Connections shows how many companies ask; select Review. On the connection's page you read its note and what it offers to share with you, before you decide.

1. Select Accept. Read offers to share with you, tick what your company shares, and choose how the company appears in your directory.
2. Or select Decline (nothing is shared; it can ask again later) or Block (it cannot ask again until you Unblock it).

See what each company shares

Select a company in Connections to open its page. What each company shares shows what you share with it and what it shares with you, side by side (the list shows them as You share and They share). Each company ticks what it shares about the lots it delivers to the other:

• Deliveries: the other company can deliver lots to you through the connection, and in its recalls it sees which of your lots come from its lots.
• Certificates and Lab results recorded on each lot you deliver, with who stands behind them.
• EUDR statement: the reference and verification number of the due diligence statement covering the lot, its origin country and region.
• Plot geolocation: the coordinates of the lot's origin plots, for EUDR due diligence only (see Share plot geolocation).
• Carbon footprints declared for the lot or its product, exactly as declared, and Processing yields of the processing that made it.
• Always shared: your company's name, and in a recall the notice the recall needs. Never shared: prices, quantities on offer, your other customers and suppliers.

Select Change what you share on the page; it applies at once. Sharing records who declared what: it does not make the evidence true or the lot compliant. End connection stops what is shared from then on; lots already delivered stay on the ledger and both companies keep the other in their directory.

Share plot geolocation for EUDR due diligence

A customer that places EUDR products on the EU market needs the plots behind your lots for its due diligence statement. A plot can identify a farmer, so this key carries the tag Can identify a person and serves that purpose only.

1. On the connection's page in Connections, select Change what you share and tick Plot geolocation, for EUDR due diligence only.
2. Read the statement: the plots are only for its EUDR due diligence, and where a plot belongs to a person you have their consent or another legal basis. Tick We confirm this statement.
3. Save and confirm with your second factor. Your records keep who confirmed it, and when.

The customer sees coordinates, never the farm's name, and you see each time it reads them. Sister companies connected automatically share every key but this one.

Follow the activity with a company

On a connection's page, Activity lists what happened between your companies, from your own records: lots you received from them, your deliveries through the connection, recall notices both ways, and the connection's own steps. Under Show, choose Lots, Recalls or Connection to narrow it. Details shows how it started and who asked.

The view of suppliers and customers

The tab Suppliers and customers of Connections shows your suppliers on the left and your customers on the right. A supplier you are not connected with shows Not connected: you see its lots, not its certificates, with Connect.

Receive lots from a connected supplier

Lots a connected company delivers to you appear in Received, a tab of Harvests & lots, with their lot code, where they came from and, when the sender shares them, their certificates. Select Check for new lots to look again, and Register a lot from it to record the goods as your own lot that comes from theirs (see Goods from a supplier's lot). A lot from a company you are not connected with offers Connect with the sender.

Select Evidence on a row to see what the supplier shares about that lot, key by key, or Not shared. With plot geolocation shared, Show plots for EUDR due diligence shows them; the supplier sees that your company read them, and when.

Ask a supplier for evidence

When a received lot lacks a certificate, a lab result, the EUDR statement or its plots, ask its supplier here instead of by e-mail.

1. In Received, select Evidence on the lot, then Ask for evidence.
2. Under What is missing, tick what you need or Something else, add a message and an Answer by date if you like, and select Send request.
3. Follow it in Evidence requests, tab You asked. Once Answered, select Close, or Still missing within 30 days to open it again. Withdraw cancels it while it waits.

One request per lot and kind can be open. A request the assistant prepared waits as a Draft until someone selects Send. The supplier is reminded as the date nears; past it, both see Overdue.

Answer an evidence request

When a customer asks you for evidence, the request appears in Evidence requests, tab Asked of you, and you are notified.

1. Open the request, read what is asked, and select Answer.
2. Tick what you share for that lot only, and add a note if you like. Record a missing certificate or lab result on the lot first. Plot geolocation asks for We confirm this statement and your second factor.
3. Select Send answer, or Decline with a note.

The answer records who declared what for that lot; it stays shared while you are connected. Messages and notes are seen by the two companies only.

Recall lots across companies

1. On the lot page, open the menu and select Open a recall, or start from Recalls.
2. Choose the lots, Recall (they may have reached consumers) or Withdrawal (taken off the market before that), the reason and a contact, then review and confirm with your second factor.
3. Every company downstream on A-REX that holds lots made from them is told. You follow them under Companies told; beyond your own connections you see counts only, never names.
4. Record when you informed an authority with Mark as informed. A-REX does not inform authorities for you.
5. Select Recall scope report on the recall's page to open the report form already filled with the lot, and Close recall when it is done.

A recall says lots may be affected. Only the minimum travels: the lot codes, the reason, the contact and your company's name.

A notice from a supplier

When a supplier recalls lots you received, a notice appears under Notices from suppliers in Recalls, and in Received the lots carry a Recall tag with its reference. Select Acknowledge to tell the supplier you have seen it, and Extend to my customers to open your own recall of the lots you made from theirs (it needs your second factor).