Questionnaire Assistant
On the Scale plan, the Questionnaire Assistant suggests supplier qualification questions tailored to your category, with answer types, weighting, and show-stopper flags already proposed. You add the ones you want.
What you'll learn
- Get category-specific qualification questions suggested for you
- Understand answer types, weights, and show-stopper flags before you add a question
- Build a Questionnaire faster while staying in full control of every question
The Questionnaire Assistant is available on the Scale plan. If you are on Explore or Grow, the Questionnaire step shows an upgrade prompt instead, and the assistant is not available until you move to Scale.
Knowing what to buy is one thing. Knowing which supplier can actually deliver it, safely, legally, and to standard, is another. That is what a Questionnaire does: it asks suppliers the questions that separate a qualified bidder from an unqualified one. The hard part is knowing which questions to ask for a given category. A medical supplies request needs different qualification questions than a freight contract or a construction supply.
The Questionnaire Assistant solves that. Once you have set a category on your request, it suggests qualification questions tailored to that category, each one arriving with an answer type, a proposed weight, and a show-stopper flag where one makes sense. You review the suggestions and add the ones you want, one at a time. You are never handed a finished questionnaire you cannot change. You are handed a strong starting set, and you decide what makes the cut.
Why this matters
Good qualification questions are specific to what you are buying, and writing them from scratch for every category is real expertise that takes time. The assistant brings that expertise to the moment you need it. It proposes the questions a careful buyer in your category would ask, already shaped with the right answer type and weighting, so you spend your time choosing rather than drafting.
When to use it
Use the assistant on the Questionnaire step when you want to evaluate suppliers on more than price and want a head start on the right questions. It is most useful when:
- You are sourcing in a category where qualification matters: licences, certifications, compliance, capacity, or experience.
- You want answer types and weights proposed for you rather than set one by one.
- You want the high-stakes disqualifying questions, the show-stoppers, flagged so you do not miss them.
You can always write your own questions by hand, use a quick-add preset, or mix your own with the assistant's suggestions. The assistant adds to your toolkit; it does not replace manual authoring.
What it uses
The assistant uses AI credits to load suggestions. It shows its cost before you confirm, on a preflight screen, and a load that fails is never charged. Because it is part of the Questionnaire step, it requires the Scale plan, the same as the step itself. Within Scale, access to the assistant is by your credit balance. If your balance is zero, the load button is disabled and you are pointed to top up first.
The Add a Questionnaire guide covers question types, weights, and show-stoppers in full. Open it alongside this one to understand what each suggested setting means before you accept it.
Using the assistant, step by step
The assistant sits at the top of the Questionnaire step, above your question list.
Set a category first
The assistant works from your request category, so it only appears once a category is set on the request. If you reach the Questionnaire step without one, you will see a prompt to set a category first. Categories are chosen on the earlier wizard steps.
Load suggestions for your category
Select Load suggestions. The button shows the credit cost. A confirmation screen then appears with the cost and your balance, so you confirm the spend before anything runs. Confirm to load, or close it to hold off.
If your balance is zero, the load button is disabled with a note. As an Admin you can open the top-up flow from there; as a Member you are told to ask an Admin on your team.
Review the suggested questions
The suggestions load as a list. Each one shows the question text, a category tag such as Compliance or Commercial, the proposed answer type, and a proposed weight. The high-stakes disqualifying questions are grouped and labelled as Show Stopper at the top, so a question that can rule a supplier out is never mistaken for an ordinary one.
Add the questions you want, one at a time
Each suggestion has its own Add button. Select Add on a question to drop it into your questionnaire below, where it becomes a normal question you can edit: change the wording, adjust the weight, switch the answer type, or toggle the show-stopper. Add as many or as few as you like. Suggestions you have already added drop off the list, so you never duplicate one by accident.
You can also keep building by hand alongside the suggestions, using the quick-add presets or the add-question button. The assistant's job is to give you a strong starting set; the final questionnaire is yours.
Keep an eye on the weight total bar as you add questions. Your question weights should add up to 100 percent so suppliers are scored against a balanced set of criteria. The bar turns green when you reach 100.
What good looks like
A strong questionnaire is short, weighted sensibly, and built around the questions that actually decide qualification. A few habits help:
- Add the show-stoppers first. A missing licence or certification should disqualify a bid outright, and the assistant flags those for you. Adding them deliberately is the point.
- Do not add every suggestion. A focused set of well-weighted questions scores more cleanly than a long list where each question barely moves the result.
- Edit the weights after adding. The assistant proposes a starting weight; balance them so the total reaches 100 percent and the most important criteria carry the most.
- Reword to your context. The suggestion is a strong draft. If your situation has a specific standard or approval in mind, say so in the question.
Qualifying medical suppliers in minutes
A hospital buyer sourcing disposable consumables sets the category, then loads suggestions. The assistant returns a show-stopper asking whether the supplier holds the required regulatory approval, plus questions on lead time, batch traceability, and minimum order. The buyer adds the approval question as a show-stopper, adds two of the others, edits the weights to total 100 percent, and moves to Review. The qualification logic that would normally take a careful afternoon took a few minutes.
What suppliers see
Suppliers answer the questions you add, exactly as you finalise them. They never see that a question was suggested by the assistant, never see suggestions you did not add, and never see the weights or show-stopper flags behind the scoring. They see a clean set of qualification questions to answer alongside their price. The assistant is your private drafting aid; the questionnaire suppliers fill in is your reviewed, final version.
What comes next
Once your questions are in and the weights total 100 percent, move to the Review step. There, a pre-publish check can read the whole request, including your questionnaire, and flag anything thin before you go live.
Next steps
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