What states can a Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) be in, and what do they mean?

Due Diligence questionnaires can be sent out via the EB360 platforms to suppliers.  These maybe Anti-modern slavery questionnaires,  Anti-bribery and Corruption Questionnaires (ABCQ) and so on. A normal flow if all went well would be:

• Send -> Not started -> In progress -> Complete

This would involve the questionnaire being sent out, the supplier picking it up, filling it in and signing it then marking it complete.

However there are (fairly common) situations where a questionnaire does not follow this route, and instead has some other outcome.  The outcomes are set by the users of the platform, by using the actions menu on the individual questionnaire. An example can be seen below

The user selects edit:

And can then change the status of the DDQ, this is done via the edit dialog

The allowable states are:

• Not started, this means the DDQ has been sent to the entity, but they have not logged in and started it
  
  
• In Progress, The entity has logged in and started the DDQ, but not yet submitted it.  This status is automatically set by the platform once they start filling it in.  This includes if the DDQ had been set to some other state before, for example it was Declined / Refused, but they are later started anyhow.
  
  
• Complete, The entity has Logged in, filled in and completed the DDQ
  
  
• Cancelled, this can only be set by a user of the platform, not by the supplier themselves, it can be used when a DDQ was sent in error, or to an invalid contact, or any other reason when it is known that supplier will probably never fill it in, but you are not sure why. Note from version 1.8 onwards you can also delete questionnaires if you simply do not want them in the system anymore.
  
  
• Declined / Refused, this state should be used when the supplier has said they do not intend to fill in the questionnaire, and provide no further feedback on the matter.
   
• Self Evidenced, from time to time a supplier may refuse to answer a questionnaire, but instead provide copies of their own policies (in PDF etc).  In these cases you can use the Self Evidenced status and drag and drop the files into the file box on the dialog.

Note that during any change of status the user must provide a comment on why the change is being made.

Retaining answer during status change

Importantly, by default, when a status is changed any existing answers are kept in the DDQ. If you want to clear the questionnaire you need to untick the 'Retain any answer questions on status change' box.

Reopening a completed DDQ

This feature allows a DDQ to be reopened by changing a completed DDQ to 'In progress' and leaving the existing answers in situ.