When a customer asks you for data through the Registry, the ask arrives in Registry > Customer requests, with an email to your registry request handlers. Like Supplier engagement, it is a table with a Status choice (All, Needs you, Waiting on them, Done), filters and search; click a row to open it in a panel on the right.
Who receives asks
On Settings > Company > Users, a user's Registry requests setting marks them as a handler: Handles requests or Not a handler. Handlers receive what other organisations ask you and can answer by sharing. Only Global Admin, Global Super User and LCA Expert users can be handlers. If nobody is set, asks go to your Global Admins.
Answering an ask
Open the ask to see what they asked for, their message, and whether they want evidence with each answer.
- Share opens the Share sheet with that customer already picked. You choose which product to share; only they see it, unless you choose otherwise. See How do I share my data on the Registry?
- Decline, with an optional reason. The customer sees that your organisation declined, with your reason, and never who declined.
Nothing is shared until you share it. After sharing, you can attach the evidence behind your figure, for Only the buyer who asked or Any customer who can see it. They get a copy when they use your data.
Answering an ask connects you: the customer can use what you share in the footprints they report, and every later share uses that connection.
Asks about several items
A customer can ask about many items in one ask. Each item shows its name, your code for it, its GTIN and their code for it, and what counts as an answer (for example "Food, per kg"):
- Answer shares a product for that item.
- Decline asks for an optional reason, which they read, for example "we no longer supply this".
- Add a product they did not list answers with something they did not ask about.
- Decline it all declines every open item at once.
The ask stays open while any item is open.
When a customer uses your figures, or says you supply them
When a buyer starts using figures you share with everyone, Customer requests shows {Company} uses your figures, naming everything of yours they use. A buyer can also set you as their supplier. You are asked once per customer. Choose Confirm and their footprints report your figures as their supplier's. Choose Not our customer and your figures stay out of their reported footprints. Either way nothing new is shared, and your contact details stay private. You can Change to Confirm later. If you would rather not be asked by companies you do not know, share directly with your customers instead of with everyone.
Asks for contact
An Ask for contact comes from a buyer who found what you share: share your contact, or decline.
Asks for farm data
An ask for farm activity data offers Record farm data: pick the site the record describes, record the season, and once the footprint is calculated, share it in answer. Recording farm data needs the Farm raw materials add-on.
Suppliers who are not on Sustained
A supplier who is not a Sustained customer answers through the Registry form at registry.sustained.com, from the link in their email. It opens on Requests: one card per ask, with each item, what counts as an answer, Answer and Decline, and the whole ask can be declined with a reason. They enter their figures and evidence, and, where their answer leaves categories blank, the catalogue ingredient their product is closest to. The customer who asked reviews it before anything is shared. What they share is under Shared data.
Their answer is shared only with the customer who asked; listing figures for every buyer needs a Sustained workspace. A farm records its data on the form only in answer to a farm-level request.