The Supplier Portal Link in Your RFQs

Every RFQ You Send Carries a Portal Link

When Buyer24 emails an RFQ to a supplier, it adds a one-line note at the bottom of the message:

Prefer to respond online? View this RFQ and submit your quote in the Buyer24 supplier portal — no account needed.

That link is the supplier portal link. It is the supplier's one-click way into a free portal where they can read your request in full, download your attachments, ask you questions, and send their quote back — instead of writing a plain email reply.

You will run into this link in three places, which is why it often gets clicked by accident:

• At the bottom of the RFQ email your supplier received
• In your own copy of that sent message, inside the supplier's thread on the RFQ (Buyer24 stores exactly what went out, so your record matches theirs)
• Quoted back at the bottom of the supplier's replies, the way email clients quote the message they're replying to

Why Your Own Account Can't Open It

The link is for the invited supplier, not for you — and opening it with your own buyer account is a dead end by design, not a bug.

Each link is personal: it is tied to one supplier email address on one RFQ. It doesn't sign anyone in on its own. It only tells Buyer24 which address was invited to which request; the person holding it still has to prove they own that inbox before anything opens.

So when you click it while signed in to your own organization, Buyer24 recognises that you are the buyer on this RFQ and shows you a notice instead — headed "This link is for your supplier" — explaining that the link signs your supplier in to their portal, where they see only this RFQ and their own messages and quotes. There is genuinely nothing behind it for you: your account is a buying account, and the supplier's portal view holds no information you don't already have in your RFQ.

The notice also gives you a shortcut — Open this RFQ in my workspace — which takes you to the place you actually want: your own RFQ, with all supplier threads and quotes in it.

Clicking your supplier's link is harmless. It never signs you in as the supplier, never changes your account, and never emails your supplier a sign-in code. Buyer24 deliberately does nothing except explain the link.

If you click it while signed out, Buyer24 can't tell you're the buyer, so you see the supplier's sign-in page instead — it names your supplier's address and offers to email them a code. Nothing is sent unless someone clicks Email my code; just close the page.

The same notice appears if one of your own colleagues' addresses ends up on a supplier thread by mistake — an internal address is never signed in as a "supplier" on your own organization's RFQ.

What Your Supplier Does Behind the Link

Your supplier doesn't need an account, a password, or an invitation from your admin. The first time they click:

1. They land on a page that names the address you sent the RFQ to
2. They click Email my code, and a 6-digit sign-in code goes to that exact address
3. They enter the code, which proves they control that inbox
4. They're in, looking at your RFQ

The link stays valid for about a week; after that they can use the link from a newer RFQ email, or sign in with the account the first code created. Because access is tied to a verified email address, forwarding the link to a colleague doesn't grant that colleague access — invite them properly by adding their address as a contact on the RFQ instead.

Once inside, your supplier can:

• Read the full request — items, quantities, delivery and payment terms, deadline, special requirements
• Download the drawings and spec sheets you sent them
• Ask you a clarifying question in the thread
• Send their quote, with a PDF attached if they have one
• See every RFQ any Buyer24 buyer has sent to that address, in one list — yours sits alongside their other customers' requests

The full supplier-side walkthrough lives in Signing In to the Portal, Viewing Your RFQs, and Responding with a Quote. Those pages are written for your suppliers — feel free to send them the links if a supplier asks you how the portal works.

What Your Supplier Cannot See

The portal shows each supplier a narrow slice of your RFQ — only what you deliberately sent them. It never exposes:

• Other suppliers' quotes, prices, or messages
• Who else you invited to quote
• Your internal notes, budget, or team discussion
• Your other RFQs, unless you sent those to the same supplier too

Each supplier sees their own thread and nothing more, which is the same wall that stops one supplier reading another's conversation.

Where Portal Activity Shows Up for You

You don't need to watch the portal — everything a supplier does there lands in the RFQ you already have open:

In other words, a portal reply behaves exactly like an email reply from that supplier. You answer from the same compose box you always use — see Communicating with Suppliers — and your reply reaches them in their portal and their inbox.

Some suppliers will use the portal and others will just reply by email. Both work, and you handle them identically. Nothing is lost either way.

Turning the Portal Link Off

The portal link is included in outbound RFQ emails by default. If you'd rather your RFQs go out as plain emails with no portal invitation — the pre-portal experience — this can be switched off for your whole organization.

It's a platform-level setting rather than a self-serve one, so reach out to Buyer24 support to have it changed. With it off, your RFQ emails carry your message and attachments only, and suppliers reply by email as they always have.

Quick Answers

Next Steps

• Communicating with Suppliers — the threads where portal replies land
• Collecting & Comparing Quotes — what happens to a quote once it arrives
• Signing In to the Portal — the supplier's own guide, safe to forward