Q&A roles

Overview of Q&A roles and their respective capabilities within the Q&A process.

Ciara Martin avatar
Written by Ciara Martin
Updated over a week ago

Q&A roles are additional, optional roles that are specific to the Q&A section. They are different to Room roles. To activate the Q&A within the Room a Q&A role will need to be assigned to the user for them to be able to participate in Q&A.

💡Tip: If you are running a tender in your Room and are using two-way Q&A, your Q&A roles will be different and these ones will not be displayed. Learn about the two-way Q&A roles here.

Buy side

Question-side roles are assigned within each bidding team. The roles include:
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Question Viewer

Question Viewers can only view questions. They cannot ask questions.

Question Viewers don’t receive any notifications if you have a Question Approver in the Team or Sub-team.
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Question Author

Question Authors are responsible for asking questions. Their questions are routed to Question Approvers within their parent Team for approval. If there are no Question Approvers within their Team, their questions will go straight to the Q&A Administrator for approval.

All Question Authors receive notification emails when answers are disclosed back. If there is a Question Approver within their Team, only the original Question Author and the Question Approver will receive an email notification. The Question Approver can then choose to further notify other Question Authors within their Team.
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Question Approver

Questions Approvers are responsible for reviewing all questions that have been asked in their bidding team before they're sent to the Q&A Administrator. This helps filter out duplicates, low quality or irrelevant questions to better manage the Q&A Administrator's time and Q&A workflow.

Questions Approvers can ask questions and send them directly to the Q&A Administrator.

Question Approvers receive notification emails when answers are disclosed back and can further notify Question Authors that an answer has been disclosed via email.
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Sell side

Answer-side roles are typically assigned to the sell side. The role options include:
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Answer Drafter

Answer Drafters are responsible for answering questions that are assigned to them.

Answer Drafters have the choice to draft answers themselves or forward questions to other Answer Authors, Answer Drafters and Answer Approvers.

Answer Drafters can only see questions that are assigned to them.
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Answer Author

Answer Authors are responsible for answering questions that are assigned to them.

Answer Authors have the choice to draft answers themselves or forward questions to other Answer Authors, Answer Drafters and Answer Approvers.

Answer Authors can send their answer straight to the Q&A Administrator for approval even if there is an Answer Approver.

Answer Authors can only see questions that are assigned to them.
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Answer Approver

Answer Approvers are responsible for approving answers prior to final approval by the Q&A Administrator.

Answer Approvers are assigned questions and have the choice to draft answers themselves or forward the questions to other Answer Approvers, Answer Authors and Answer Drafters to answer.

Answer Approvers can see all questions that are sitting with the Q&A Administrator.
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Q&A Administrator

Q&A Administrators oversee the Q&A process. They are the question gatekeepers who approve all questions from the Question side and discloses the answers to the Question side. They assign, approve and reject questions.

Q&A Administrators don’t need to be the Room Administrator, although they can be. There can be more than one Q&A Administrator.
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Q&A Observer - Full control

Q&A Observer - Full Control have the same access as Q&A Admins, except that they cannot be assigned questions and they don't receive Q&A notifications.

The Q&A Observer - Full Control role is intended to backup Q&A Admins.
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Q&A Observer - View only

When Q&A is enabled in the Room, a user with the Q&A Observer - View only can see all questions and answers like Q&A Administrator and Q&A Observer - Full Control, but they cannot process questions and answers.

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