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RESERVED FORCES’ AND CADETS’ ASSOCIATIONS

Commercial Portal User Manual – v2.3

PQQ - Contractor Application

Aujla Business Systems Ltd

19/03/2013

This document explains briefly the steps involved for a Contractor to register, login to PQQ module, fill in the PQQ and submit to the RFCA(s).


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Contents

Registration – New Contractors ................................................................................... 2

Login Process – Contractors......................................................................................... 6

Retrieving your login credentials ................................................................................. 8

Completing the PQQ ................................................................................................... 11

Updating the PQQ ....................................................................................................... 15

Managing Secondary RFCAs ..................................................................................... 15

Swapping Primary RFCA ........................................................................................... 17

Copying a PQQ ............................................................................................................ 17

Further Support .......................................................................................................... 19


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Registration – New Contractors

This section is only applicable, if you as a contractor have not received a username/password already.

If you do have a username/password, please skip to the next section – “Login Process – Contractors”.

You are required to register and complete a PQQ at www.rfca-business.org if you want to offer your

services to the Reserved Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCA). This action does not guarantee any

contracts; the RFCAs will review the PQQ and decide on the way forward. You will be kept informed

by email on the progress of your registration at each stage.

To apply, you need to click the REGISTER button and follow the online instructions.

There are 13 Reserve Forces’ And Cadets’ Associations (RFCA) in the UK. You will be able to select

the RFCAs to which you wish to provide services to, nominating one of the RFCAs as the primary.

You should tick the Secondary RFCAs ONLY if you can provide the SAME services to them.

Although the PQQ will be reviewed by the Primary RFCA, all the Secondary RFCAs will have access

to the PQQ and will make their own decisions as to whether they require the services or not.

http://www.rfca-business.org/


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Pressing the “Continue >” button on the screen shown in the previous page takes you to the

Registration Form where the Organisation’s details are required to be completed in full.

Organisation Name: Enter your Organisation’s full name/registered name here.

Business Type: This is a pull down menu type. If the value you need is not there, please select “Other”.

Selecting “Other” in this field will show another field next to it, you must specify what other business

type is.

Contact Person’s Name: This line is divided into 3 parts. Select the appropriate Title, provide your

Forenames and Surname. Placing the mouse over the fields also shows you what these fields are.

Contact Person’s Position: Your position / job title in your organisation.

Address: Enter your organisation’s Postcode and press “Find Address” and then select the address

from the list shown by clicking the “Click here” link under “Select This Address” column. Once the

address is selected you can enter/update the first 3 lines. This is only necessary if the automatically

selected address does not provide the full address details as you would like to register.


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Communication Details: Here you are able to provide other Communication details such as Office

Phone, Fax, Home Phone, Mobile, Military Phone, Military Fax, Website and Email address.

Registration Details: Provide your organisation’s registration details, if applicable.

Having completed the Registration Form, you can press “Continue >” to advance to the next page.

This page requires you to select the type of work for which you wish to be considered.

Tick the appropriate boxes on the left hand side and when the “Description” text opens, you need to

provide further details. If you do not enter the details, the form will prompt you to do so. If you do not

have any information that can be added to the detail of each selected “Serial”, please enter NONE.

When you press the “Done” button, the system will give a confirmation of your action as shown below.


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Please select one or more “Serial” that represent your core business and that you are able to provide to

ALL the RFCAs selected in the “Register your Interest with RFCAs” screen.

Once all the required details are entered for each selected “Serial”, please click the Submit button. You

will receive 2 emails containing the Username and Password respectively. These will be sent to the

email address provided in “Communication Details” section in the “Registration Form”. Please use

these to login to complete the PQQ by returning to the www.rfca-business.org website and selecting

Contractor Login option as shown in next section.



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Login Process – Contractors

Please click the “Contractor Login” from the above home page which will take you to login page

shown below. Please make sure you see the “Login – Contractor Application” as a heading for the

login section. If you see any other text or the login section looks any different to the one shown below

(minus the black circle – which is just an illustration to emphasize what to look for), you must close the

window and click the “Contractor Login” correctly from www.rfca-business.org home page.

Once you have entered your credentials and pressed the ‘Login’ button, you will be presented with a

screen that reminds you about the Data Protection Act 1998. If however, there were some information

missing, for e.g. your organisation’s email address or contact person’s name etc., the system takes you

to a screen where the missing / incorrect / incomplete information must be provided before continuing

to the “DPA Reminder”. This screen would look something like the one shown in the next page.



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As these are the bear minimum details we need; should there be a need to get in touch with you

regarding your account, you are expected to complete ALL the fields provided and press “Following

Info Are Correct, Continue >” button to progress to the “DPA Reminder”.

Please tick to select the confirmation box if one is presented and Click “Continue >” to be taken to the

main menu as shown in the next section.


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Retrieving your login credentials

If you ever lose your login credentials of your account, you can retrieve / reset them in most scenarios

without having to contact Service Desk; as long as your email address is recorded in our database. If

your email address is not available in our database, then unfortunately the automated system will not be

able to help and you need to contact Service Desk to retrieve your login credentials manually.

To retrieve or reset your password, you need to click “I cannot access my account” link provided in the

login screen. Once clicked you will be taken to a screen where you have multiple options as shown

below:

Forgot your password?

If you have forgotten your password, then click the first option which will open the section where you

can use your username to request a password reset link:

Using this option, you can request a password reset link under two scenarios:

In the first scenario, you remember your username and we have your contact details recorded in our

database – this is the most common scenario for all contractors who have registered with us after the

online system was introduced. To request a password reset link, all you need is your username. As long

as the username provided in the box exists in our database, you will be shown “Send Reset Password

Link” button. Otherwise, you will be shown an appropriate message.


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In the other scenario, you remember your username, but we do not have your contact details recorded

in our database – this is applicable ONLY to legacy contractors who have been doing business with

RFCAs even before this online system was introduced. In such cases, the system will show you the

following screen where you can input your details and request a reset password link.

Note 1: In order to protect the privacy of our users and maintain the security of the system, we will

NOT display the registered email address on screen.

Note 2: “Send Reset Password Link” button will always send the link ONLY to the registered email

address. If you do not have access to your registered email address, then you need to contact Service

Desk to do a manual reset.

Forgot your username(s)?

If you have forgotten your username, then click the second option which will open the section where

you can use your email address to request a list of username(s) associated with it.

Upon clicking the “Send Username(s)” button, you will be shown a confirmation message as shown

below. Normally, the emails will be sent out within 2 minutes of showing this message. If you did not

receive an email in your inbox, there is likely chance that your email address is not recorded in our

database. In such case, you need to contact Service Desk and pass through the security checks before

updating your email address or reset your password.

Forgot your username and registered email address?

If you have forgotten your username and not sure which registered email address was registered in our

database, then click the third option to open a section where you can specify your company details that

will be used to match the information held in our database to find your details.


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The system will display appropriate message such as the following, under these fields to help you

understand whether a match has been found or not.

Please provide more information

We found some matching information, but not enough to validate your identity.

Based on the information supplied, if a unique match is found, then you will be a message something

similar to the following:

You don’t have an account?

If you don’t have an account with us already, click the last option which will take you to the

Registration form.


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Completing the PQQ

Once you have completed the registration and logged on to the RFCA Commercial Portal you will be

presented with a main menu as shown below:

From the menu above, the sequence of data update should be carried out from left to right:

Step 1 – Click the Profile icon and ensure that all details are correct and save any changes.

Step 2 – Click the Registrations icon and ensure that the services you will provide are updated.

Step 3 – Click the Questionnaire icon, click the “yellow pencil” shown and enter the details in each

section.

Clicking on the Questionnaire icon will take you to the following screen. Please note: YOU MUST

NOT ATTEMPT TO COMPLETE THE QUESTIONNAIRE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE

FIRST 2 STEPS LISTED ABOVE.

This screen will list all the PQQs you are required to complete. Please note the PQQ that will be

presented in this screen is only from your chosen Primary RFCA; unless the secondary RFCAs have

replicated your PQQ for their own use. If you see more than one entry here, you can decide which one

of these PQQs you would like to fill / complete and click the relevant pencil icon shown to start the

PQQ process.

Clicking the pencil icon will take you to the PQQ screen; the tabs presented here will depend on the

work type(s) you have selected in the registration screen (Table A). The following screen is just an

illustration on what it might look like:


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Where there is a need to upload a file, e.g. memberships to professional or trade bodies or insurance

certificates etc. you can do so by clicking the “Manage Files” link provided. Please see the screen

below for an illustration:

Initially the “Manage Files” link will show the count as zero. To add / replace related files to a

question, you need to click “Manage Files” link and you will be taken to a pop-up page where you can

view the files uploaded, if any, for the selected question. Also on the same page you can upload a new

file by clicking the “Upload a File” button.


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To upload a new file, please follow the instructions below:

1. Select the file to replace with this new file being uploaded (this is helpful, for e.g. if your insurance

certificate uploaded earlier has run out and you would like to upload a new certificate).

2. Click the “Browse” / “Choose file” button and select the file you would like to upload as a

supporting document for the question shown in the PQQ.

3. Specify the comments, if any.

4. Specify the expiry date for the file being uploaded. This is particularly helpful for the insurance

certificates and memberships etc. By specifying the dates here, we might be able to remind you in

advance about certain key dates that the RFCAs are interested in.

5. Status – you will not be able to change them and for information purposes only

6. Click the “Upload the Selected File” button to upload your file from your machine on to the

servers.

Once a file has been uploaded successfully, you should receive a confirmation as shown below. If you

don’t get the confirmation in a green bar, then you may need to contact the PQQ Helpdesk once you

verified there isn’t any issue from your side.

To return to the main page to continue the PQQ, please click “Close Window” button. Now you should

see the count reflecting the number of files available to manage for this question as shown below:


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Whilst you are in the middle of filling a PQQ, you can save it at any point and come back at a later

stage/day to continue further. To do so, please click the “Save” button provided at the top of the PQQ

screen. If the PQQ is not complete please DO NOT press the “Submit to RFCA” button. This button is

only to be used once all details have been completed as best as you can and you wish the PQQ to be

reviewed by the RFCA. Once a PQQ is submitted to the RFCA for review, it can only be updated if the

RFCA unlocks it for updates or obtaining further information from you.


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Updating the PQQ You are required to update the PQQ in three scenarios, where you have:

1. Not submitted the PQQ to the RFCA, but saved to update further details at a later stage

2. Submitted the PQQ to the RFCA and they require further information from you before a decision

can be made. You will be notified if this is the case.

3. Been approved earlier and you are currently providing services to the RFCA(s) and you are

required to update certain information, for e.g. insurance certificate ran out. You will be notified if

this is the case.

All the saved PQQs or the PQQs for which the RFCA require you to provide further information will

be listed in the same screen as shown earlier, second image in section 2.5 – except that the status will

now show “Saved” or “More Information Needed” instead of “PQQ Not Started”.

You can click the pencil icon to continue the PQQ. Please note all the sections (shown as tabs) in PQQ

screen are mandatory and you will not be able to submit to the RFCA if you haven’t completed any of

the sections. Some of the questions may not be applicable to your business or the service you are

providing and in such cases you should choose “Not Applicable” as an answer, where provided.

You can submit the PQQ; once all the sections are completed, to the RFCA by clicking “Submit to

RFCA” button. At this stage the PQQ will be validated and discrepancies found, if any, are reported to

you so you can address them accordingly.

You may want to keep a copy of the PQQ for your records by clicking the “Download this PQQ”

button; which will download your PQQ as a PDF file that can either be printed or saved in your

computer. Please note, any documents/files you may have uploaded as part of the PQQ will NOT be

downloaded by this button. Also, please be aware that the RFCAs will NOT accept the paper copies of

your PQQ; it is purely for your records only.

Managing Secondary RFCAs When there is a need to add an RFCA as secondary in your list, you do not have to call the Service

Desk; instead you can manage the secondary RFCAs yourself by following few simple steps. To

manage your secondary RFCAs, open the PQQ for your primary RFCA; where you will see a section

on the right hand side as shown below – which will list all the secondary RFCAs that you have already

chosen to provide the services to.


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Note: a secondary RFCA who have replicated your PQQ from the primary RFCA WILL NOT be listed

here. If you choose not to provide services to such an RFCA, you need to contact Service Desk as

explained in the Further Support section at the end of this document.

To manage the secondary RFCAs, you need to click the “Manage” link provided which will take you to

a screen as shown below:

In the above example, you can see that the first 5 RFCAs are pre-selected because they have been

already chosen as the secondary RFCAs by this contractor. If the contractor chooses not to provide

services to any of these first 5 RFCAs, they can un-tick the relevant boxes and press save button.


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The middle 2 RFCAs are shown as un-ticked because they have not been chosen as the secondary

RFCAs by this contractor. If the contractor wishes to provide services to any of these 2 RFCAs, they

can tick the relevant boxes and press save button.

However, as you can see although the bottom 5 RFCAs are pre-selected, they are greyed out and so

cannot be un-ticked because these RFCAs have already replicated the PQQ from the primary RFCA for

their own use and so any modification to these selections must be handled via a Service Desk request.

Swapping Primary RFCA If you have chosen an RFCA as your primary, either by mistake or otherwise and would like to swap it

with another RFCA, it is not possible via the self-managed secondary RFCA feature explained above

because of the complexity involved. You need to contact Service Desk as explained in the Further

Support section at the end of this document, should you wish to swap your primary RFCA with

another.

Copying a PQQ Until now, if you are providing services to more than one RFCA and need to update certain

information, such as insurance details for example, in the PQQ, you had to update the same information

in the PQQs for all the RFCAs who have taken a copy of your PQQ from the Primary RFCA.

This has been simplified now, where you can update a PQQ of your choice and copy the relevant

sections to other PQQs.

To copy a PQQ (that has been amended to have the up to date information), you need to click the icon,

if displayed under “Copy this PQQ to others?” column. You may notice that certain PQQs do not have

an icon to copy, which is simply because the system identifies those PQQs as not being suitable to be

considered as a source. An example is shown in the screenshot below where there is no copy icon for

the PQQ submitted to Wessex RFCA; because the PQQ has been “Declined” and so it is not considered

to be a good source for copying.

Where there is a copy icon available, you can click it to copy that to PQQs for other RFCAs. When you

do so, you will be taken to a screen as shown below where two lists of RFCAs are displayed; one with

a list of selectable target RFCAs and another with a list of non-selectable RFCAs.


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From the list of selectable RFCAs, you can select up to a maximum of 4 target RFCAs. If you try to

select more than 4 RFCAs, a message will be displayed as shown below and the 5th

selection will be

unselected automatically.

Once you have chosen your target RFCAs, you need to click “Proceed to Step 2 of 2” button to go to

the screen shown below; where you can select the relevant PQQ sections to copy from the source to the

target PQQs. If you would like to copy all the sections from the source to a target PQQ, then you can

tick “Copy ALL sections?”


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Important: Please be aware that this copy process will replace the regional variations, if any, with the

values from the source PQQ for the selected sections.

When you press “Copy Selected Sections” button, the relevant sections of the source PQQ will be

copied to the target PQQs and the confirmation shown below will be displayed on screen.

Important: Please be aware that although the selected sections are copied from source to target PQQs,

they are NOT submitted to the RFCAs. You must ensure that all sections are correct and submit them

individually to the relevant RFCAs.

Further Support If this guide has not covered your question, please email your technical enquires to [email protected].

If you have an urgent issue, please call the Service Desk on 01252 357 619.

mailto:[email protected]

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