Managing Self-Declared Suppliers

Last updated: April 15, 2026

When you add a supplier with Self Declare enabled, Coolset creates a workspace for that supplier but gives you — the operator — access to manage it. This means you complete the self-assessment, add products, and provide origin data on the supplier's behalf.

The key concept: each supplier has their own workspace. To work on behalf of a self-declared supplier, you switch to their workspace.

How to switch workspaces

  1. Look at the top-left corner of the screen where your company name is displayed.

  2. Click on the company name. A dropdown appears listing all workspaces you have access to: your own company and any self-declared suppliers.

  3. Select the supplier's workspace.

  4. The navigation updates to show the supplier's data. You can now complete their self-assessment, add their products, view their sales orders, and manage their origins.

  5. To return to your own workspace, click the company name again and select your own company.

What you can do inside a supplier's workspace?

Once you switch to a supplier's workspace, you can complete the same steps the supplier would complete themselves: complete the self-assessment, add products to the catalog, add origins (if the supplier is a producer), view sales orders received from you (these appear automatically when you create a purchase order in your own workspace), and invite team members to the workspace.

Common workflow: self-declaring for a trading company with upstream suppliers

If your self-declared supplier is a trading company (they buy products, not produce them), the workflow is:

  1. In your own workspace: Add the supplier with Self Declare. Create a purchase order for the products you buy from them.

  2. Switch to the supplier's workspace: Complete their self-assessment. Add their products (Product type = Purchased) to the catalog. Open the sales order that appeared from your purchase order and trace the supplier's product to it — this connects their product to what you ordered. Then add their upstream suppliers and create purchase orders to pass the request further upstream.

  3. Switch to the upstream supplier's workspace (if also self-declared): Repeat the process — complete the self-assessment, add products, trace them to the sales order, and either add origins (if they are the producer) or pass the request further upstream.

Each purchase order you create in a workspace automatically appears as a sales order in the recipient supplier's workspace. Each supplier traces their own products to the sales orders they receive. This chain of traces is how due diligence information flows from the producer all the way back to the EU operator.

Common workflow: self-declaring for a producer

If your self-declared supplier is the producer:

  1. In your own workspace: Add the supplier with Self Declare. Create a purchase order.

  2. Switch to the supplier's workspace: Complete their self-assessment. Add their products (Product type = Produced). Open the sales order that appeared from your purchase order and trace the producer's product to it. Add their origins using the map or CSV import. Complete the origin assessment with supporting documents. Link origins to the traced sales order so the information passes back to your workspace.

FAQ

  1. I added a self-declared supplier but can't find the Self-assessment tab? You need to switch to the supplier's workspace first. The Self-assessment tab lives in the supplier's workspace, not in your operator workspace. Click your company name in the top-left corner to switch.

  2. My supplier wants to take over their own workspace. How do I hand it over? Switch to the supplier's workspace and invite their contact person as a team member via Settings > Team. They will receive an invitation email and can set up their own login.

  3. Can I manage multiple self-declared suppliers? Yes. Each self-declared supplier appears as a separate workspace in the top-left dropdown. You can switch between them freely.

  4. Do I need to add the same product in both my workspace and the supplier's workspace? Yes, but the product names don't have to match. In your workspace, the product represents what you buy. In the supplier's workspace, the product represents what they sell. You can use the naming that makes sense for each workspace. The link between them is made through the purchase order / sales order relationship.