Get Started with Tropic

Welcome to Tropic! After your organization signs with Tropic, we’ll schedule a kickoff meeting with your team. During kickoff, an implementation consultant from Tropic will go over the onboarding process with you.

This article covers some of the steps we’ll ask you to complete as part of onboarding. We recommend you complete each section in the order listed. If you have questions or run into issues during onboarding, reach out to your implementation consultant.

Prepare for Kickoff

Complete the following tasks before the kickoff meeting:

• Collect your contract documents in a single folder.
  Later, you’ll upload these documents to Tropic. Don’t create separate folders for each supplier. Using a single folder makes it easier to drag and drop the folder's content into the Tropic UI.
• Create a list of approvers for purchase requests.
  Your implementation consultant will use this information to advise and recommend how your organization should set up your workflows and procurement process. We’ll build your workflows for you during implementation.
• Confirm who needs to sign final order forms for purchases.
  If you use Tropic's Assisted Purchasing service, you’ll need to enter contract signatories and billing details in your account settings.

Upload Your Contract Documents

After kickoff, begin uploading your contract documents to Tropic. Each contract document must include the following information:

• End or renewal date, unless one-time or month-to-month
• Term length, such as annual or multi-year
• Total contract value

Tropic staff extracts metadata from these documents to set up contract records. This unlocks several features in the Tropic platform, including renewal reminders and spend management.

For onboarding, we recommend you add documents in bulk.

• In Tropic, click Contracts.
• Click the Documents tab
•  Click Add.
• Upload your document files using the Upload Documents section.

• Click Submit.

Connect to Integrations

Several integrations let you sync user data from your ERP or other platforms with Tropic to make smarter buying decisions. To connect an integration, check out the related article in Integrations.

Add Departments

Requires the following role: Owner

Departments let you associate purchase requests and contract records with specific teams in your organization.

For onboarding, we recommend you select Add Multiple Departments using a CSV. Add any departments that have a budget to make purchases. This lets you sort and filter contracted spend by department.

• In Tropic, click Settings > Departments.
• Click Add Department.
• Click Add Multiple Departments.

• Click Download Department Template to download the CSV template.
• Fill out the CSV with your department data. The following table provides guidance for each field.
  

  Field	Required	Description
  department	Yes	Name of the department.
  department_manager_email	No	Email address of the department manager. Value is case-sensitive and must match an existing user in Tropic. Important: When onboarding to Tropic, leave this field empty.
  internal_id	No	Internal reference ID for the department. Typically used for general ledger (GL) codes.

• Save the CSV using the .csv file extension. You can use any filename.
• Upload your CSV file using the Upload Department Template section

• Click Start Import. A success message states the import has started. Tropic sends you an email when the import finishes.

Add Users

Requires the following role: Owner

After adding departments, you can add users and assign them to departments.

For onboarding, we recommend you select Add Multiple Users using a CSV.

• In Settings, navigate to Users.
• Click Add User.
• Click Add Multiple Users.

• Click Download User Template to download the CSV template.
• Fill out the CSV with your user data. The following table provides guidance for each field.
  

  Field	Required	Description
  first_name	Yes	First name.
  last_name	Yes	Last name.
  email	Yes	Email address used for Tropic login and notifications. Value is case-sensitive.
  department	Yes	Department for the user. Value is case-sensitive and must match an existing department in Tropic.
  role	Yes	Tropic user role. Must be one of the following values: Owner, Platform Member, Portal User, Department Admin, or Department Member. Values are case-sensitive. For more information about user roles, see Tropic user roles and permissions.
  job_title	No	Job title of the user.
  direct_manager_email	No	Email address of the user’s direct manager. Values are case-sensitive. If a user with the email address doesn’t exist, Tropic creates the user.

• Save the CSV using the .csv file extension. You can use any filename.
• In Tropic, upload your CSV file using the Upload User Template section.

• Click Start Import. A success message will indicate the import has started. Tropic sends you an email when the import finishes.

Bulk-imported users aren't automatically sent a Tropic invite. You’ll send out email invitations later in the onboarding process.

If you add individual users without using a CSV, you can uncheck Send email invitation now to avoid sending an invite to a new user. This ensures the user won’t be sent an invite until your Tropic account is ready.

Add Department Managers

Requires the following role: Owner

After adding users, set a manager for each department. You can set up your request workflows to require approval from department managers.

• Click Settings > Departments.
• Click the ellipsis […] for the department you want to update. Then click Edit.
• Under Manager, select a user as the department manager.
• Click Save.

Add Missing Information to Your Contracts

After upload, Tropic staff uses information from your documents to create contract records. To be complete, each contract record must contain the following:

• One or more contract owners
• A department
• One or more documents
• Total contract value
• Renewal type, such as automatic, non-renewing, or optional
• End or renewal date (unless it is a month-to-month or rolling agreement)

You’ll need to add this missing information to complete the setup of your contract records.

• In Tropic, click Contracts.
• Click Contracts Missing Information.
  • Contracts that are missing required information are listed under Action Required.

• To add missing information to a contract, click the supplier’s name.
• Add missing information to fields under Required Information.
  
  Tip: You can simultaneously edit contracts to add the same contract owners, department, or document providers to several contracts at the same time. See Bulk Edit Contracts.

• Click Submit for Review in the upper right.

Bulk Edit Contracts

You can bulk edit contracts to add the same information to several contracts at once. You can edit the following contract information:

• Contract owner
• Department
• Renewal Type 

If you’re editing contracts under the Contracts page’s Contracts Missing Information tab, you can also assign one or more document providers. These are users responsible for uploading documents for the contract record. Document providers must have the owner or platform member user role.

• On the Contracts page, select one or more contracts.
  • If desired, use Filters to apply filters to your view. For example, you can choose to only view contracts in a specific department.
• Click Bulk Edit.

Specify one or more of the following:

• One or more contract Owners
• A Department
• Renewal Type 

If you’re editing contracts under the Contracts Missing Information tab, you can also assign one or more Document Providers.

• Click Update Contracts.
  • If you’ve assigned any document providers, Tropic sends the provider an email requesting that they upload contract documents.

Track Contract Stages

After you submit a contract for review, the contract moves to the In Review stage.

Tropic staff reviews submitted contracts to ensure they’re accurate and contain all required information. If we find any issues, we’ll move the contract record back to the Action Required stage and email you.

If the contract record looks good, we will move the record to the Setup Complete stage.

Once a contract reaches this stage, no more action is needed. We’ll notify the contract owner once the contract is near renewal.

Configure Your Settings

After you’ve added missing information to your contract records, you can configure your settings.

• Add Billing Details
  If you’re using Tropic Assisted Purchasing, your billing details ensure that related order forms contain accurate billing info for your organization.
• Add Routing Rules and Signatories
  Routing and signatory settings ensure new contracts and renewals are signed by the right people in your organization.
• Set Your Procurement Preferences
  Your procurement preferences outline how your organization contracts with suppliers. If you use Tropic's Assisted Purchasing or Expert Advisory services, Tropic uses these preferences to present options in line with your policies.
  
• Edit Your User Profile
  Change how your Tropic user profile appears.
• Change Your Notification Settings
  These settings determine how Tropic sends you notifications in email or Slack.

Invite Users to Tropic

Requires the following role: Owner

When you and your implementation consultant agree that you’re ready to launch, you can send email invitations to users you added earlier.

You can view these users under Awaiting Invitation on the Users page.

• In Tropic, click Settings > Users.
• Click Awaiting Invitation. The page displays a list of users who haven’t been sent an email invitation to your Tropic account.

• Click Bulk send email invitations.

• Click Confirm and send email invitations.
  Tropic sends an email invitation to the listed users. Until they accept the invite, the users are displayed under Invited on the Users page.

Additional Resources

For more information about our training guides and documentation, please visit our Help Center.