Chase now: a manual chase button on every supplier row
Chase now is a button on each supplier row in the Certly dashboard and on the supplier detail page that sends an immediate one-off chase email to that supplier's contact. It reuses the same chase template and the same one-click upload link as the scheduled sequence, and it is written to that supplier's chase log with its sequence step marked as manual.
The schedule is right until the day it isn't
Certly tracks expiry dates and computes alerts with a scheduled job, by default at 90, 60 and 30 days before a certificate lapses, then sends chase emails to the supplier contact at those points. Most weeks, for most suppliers, that schedule is enough, and the thresholds do the asking without you drafting anything. Those thresholds are configurable per certificate type, which the alert settings page covers in its own right.
Then a week arrives where the schedule and reality come apart. Your unannounced audit window opens earlier than you planned for. A supplier's quality contact changed in April and the last two chases went to someone who has left. You are on a call with a purchasing manager who says the new allergen declaration is signed and sitting on someone's desk, and the useful thing to do is send the request again while you are both still on the line, not on the next threshold date.
Without a manual action, that is the moment people leave the tool. They open Outlook, write a fresh email from memory, attach nothing useful, and the supplier replies to a personal inbox with a document that never reaches the certificate record. The chase happened, but the system does not know it happened, and the next person who looks at the row sees only the automated sends.
What the manual action removes
- The out-of-band email that never lands in the chase log.
- The supplier receiving a different-looking request with no upload link, so they reply with an attachment instead of uploading.
- The gap between what you did about a supplier and what the record shows you did.
How chase now works in Certly
- Start from the status view you already have open
The dashboard shows certificate status per supplier on a single screen, as current, expiring soon, expired or missing. The supplier detail page shows the same picture for one supplier, with its contact details, required certificate types and chase history.
- Press chase now on the row
The button sits on each supplier row in the dashboard and on the supplier detail page, so you do not need to open a separate compose screen or switch to email. Certly disables the button in the states where an immediate chase does not apply.
- Certly sends the existing chase email straight away
The one-off send reuses the same chase template as the automated sequence, addressed to the supplier contact, including the one-click upload link. The supplier sees the message they would have seen at the next threshold, only sooner.
- The supplier uploads without an account
The link takes them to a no-login upload page behind a single-use, expiring signed link. They attach the certificate against the right supplier and certificate type, and it is stored on that supplier's record for the dashboard's four-state view to read.
- The send is written to the chase log as manual
Every chase is logged per send, and a chase-now send is recorded with its sequence step marked as manual. The supplier's history reads as one list: what the schedule sent, what you sent by hand, and when.
What the manual send adds beyond the schedule
You can read the email before you ever need it in a hurry
Certly's chase settings carry a read-only preview of the exact chase template, subject line and body, written as a plain transactional message with no shortened links. Check it once, and the thing you fire off mid-phone-call is wording you have already approved rather than something you are trusting sight unseen.
A send is recorded with its outcome, not only its timestamp
Chase log entries on the supplier detail page carry their send status, sent, failed or opened. If the email integration reports a bounce or failure, it is written to the log with a distinct badge and a resend action beside it, so a chase to a contact who has left the company does not sit in the history looking like contact made.
The history answers the question an auditor actually asks
An auditor looking at a lapsed certificate of analysis wants the sequence of attempts and their dates. Because manual and scheduled chases land in the same log, that sequence is complete, and the status view exports to PDF using the same four status labels, colours and icons that the dashboard and the supplier row show.
Sending early does not disturb the schedule underneath
Alert thresholds are computed from expiry dates by a scheduled job, at 90, 60 and 30 days by default and whatever you configure per certificate type, and those settings are unchanged by a one-off send. Chase now is an extra attempt on a day you choose, not a reconfiguration of the sequence.
Where the manual chase sits alongside the rest of the workflow
Chase now is deliberately small. It does not replace threshold alerts, it sits next to them for the cases the calendar cannot anticipate.
The surrounding workflow is the usual one. Suppliers are held with their contact details and the certificate types you require from them, such as allergen declarations, certificates of analysis and audit certificates, with required fields validated on save so a missing contact email or certificate type is caught inline rather than discovered at a chase. The QA team can upload documents directly, or suppliers can upload themselves through the single-use expiring link. Expiry dates drive alerts computed by a scheduled job, at 90, 60 and 30 days unless you change them in the alert settings. The dashboard shows the four statuses per supplier on one screen and exports to PDF for an auditor to read.
A manual chase is the thing you reach for between those mechanisms: the extra send, on the day it matters, logged in the same place as everything else.
Built for single-site plants
Certly is scoped to a single plant per account, with plant-scoped isolation enforced on every supplier and certificate query, so the supplier list you chase from is your site's list and nothing else. People sign in with email and password. The service is hosted on Amazon Web Services. Supplier contact personal data can be erased through a confirmed delete action on the supplier record, which removes contact name and email while the certificate records remain.
Certly is not open to customers yet. If the manual chase is the piece your current spreadsheet cannot do, join the waitlist and we will contact you when plants are being onboarded.
Questions
Where is the chase-now button?
On each supplier row in the dashboard and on the supplier detail page, so you can send from a list view or from inside a single supplier's record.
Does a manual chase use a different email from the automated one?
No. It reuses the existing chase template, including the one-click upload link, so the supplier receives the same message they would receive at a scheduled threshold. The chase settings show a read-only preview of that template's subject line and body.
Is a manual send recorded anywhere?
Yes. Chases are logged per send, and a chase-now send is written to the chase log with its sequence step marked as manual, so the supplier's history shows both scheduled and hand-sent chases.
What happens if the chase email bounces?
Each chase log entry on the supplier detail page shows its send status, sent, failed or opened. A reported bounce or failure is written to the log with a distinct badge and a resend action next to it.
Can the button ever be unavailable?
Certly disables the chase-now button in the states where an immediate chase does not apply, so the row tells you whether there is anything to send before you press it.
Does sending a manual chase change my alert thresholds?
No. Thresholds are set per certificate type in the alert settings, at 90, 60 and 30 days by default, and a one-off send leaves them as they are.
Does the supplier need an account to respond?
No. The upload link in the chase email opens a no-login upload page behind a single-use, expiring signed link, and the document is stored against that supplier and certificate type.
Can I use this today?
Not yet. Certly is at waitlist stage, so this page describes what the product is built to do rather than a live account you can open this afternoon.