What cancelling means
Cancelling ends a demand for good. Suppliers can no longer submit offers on a demand you have cancelled, and the action cannot be reversed. The confirmation dialog states this word for word: "This demand will be cancelled and suppliers can no longer submit offers. This cannot be undone."
That is why cancelling is meant for situations where you are dropping the purchase altogether. If you are simply done collecting offers and want to move forward with the ones you already have, close the demand instead of cancelling it.
When the cancel option appears
The Cancel demand button appears on a published demand once the first offer has arrived. Until that first offer, the demand page shows Edit demand and Close demand.
The moment the first offer lands, the demand is locked for editing and a lock notice appears on the page: "The demand can no longer be edited once the first offer has arrived. You can cancel it or review the offers." If the arrival time of the first offer is known, the same notice includes it: "The first offer arrived 2 hours ago — the demand can no longer be edited. You can cancel it or review the offers." In other words, you cannot change a demand that has received an offer, but you can cancel it: Edit demand disappears and Cancel demand takes its place.
How to cancel a demand
- Find the demand in your My Demands list and open its page with View offers.
- Click the Cancel demand button at the top of the page.
- Read the Cancel demand? dialog that opens — it states that the demand will be cancelled and that the action cannot be undone.
- Confirm with Yes, cancel it. If you change your mind, close the dialog with Cancel in the same window and nothing changes.
- After you confirm, you are returned to the My Demands list.
Cancel or close?
Both end the demand, but they serve different purposes:
- You are done collecting offers and want to evaluate what you have: Close demand. The Close demand button on the demand page is only available before the first offer arrives; after the first offer, the single action on the page is Cancel demand. To close a published demand that has already received offers, open the More actions menu next to the demand in your My Demands list; there the action is named Close.
- You are dropping the purchase entirely and do not want an order to come out of this demand: Cancel demand.
If you are unsure, prefer closing. On a closed demand you can still see the offers you received, whereas cancelling ends the demand completely.
After cancelling
The demand moves to Cancelled status and appears with that status badge in your My Demands list. In the Filters panel on the left of the screen, clicking the Cancelled option under the Status heading lists only the demands you have cancelled.
A cancelled demand cannot be reopened and will not accept new offers. If you plan to run the same purchase again later, there is no need to write it from scratch: in your My Demands list, use Duplicate (new demand) from the More actions menu next to the demand. The content of the demand is copied into a new draft and opens in the editing screen, where you update what you need and publish it.
Keep in mind that cancelling applies to that demand only: cancelling one demand does not affect your other demands, your account, or your plan.