These are the concepts you meet when you share the lines of one demand across several suppliers instead of a single one. They apply only to demands opened with an Itemised product list (Detailed).
Split
Sharing the lines of a demand out to different suppliers, one line at a time, is called a split. The comparison screen opens once you have added offers to a shortlist and clicked Compare shortlist →. In the Offer comparison table you pick a supplier for each line; your picks are gathered in the Award basket as supplier, line count and amount. When you are ready, you send them with Finalize split. The Split Award Board, where the split is built and tracked, is available on the Pro and Business buyer plans; on the Free plan it is locked.
Slice
The set of lines that falls to one supplier is called a slice. On the supplier side it appears under the heading Your awarded slice, showing the Lines assigned to you table together with the Slice subtotal. A supplier sees only its own slice and cannot see which lines the other suppliers received or at what prices.
Slice approval
When you finalize the split, orders are not created straight away; the split first goes out for supplier approval. Each supplier settles its own slice with Approve or Decline, and when declining may write an optional Reason for declining. In the Supplier approvals list on the board, each supplier's state shows as Pending, Approved or Declined. During this stage the board reads "Waiting on all suppliers to approve before starting orders."; once every supplier has approved, the Start orders button unlocks.
Re-source
If a supplier declines its slice, those lines drop into the Re-source section at the top of the board. With Re-assign you hand the line to another supplier that quoted the same line; the supplier that declined does not appear in this list.
Non-splittable line
Some suppliers ship a line only bundled with their other lines. Such lines are flagged as Non-splittable: "The supplier ships this item only bundled with their other items." If you try to award that line on its own, a Split warning appears.
Shared expense
When an expense such as freight or packaging is not per-line but covers the whole offer, it is flagged as shared: "This expense is not per-line; it covers the whole offer." Awarding only some of that offer's lines orphans the shared expense and likewise produces a split warning.
Optimal split
The Optimal split button on the comparison screen assigns every line to the supplier offering the best price on that line. The summary row at the bottom of the screen compares the split you have built against the best single supplier that quoted all the lines: whether you saved money or are paying more is shown right there.