Data Exchange

Ask a supplier for primary data on a product, track the request and add the approved results to your organisation's My Database—without leaving XYCLE. Your supplier replies for free, through a XYCLE account limited to the requests you send them.

When to use Data Exchange

Use Data Exchange when you want to:

collect primary LCIA data from a supplier instead of chasing a spreadsheet over email
see where every supplier request stands and who needs to act next
keep questions, corrections and the final data in one record your whole team can see
use verified supplier results in a project as soon as they are approved

What Data Exchange includes

Data Exchange includes:

requests for one product at a time, with a unit, an optional region and an optional due date
a free supplier account for each contact you invite—if the contact already uses XYCLE, the request appears on their Incoming tab instead
submissions as a CSV of impact results, with an optional verification PDF. Suppliers who already use XYCLE can instead share the results of a product from one of their own projects
a comment thread and activity timeline on every request
approve, request changes and withdraw—open to everyone on your team who can send requests, not only the person who raised it
email at each step: suppliers are emailed when you send a request, request changes, approve their data or withdraw the request. The person who raised the request is emailed when the supplier submits. Comments email the other side
unread dots on requests and tabs with activity you have not seen
approved data added to My Database → Organisation as Supplier rows, restated in the unit you asked for, with the verification PDF attached as proof

Every request shows one status:

Requested—waiting for the supplier
Submitted—waiting for your team to review
Changes requested—sent back to the supplier
Approved—final; the data is in My Database
Withdrawn—closed by your team; nothing is added

A request that is still Requested or Changes requested on its due date is marked Overdue.

Who can send requests

Answering a request is free on every tier. Sending requests needs:

Enterprise—any number of suppliers
Business—up to 25 suppliers. Extra contacts at a supplier you already have do not count towards the limit
the Data Exchange add-on, which Business and Enterprise organisations have unless it has been switched off for their account
the admin or member role—viewers can open and read requests but cannot send, comment or act on them

If you're on our Starter tier, you are not able to send requests and the Outgoing tab will show as locked. Incoming still works, so you can answer requests your own customers send you.

What Data Exchange does NOT include

The following are not included:

changing data after approval. Approved data is final and there is no switching to an earlier submission; to update it, raise a new request
a hard reject—request changes or withdraw instead. A withdrawn request cannot be reopened
live sync—approved data is a snapshot of what the supplier sent
suppliers adding their own colleagues—you add every contact
requests to one person—a request goes to a supplier, and every contact you have added there can see and answer it, including contacts added later
members of your own organisation as supplier contacts. A person can be a contact at only one of your suppliers

N.b. Suppliers never see your projects, your My Database or requests from other customers.

How to add a supplier

Go to Organisation → Suppliers.
Select Add supplier.
Enter the Supplier name, the Contact email and, optionally, a Role, then select Add supplier.
The contact shows as Invited until they sign in, then Active. Use the row's menu to Add another contact, Resend invite or Remove contact.

N.b. Removing a contact ends their access to your requests. Anything they have already sent, including approved data, is kept.

How to request data

Go to Data Exchange and select Request data.
Choose a supplier, or select Add a new supplier and enter their name and a contact email.
Enter the Reference product and Unit, and optionally a Region and Due date.
Select Send request. The request appears on the Outgoing tab as Requested, and every contact at the supplier is emailed.

How to review and approve

Open the request from the Outgoing tab.
Check Files for each version the supplier has sent, and Current submission to see how the data will appear in My Database.
Use Activity to ask questions—every contact at the supplier sees your comments.
Choose an outcome:
- Approve—adds the data to My Database. The confirmation says how many rows were added
- Request changes—say what needs changing (up to 2,000 characters), then select Send back
- More actions → Withdraw request—closes the request for good

Find approved rows under My Database → Organisation. Use View data request in a row's menu to return to the request.

N.b. You can approve from Changes requested without waiting for a resubmission—this approves the latest submission.

What your supplier sees

A new contact gets an email invitation to set up a free account. They accept only the XYCLE Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, and see only Data Exchange.
Your requests appear on their Incoming tab, from your organisation.
They attach a CSV and an optional verification PDF, preview the result, then select Submit data. Nothing reaches you until they submit.
They can submit again before you review it. Each submission is kept as a new version under Files.
The upload card links to Download the CSV template—the same template as the My Database CSV import.

Troubleshooting

"Nobody at this supplier can receive a request yet"
The supplier has no contacts. Add one on Organisation → Suppliers, then send the request again.

Approve is unavailable
The submission has no impact data—usually a verification PDF sent on its own. Select Request changes to ask for the CSV.

"Your tier covers 25 suppliers"
Your Business organisation has reached its supplier limit. You can still send requests to and add contacts at existing suppliers. Contact us to add more.

The Outgoing tab is locked
Your tier, your role or your organisation's add-on does not include sending requests. The notice on the tab says which, and what to do next.

Your supplier's file is refused
Check the file is a CSV under 10 MB with the Product Name, Unit and Source Name columns filled in. Results in a different unit of the same kind (per g instead of per kg) are converted; results that cannot be converted (per m³ instead of per kg) are refused. If you gave a unit XYCLE does not recognise, the supplier must answer in exactly that unit.

"This request has changed"
A colleague acted on the request while you had it open. Reload the page to see the latest.

A contact never received their invitation
Select Resend invite from their row's menu. Invitations pause briefly after many are sent in a short time—try again shortly.

A colleague did not get an email when the supplier submitted
Only the person who raised the request is emailed. Everyone else sees an unread dot on the request.