Support
Everything you need to get unstuck, the technical detail behind the product, and a direct line to us if you are still stuck.
Getting help
Email [email protected] and we will reply within one business day (Monday to Friday, Central European Time). There is no ticket portal and no phone queue — your message reaches a person who knows the product. For questions about the desktop or organisation-wide editions, email [email protected] instead — that reaches us faster for commercial questions.
To get a useful answer first time, please include:
- The version of SupplyVisual you are running, and your iOS version.
- What you were doing when it went wrong, step by step.
- The exact wording of any error message, or a screenshot.
- Whether it happens every time, or only with one particular file.
Please do not email us your model file unless we explicitly ask for it — and if you do, remember it may contain confidential supplier or system information.
Troubleshooting
The four things people write to us about most often.
The app will not open, or closes straight away
Close the app fully and reopen it — this clears the majority of cases — and check the App Store for an update if it persists.
My Excel file will not import
The importer expects the first row to contain column headers, and one supplier per row. Remove merged cells, filters and frozen panes, then save as .xlsx and try again. If the data came from another tool, export it as a plain sheet first — decorative formatting is the usual culprit. The Instructions tab in the import template describes what every column expects.
An export produced an empty or incomplete file
Exports run against what is currently on screen. Check that no filter is still active and that the tier depth is set wide enough to include the suppliers you expect. Then re-run the export.
I closed the app and lost my work
Autosave writes continuously to your file, so reopening it normally restores your last state. If the file itself will not open, look for a recovery copy alongside it in the same folder before doing anything else — and do not overwrite it.
System requirements
- iPhoneAvailable on the App Store. iOS keeps the app updated automatically; the App Store listing states the minimum version it will install on.
- iPadIn development. It will add Apple Pencil annotation straight over the network. Not released yet.
- DesktopIn development. It will run in a current version of Safari, Chrome, Edge or Firefox on Windows or Mac, with no plug-ins, no extensions and no admin rights needed.
- NetworkNone. Everything runs on your own device, so the app keeps working with the Wi-Fi switched off. There is no server to reach and nothing is uploaded. The optional “Suggest” description lookup is the one exception — that needs internet.
- Your filesStored wherever you choose to save them — your own computer, a network share, or your own cloud drive. We never receive a copy.
Frequently asked questions
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. SupplyVisual runs locally on your iPhone. Your supplier and contract data stays where you put it; there is no vendor backend to upload to.
Can I try it without installing anything?
Yes. The demo runs entirely in your browser on a worked, fictitious supplier network of 163 organisations. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded. Editing and exporting are switched off in the demo, so it is for looking around rather than for building your own model.
Is it free to try?
Yes — and it stays free. On iPhone you get the complete application, with no limit on the size of your model. No account, no card, no trial countdown and nothing to unlock. The iPad, desktop and organisation-wide editions are still in development, and their pricing has not been announced.
How is the risk score calculated?
From factors such as criticality, substitutability, exit plan, audit right, notice period, penalty clause, contract expiry, country and concentration. You set the weightings yourself, and Explain this to me writes out exactly which factors produced a given score. The model version is stored inside the saved file, so an older score can still be reconstructed.
We already keep our suppliers in Excel. Can we use that?
Yes. Import your Excel file and your full supply chain is on screen in minutes — no manual re-entry. The import template ships with an Instructions tab describing every field.
Do we need IT to set this up?
No. Install the app from the App Store and start. The desktop and organisation-wide editions in development are designed the same way — a single self-contained file, with nothing for IT to roll out.
Can it handle subcontractors (fourth parties)?
Yes. It maps the chain tier by tier (T0–T4), so dependencies hiding two levels down become visible — and count towards concentration and impact analysis like any other supplier.
How do we get started?
Open the demo — a worked supplier network of 163 organisations, running in your browser with nothing to install, though editing and exporting are switched off. After that, download the free iPhone app; there is no signup and no limit. If you need it on iPad, on desktop or across your organisation, tell us and we will let you know when those editions are ready.
Architecture & security
The architecture is the security model. There is no vendor backend behind SupplyVisual, so supplier, contract and risk data stays on the device it was entered on, or inside your own environment once the private-deployment edition ships.
- No shared backend. There is no vendor server holding your data, because the product does not have one. Nothing is pooled with other customers.
- Data stays where you put it. Models are ordinary files saved wherever you choose — the device, a network share, or your own cloud drive.
- No agent, no admin rights. Nothing to install on a managed desktop, nothing running in the background, nothing calling home.
- Works offline. The one feature that reaches the internet is the optional “Suggest” description lookup, which asks Wikipedia for a short company description. Using it is optional; nothing else leaves the device.
- Tested before every release. Linting, a static health check, around thirty test files, and a headless runtime check that walks four demo models through roughly seventeen flows each.
Technical FAQ
The detail behind the plain-language descriptions elsewhere on the site. Skip this section unless you are the person who has to sign off on it.
How is the network drawn and kept readable?
Nodes are placed on concentric rings by tier, with tiers assigned by a breadth-first walk from your own organisation outward. Within each ring the order is optimised by barycentre — each node is pulled towards the average position of the nodes it connects to — which is what stops the edges turning into a hairball as the model grows. Ring radii expand automatically to prevent overlap, and label font size auto-fits the largest readable size.
What is it built on?
The 2D view is drawn on an HTML canvas for speed; the 3D view is WebGL, rendered with Three.js. Both run entirely in the client. There is no server-side rendering and no backend API.
How are files saved?
On desktop browsers the app uses the File System Access API, so Save writes your .spv document straight back to the location you chose, the way a normal desktop application does. Where that API is unavailable the app falls back to a standard download. Autosave runs continuously in the background, and there are thirty levels of undo and redo.
What does the Suggest button actually call?
Wikipedia. The optional “Suggest” button asks Wikipedia for a short description of the organisation you are adding. It is the only outbound request the application makes, it sends only the name you are looking up, and you choose whether to use it at all. LEI, legal name, status and ultimate parent are fields you fill in yourself; the app does not look them up.
What is the .spv file?
Your model: nodes, connections, contracts, processes, risk settings and annotations, in a single document. The risk-model version is recorded inside it, so a score calculated six months ago can still be reconstructed and explained.
Which technologies are involved, in one line?
Single-file HTML, canvas plus WebGL, Three.js, the Wikipedia API for optional descriptions, the File System Access API, no backend, and an iOS application. The private-deployment edition in development is designed to be self-hostable on Azure, Cloudflare or an intranet.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected], or get in touch if your question is about a desktop or organisation-wide rollout.