> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://localtechnologiesinc.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Producers

> Invite farms and makers to sell through your store, review their requests, and let them add products and keep their stock up to date.

If your store sells products from other farms and makers, **Products → Producers** is where you keep them. You can add a producer yourself, or send a join link so producers can ask to join. Each producer you approve gets their own page, where they add products and change their stock. Nothing goes on sale until you check it and publish it.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Producers is for shops, grocers and farms. Restaurants and caterers don't have it. Only the store's owner can see and change producer records.

A number next to **Producers** in the sidebar shows how many requests to join and new products are waiting for you.

## Add a producer yourself

Press **Add producer** and fill in:

* **Name**: shoppers see it as "From …" on the producer's products.
* **Contact person**, **Phone** and **Email** (all optional). Add the email if you want to give them their own page: they need it to open it.
* **How you pay them**: **A share of what sells** (you pay them their part of what sold, set in **Their share (%)**) or **You buy from them** (you send them orders at your cost price).
* **Notes** (optional), for example "Delivers Tuesdays, pay by e-Transfer".

Local Pass doesn't pay producers for you. You pay them yourself, and the producer's page in your dashboard keeps track of what you owe.

## Invite producers with a join link

Press **Invite producers** at the top of the Producers page.

1. The first time, press **Make a join link**.
2. Copy the link with **Copy**. Share it by email, on your website or in a newsletter.
3. Producers who open it can ask to join. You approve each one.

From the same window:

* **Make a new link**: the old link stops working. Anyone you sent it to will need the new one.
* **Turn off**: the link stops working, so no one new can ask to join. Producers you already have keep their own links.

### Set up your join page

Below the link, under **Your join page**, add your own touches. Producers always answer the same questions about what they sell, their permits and licences, GST and delivery. You can add:

* **Cover photo**: shown at the top of the page. Use **Upload a photo**, **Replace** or **Remove**.
* **A few words to producers (optional)**: up to 1,000 characters. For example, what you look for in a producer, how you pay, or when you pick up.
* **Liability insurance**: **Don't ask**, **Ask, optional** (they can add it if they have it) or **Ask, required** (you're told when it's missing or expired, and their request still comes in). You can add **The amount you ask for**, such as "\$2 million, with us named on the policy".
* **Your own questions**: up to 5. Each is a **Short answer** or **Yes or no**, and can be **Required**.

Press **Save your join page**. Producers see it the next time they open your join link. **See your page** opens it the way producers see it.

### What the producer sees

Your join page opens with your cover photo, your store name and "Sell your products through *your store*". Under it is your intro, or, if you didn't write one: "Tell *your store* about your farm or business. If they say yes, they'll email you a link to add your products." They don't need an account.

The form has these parts:

* **About you**: farm or business name, their name, email, phone, farm or kitchen address and town, website (optional), a few words (optional) and up to 3 photos (optional).
* **What you sell**: what they sell, where it's made, how it's kept, whether they call any product organic, and whether they sell packaged products.
* **Permits and licences**: only the questions that fit what they sell, such as a kitchen permit number, whether eggs are graded and how many hens, a meat or fish licence, a dairy plant, a beekeeper registration number or an organic certifier. They can upload a copy of a permit, licence or certificate (PDF or photo). The form tells them: "Give what you have. Anything missing goes to *your store* as a question, and you can send it later."
* **Selling**: GST number, or **My sales are under \$30,000**; whether they can deliver or drop off to you; and where else they sell (optional).
* **Insurance**, if you ask for it, and **your store's questions**, if you added any.

Before sending, they tick **I hold the permits and licences my products need, and my labels follow the rules.** While they fill in the form, short notes explain the BC rules that apply to what they sell, each with its source and a link to the [Food business guide](https://localpass.ca/food-business-bc).

After **Send request**, they see "Request sent" and get an email from your store: "*Your store* got your request", with a summary of what they sent. You get an email too: "*Producer* asked to join *your store*", with their answers, anything flagged, and a **Review the request** button.

## Review requests to join

Requests show under **Asked to join** on the Producers page. Each one shows the producer's name, contact, town, email, phone and what they sell, with either **Nothing flagged** or a count such as **2 to look at**. Press **See their answers** to read everything they sent and open their documents. Documents are private to your store.

### What flags mean

A flag points out something in the answers you may want to ask about before you sell their products. Each flag says why in plain words, names its source, and links to the matching page of the Food business guide.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Flags never refuse a request. You decide which producers you work with and what you sell. Local Pass is a platform, not a regulator: each producer holds its own permits and licences. We aren't lawyers. If a rule is unclear, ask Island Health or the body named in the source.

| Flag | What it means | Source the form cites |
| - | - | - |
| **Made in a home kitchen** | They make baked goods, preserves or prepared food in a home kitchen. Home-kitchen food may be sold at farmers' markets only, not through a store or online. | BCCDC: Guidelines for the Sale of Foods at Temporary Food Markets |
| **Ungraded eggs** | Ungraded eggs may only go from the farm, home or farmers' market straight to the person who eats them. A store can't sell them. | BC Egg Marketing Board: selling ungraded eggs |
| **Graded eggs from *number* hens** | Graded eggs may go to a business only from a flock under 100 hens. 100 to 399 hens (small-lot permit) may sell only to the person who eats them. 400 or more needs quota. | BC Egg Consolidated Order, Part II s. 3(2) |
| **Farmgate meat (old Class E)** | Meat under a Farmgate licence can't be resold, so a store can't sell it. Abattoir and Farmgate Plus meat can be resold in BC. | Government of BC: meat inspection and licensing |
| **Called organic, no certificate** | "Organic" is protected in BC. A store that resells an organic product keeps the supplier's certificate on file and names the certifier. | Government of BC: guidelines for the BC Organic Regulation |
| **Insurance you require: not given** | You ask for insurance, and they didn't give the expiry date or certificate. | BC Association of Farmers' Markets |
| **Insurance expired *date*** | The expiry date they gave has passed. Ask for a current certificate. | BC Association of Farmers' Markets |
| **… not given** | A number or document their products need is missing, such as a kitchen permit number, a meat licence copy or a beekeeper registration number. A store must buy food from an approved source, so ask them before you sell it. | Food Premises Regulation, s. 11 (BC Laws) |

The sources were checked on October 23, 2026.

### Approve

Press **Approve**. A window opens with the details from their request. Check them, choose **How you pay them**, and save. This adds them as a producer and, if they gave an email, emails them their own link.

A message then confirms it, for example "*Producer* added. We emailed them their link." If the email didn't go out, or there's no email on file, copy the link shown and send it yourself.

Their answers, documents and photos are kept on the producer's page under **Application**. Flags there are worked out again each time you look, so an insurance policy that has since ended shows as expired.

**What the producer gets:** an email from your store, "*Your store*: your producer page", with an **Open your producer page** button.

### Decline

Press **Decline**. Their request is removed. **Let them know by email** is on by default: we send it from your store to say you can't take on new producers right now. You can **Add a short note (optional)**, for example "We're full for this season. Ask us again in the spring."

**What the producer gets:** an email from your store, "About your request to *your store*", with your note if you wrote one.

## Each producer's page link

Open a producer from the Producers page. Under **Producer page link** you can:

* **Email them their link**: we send it to the email on their details, from your store. Replies come to you.
* **Copy a new link**: copy it and send it to them yourself.
* **Turn off link**: their link stops working and they're signed out on every device. You can make a new one at any time.

The card shows when the link was made and when it was last opened.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The link alone isn't enough. Each time a producer opens it on a new device, we email a 6-digit code to the email on their details. Making a new link, turning it off, or changing their email signs them out on every device. Without an email on file, they can't open their page: press **Edit** on their page to add one.

When you **Stop working with *producer***, their link stops working too.

### Emails to producers come from your store

Every email we send to a producer is in your store's name: your logo and name at the top, your name in the sign-off, and replies go to you. Only a small "Powered by Local Pass" line shows at the bottom.

## Check and publish products producers add

When a producer adds a product, it's saved as a draft. It shows under **Waiting for you** on the Producers page: "Products your producers added. They stay drafts until you check them and publish."

1. Press **Check and publish**. The product opens in your product editor.
2. Check everything: name, description, price, category, labels, allergens and photo. Set where it sells and anything else you manage.
3. If you buy from this producer, the product has no shopper price yet: their price to you is kept on their producer record, never shown to shoppers. Set the **Regular price**.
4. Check the stock. A producer who left stock blank gets 0 until they know.
5. Under **Status**, choose **Published**, then press **Update**.

You get an email when a producer adds products, "*Producer* added a product", at most once an hour per producer. Edits don't send an email.

After you publish, we email the producer once that it's on sale: "*Your store* put *product* on sale". This email goes out the next time you open the Producers page.

### What a producer can change

* **Drafts**: they can change the details they know, such as the name, description, price, unit, stock, category, labels, allergens, storage, weight, keywords and photo.
* **Products on sale**: only the stock. Everything else is yours to change.
* They can never change the status, sale price, where it sells, pickup, options or the producer it's linked to.

See [Your producer page](https://localtechnologiesinc.mintlify.site/merchants/producer-page.md) for what producers see on their side.


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