Add and manage suppliers

This guide shows you how to organise your suppliers into categories, add each supplier with its trading and banking details, and record the people you deal with there.

Before you start

• Decide the scope the supplier record belongs to. Every supplier is saved at a scope level — Organisation, Entity, Branch, Department or Position — and the deeper the level, the more of the hierarchy you must supply (an Entity-scoped record needs an entity; a Branch-scoped record needs both an entity and a branch, and so on).
• If you want to group suppliers, create the category first so you can pick it when adding the supplier.

Steps

Create a supplier category (optional)

1. Open the supplier categories list and choose to add a category.
2. Fill in:
   • Code (required, up to 120 characters) — a short unique reference.
   • Name (required, up to 200 characters).
   • Description (optional, up to 2000 characters).
   • Status (optional) — Active or Inactive.
   • Set the scope level and its hierarchy fields.

[screenshot: supplier category form]

Add a supplier

1. Open the suppliers list and choose to add a supplier.
2. Fill in:
   • Name (required, up to 200 characters) and Code (required, up to 120 characters).
   • Legal name (optional, up to 200 characters).
   • Category (optional) — a category you created above.
   • Email, Phone, Tax number (all optional).
   • Payment terms (days) (optional, zero or more).
   • Currency (optional, a 3-letter code such as KES or ZAR).
   • Bank name, Bank account number, Bank branch code (all optional).
   • Default AP account code and Default expense account code (optional) — the accounting codes used when the supplier is billed. AP means Accounts Payable.
   • Status (optional) — Active, Inactive or On hold.
   • Set the scope level and its hierarchy fields.

[screenshot: supplier form]

Add supplier contacts

1. Open a saved supplier and add a contact.
2. Fill in:
   • Name (required, up to 200 characters).
   • Title (optional), Email (optional), Phone (optional).
   • Primary contact (optional) — mark the main person. The contact inherits the supplier’s scope.

Result

Your suppliers are on file, grouped by category, with their banking, payment and contact details ready to be used on requisitions, RFQs and purchase orders.

Related

• Supply Chain reference
• Set up products, variants and units
• Raise a purchase requisition