Every delivery you receive in Inventory comes from a vendor. This article covers adding vendors one at a time or in bulk, and what happens if you edit or delete one later.
How to Add a Vendor
- From the left-hand menu, open Vendors.
- Click Add Vendor.
Only a name is required. Account number, contact details, payment terms, and delivery cadence are all optional and can be filled in later.
How to Import a List of Vendors
If you have several vendors to add at once, click Import From CSV, upload a spreadsheet, and review each row before anything is created.
The import needs specific column headers: name, account_number, phone, email, website, categories_supplied, delivery_lead_days, default_delivery_days, payment_terms, payment_method, order_day, order_cutoff_time, order_reminder_hours, and notes. Only name is required. If you are unsure of the format, download the example template from the import screen.
Note: New vendors are ready to go automatically. Anything that resembles a vendor you already have, including a repeat within the file itself, is flagged as a possible duplicate and skipped unless you turn on Create Anyway for that row.
Managing a Vendor
Click any vendor to open its detail page. From there you can see its Active or Inactive status, edit or delete it, manage its Contacts list, and review everything you have entered for it, including categories supplied, payment terms and method, delivery lead time and days, and order cadence.
None of this information is required beyond the name. Add as much or as little as is useful to your team.
Order Day and Order Cutoff Time record when you place orders with this vendor, for example every Monday by noon. They are for your own reference and your team's, to keep reorder timing consistent, and do not currently trigger an automatic reminder.
Within a vendor's Contacts list, you can also mark one contact as the primary contact, separate from any others you keep on file for that vendor.
Editing or Deactivating a Vendor
Edit lets you update any of the same fields, and also lets you set a vendor to Inactive. An inactive vendor is hidden from vendor pickers and skipped in order reminders, but its history is kept.
Deleting a Vendor
Delete removes the vendor itself, but not what it is connected to. Inventory states this plainly before you confirm: past deliveries, purchases, and orders that reference the vendor are kept, but will show as no vendor. This cannot be undone.
Adding a Vendor While Receiving a Delivery
Wherever you are asked to pick a vendor, such as when adding a receipt, choosing Add It Here at the bottom of the list opens the same Add Vendor form without losing your place.