Supplier Management

1. THE SUPPLIER RECORD — ONE PAGE, EVERYTHING

• Overview — summary info and current payable balance at a glance.
• Contacts — named contact people at the supplier (your rep, accounts team, etc.).
• Items Supplied — the catalog of products this supplier provides, linked directly to your item master, so you always know who to buy a given item from.
• To Order — items from this supplier that are due for reorder right now, pulled directly from each item's reorder-point and safety-stock planning — a ready-made "what should I order from this supplier today" list.
• Performance — supplier-specific metrics like on-time delivery and pricing trends over time, so you can tell a reliable supplier from one that's slipping.
• Orders — full Purchase Order history with this supplier.
• Receipts — goods-received history against them.
• Bills — every bill recorded against this supplier.
• Payments — every payment made to them.
• Credits & Returns — their return, credit, and refund history.
• Statement — a running, ledger-style account statement combining bills, payments, and credits into one chronological view — exactly what you'd need to reconcile against a supplier's own statement.

2. IMPORT & EXPORT — Bringing Your Supplier List In or Out in Bulk

For businesses that already have a supplier list somewhere else, the Suppliers page has its own Import and Export tabs so you're never retyping a spreadsheet by hand:

• Quick Import — upload a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file, matched against a downloadable format template, with a validation preview before anything commits. Best for small-to-medium lists, and it runs right in your browser.
• Background Import — the same idea for large files: the upload is handed to a server-side job instead of processed in your browser tab, with a live progress bar, a cancel option, a running import history, and a downloadable list of any rows that failed — so a 10,000-row supplier list doesn't mean sitting and watching a spinner, or losing your place if something goes wrong partway through.
• Export — pick exactly which columns you want, optionally filter by name or active/inactive status, choose CSV or Excel, and download. A Background Export option handles the same job for very large supplier lists without tying up your browser.

This is the same import/export engine used on the Customers page (see the Customer Management guide) — one consistent way to move contact data in and out of Cash Flow Inventory, whichever side of the ledger it's on.

3. HOW IT CONNECTS TO THE REST OF THE SYSTEM

• Purchase Orders, Receiving, Bills, and Payments Made all write back to this same record automatically — there's no separate supplier database to keep in sync.
• Reorder planning (see Products & Inventory guide) is what populates the To Order tab, connecting item-level restock logic directly to the supplier you'd actually order it from.
• Reports — supplier-level reports, like purchase history and aging payables, draw from this same record.
• RFQ & Supplier Quotes — a supplier can be invited to competitively quote on a Request for Quote, and their submitted price, lead time, and terms carry straight into an awarded Purchase Order (see the Requisitions, RFQ & Supplier Quotes guide).

4. WHY IT SCALES FROM SMB TO ENTERPRISE

Quick Reference

  Supplier list ............................ Purchase > Suppliers
  Open a supplier record ................... Click any supplier
  Add a supplier inline .................... Any Purchase Order screen >
                                             Supplier field > Add New
  Import suppliers ......................... Suppliers > Import tab
  Export suppliers ......................... Suppliers > Export tab