Vendor Management

Vendors are the companies and individuals you pay for goods and services. In AI-native ERP, vendor management covers the full lifecycle from initial onboarding through ongoing relationship management -- with every change flowing through approval workflows that match the risk level of the operation.

Comprehensive Vendor Records#

Each vendor record captures business information (name, type, contact details, tax ID, website), payment preferences (payment method, default currency, payment terms), and accounting defaults (default expense account, tax withholding code). You can classify vendors by type -- supplier, contractor, service provider, utility, government, or employee -- for reporting and analysis.

Bank accounts are a critical part of vendor management. You can store multiple bank accounts per vendor with full details including account numbers, routing numbers, IBAN, and SWIFT codes. All sensitive banking data is encrypted at rest, and bank account changes go through verification workflows before they can be used for payments.

Payment Controls#

Payment terms define when vendor invoices are due and whether early payment discounts apply. You can set default terms at the vendor level (NET 30, NET 60, or custom terms), and these terms automatically apply to new invoices from that vendor. Credit limits prevent over-commitment, and the payment hold flag lets you temporarily freeze payments to a vendor while issues are resolved.

For US operations, you can flag vendors as 1099 reportable. The system tracks 1099-eligible payments throughout the year, making year-end tax reporting straightforward. You can search for all 1099 vendors, review their payment totals, and generate the necessary compliance reports.

Duplicate Prevention#

When creating vendors, the system checks for duplicates by tax ID and vendor name. This prevents the common problem of the same vendor appearing multiple times under slightly different names, which leads to fragmented payment histories and inaccurate aging reports. If a potential duplicate is detected, you are alerted before the record is created.

Multi-Entity Architecture#

Like customers, vendors use a master-entity pattern. Define a vendor once at the organization level, and they become available across all legal entities. Entity-specific overrides let individual subsidiaries use different payment terms or expense accounts for the same vendor without creating duplicate records.

Bulk import capabilities support migration from other accounting systems. You can import vendors from CSV files with automatic field mapping, and the system resolves references (payment terms, expense accounts) by name or code. Duplicate detection runs automatically during import, skipping or flagging records that match existing vendors.