Vendors

A vendor record holds what a purchase from them needs: who they are, how to reach them, the currency they charge in, the term you pay them on, the account their documents post to and the price list their lines are priced from. Set it once, and every purchase order, bill and debit note you raise for them starts right.

Create a vendor

1. Go to Purchase ‣ Master data ‣ Vendors and click New vendor.
2. On the General tab, enter the Code and the Name. The code is how you find the vendor in pickers, and no two vendors can share one.
3. Pick the Subsidiary that buys from them, or leave it empty to share the vendor with every subsidiary.
4. Enter the Email, Phone and Website you reach them on.
5. Open the Financial details tab and check the Currency, Payment term and Posting profile, which start from the Purchase defaults.
6. Pick the Price list their orders are priced from. See Vendor prices.
7. Click Save.

The vendor opens with their Balance, Currency, Payment term and Posting profile at the top. The balance is what you owe them; it moves as their bills, debit notes and payments post in Payables.

Field	What it sets
Code	The vendor’s short reference. It cannot change once saved.
Subsidiary	The company that buys from them, or empty for every subsidiary. It cannot change once saved.
Tax ID	Their tax registration number.
Currency	The currency their orders and bills are raised in.
Payment term	When their bills fall due.
Posting profile	The payable account their documents post to. See Posting profiles.
Price list	The purchase price list their order lines are priced from. Only lists with the Usage Purchase are offered.

Note

Currency, Payment term and Posting profile are required. If the Purchase settings carry no default for one of them, pick it on the vendor, or the save is refused.

The financial details are explained from the payables side in Set up vendors for payables.

Add addresses

Give a vendor the address their bills come from and the address goods are collected from.

1. Open the vendor, click Edit and open the Addresses tab.
2. Under Billing address, enter the street, City, Postal code and the rest of the address.
3. Under Shipping address, enter the address the goods leave from. Click Pick on map to search a place or drop a pin.
4. Click Save.

Import vendors

To load many vendors at once, for example when you move from another system, import them from a spreadsheet.

1. Go to Purchase ‣ Master data ‣ Vendors and click Import.
2. Under Download template, pick CSV (.csv) or Excel (.xlsx), and fill in one vendor per row. Code, Name, Currency, PaymentTerm and PostingProfile are required.
3. Drop the file on the dialog, or click to browse for it.
4. Under Map columns, match each expected field to a column of your file, and click Continue.
5. Check the Preview, then click the button that imports the rows, for example Import 25 rows.

The rows are saved together or not at all: if any of them is refused, nothing is saved, and the Result step lists each bad row with its error. Currency, payment term, posting profile, tax group and price list are given by their codes.

Example

A hardware wholesaler moving to Axon Suite exports its 180 suppliers from its old system. It fills the template with each supplier’s code, name, currency and payment term, gives every row the same trade payables posting profile, and imports them in one go. Two rows with a payment term code that does not exist are listed on the Result step; it corrects them and imports the file again.

Stop buying from a vendor

When you stop buying from a vendor for a while, switch the status at the top of their page from Active to Inactive and click Save. An inactive vendor no longer appears in the Vendor picker on new documents; their history and balance stay as they are.

When you will not buy from them again, archive them, so they leave the lists as well.

1. Open the vendor and click Archive.
2. Confirm with Archive.

A vendor can be archived only once they have no open purchase order and you owe them nothing. An order counts as open until it is closed or cancelled, so an order whose goods have arrived but are not yet billed still holds the vendor. Their code stays reserved. To buy from them again, turn on Show archived on the vendor list, open the vendor and click Restore.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
Pick a currency, or set a default currency in this company’s purchase settings.	Pick the Currency on the Financial details tab, or set a default in the Purchase settings.
Pick a payment term, or set a default one in this company’s purchase settings.	Pick the Payment term, or set a default.
Pick a posting profile, or set a default one in this company’s purchase settings.	Pick the Posting profile, or set a default.
A vendor with this code already exists; archiving one does not release its code.	Enter another Code. An archived vendor keeps theirs.
The vendor still has open purchase orders; close or cancel them, or deactivate the vendor.	Cancel the vendor’s orders that are not yet received, and bill the ones that are, so they close. Or switch the vendor to Inactive instead.
The vendor still has an outstanding balance; settle it before archiving the vendor.	Pay or debit what you owe them first. See Pay a vendor.