Adding and editing suppliers

The Suppliers page has three parts, left to right:

• Categories. Pick a Category heading at the top, then a category in the tree. Type in the box above the tree to find one. All suppliers shows everyone filed under that heading, plus the suppliers not filed anywhere yet; Uncategorised shows just those. The number beside a category is how many suppliers are filed there.
• The supplier list. Search by name, ABN, suburb, phone, email or a contact’s name. The tile on the left of each row warns you at a glance - see Dates and certificates.
• The supplier you picked. Its Details tab holds the supplier’s details, then its Contacts and Categories; the other tabs are Dates & documents, Ratings, Products and Activity.

New supplier adds one, filed in the category you have selected.

Filtering the list

Filter	Shows
Expiring	Suppliers with a date that has expired or runs out within 30 days
Show archived	Archived suppliers as well
Only mine	Only suppliers your company added
Hide SmarteBuild	Leaves out the shared suppliers that come with SmarteBuild (marked Sb)

The last three, and the heading you picked, are remembered for you.

Details

Field	Notes
Name	Their legal trading name — this goes on orders
ABN / ACN	Needed on orders and by your accounts
Phone, Email, Website
Address, Suburb, State, Postcode	Their business address
Note	Working knowledge — minimum notice, who to ring, payment terms

The top of the tab also shows what you have spent with them: orders and invoices (ex GST) and how many quotes you have asked for, and whether the supplier is linked to a Xero contact.

Use the name they invoice under. Barwon Concrete Pty Ltd rather than Barwon or the concrete mob — it goes on purchase orders, and an order made out to a name that does not match their entity causes problems at their end and yours.

Contacts

The people you deal with, each with a phone, email, position and a type: general, quotes, orders or call-ups. Orders and call-ups offer the contacts of the matching type first.

A contact who is on an order, a tender or a schedule task cannot be deleted — edit them instead, or add the new person alongside.

The most common reason an order or a tender goes nowhere is a contact who left. When mail bounces, fix the record straight away; when you deal with a new person, add them then.

Categories

The trades the supplier is filed under. Add to category picks one from any of your category headings; a supplier can be filed in as many as fit. The tree on the left filters by exactly these.

Structure beside the heading opens the category tree itself for editing, and New, the pencil and the bin create, rename and delete a heading. SmarteBuild’s own headings can be used but not changed.

Dates and certificates

Dates & documents holds the dates you track for every supplier — Public liability insurance, Workers compensation, Contractor licence — with the certificate for each.

• Set date records when it runs out. Attach uploads the certificate (PDF, image or document); its name opens it.
• Date fields adds, renames or deletes the dates you track. They apply to every supplier, so deleting one removes that date — and its certificate — from all of them.

The list warns you before a date passes:

Tile	Means
! expired, in pink	A date has passed
Today, or a number of days	A date runs out within 30 days
A number with a star	No dates due; the supplier’s average rating

Expiring in the filters lists everyone who needs chasing.

Ratings

Score suppliers out of five on your own scales — Quality, Price, Reliability. Click a star to rate; click the same star again to clear it. Rating fields adds, renames or deletes the scales. The list shows each supplier’s average.

Products

The products you buy from this supplier, at the price your company pays. New product adds one; the pencil edits it — name, SKU, price (tick inc GST to type a price that includes GST), finish, colour, size, a link and a picture. Products are the same ones as in Price lists: a change here shows there, and filing a product under a price list item is done there.

Activity

The supplier’s quotes, purchase orders and invoices across your jobs, with a total. Click a row to open the document.

SmarteBuild’s shared suppliers

Suppliers marked Sb come with SmarteBuild and are shared by every company. Their details cannot be changed, and they cannot be archived, merged or deleted — that would change them for everyone. You can still file them in your own categories and add your own contacts, dates and ratings. To keep them out of your way, turn on Hide SmarteBuild.

Archiving

Archive removes a supplier from the working list without deleting them; Restore brings them back.

Use it for businesses you no longer use — someone who has closed, or a subcontractor you have stopped working with. Their history stays attached to the jobs they worked on, which is what you want when an old job is queried. Do not use is worth writing in the Note before you archive, so nobody adds them again in six months.