Vendors are the organizations that bill you: suppliers, trades, contractors, service providers. Work orders and bills both point at them, and 1099 season is a lot easier if the tax IDs came over with the names.
Before You Start
- One row per vendor, not per bill. If your export is a list of transactions, pivot it to unique vendor names first.
- Import Vendors before any bills. The Invoices import will create a vendor from a name it does not recognize, but one created that way has only a name.
- QuickBooks, Xero and Wave all export a vendor or supplier list directly. See Exporting from QuickBooks.
Running It
- Go to Imports → New Import and pick Vendors.
- Upload your file, or start from the template at Imports → Templates.
- Check the mapping and run.
The Columns Worth Mapping
- Name is required and is the match key.
- Contact Name plus Contact Email makes the person you actually call a real record in People, linked to the vendor. With a name and no email, the name is kept as plain text so the vendor still shows somebody, but nothing is linked.
- Tax ID is worth carrying over even if it feels like admin. It is the column you will want in January.
- Specialty is what they do: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping. It is what the vendor list filters on.
- Default Category is the expense category their bills fall under, pre-filled whenever you enter one of their invoices.
- Payment Method takes check, ach, card, wire, cash or other. Common wording is tidied up for you, so “bank transfer” becomes ach and “cheque” becomes check.
Re-Running the File
Safe. Matching is on the vendor name, ignoring case, and only blank fields are filled.
Vendors That Arrive Incomplete
A vendor with no name, or no email, waits on the Needs Info page rather than joining the list. Plenty of real vendors have no email address, so press Keep as-is on those and they go into the list permanently. Studio remembers, and a later import of the same file will not ask again.
After It Runs
- Bring over any outstanding bills with the Invoices import, filling Vendor Name instead of Client Name. See Importing Your Invoices.
- If you use the Facilities module, vendors are immediately selectable on work orders.