Vendor and contract settings

This screen holds the vocabulary of your commercial relationships: what kinds of contract you hold and what each covers by default, what kinds of vendor you work with, who you do work for, and why an invoice might be paid short. Open it from Administration → Vendors, customers and contracts. The Vendors and Contracts links at the top of the screen go to the vendor and contract registers.

If you don’t see this in your navigation, your administrator can switch the module on under Administration → Modules, or it may not be included in your plan.

The vendor and contract configuration screen

The stat strip counts vendor types, contract types and service categories. Who can change this. Contract types, vendor types, service categories and short payment reasons are edited by people whose role includes Add configuration entries and Edit configuration entries. Customers need Add customers and Edit customers, contacts and their sites.

Contract types

The kinds of agreement you hold — the defaults are Annual service agreement, Equipment Lease, Full-coverage service agreement, OEM Warranty and Service Contract. The name is yours; the category is a fixed list the entitlement engine matches on, so it is the category that decides whether a job is covered. The list shows Type, Category, Covers by default (Parts, Labour, Travel, or Nothing), a tag when only an authorised vendor may do the work, and how many Contracts use it. Hover over a category to read what it means commercially.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What this kind of agreement is called — “Annual maintenance contract”	Required
Category	The family it belongs to: Warranty, Extended warranty, AMC, CMC, Service contract, OEM support, Lease, Rental, Insurance or Internal SLA	Required. Groups contracts for reporting and drives entitlement matching
Default covers parts	Parts are included unless the contract says otherwise	On by default
Default covers labour	The vendor’s time is included unless the contract says otherwise	On by default
Default covers travel	Travel and callout are included	Off by default — usually where the surprise invoice comes from
Authorised vendor only	Work must go to an approved provider or cover is void	Typical of a warranty: letting your own technician fix it ends the claim
Active	Whether the type is offered

The three coverage switches are what a new contract of this type starts with. Each contract can then disagree.

Vendor types

What a vendor of a given type can do. A legend above the table explains the five capabilities, which are also the tags the Assign picker shows beside a supplier’s name when it asks who can take a job. The list shows Type, Can be (the capabilities) and Vendors.

Field	Tag	What it means
Name		What appears in the vendor type list. Required
Original manufacturer	OEM	They built the equipment. Warranty work is routed to them or their authorised providers
Authorised by the manufacturer	Authorised	Approved by the manufacturer, so warranty work stays valid. Satisfies a contract that demands an authorised vendor
Supplies labour	Contractor	Sends people to do work on your sites
Hires out equipment	Rental	A tool can be hired from them rather than the job waiting
Supplies parts	Parts	Can be named as a supplier on a part and appears in reorder recommendations
Active		Whether the type is offered

Tick everything that genuinely applies — a vendor who is both an OEM and a contractor should be findable as either.

Service categories

What a vendor can do, in your own words — the trade or specialism. A vendor rate card can be priced per category, so these are also how a vendor charges differently for different work. Each card shows how many vendors offer it.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	The trade or specialism — “Electrical”, “Rotating equipment”	Required
Inside	The category above this one	Empty for a top-level trade
Description	What work falls under it
Active	Whether it is offered

Customers

Who work is done for, or equipment hired out to. A customer can be named on a booking rate card, so what one is charged may differ from the standard rate, and it is one of the things a booking or a project can be charged to. The list shows Code, Name, Terms, Contact and In use, with an Addresses button held at the right of each row. Click a row to edit the customer.

Field	What it means	Notes
Customer number	Your own account code for them, matching whatever finance uses	Required
Name	The name people use day to day	Required
Legal name	The registered name, where it differs	This is the one that goes on a hire agreement
Email	Where correspondence and recharge statements go
Phone	Main switchboard	Named contacts are kept on the customer
Website	Their website
Default currency	The currency they are charged in
Payment terms (days)	Days from statement to payment — 30 for net 30	Recorded, not enforced
Account manager	Who owns the relationship
Tax identifier	GSTIN, VAT number or local equivalent	Needed on anything that leaves the building with a price on it
Registration number	Company registration number
Notes	Anything else worth knowing
Onboarded on	When the relationship started
Active	Whether they can be chosen	Turning it off keeps their history but stops them being chosen for new bookings

Customer addresses

Addresses on a customer’s row opens the list of where that customer is billed and where their goods are delivered. Most customers need one address; a buyer with a head office and a plant needs two. A sale’s e-way bill reads these addresses: who is billed, and where the goods are going.

The list shows each address’s Name with the address on one line beneath it, a billing or delivery tag (or both), and the row’s edit and remove buttons. Where your organisation works under India GST, a GSTIN column shows each address’s registration, or unregistered. Everything in the dialog is saved by the form it opens, so closing it never throws anything away. Add an address opens the form; the pencil on a row edits that address.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the address is called — “Head office”, “East yard compound”	Required
Address line 1, Address line 2, City, Postal code	The street address	Optional, but an e-way bill cannot be filed without a street address, a town and a six-digit PIN code
Country, State	Where the address is	The state decides which tax applies to a sale under India GST
Access notes (under Delivery)	Gate codes, opening hours, height restrictions — anything that would turn a lorry round	Optional
Contact phone	Who a driver rings on arrival	Optional
Delivery address	Goods are delivered here	Turn it off for an address that is billed but never delivered to
Billing address (under Billing and GST)	Invoices and documents are addressed here	Only one address per customer can hold it. Its GSTIN, if the customer is registered, is the one a sale is billed under
GSTIN	The customer’s GSTIN in this address’s state	Only shown where India GST is switched on. Leave it empty for a buyer who is not registered
Active	Whether the address is offered	Turning it off keeps everything already recorded against it

Short payment reasons

Picked when somebody records a payment that does not settle a vendor invoice, so “why do we still owe this supplier” is a question a report can answer. The defaults include Credit note pending, Held for cash flow, Line disputed, Retention held, Short delivery and Waiting for a payment run. The list shows Name, Still expected (We will pay it or May never be paid), Asks for a note and In use.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the person paying picks — “Retention held”, “Line disputed”	Required
Requires notes	They must write something as well as choosing this	Worth requiring on anything vague
We still expect to pay it	The balance is money you owe and intend to pay	On by default. Turn it off for reasons such as a disputed line or a pending credit note, so they are not counted as due
Active	Whether it is offered

Without at least one reason here, only payments in full can be recorded against an invoice.

The kinds of purchase request people choose between, and what each may ask for, are set on their own screen: see Requisition types.

Organisations in India record GSTIN and other tax details on companies, customers and vendors. See India for the India-specific settings.

Setting up

Configuration

Vendor and contract settings

Contract types

Vendor types

Service categories

Customers

Customer addresses

Short payment reasons