Documentation/ Master records and catalogues/ The supplier master
The supplier master
The supplier master holds one record for every company that invoices you. Three things come out of it every day: who the issuer is, which nominal accounts their spend goes to, and the details you send them an order with.
Database › Supplier master
On this page
The list
The table shows, per supplier: tax number, trading name, address with postcode, nominal account, reference, payment date, payment method, payment terms and, on practice accounts, which client they belong to.
The search box at the top finds them by tax number or registered name, and there is also a filter by practice client for working on one company at a time. The tax number and registered name columns can be sorted.
There are five actions on the bar: New, Merge, Delete, Import and Export. Merge and Delete need rows ticked; Merge needs at least two.
The record, field by field
| Field | What it is | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Trading name | The name the supplier is known by. | Yes |
| Tax number | Their tax reference. | No, but it is what keeps duplicates out |
| Registered name | The full legal name. | No |
| Reference | Their supplier code in your management system. | No |
| Address and postcode | Their registered address. | No |
| Contact | Two email addresses, two phone numbers and a WhatsApp number. | No, unless you send orders |
| Payment | Date, method and terms. | No, but without them there are no due dates |
| Nominal accounts | Supplier account and expense account. | No |
The only field the record insists on is the trading name. The tax number is not required, but it is what the supplier is recognised by on incoming documents: without it, repeated records are easy to end up with.
The two nominal accounts
The record holds two different accounts, and they are easily confused:
| Account | What it stands for |
|---|---|
| Supplier account | What you owe that supplier. It is where the debt sits. |
| Expense account | Where their invoices' spend usually goes. |
Both are chosen with a search that finds accounts by code or by name in the account's chart of accounts. They are not typed: you pick them from the list.
Setting them on the record saves giving them document by document: that supplier's spend goes, by default, to whatever you set here.
Practice client
On accountancy practice accounts, each supplier belongs to one of the clients you handle. The field is filled in with a search by tax number or name, and the list lets you filter on it.
It is what keeps each company's masters apart: a supplier of client A does not get mixed up with client B's, even where it is the same issuing company.
Importing from Excel
The import takes Excel or CSV files up to five megabytes. The format the screen asks for:
| Columns | Which |
|---|---|
| Required | Tax number, trading name |
| Optional | Registered name, reference, address, postcode |
| The link | The practice client's tax number, which attaches the supplier to its client automatically |
| Contact | Email, second email, phone, second phone, WhatsApp |
The WhatsApp column has to be formatted as text in Excel. The screen warns you: in international format
with the country code, and if the cell is left as a number the + is lost and the row is
rejected. It is the number purchase orders are sent to.
It is the quick way to get an account going: instead of waiting for documents from every supplier, you upload the whole list with their contact details and terms already in.
Exporting
The export button downloads the master to Excel. It is useful for seeing in one go which suppliers are incomplete, no email, no payment terms, no account, and deciding where to start filling them in.
Where the suppliers come from
Like the other masters, it fills itself: when a document arrives from an issuer that did not exist, their record is created from what the document carries. The other fields, accounts, payment terms, contact, stay empty until somebody fills them in.
Hence the maintenance is always the same: finish off the new suppliers and merge the ones that have come in twice.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The same supplier appears twice | It arrived with the tax number read wrongly or the name written differently. | Merge the records, choosing which is the master. |
| Rows rejected on import | The tax number or trading name is missing, or the WhatsApp number lost its country code. | Format the WhatsApp column as text and fill in the required columns. |
| Spend does not go to the account you expected | The record has no expense account set. | Set it on the supplier's record. |
| An order cannot be sent | The main email address or the WhatsApp number is missing. | Fill the contact details in. |
| A supplier is not in the list | There is a practice client filter on. | Clear the filter and search again. |