> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.getatelier.design/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Vendors

> Suppliers, their contacts, their terms — and why the vendor record is what makes procurement work.

A vendor is anyone you buy from: manufacturers, showrooms, dealers,
workrooms, fabricators, freight companies.

The record is small, and it does a lot of work. Products attach to it,
purchase orders draw from it, and the Procurement view groups by it.

## The record

| Field        | Why it matters                                                                                                                                       |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**     | How the vendor appears everywhere else.                                                                                                              |
| **Contacts** | Named people with email and phone. A vendor can have several — a sales contact and a logistics contact are different people, and you will need both. |
| **Address**  | Where orders go.                                                                                                                                     |
| **Terms**    | Deposit, balance, payment window, return policy. Worth recording once rather than rediscovering per order.                                           |
| **Notes**    | Trade discount, minimums, the account manager who actually replies.                                                                                  |

## Adding one without typing it

**Scan a card**, above the vendor list, reads a vendor off a photograph, a
quote or their website and hands you the form filled in.
[Import a vendor](/clients-vendors/import-a-vendor) covers it, including why
the result often has blanks in it — and why those blanks are the point.

## Why it earns its keep

* **Purchase orders write themselves** — A PO pulls the vendor's details, so
  raising one is a matter of choosing items rather than re-typing an
  address.
* **Ordering by vendor** — Group the Procurement view by vendor and each
  group becomes one purchase order.
* **Terms in one place** — Deposit and lead-time expectations sit where the
  next person will look.
* **Chasing has a name attached** — *Who do we call about the sofa* has an
  answer that is not "check the emails".

## Keeping it useful

1. **Add the vendor when you add their first product.** Ten seconds then,
   versus reconstructing it under pressure at order time.
2. **Record the logistics contact separately.** The person who sells you the
   sofa is rarely the person who can find it.
3. **Write terms down as you learn them.** 50% deposit, six-week lead, no
   returns on custom fabric — the details that decide whether an
   installation date is realistic.

<Tip>
  Your vendor list is one of the more valuable things your studio owns. It is
  the accumulated knowledge of who is reliable, who discounts, and who takes
  four months when they said six weeks.
</Tip>