Vendors

Maintain a central directory of suppliers and service providers, with contact details, payment terms, and performance history

Vendors

The Vendors directory is the single source of truth for every supplier and service provider your fleet depends on — parts suppliers, service shops, fuel stations, car washes, tow companies, insurers, inspection stations, manufacturers, and dealers. Every PO, work order, part, and fuel log that references a vendor pulls from here, so keeping this list clean and up to date pays dividends across the whole platform.

Accessing Vendors

Navigate to Fleet Management > Procurement > Vendors in the sidebar.

List View

Columns

Stats Cards

Summary cards at the top break the directory down by vendor type, so you can see at a glance how many parts suppliers, service shops, fuel stations, etc. are on file.

Filtering and Search

• Search — by name
• Filter by type — Parts Supplier, Service Shop, Fuel Station, and so on
• Sort columns — click any column header to sort ascending or descending
• Preferred first — preferred vendors are pinned to the top of selection dropdowns throughout the app
• Refresh — reload the latest data

Creating a Vendor

Click Add Vendor in the top right. The form is split across four tabs so you can fill in what you know now and come back to the rest later.

Tab 1 — Basics

Tab 2 — Contact

Tab 3 — Billing

Tab 4 — Categories

Click Create Vendor to save. To discard, click Cancel.

Vendor Types

Vendor Detail Page

Click any vendor in the table to open its detail page. The page aggregates every interaction your fleet has had with that vendor in one view.

Sections

• Contact Information — name, type, phone, email, address, website
• Purchase Orders — every PO ever sent to this vendor, with status and total
• Parts — every part sourced from this vendor, with current stock and unit price
• Work Orders — external work orders where this vendor was the service provider
• Performance Metrics —
  • Average delivery time — how long between PO confirmed and PO received
  • Price trends — how the unit price for common parts has moved over time
  • On-time rate — percentage of POs received on or before the expected delivery date

Actions

• Edit Vendor — update any field
• Delete Vendor — remove the vendor. Vendors referenced on historical records are archived rather than deleted

Editing a Vendor

1. Open the vendor detail page
2. Click Edit Vendor in the top right
3. Update the fields
4. Click Save

Deleting a Vendor

1. From the vendor table, click the actions menu on the relevant row
2. Select Delete vendor
3. Confirm in the dialog

If the vendor has historical POs, parts, or work orders, the record is archived (hidden from new selections) rather than hard-deleted — this preserves historical data.

Vendor Search and Selection

Vendor selectors appear throughout Mobility:

• Creating a Part — preferred supplier
• Creating a Purchase Order — required
• Creating a Work Order — for external service jobs
• Creating a Fuel Log — fuel station

In every selector, preferred vendors float to the top, followed by recently used vendors, then the rest alphabetically.

Exporting Vendors

Click Export CSV from the list toolbar to download the full vendor list. The export includes name, type, contact name, email, phone, address, website, payment terms, preferred flag, notes, and created date — suitable for importing into accounting systems or sharing with finance.

Permissions

Best Practices

• Add vendors as soon as you establish the relationship — empty POs or work orders with no vendor are hard to audit later
• Always include at least one contact method (phone or email) so anyone on the team can reach the vendor without hunting
• Use the Preferred flag sparingly — if everything is preferred, nothing is
• Keep Payment Terms accurate — they feed into PO defaults and cashflow reporting
• Use the Notes field to record account numbers, negotiated discount levels, and SLA commitments
• Review performance metrics quarterly and reassign preferred status based on actual delivery and price trends
• Consolidate duplicate vendor records whenever you spot them — duplicates split history and weaken the metrics

FAQ

What happens to historical POs and work orders if I delete a vendor? They remain intact. The vendor record is archived, so it no longer appears in new selection dropdowns, but all historical references continue to display the vendor name and details.

Can the same company be both a Parts Supplier and a Service Shop? Create one vendor record and pick the primary type. Use the Notes field to record that they also provide the secondary service. If you need strict separation (e.g. for reporting), create two vendors with distinct names.

Where do the performance metrics come from? Average delivery time and on-time rate are calculated from PO confirmed and received dates. Price trends come from PO line items and the parts catalogue unit price history. The metrics need at least three POs to be meaningful.

Can I import vendors in bulk? Yes. Use the CSV import option from the list toolbar. Headers should match the export format — name, type, contact info, address, website, notes, payment terms, preferred.

How do preferred vendors affect PO approval workflows? Preferred status does not bypass approval thresholds. It only changes where the vendor appears in selectors. All approval rules still apply.

Can a vendor see the POs we have sent them? Not from within Mobility. POs must be exported as PDF and emailed or shared externally. Vendor self-service portals are on the roadmap.

Related Links

• Purchase Orders — every PO is sent to a vendor from this directory
• Parts & Inventory — parts are sourced from preferred vendors
• Work Orders — external service work is linked to a vendor
• Fuel Logs — fuel stations are tracked as vendors
• Expenses — link expenses to vendors for cost reporting