The Dashboard is the first page you see after signing in. It gives one view of every supplier and process: what needs doing first, how much you've committed, how healthy your suppliers are, and where work is stuck. Every figure is worked out live from the records in SupplierVault. Nothing is typed in separately for the Dashboard, so if a figure looks wrong, fix the record it comes from and the Dashboard updates straight away.
Before you start: three rules that apply to every figure
- Live suppliers means suppliers at the stage "Active" or "Under review". Most health and commitment figures count only these.
- Money is shown in your reporting currency. Each contract, invoice and bid keeps its own currency, and the Dashboard converts it at the European Central Bank's daily reference rates, which SupplierVault fetches every working day (a rate Finance fixes in Settings › Exchange rates is used instead for that currency). If there's no rate at all for a currency, amounts in it are counted one-for-one and a "No rate for X" link appears under the figure. See How figures are calculated.
- The Area filter applies. If you choose an area in the "Area" box in the top bar, every total, chart and list on the Dashboard is cut to that area. "Recent activity" is the one exception: it always shows everything.
Some panels only appear when the matching module is switched on in Modules & forms, or when your plan includes it. If you can't see a panel described here, that's usually why.
When there's nothing yet
With no suppliers and no sourcing events, the Dashboard shows one sentence about what it's for and the buttons Import your suppliers, Add a supplier and, for admins, Load example data (made-up suppliers, clearly marked, that you can remove in one click; your settings aren't changed). Every other page that can be empty does the same: one sentence on what the page is for and one clear next step, such as New requirement on Sourcing or New request on Purchase requests. If a page is empty only because of the Area filter, it says so and offers Show all areas.
Get set up checklist
"Get set up · n of 6 done" tracks your set-up with a progress bar, one button per step and Hide checklist. Admins also see Start from a set-up for your sector. It goes away for good once every step is done. See The Get set up checklist and sector set-ups.
Supplier hub health
"Supplier hub n% in date" is one figure for how much of your register is up to date: certificates and documents in date, contracts with notice dates, go-live sign-offs, reviews on schedule, onboarding moving, bank details verified and (Professional and above) Companies House financial health. Select a part to see the suppliers behind it, and the ? to see how it's worked out. See Supplier hub health.
Do these first
"The n most urgent items, money and fixed deadlines first". This shows the top 5 items from the full attention list (see "Everything that needs attention" below). Each row has a coloured dot, a label ("Money and fraud", "Deadline", "Blocked" or "Review"), what's wrong, a short explanation and an "Open ›" or "View ›" link that takes you straight to the place to fix it. The panel is hidden when nothing needs attention.
Renewal decisions needed
Shown when the Renewals module is on and at least one contract needs a decision. It lists contracts that are inside their review window, have missed the notice deadline, or have missed the deadline to change volumes or prices. Each item shows:
- a day counter: days to the next deadline, or "!" and "missed"
- the supplier name
- a one-line story, for example "give notice by 1 Mar 2027 (in 40 days) · review not started"
- the committed value in your reporting currency
The 4 most urgent show first; "Show all n contracts" shows the rest. The panel is red if anything is missed or urgent, otherwise amber. Click an item to open that supplier at "Contract, notice & renewal", or click "Open renewals" for the full page.
Example: a contract ends on 31 March 2027 with 90 days' notice. The notice deadline is 31 December 2026, and the review window opens 90 days before that, on 2 October 2026. A contract in its window is shown red when notice is 30 days or less away, or when no review has been started and the first deadline is 45 days or less away. See Contracts, renewals and notice periods.
Committed spend under management
The large figure is the total "Committed spend" on the contracts of all live suppliers, converted to your reporting currency. It always shows committed spend, whichever spend view you've chosen below. The line under it shows:
- "n live suppliers"
- "Largest: supplier · x% of commitments" (or "of actual spend" in the Actual view): the biggest supplier's share, which warns you about dependence on one supplier
- in the Committed view, "total usage and fixed fees, last 12 full months"; in the Actual view, "total invoiced and on order, last 12 months"
The small area chart shows 12 monthly points. In the Actual view each month is invoices plus purchase orders. In the Committed view each month is the usage recorded on suppliers billed on what you use, plus the fixed fee for fixed and hybrid contracts.
The source line underneath tells you exactly what was used, for example "Source: invoices to 30 Sep 2026 · orders to 12 Oct 2026 · All figures in GBP · converted from USD, EUR at European Central Bank rates of 23 Oct 2026". If Finance has fixed a rate, the line says "Finance rates" for that currency.
Spend figures toggle
Choose between "Actual, last 12 months" and "Contract commitments". This switches the spend charts and donuts between two views:
| View | What it counts | Which suppliers |
|---|---|---|
| Actual, last 12 months | Invoices dated in the last 365 days (rejected invoices left out), plus purchase requests at "Ordered" or "Received" in that period whose PO hasn't been invoiced yet | All suppliers except Offboarded ones |
| Contract commitments | The "Committed spend" value on each contract | Live suppliers only |
If you have any invoices or orders in the last year, Actual is chosen by default; otherwise Committed. Your choice is remembered in this browser.
Portfolio health
Three gauges for your live suppliers, each green (●), amber (▲) or red (■):
| Gauge | How it's worked out | Green / amber |
|---|---|---|
| Governance compliance | The average governance compliance % across live suppliers (named owners, meetings held on time, documents in date, escalations answered on time). Governance module only. | Green 90% or more, amber 70% or more |
| Supplier performance | The average score out of 5 across live suppliers that have one. Each supplier's score is its latest quarterly scorecard, or if it has none, the average of its five operational KPIs. | Green 4.0 or more, amber 3.0 or more |
| Risk reviews in date | The % of live suppliers with a risk review cycle whose re-assessment isn't overdue. Risk module only. | Green 90% or more, amber 70% or more |
The Watch list underneath shows the first 4 red items from the attention list, or "Nothing critical right now."
The eight KPI cards
Each card opens the page it summarises. A card turns to an alert style when something is wrong.
| Card | Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing pipeline | Total budget of open sourcing events | Sourcing events at Requirement, Approval, RFI, RFP, Evaluation or Award decision |
| Savings · 12 months | Hard savings plus cost avoidance dated in the last 365 days | The savings register. Each saving = baseline − agreed price, never below zero. See Savings. |
| Renewal decisions due | Contracts in their review window or with a missed deadline | Contract dates and notice periods on supplier records |
| Consumption forecast | Forecast shortfall against minimum commitments, plus any forecast overage | Monthly usage on suppliers billed on usage. See Spend and usage. |
| Risk reviews overdue | Live suppliers overdue for risk re-assessment | Assessment dates and each tier's review cycle |
| Invoices held or disputed | Total value of invoices "On hold" or "Disputed" | Invoices on Payments & accounts |
| In onboarding | Suppliers at Intake, Triage, Diligence or Negotiation, with the number of go-live gates still outstanding | Supplier stages and go-live gates |
| Overdue tasks | Open tasks past their due date, for everyone, "of n open" | The Tasks page |
Supplier lifecycle
Seven steps with a count each. Select a step to open that part of the process.
| Step | Counts |
|---|---|
| Requirement · awaiting approval | Sourcing events at Requirement or Approval |
| RFI / RFP · in market | Sourcing events at RFI, RFP, Evaluation or Award decision |
| Onboarding · due diligence | Suppliers at Intake, Triage, Diligence or Negotiation |
| Live · governed | Suppliers at Active |
| Under review · performance issue | Suppliers at Under review (highlighted when above 0) |
| Renewal due · review window open | Contracts needing a renewal decision (highlighted when above 0) |
| Offboarding · controlled exit | Suppliers at Offboarding |
The three donut charts
- Spend by area: your spend split by supplier area, either "Invoiced or on order, last 12 months" or "Committed, live suppliers" depending on the toggle.
- Currency exposure: how much of that spend is in each currency (invoice and order currency, or contract currency), shown in your reporting currency. The centre shows how many currencies you use.
- Suppliers by residual risk: how many suppliers (all except Offboarded) are High, Medium, Low or Not assessed after controls. Residual risk is the worst of a supplier's four risk ratings (Security, Financial, Data protection, Geographic / concentration). If the risk module is off, this becomes "Suppliers by stage".
The charts
Every chart card has a "Show as table" link that shows the same numbers as a table, which is handy for copying or for screen readers. A bar chart shows its first 20 bars and says "Showing the first 20 of N"; the renewal radar shows its first 25 contracts. The table view lists them all.
| Chart | What it shows and how |
|---|---|
| Spend by supplier / Committed spend by supplier | One bar per supplier with spend, largest first, with each supplier's share. A "▲ Concentration" flag appears when one supplier is 40% or more of the total. Click a bar to open the supplier. |
| Capacity and licence use | For suppliers where you reserve or license a quantity: the share actually used. Worked out as the average of the last 3 months' recorded units ÷ "Reserved or licensed per month". If there's no usage, the hand-entered "Capacity in use (%)" is used instead. "▼ Under-used" below 70%; "▲ Overage risk" at 95% or more. |
| Renewal radar · next 12 months | A timeline from about three months ago to a year ahead showing each contract's review window, change-figures date, notice deadline and end date. |
| Third-party risk | A heat map of inherent risk (rows) against residual risk (columns). See below for the inherent risk score. |
| Supplier performance | Each supplier's latest quarterly scorecard (weighted), or the average of the KPIs scored where there's no scorecard yet, 1 to 5, against a target line of 3. "▼ Below target" under 3. The table shows each KPI, the Score and From ("Scorecard" and the quarter, or "Average of KPIs"). |
| Governance compliance | Each live supplier's compliance %. "■ Action needed" (red) if any escalation is late or the % is under 70; "▲ Gaps" (amber) under 90. |
| Savings delivered · last 12 months | Hard savings and cost avoidance by area. |
| Onboarding readiness | For each supplier in onboarding, go-live gates passed out of the total, plus whether their portal is invited, in progress or submitted. |
| Sourcing pipeline | Budget and number of events at each open sourcing stage. |
| Open work by team | Open tasks per team, split into on time and overdue. A task belongs to its assignee's team, or to the task's own team if unassigned. Click a team to open Tasks filtered to that team. |
Example: a T2 supplier holding customer data, with system access and no AI, scores 2 + 2 + 1 = 5, so it's High inherent risk. See Third-party risk.
Governance compliance for one supplier is the share of these checks that pass: a business owner (SRO) is named; a contract manager is named; each meeting the tier requires has been held on time (never held counts as overdue); each required document is dated within the last year; and each open escalation is within its response time (Level 1: 2 days, Level 2: 5, Level 3: 10, Level 4: 20). See Reviews and governance.
Your tasks, attention list, scorecard and activity
- "Name's tasks" appears only when "Show work for" (or "Viewing as" in the demo) names a person. It lists up to 6 of their open tasks by due date. The rest of the Dashboard is not filtered by person.
- Everything that needs attention: the top 10 attention items "In priority order: payments and fraud, fixed deadlines, blockers, then reviews". See Tasks and notifications for every rule that raises an item.
- Supplier scorecard ("The five-minute read for leadership"): every supplier except those at Intake or Offboarded, sorted by tier then name, with columns Supplier, Tier, Stage, Score, Allocation, Residual risk, Next notice and Committed. The first 50 rows show; Show more or Show all lists the rest. Score is green at 4 or more, amber at 3 or more, red below 3. Allocation is amber outside 70–95%. Next notice is red when 30 days or less away and amber when 90 days or less. Click a row to open the supplier.
- Recent activity: the last 8 things that happened, with date, supplier or event, what happened and who did it.
Good to know
- The Dashboard reads the same records as every other page, so it's never out of step. If a number surprises you, use "Show as table" to see which suppliers make it up, then open them.
- Committed and actual spend are deliberately different. Committed is what the contract says; actual is what you've been invoiced or ordered. Neither comes from your bank. Invoices and orders are recorded in SupplierVault by hand, by the invoice reader or through the API, or read from your accounting software if you connect it.
- On the Dashboard, tables show their first 50 rows, with Show more and Show all underneath. Printing shows every row.
- The Watch list and "Do these first" both come from the same attention list, so fixing the underlying record clears the item everywhere.
Financial health on the attention list
From the Professional plan, a supplier whose Companies House financial health indicators are rated Watch or Concern appears in "Everything that needs attention", for example "Supplier: Companies House financial health to watch", with the reasons. Concern items also show on the watch list. See UK company and sanctions checks.
Related
- How figures are calculated
- Tasks and notifications
- Search, filters and the glossary
- Contracts, renewals and notice periods
- Supplier hub health
- The Get set up checklist and sector set-ups