There are four ways to get suppliers into SupplierVault. Use the spreadsheet import for the suppliers you already have, add single suppliers as they come along, and let new spend flow in through sourcing so it's checked from the start.
| Method | Best for | Creates the onboarding checklist? |
|---|---|---|
| Import from a spreadsheet | Bringing your existing supplier list in at once | No: suppliers arrive with the stage you give them (Active by default) |
| Add supplier without sourcing | An existing supplier being brought under governance, or a low-value buy below the tender threshold | Yes, for the tier you choose |
| Award from a sourcing event | New spend that went through a requirement, quotes or tender | Yes |
| The API (Enterprise plan) | Adding suppliers from another system automatically | See The API |
Import from a spreadsheet
Find it in Settings › Import suppliers from a spreadsheet, or step 6 of the setup guide.
- Click Download template. You get "SupplierVault supplier import template.csv".
- Open it in Excel (or Google Sheets, Numbers and so on) and fill in one row per supplier. Keep the first row of column headings as they are.
- Save it as CSV (in Excel: File › Save As › "CSV UTF-8").
- Click Upload CSV and choose the file. You'll see "Imported N suppliers", plus how many new areas were added.
The columns
| Column | What to put | If left blank or not recognised |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier name | The supplier's name. The only required column. | The row is skipped |
| Area | For example Technology, Facilities, People & HR, Marketing, or your own | "Other". New area names are added to your areas automatically. |
| Sub-category | Free text, for example "Cloud hosting" | Blank |
| Tier | T1, T2, T3 or T4, or Strategic, Key, Approved, Transactional | T3 (Approved) |
| Stage | Intake, Triage, Diligence, Negotiation, Active, Under review, Offboarding or Offboarded. Only an admin can import suppliers at Active or Under review (or with Stage blank), because they skip the go-live sign-off. | Active |
| Owner | The supplier owner's name, exactly as it appears in Stakeholders (capitals don't matter) | No owner |
| Contract start | A date as YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY | Blank |
| Contract end | A date as YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY | Blank (no renewal deadlines worked out) |
| Notice days | Days' notice needed before the contract end | 90 |
| Annual value | The committed spend per year. Symbols and commas are ignored, so "£12,500" works. | 0 |
| Currency | A three-letter code such as GBP, EUR or USD | Your reporting currency |
Suppliers you already have
Before importing, SupplierVault compares each row with the suppliers you already hold. If any look the same, you'll see "N rows look like suppliers you already have: …" and three choices:
- Import, skipping duplicates: only the new suppliers are added. The result says "Skipped N duplicates".
- Import everything: every row is added, even the ones that look like duplicates.
- Cancel: nothing is imported, so you can tidy the file first.
Names are compared ignoring capitals, punctuation, "&" and common words such as The, Ltd, Limited, PLC, LLP, LP, Inc, Co, Company, UK, Group and Holdings. So "Acme Group Ltd" and "ACME" count as the same supplier.
The import is recorded in the audit trail ("Imported N suppliers from a spreadsheet"). Imported suppliers don't get onboarding tasks. If an imported supplier still needs checking, open its record: the Tasks section offers Add N T3 checklist items (or whichever tier it is) to create the tier's checklist. You may also want to set its stage back to Intake.
Add a supplier without sourcing
Use this for a supplier you already use but haven't brought under governance, or a low-value purchase below your tender threshold. New spend should normally start as a requirement in Sourcing.
- Go to Onboarding › Add supplier without sourcing (or Add existing supplier on an empty Dashboard).
- Fill in the fields below.
- Click Add supplier and create checklist.
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Supplier name | Required. |
| Area | Defaults to the area you're filtered to. Choose + Create a new area… to add one. |
| Sub-category (optional) | A finer grouping within the area. |
| Requested by | The name and email of the person who asked for the supplier. |
| Tier | Defaults to T3 · Approved supplier. The hint below shows what that tier means and which checks it brings. Click What do the tiers mean? for the full explanation. |
| Will they hold any of our data? | "None of our data", "Internal / operational data" or "Customer data or workloads". This feeds the risk and tier assessment. |
| Estimated annual spend and Currency | Becomes the supplier's committed spend. |
| What is it for? | A short description of what you buy from them. |
What happens next:
- The supplier is created in the Intake stage.
- The onboarding tasks for its tier are created and routed to each team (T4 gets 5 tasks, T3 gets 10, T2 gets 15 and T1 gets 20). See Onboarding.
- "Supplier added as {tier}" is logged and the record opens.
Award from a sourcing event
When a sourcing event reaches its award decision, Award and start onboarding creates the supplier from the winning bid and starts its onboarding checklist. See Sourcing. Sourcing is included from the Professional plan.
Your plan's supplier limit
| Plan | Suppliers included |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 300 |
| Essentials | 50 |
| Professional | 150 |
| Enterprise | 300 (more on request) |
| Extra suppliers, any plan | +25 for each £49 a month |
- When you have 3 or fewer places left, a banner tells you how many remain. The sidebar footer shows "X of Y suppliers".
- At the limit, adding a supplier shows "Your plan includes up to N suppliers. Close a supplier you no longer use, add 25 more suppliers for £49 a month, or contact us to upgrade."
- During an import, rows over the limit are skipped and you're told how many weren't imported. The rest are imported.
- Reopening an Offboarded supplier counts it again, so it needs a free place.