Madame Illa buys her cement from Ciments du Littoral and her iron rods from Fers & Métaux du Port. For years, their phone numbers and terms lived in her head and on scraps of paper. When she was away, nobody else knew that the cement distributor lets her pay within 30 days, or that the port importer charges for delivery. This page follows Illa as she records her suppliers. The same steps apply to any business that buys goods from a few regular suppliers, such as a pharmacy with its wholesaler or a drinks depot with its brewery distributor.

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Register a supplier

Illa starts with the cement distributor. She creates it with Create a vendor, giving its name and phone number, and optionally an ID number, an address, a country and an email. Suppliers are called vendors in the API. Every purchase is made from a supplier on this list. She can look at the whole list with List vendors, searching by name, phone, address or email, and open one with View a vendor. When a phone number changes, she uses Edit a vendor.

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Agree on credit terms

Ciments du Littoral lets Illa pay later, so she wants Exowpee to know it. A new supplier is not creditable until she says so. She sets the terms with Set vendor credit terms:
  • whether she can buy on credit from this supplier;
  • the standard payment terms, for example 30 days;
  • the most she may owe the supplier in total, for example 2,000,000 FCFA;
  • the largest single purchase, for example 800,000 FCFA.
These terms apply when she creates and submits a purchase: a credit purchase without its own due date falls due after the payment terms, and a purchase over a limit needs approval. See Create and approve purchases. Changing the terms does not touch purchases that already exist.

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Note where she collects goods

Fers & Métaux du Port has a yard near the port, and Bio Gounou, the storekeeper, drives there to load. Illa adds the yard with Add a vendor pickup point, with its name and, if she wants, an address and map coordinates. She corrects it with Edit a vendor pickup point, reads them with List vendor pickup points and View a vendor pickup point, and removes one with Delete a vendor pickup point.

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Record what the supplier charges for delivery

The port importer also delivers to the shop for a fee. Illa records each fee with Add a vendor delivery rate, for example “Delivery to Akpakpa, 15,000 FCFA”. When a delivery is planned, she picks the rate instead of typing the amount again. She changes a fee with Edit a vendor delivery rate. Deliveries already planned keep the amount they were priced with. A rate the supplier stops offering is turned off the same way. List vendor delivery rates and View a vendor delivery rate show them, and Delete a vendor delivery rate removes one that was never used. See Receive purchased goods for how the fee is used.

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Stop dealing with a supplier

When Illa no longer buys from a supplier, she removes it with Delete a vendor. Exowpee refuses while the supplier still has pickup points or a stop in an active trip, and the deletion also fails while purchases, delivery rates, payments or returns still point to it, so most suppliers she has dealt with stay in the list.

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The rules

  • A supplier needs a name and a phone number. The name is stored in lower case and must be unique among the company’s suppliers. A deleted supplier frees its name.
  • Unless they are given when the supplier is created, a new supplier cannot be bought from on credit and has payment terms of 0 days, until credit terms are set. The debt limit and the purchase limit must be 0 or more; sending null for a limit removes it, while leaving it out keeps the current value.
  • Editing a supplier: a null or empty value for the name, ID number, phone, address, country, email or the credit flag keeps the stored value. Only the two limits can be cleared.
  • Changing credit terms or contact details does not recalculate existing purchases or debts. The new limits apply to later purchase submissions.
  • The list shows only the company’s own suppliers. A supplier shared without a company can still be viewed, edited and deleted by id, but delivery rates and pickup points can only be managed on the company’s own suppliers.
  • A supplier cannot be deleted while it has pickup points or a stop in an active trip, nor while purchases, delivery rates, payments, returns or stock records still point to it. It is also refused while the company owes it money.
  • A pickup point name must be unique among the supplier’s pickup points. Latitude goes from -90 to 90 and longitude from -180 to 180. A pickup point used by a trip stop cannot be deleted. See Trips and waypoints.
  • A delivery rate needs a label and an amount of 0 or more, with no more decimals than the company’s currency allows. The label must be unique among the supplier’s rates. Rates are active unless turned off.
  • A delivery rate that a delivery has used cannot be deleted; turn it off instead. A rate that was never used is deleted for good.

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All the actions of this topic