Finance → Payables → Vendors → /vendors
A vendor is anyone you pay: a plumber, a security firm, a utility company, an advocate, a supplier. The vendor record is what makes spend analysable — "KES 3.2m on maintenance" is not actionable, "KES 3.2m across four contractors, 60% with one of them" is.
What a vendor record holds
| Group | Fields |
|---|---|
| Identity | Name, trading name, category / type of service |
| Contact | Contact person, phone, email, physical address |
| Financial | Tax identifier (PIN), bank account details for payment, payment terms |
| Status | Active or inactive |
| Attachments | Contracts, certificates, insurance, compliance documents |
Adding a vendor
Search before you add
The most common data problem in payables is the same contractor existing three times under slightly different names. Search first.
Add the vendor
Vendors → Add. Enter name, category, contact details and tax identifier.
Add banking details
Needed before you can pay them. Verify bank details out-of-band — payment-detail fraud typically arrives as a convincing email asking you to update an account.
Attach the paperwork
Contract, compliance certificates, insurance. These expire; the attachment is where you will look when they do.
Using vendors
| Where | How the vendor is used |
|---|---|
| Expenses | The payee on every expense invoice and payment. |
| Service requests | The contractor assigned to do the work. |
| Legal register | Advocates and auctioneers appear as matter parties; their fees are recorded there and paid as expenses. |
| Reports | Expense report by vendor gives spend concentration per supplier. |
Vendor spend review
Run expense report by vendor
Quarterly, for the branch.
Look at concentration
A single vendor taking a large share of a category is a commercial risk and a procurement question.
Check for duplicates
Two similar names with similar spend is almost always one vendor entered twice.
Check compliance documents
Expired insurance on an active contractor is a live liability.
Deactivating a vendor
Set the vendor inactive rather than deleting. Deletion breaks the link from historical expenses, which corrupts expense reporting and owner statements. An inactive vendor stops appearing in selection lists but keeps its history.
Common problems
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Vendor not selectable on an expense | The vendor is inactive, or belongs to a different branch. |
| Spend by vendor looks too low | Spend is split across duplicate vendor records. Consolidate future expenses onto one record; do not re-point historical ones without a reason. |
| Payment rejected by the bank | Bank details on the vendor record are stale. Verify before changing them. |