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Work with Suppliers

Suppliers and orders both live under the Inventory entry in the left sidebar, alongside Items. Suppliers records who you buy from. Orders tracks what you've ordered, what's on the way, and what's been received.

Suppliers

Open Inventory → Suppliers to see your vendor list.

Adding a Supplier

Click New Supplier and fill in:

  • A name for the company (e.g., "Thermo Fisher Scientific", "Sigma-Aldrich")
  • A website link to their ordering portal
  • Contact info including contact name, email, phone, and address
  • A logo so the supplier is easy to spot in the list
  • A lead time in days (used to flag late orders)
  • The preferred toggle if this is your go-to vendor for a category
  • Notes for anything else (account numbers, shipping preferences, rep relationships)

Supplier Profile

Each supplier's profile shows:

  • Contact details, website, and lead time
  • The list of inventory items linked to this supplier (the reverse view of the item's supplier field)
  • The list of orders placed with this supplier

This makes reordering simple: open the supplier, scan their items, and place a new order in one place.

Organizing Suppliers

Suppliers support folders, starring, and ordering, the same patterns as the rest of the platform. Use folders to group by category (chemical, antibody, equipment) or by geography if shipping zones matter to you.

Orders

Open Inventory → Orders to see every order your team has placed.

Creating an Order

Click New Order. An order can be linked to an inventory item, a supplier, or both. Fields include:

  • The item you're ordering (links to an Inventory record), with its catalog number prefilled
  • The supplier you're ordering from
  • Quantity and unit
  • Unit price and total cost in any currency
  • A status: Requested, Processing, Complete, or Incomplete
  • An urgency: Low, Normal, or High
  • Reference numbers including invoice number, PO number, and any internal tracking number
  • The product URL at the vendor and a link to the external receipt if one exists
  • Free-text notes and the requested by user

If the inventory item is later renamed or deleted, the order keeps a snapshot of the name as it was at order time, so audit history stays accurate.

Order Status

The four statuses cover the full ordering loop:

  • Requested means someone has asked for it but it hasn't been placed yet
  • Processing means the order is in flight with the supplier
  • Complete means it has arrived and been added to inventory
  • Incomplete is for partial delivery, backorder, or a problem that needs follow-up

Set the urgency to High when you need attention from whoever does the ordering, and Low for things that can wait for the next bulk run.

Linking Back to Inventory

When an order is marked Complete, the linked inventory item's quantity, last purchase price, and last purchase date update automatically, with no double entry. This keeps the Items list a faithful picture of what you actually have on hand.

Tip: Add the supplier's ordering portal URL to their profile, and the product URL to each order. The next person who needs to reorder will thank you.

Exporting

Suppliers and orders both export as Excel from the Export section in Settings, with the supplier link and currency fields resolved as readable columns. Useful for reimbursements, grant reporting, and procurement audits.

Next Steps

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