Suppliers

The Suppliers screen holds the businesses you buy stock from. A supplier record stores a short code, the trading name and contact, tax and commercial details, and shows how the supplier is performing: how many purchase orders you have placed, how many are still open, how many deliveries were received and how quickly and punctually they arrived.

You pick suppliers on Purchase Orders (and goods receipts inherit them), and on an item's supplier prices (see Items). Suppliers never hold stock or balances; bills and payments to suppliers are handled in SolaCount.

Typical users: purchasing staff and inventory managers who maintain supplier records; anyone who can view items can look them up.

Where to find it

• The menu item is shown to anyone who can view items.
• Creating and editing need Create / edit / deactivate items. Without it, New supplier and Edit are greyed out (hover: "You do not have permission for this action.") and the form pages show Access denied.
• Suppliers are organization-wide; they are not limited by warehouse.
• Supplier management is a plan feature. If your plan does not include it, saving shows "This SolaStock feature is not available for the current plan or entitlement state."

Screen tour: the supplier list

The page is titled Suppliers.

• Header (top-right): New supplier.
• Search: the box "Search suppliers by name or code…" filters as you type (matches anywhere in the name or code).
• Sort: alphabetical by name. The list shows up to 50 suppliers; use search to find others.
• Row action: click the code to open the supplier. There are no row menus, bulk actions, import or export.

Empty state: No suppliers — "Add a supplier to use on items and purchase orders." If loading fails: Suppliers could not be loaded — "Try loading the supplier list again." with Try again.

Add a supplier

1. Go to Purchasing → Suppliers and click New supplier (top-right). The page is titled New supplier.

2. Fill in the form:

   Field	Required	Rules	Notes
   Code	Yes	Up to 50 characters; must be unique in your organization.	Short reference shown in pickers as CODE · Name. Duplicate: "Supplier code must be unique."
   Name	Yes	Up to 191 characters.	Trading name.
   Email	No	Valid email address, up to 191 characters.
   Phone	No	Up to 50 characters.
   Address	No	Up to 500 characters.
   Tax number	No	Up to 100 characters.	For example the supplier's UAE TRN (15 digits).
   Currency	No	Up to 10 characters; use the 3-letter code, for example AED or USD.	Reference only: the purchase order's Transaction currency is chosen on the order.
   Payment terms	No	Up to 100 characters, free text.	For example "30 days". Reference only.
   Status	—	Active ticked by default.	Untick to mark the supplier inactive.
   Notes	No	Free text.	Internal; shown only on the edit form.

3. Click Create supplier (bottom-right), or Cancel to return to the list.

You see "Supplier created." and land on the supplier's page. If something is wrong the field is highlighted, or you see "The supplier could not be saved."

Screen tour: the supplier detail page

• Header: the supplier name, an Active / Inactive badge, and Edit (top-right).
• Details panel: Code, Email, Phone, Address, Tax number, Currency, Payment terms (— when empty).
• Performance cards:

Ad-hoc receipts (without a purchase order) have no supplier, so they don't count here.

Edit a supplier

1. Open the supplier and click Edit (top-right). The page is titled Edit supplier.
2. Change any field.
3. Click Save changes. You see "Supplier updated."

Changing the code or name updates how the supplier appears on existing orders and receipts; it does not change any stock or document numbers. If the supplier can't be loaded you see Supplier could not be loaded — "Try loading the supplier again before editing it."

Deactivate a supplier

Suppliers cannot be deleted, because purchase orders and receipts refer to them.

1. Open the supplier and click Edit.
2. Untick Active under Status.
3. Click Save changes.

The list and detail page show Inactive. Existing orders and receipts are unaffected. Note that the supplier picker on purchase orders still lists inactive suppliers, so check the status before choosing one. Tick Active again to reactivate.

Statuses

Permissions

Worked example 1: add a new supplier

Al Noor Trading LLC starts buying bottled water from Gulf Aqua Supplies.

1. Omar Haddad (owner) opens Purchasing → Suppliers → New supplier.
2. Code SUP-GULFAQUA, Name Gulf Aqua Supplies LLC, Email orders@gulfaqua.ae, Phone +971 4 555 0142, Address Al Quoz Industrial 3, Dubai, Tax number 100234567800003, Currency AED, Payment terms 30 days.
3. Create supplier → "Supplier created." The performance cards all show 0 or —.

Worked example 2: reading supplier performance

After a quarter, Sara Khan reviews Gulf Aqua Supplies LLC:

The page shows Purchase orders 4, Open purchase orders 1, Posted goods receipts 4, Average lead time (days) 5.3 (6+8+3+4 ÷ 4), On-time delivery rate 66.7% (2 of 3 receipts with an expected date) in amber. Sara raises the late backorder with the supplier and adds a note under Notes.

How it connects

• Purchase Orders: the supplier is chosen on each order and its performance is calculated from orders and receipts. See Purchase Orders.
• Goods Receipts: receipts from a purchase order take its supplier. See Goods Receipts.
• Items: item supplier prices and preferred supplier refer to supplier records. See Items.
• SolaCount: when connecting, suppliers are matched to SolaCount contacts in the guided setup; a supplier used on a purchase order or receipt must be mapped before that document can be approved or posted while connected. See SolaCount integration. After connecting, suppliers and SolaCount contacts stay synchronized: a document that needs a supplier that is not linked yet waits ("The connection for ... is not ready. Retry shortly...") and an ambiguous match goes to an explicit owner review instead of being guessed. A supplier is also what lets SolaCount create a bill from a receipt, and what a Supplier Return is sent to. Bills the accountant sends from SolaCount arrive as Receiving Requests.

Tips and common problems

Related

• Purchase Orders
• Goods Receipts
• Items
• Reports
• SolaCount integration
• Settings