Vendor onboarding can be quite a task at times. With all the options of who you choose to work with, gathering that information can be difficult to organize. Our software can help decrease lost or hard-to-find information, making it easily available to whoever it needs to be shared with.
Vendor onboarding is simple in theory; it’s a process that collects the information for approving a new company as a supplier, giving your business a way to make purchases, payments, and conduct business. There are many aspects, but following the checklist below will help you guide you to the most efficient way to gather the required information.
Gathering information via forms is a great way to get all the information all in one place. When introducing a new supplier, onboarding can be a hard-to-manage task. If you know exactly what you need, then you would greatly benefit from a vendor onboarding process that automatically puts all the information into a safe location.
What Is Vendor Onboarding?
Vendor onboarding is the process of integrating a new vendor into a business’s systems and processes. This process typically involves collecting and verifying information about the vendor, such as their contact details, legal and financial information, and any required documentation or certifications. It also involves setting up the vendor in the company’s accounts payable system, establishing payment terms and methods, and ensuring that the vendor understands and complies with the company’s policies and procedures. Effective vendor onboarding helps to establish a smooth and successful working relationship between the business and its vendors.
Why is vendor onboarding important?
Vendor onboarding is important for several reasons:
2. Risk Management: Onboarding helps to identify potential risks associated with a new vendor, including their financial stability, security measures, and business practices.
3. Efficiency: It streamlines the process of bringing new vendors into the organization, reducing administrative burden and accelerating the procurement process.
4. Relationship Building: Effective onboarding sets the tone for a positive and productive relationship between the organization and the vendor, leading to better communication and collaboration.
5. Quality Assurance: It helps to ensure that vendors have the necessary qualifications, expertise, and resources to deliver products and services of the desired quality.
Vendor Onboarding Checklist
You have the ability to streamline the process of bringing new vendors onboard by creating a standardized procedure that is straightforward to follow. However, it will require individualized strategies and techniques to be successful.
1. Evaluate Vendors
Supplier evaluation simply means asking the right questions to determine whether a vendor can provide the inventory your organization needs without exposing you to unnecessary risk.
An evaluation process serves as a template you can customize to the type of vendor you’re onboarding and the type of service they offer, without reinventing the wheel. Assessing suppliers involves asking the appropriate questions to determine if a vendor can supply the necessary inventory without exposing your organization to unnecessary risks.
During the evaluation process of supplier onboarding, certain details are critical to ensuring no risk is involved. Consider checking each vendor’s track records, financial health, compliance, and ethical behaviors in business.
2. Collect Vendor Information for Approval
The next stage involves the approval process, where you assess a vendor’s eligibility and ensure mutual understanding before proceeding. Take the time to identify the necessary steps for both your team and potential suppliers to successfully advance through the approval process.
Establishing a strategic vendor partnership may require a more thoughtful approach to onboarding to carefully cultivate and foster the business relationship. For certain vendors, you may want to create a more comprehensive checklist for onboarding.
3. Verify documents
Develop a procedure and appoint a dedicated employee (or team) who will autonomously review any documents submitted by potential suppliers during the quoting and proposal phases.
4. Define terms and conditions clearly
Establish standards and criteria for:+
- The promptness of suppliers’ responses to messages, emails, and communications
- Tolerable QA error limits
- Timelines for delivery
- Arrangements for payment and ePayables, including the expected speed of supplier payment
- Procedures for resolving conflicts.
Many of these details will be outlined in your contracts, MSAs, and service level agreements, highlighting the importance of thoroughly reviewing your documents to understand each party’s responsibilities and commitments.
Vendor onboarding best practices
There is a responsibility by your business to do your due diligence during the onboarding process. Many vendors will be working with you depending on the needs of the company. This is where it is important to consider the dos and don’ts of the process.
Do’s.
- Know the rules and compliance that apply to your business.
- Research the companies you want to work with.
- Ensure contracts include all necessary information for each vendor.
- Stay organized with who you are working.
Don’ts.
- Lack of communication between organization members.
- Skip a thorough examination of the business.
- Lack of setting up a proper system.
- Stick to your old ways when a process could go easier as new information is gathered.
Strategic use of the onboarding process.
Consider the options you have when it comes to vendors. With all the data collected, it is easy to see which ones best fit the needs of the business. Does one offer an easier way to purchase supplies from? Is a delivery time work better for your business hours? If these are important, make sure that this is clear in the onboarding request.
Efficiency should be a top priority. Taking a close look at the products and services your vendors are offering can help identify if there are any ways to reduce the amount of income and productivity losses. This can evaluate how these are used and help determine the performance of vendors.
Building relationships with vendors is important. This connection can help with communication and training and reduce the chance of unreliability. Vendor relationships can also help with brand boosting in a positive light. This can tie in with risk management because working closely can ensure that all regulations and policies are being followed, making it easier to work with.
Moving the onboarding process of new vendors digitally is a great way to help any organization have a better organization and ensure that those they are working with can provide the information needed. It limits the risk of lost information or lack of data by being able to personalize and customize the intake form.
Vendor Onboarding Forms: How to collect your vendors’ information for a smooth vendor onboarding?
Gathering the information is key. The basic details should include the business name, address, contact information, licenses and insurance documentation, details for banking, and details of the reps you’ll be in contact with.
In turn, gather all the information that is specific to the needs of your company including the products, services, lead times, how to place orders, payment terms, delivery logistics, any available discounts, and anything else that might be more specific to your needs.
Automating your supplier onboarding process
Automating this process would allow for more time and focus to be used in other areas. File request pros software allows for an easy way to automate many parts of the job such as reminders that would auto-send depending on a due date, sending out thank-yous, file request emails, and sorting responses into folders to access easily later. The software can store templates of vendor onboarding forms, making it easy to tweak previous forms without having to redo them.
File Request Pro allows many features to help ensure information is collected promptly. It can be altered depending on the service or vendor you are using and then made easily accessible later on. These are also safely stored on a cloud and available anywhere, no matter where you are during the day.
Take advantage of the technology at your disposal and see how automated processes can help your business. There are plenty of guides and ideas on how exactly to tweak any form for your specific needs. Ensure that the process is also just as easy for those you are requesting the forms from. If you feel the need to work more efficiently, then set up a demo to see how we can work for you.
