Add suppliers under Suppliers with contact details, account number, terms and an optional tax override. Each profile powers receivings, purchase orders, supplier store accounts, mailing labels, emails and supplier reports.

Suppliers keep track of where your items and inventory come from. Every receiving, purchase order and supplier report in PHP Point Of Sale starts from a supplier profile, so enter suppliers whenever possible — reports can then show how much inventory you purchase from each source and at what cost. The rest of the purchasing workflow — receiving stock, purchase orders, supplier reports — all pull from the same record.

You manage suppliers by clicking Suppliers in the left menu. If you already have a supplier list in a spreadsheet, bring it in with the Excel import instead of typing each one.

Create a new supplier

1. Click Suppliers in the left menu.
2. Click + New Supplier in the top right corner.
3. Fill in the profile. Fields shown in red are required — for suppliers, only Company Name is required, though the more you fill in, the more the rest of the system can do with the record.
4. Click Save.

The fields on the supplier form:

• Company Name — the only required field; how the supplier appears on receivings, purchase orders and reports.
• First Name and Last Name — the contact person at the supply company.
• E-Mail — used by the E-Mail action on the supplier list, by emailed purchase orders and receiving receipts, and by emailed store account statements.
• Phone Number — you can also add additional phone numbers.
• Address fields (address, City, State, Zip, Country) — used for mailing labels and shown on paperwork.
• Select Image — associate an image or logo with the supplier.
• Comments — general information such as business hours or an alternate contact.
• Internal Notes — notes for your employees. If you enable Capture Internal Notes During Receiving in Store Config, these notes pop up whenever the supplier is attached to a receiving, so staff can see (and add) important instructions while checking stock in.
• Account # — the account or customer number the supplier gave you, printed on the documents you send them.
• Store Account Balance — the supplier's current store account balance. This field only appears when Suppliers Store Accounts is enabled in Store Config and the employee has the Edit Store Account Balance permission for the Suppliers module.
• Terms — the default payment terms for this supplier, drawn from the terms you define for invoices and carried onto supplier invoices.
• Override Default Tax for Receiving — only shown when Charge tax on receivings is enabled in Store Config. Check it to apply this supplier's own tax rates to receivings instead of your defaults, either by picking a Tax Class or by entering tax names and percentages directly (cumulative tax is supported).
• Custom fields — up to 10 extra fields you define yourself (text, dropdown, checkbox, email, website, phone, date, image or file).
• Add Files — attach up to five files to the supplier record: contracts, price sheets, past order receipts, anything you want on hand.

On a saved supplier's profile you will also see a View Report button, which opens the detailed supplier report for that supplier, and a Send E-Mail button when an email address is on file.

Quick-add a supplier from a receiving

You do not have to leave the Receivings screen to create a supplier. Click the + sign next to the Type supplier's name... field on a receiving to add one on the spot — handy when a delivery arrives from someone new. See receiving stock for the receiving side of this.

Edit a supplier

1. Click Suppliers in the left menu.
2. Locate the supplier and click Edit in the Actions column.
3. Adjust any information and click Save in the bottom right.

Editing requires the Suppliers Add Update permission.

Delete, restore and permanently erase suppliers

1. Click Suppliers in the left menu.
2. Tick the checkbox on one or more supplier rows.
3. Click Delete above the list, then OK in the confirmation popup.

Deleting is soft: the supplier disappears from the list, but the record stays in the system and its history stays on past receivings and reports.

To restore a deleted supplier, click the ellipsis (...) in the top right and choose Manage Deleted Suppliers. Tick the row(s), click Undelete, then Done to return to the normal supplier page.

To permanently erase deleted suppliers, click the ellipsis (...) and choose Cleanup old Suppliers, then OK. Two cautions:

• Cleanup affects all previously deleted suppliers at once — you cannot pick individual records.
• It cannot be undone, and cleaned-up suppliers can never be made active again. Cleanup also removes account numbers from the deleted records.

Email a supplier

1. Click Suppliers in the left menu.
2. Tick the checkbox on the supplier row (you can select several to email more than one at once).
3. Click E-Mail above the list.

Your device's email program opens with the selected suppliers' addresses pre-filled, and you compose the message there. The button only picks up suppliers that have an email address on their profile. To email documents instead, use E-Mail PO on a purchase order or E-Mail Receipt on a receiving — see purchase orders and receiving stock.

Print a mailing label

If a supplier's address information is filled out, you can print a quick mailing label — useful for sending checks or returns paperwork without retyping addresses:

1. Click Suppliers in the left menu.
2. Tick the supplier's row, then click Mailing Labels in the menu that appears above the list.
3. The label opens in a new tab where you can print it or download it.

The Mailing Labels Format setting in Store Config controls whether labels are generated as a PDF (default) or an Excel file. If the label is missing information, edit the supplier record and complete the address fields.

Supplier store accounts

Store accounts let you track a running credit balance with a supplier — the same machinery your customers use in store accounts and credit, pointed the other way. Use them when a supplier extends you credit and invoices you periodically.

Enable the feature

Open Store Config, check Suppliers Store Accounts, and save. This adds:

• a Store Account payment type to the payment list in the Receivings module, and
• a Store Account Payment mode to the receivings mode selector.

Charge a receiving to the account

Build a receiving as usual, select the supplier, and choose Store Account as the payment method. When you complete the receiving, the amount is added to the supplier's balance, and the balance prints on the receiving receipt. The current balance is also shown on the supplier whenever they are attached to a receiving.

Pay down the balance

1. Open Receivings and switch the mode selector to Store Account Payment. (This mode only appears when Suppliers Store Accounts is on and the employee has the Receive Store Account Payment permission for the Receivings module.)
2. Select the supplier. Their unpaid store-account receivings are listed.
3. Click Pay next to each receiving you are paying off, or pay them all at once.
4. Enter the payment method and complete the transaction. The receipt shows the remaining balance.

There is also a Pay shortcut: add the Balance column to the supplier list through its column configuration, and every balance shows a Pay button beside it — clicking it opens Receivings already in Store Account Payment mode with that supplier attached, ready for steps 2–4. It needs the same Receive Store Account Payment permission; without it the button leads to a no-access page. The same Pay button appears next to each balance on the supplier store account summary report.

If Create invoices for supplier store account charges is enabled in Store Config, store-account activity also generates supplier invoices — see invoices and billing.

Store account reports

Under Reports, the supplier store account reports include statements (printable, and emailable to suppliers), a summary of all supplier balances, a detailed per-supplier history, activity and activity-summary reports, and outstanding receivings still owed. They require the reports permission View Supplier Store Accounts and only appear while Suppliers Store Accounts is enabled.

Secondary suppliers and cost comparison

An item has one primary supplier, but on the item form you can also add Secondary Suppliers, each with its own cost price under Pricing For Secondary Suppliers (a primary supplier must be set first). Two things build on this:

• On a receiving line you can switch which supplier the item is coming from, and the line's cost updates to that supplier's price.
• The Cheapest Supplier report (under the Receivings reports) shows the lowest-cost supplier for each item, so you can check who offers the best price before you reorder.

See creating items for the item side.

Import and export with Excel

Click the ellipsis (...) on the Suppliers page:

• Excel Export downloads your full supplier list as a spreadsheet (requires the Excel Export permission).
• Excel Import loads suppliers in bulk. Download one of the two templates — Download Excel Template for NEW suppliers or Download Excel template for EXISTING suppliers — fill it in, and upload it. The import fails if the file contains duplicate account numbers, so check the file and retry if you see that error.

The wider import workflow (items, customers, suppliers) is covered in importing your data.

Permissions

Access is controlled per employee in permissions and templates:

Report visibility is separate: the reports permissions Suppliers and View Supplier Store Accounts control the supplier reports and supplier store account reports respectively.

Reports that build on suppliers

Under Reports, the Suppliers section includes the Suppliers Summary Report, a graphical summary, Sales by Supplier Activity, detailed reports for a specific supplier, and receivings-by-supplier summaries and details. The Cheapest Supplier report sits with the Receivings reports. See inventory and purchasing reports for the full tour, and invoices and billing for supplier invoices.

Common questions

Why can't I save a supplier? Company Name is the only required field — it must be filled in. If you still get an error, check that required custom fields (marked in red) are complete.

I deleted the wrong supplier. Can I get it back? Yes — click the ellipsis (...) on the Suppliers page, choose Manage Deleted Suppliers, tick the supplier and click Undelete. This works unless someone has since run Cleanup old Suppliers, which permanently erases deleted supplier data and cannot be undone.

Why don't I see the Store Account Balance field on the supplier form? Two conditions must be met: Suppliers Store Accounts must be checked in Store Config, and your employee account needs the Edit Store Account Balance permission for the Suppliers module.

Why is there no Store Account option in the receivings payment list? Enable Suppliers Store Accounts in Store Config. The payment type (and the Store Account Payment mode) only exist while that setting is on.

How do I set different tax rates for one supplier's receivings? Enable Charge tax on receivings in Store Config first; the supplier form then shows Override Default Tax for Receiving, where you can pick a tax class or enter rates manually for that supplier only.

Can I track which of two suppliers sells an item cheaper? Yes. Add the second vendor as a secondary supplier on the item with its own cost, then run the Cheapest Supplier report to compare costs across all items.

Why did my supplier Excel import fail? The most common cause is duplicate account numbers in the file — each supplier's account number must be unique. Fix the file and upload it again, and make sure you started from the NEW or EXISTING supplier template.