Vendors overview

The vendor module is the mirror of the CRM: every external party you pay. Carriers, truckers, agents, customs brokers, warehouse partners, fumigation vendors, surveyors.

Vendor record

• Legal entity, trading name, tax IDs, addresses.
• Service type(s) — air carrier, ocean carrier, road subcontractor, customs broker, origin agent, warehouse, IT / software, other.
• Contacts with roles (ops, billing, emergency).
• Payment terms, bank details, currency.
• Rate cards — see rate cards.
• Compliance docs — insurance, IATA agent number, AEO certification, SOC 2 / ISO where relevant.
• Performance KPIs — see scorecard.

Lifecycle

1. Onboarding / KYC — identity, compliance, sanctions check.
2. Active — transacting.
3. On hold — compliance expired, performance issue, dispute.
4. Terminated — off-boarded.

State transitions audited.

Role in operations

• Ops books a vendor onto a shipment / trip / consolidation.
• Rate card applied; cost line posts to the shipment.
• Vendor delivers the service; POD / BL / entry captured.
• Vendor invoices; AP processes with three-way match.
• Payment flows.

Visibility

Sales sees vendor info on shipments (especially for customer-visible items like carrier name). Operations sees full detail. Finance owns the master.

Multi-entity

Shared vendors across tenants (multi-entity group) — rate cards can be per-entity or group-wide.