Somebody met a printer at a trade fair and liked the samples. Six weeks later there is a purchase order out to them for ₹2,40,000 and nobody in the business has seen a PAN, a bank account or a GST certificate. That is not a process failure — there was no process.
In short
- Where
- Vendors → All vendors → New
- Approval needs
- PAN, bank account, GSTIN where registered
- Then
- Vendor record → Raise something → Purchase order
- Takes
- Eight minutes for a vendor you have the papers for
A vendor is a pipeline, not a row
Most software treats a vendor as the thing you need before you can raise a purchase order: a name, a GSTIN, a bank account. That is the last step of a relationship, not the whole of it.
Before the order there is somebody collected at an exhibition, screened, put on a shortlist for one particular job and cleared by finance. After it there is one who has gone quiet, and one nobody should engage again — and the reason why has to be written down somewhere a person will actually read it.
Step by step
Add them
Vendors → All vendors → New. Name, type, contact, address. They land in Prospective whatever you type in the status field — the pipeline is walked, not jumped, and the create form ignores a stage somebody tried to set.
Record what they supply, and at what
One vendor supplies several things and charges for each differently: per project, per day, per hour, per unit. Put each service on the rate card with its rate and payment term. This is not admin — it is what prices a purchase order line later without anybody re-keying it.
Move them along
Available when they are a real option. Shortlisted when they are in the running for a specific job. Each move is recorded with who made it and when, which is what turns “we use three printers” into an answerable question.
Approve them
This is the gate. Approval is refused without a PAN, a bank account, and a GSTIN where the vendor is registered — and the refusal names exactly what is missing. Those three are not bureaucracy: without a PAN you must deduct TDS at 20 per cent, and without bank details you cannot pay or reconcile.
Raise the order
From the vendor record: Raise something → Purchase order. In the item field, start typing — what that vendor has said it supplies is offered, and choosing one fills the rate, the unit, the HSN and the tax from their own rate card.
The bit that trips people up. An unapproved vendor cannot be ordered from at all. The order is refused with the vendor’s stage named in the message. That is the pipeline doing its job, not an obstacle to work around — if the order is urgent, approve the vendor, which means finding the PAN, which is the thing that was going to be skipped.
Blocking, and going quiet
Two things happen to vendors that most systems have no word for.
Blocking stops anything further being raised against a vendor, and a reason is required — not optional, required. Everything already raised stands and the history is intact; blocking stops new work, it does not rewrite old work.
Going quiet is the slower one. Set a number of days in Settings → Vendor settings and an approved vendor with nothing raised, billed or paid for that long moves to inactive overnight. Nothing is lost, and any work at all brings them straight back. What it buys is an approved list that means “the ones we work with” rather than “everybody we have ever cleared”.
Common questions
Can I raise a purchase order against an unapproved vendor?
No. The order is refused and the vendor’s current stage is named. The check happens before the commitment, not after the invoice.
What does approval require?
A PAN, a bank account, and a GSTIN where the vendor is registered.
What happens to a vendor who goes quiet?
An approved vendor with nothing raised, billed or paid for a number of days you set moves to inactive overnight, and any work brings them straight back.
Why is a reason required when blocking a vendor?
Because a blocked vendor with no reason is a question somebody asks every six months and nobody can answer.
Next
See it with your own data
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