Every vendor comes with paper. The question is never whether you have it — it is whether the copy you have is still valid.
What to keep here
- GST registration certificate
- PAN card
- MSME / Udyam certificate
- Insurance — which is the one that expires and matters
- Trade licences and any statutory registration
- ISO or quality certification
- A cancelled cheque, which is also your bank verification
- The signed contract or rate agreement
The expiry date is the feature
Each document carries an Expires date. That is what turns a folder of scans into something useful: the system can tell you what is about to lapse instead of you finding out when a claim is refused.
The vendor dashboard surfaces papers that are running out, so it is a thing you glance at rather than a thing you audit.
A document with no expiry recorded can never warn you. If a certificate has a validity, put the date in — a blank expiry is indistinguishable from a document that never expires.
Where they live
On the vendor record, under Documents. Each row shows the document, its expiry, and when it was uploaded.
A practical routine
- At onboarding, collect GST, PAN, a cancelled cheque and insurance.
- Put the expiry on every one that has one.
- Check the expiring list monthly. It takes a minute.
- Chase the vendor a month before it lapses, not after.
- If a critical paper lapses and they will not send a fresh one, that is a reason to block them.
Why it matters more than it looks
Two reasons. If a contractor’s insurance has lapsed and something happens on your premises, the exposure is yours. And if a vendor’s GST registration is cancelled and you keep claiming input credit on their invoices, the credit is reversed — with interest — and the department asks you, not them.
What to collect, by vendor type
| Vendor | The papers that matter |
|---|---|
| Goods supplier | GST certificate, PAN, cancelled cheque. |
| Contractor on site | All of the above, plus insurance and any labour licence. This is the one where a lapse becomes your problem. |
| Transporter | GST, PAN, and their carriage and goods-in-transit cover. |
| Freelancer | PAN above all, plus the signed confidentiality agreement. |
| Manufacturer | GST, PAN, and any quality certification you are relying on. |
Two failures worth understanding
Insurance. A contractor works on your premises, something goes wrong, and their policy lapsed in March. The exposure lands on you, and the certificate you have in a folder is from two years ago.
GST registration. A vendor’s registration is cancelled and nobody notices. You keep claiming input credit on their invoices. When it surfaces, the credit is reversed with interest — and the department asks you for it, not them.
Both are prevented by the same thing: an expiry date in a field, and somebody glancing at a list once a month.
If a paper matters enough to collect, it matters enough to put the expiry in. A document with a blank expiry is indistinguishable from one that never expires, and the system cannot warn you about something you did not tell it.
Where to go next
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.