On the Capability step of the vendor form: five stars, and nothing else. Click a star to set it; click the same star again to clear it back to not rated.
Why it is deliberately crude
Elaborate scoring — quality out of ten, timeliness out of ten, communication out of ten — sounds better and gets filled in once. A single star rating gets filled in, and a rating that exists beats a framework that does not.
The date is stored too
Along with the stars, the record keeps when they were given. A four-star rating from three years ago and a four-star rating from last month are not the same claim, and the date is what lets you tell.
Rate a vendor after a job, not when you add them. A rating given before any work is an impression, and it will be read later as evidence.
A scale that means something
| Stars | Reads as |
|---|---|
| 5 | Would use again without thinking. Go back to them first. |
| 4 | Good. Minor niggles, nothing that cost you. |
| 3 | Did the job. No enthusiasm either way. |
| 2 | Problems that cost time or money. Use only if you must. |
| 1 | Do not use again — and if that is firm, block them rather than relying on somebody reading the stars. |
The point of agreeing what the numbers mean is that a rating is read by somebody who did not give it. Without a shared scale, three people rate the same vendor 5, 3 and 2 for identical work.
What it is not
The rating does not stop anything. It does not block an order, it does not warn anybody, and it does not feed a calculation. It is a note to the next person choosing a supplier. If you need something enforced, that is blocking.
Rate the things that cost you money
When you come to give a star, the question is not “were they nice”. It is whether working with them cost you anything it should not have.
- Did it arrive when they said?
- Was it what was ordered — right spec, right quantity?
- Did the bill match the order, or did you have to argue?
- When something went wrong, did they fix it or explain it?
- Did you have to chase them, and how often?
Four of those five are about your time rather than their price, which is the usual reason a cheap supplier turns out not to be.
Where it is read
On the vendor record, and on the list when you have the Rating column switched on. The audience is somebody choosing between two suppliers for a job next quarter — quite possibly somebody who was not here when you gave the rating.
Write for that person. If a rating needs explaining, put the explanation in the vendor’s notes, which is exactly what that field is for: quality, compliance, a dispute — whatever the next person needs to know.
A rating with no note behind it gets argued with. A two-star with a sentence saying why gets acted on.
Where to go next
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.