Introducing the vendor portal: Manage, bill and collaborate

Any business, whether it’s big or small, has to make purchases from vendors from time to time as all supplies cannot be managed in-house. When the purchase frequency and the number of suppliers increase, it can become difficult to manage orders and keep track of payments, leading to poor vendor relationships. 

To handle this, Zoho Books has introduced the Vendor Portal, which lets vendors access their transactions with you, communicate, review orders, and much more. It’s secure and super convenient for your vendors—they can skip the lengthy clarifying emails and get direct access to the transaction information they need.

Enabling the portal can help you:

Quickly process orders and negotiate prices

The purchase orders you’ve created will be available immediately in your vendors portal. This gives the vendor a record of the items and quantities you require and the prices you’re planning to pay. Transactions get uploaded in real time, so vendors can view the orders instantly and share their feedback, accept orders (coming soon) or work out new prices in the comments section if needed.

Review transaction documents and create bills

When your vendor has shipped your order or has it ready to dispatch, they can take a picture of their invoice and upload it in the portal. You can then review the invoice and approve it to create a bill in your Zoho Books organization and an invoice in their portal.

Share contact details easily

If your vendor has changed their operating location or contact details, they can edit their information in the portal and it will be automatically updated in your Zoho Books account. Similarly, if you’ve changed your address, your vendor can see your new billing and shipping address in the portal and always have updated shipment details. 

Converse and collaborate effortlessly

Discuss orders, comment on invoices, and work together to process your purchases. Any time your vendor wants to send you a quick update, they can hit the Send Email button from the portal home page and message you right away.

What’s in it for your vendors?

Insightful and actionable dashboard

The home page in the vendor portal is similar to your dashboard in Zoho Books. It displays the amounts for outstanding invoices, any credits available, the details of the last payment received from the customer, and any documents that have been uploaded.

Secure access to the portal

Once you’ve enabled the portal, your vendors will be able to log in to it from the email invite you sent. You can set up a password for the portal, which your vendors can update as required.

View, print, upload, and comment on transactions

Your vendors will be able to view all the transactions you’ve created for them, add comments and upload images of invoices they’ve created so you can verify and convert them to transactions. All the transactions and statements of accounts can be downloaded or printed for their use.

How to get started

You can enable the portal from the Vendors module. Just click the More dropdown and select Configure Vendor Portal for the required vendor. You can learn more about setting up and accessing the portal from our help document.

Enabling the portal increases transparency and ensures your vendor is always in the loop. We’ve mentioned just a few things you can do using the portal. Do try it out let us know how else it helps you meet your business challenges. If you have any questions or feedback, leave a comment below or send an email to support@zohobooks.com.

Comments

29 Replies to Introducing the vendor portal: Manage, bill and collaborate

  1. Its a great way to include vendors with your organisation process.. It would be great, if they can submit invoice against those Purchase order.. the admin and review and process the invoice... Entry of invoices can be avoided... this will ease a lot of work and also set the system more efficient. A MUST REQUIRE FEATURE.

    1. Hi Sochin Dharewal, Agreed, we're working on these features and it should be available in our future updates. We'll definitely let you know when they're updated.

    1. Hey, Pavan, there's no specific app just for the portal but your vendor should be able to view it on the browser of their mobile device itself.

    1. Hi Vijay, we've enabled the portal for your organisation and you should be able to find it now. Do let us know if you need help.

    1. Hi, Krunal Parekh, you can find this in the Vendors module based on your Zoho Books’ plan (available only for organizations in the professional plan or higher). To enable the portal: 1. Go to Purchases > Vendors. 2. Select the vendor for whom you want to enable the portal. 3. Click the More dropdown and select Configure Vendor Portal.https://www.zoho.com/uk/books/help/vendor-portal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more about the portal or write to us at support@zohobooks.com and we’ll assist you.

  2. If you could update the logo that the client sees in their portal so the child's blocks are not a part of the interface, I would be much more interested in using it. Right now, it isn't professional enough

    1. Hi, Geoff, I'm not sure I get your question right. But if you're referring to your logo in the portal, it will be visible in the portal if you've added your logo in your organization's profile. If this isn't what you were looking for, please write to us at support@zohobooks.com and we'll be more than glad to assist you.

  3. Hello, How the vendor will know that I have generated the PO. The vendor does not get any notification regarding the PO and Payment. Kindly help me with the same.

    1. Hi, Priyanka, Thank you for sharing your feedback. At the moment, you will have to send email notifications from the app to let your vendors know that you've created a PO or recorded payment. However, I've taken note of your request and passed it on to our team. We'll let you know when we have an update.

    1. Hey, Stewart Sanderson, you should be able to find this in the Vendors module based on your Zoho Books' plan. To enable the portal for your vendor: 1. Go to Purchases > Vendors. 2. Select the vendor for whom you want to enable the portal. 3. Click the More dropdown and select Configure Vendor Portal. Read more about https://www.zoho.com/uk/books/help/vendor-portal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">setting up the portal or you can write us at support@zohobooks.com and we'll be glad to assist you.

    1. Hi, Austin Lund, we've enabled the portal for the Organisation ID associated with your email address. Do try the feature let us know what you think.

    1. Hi, Evan. Currently, this feature is currently available for Zoho One users on request and we're looking into making it available for Zoho One users by default. Also, we've enabled it for the Organization ID associated with your email address. Do try the feature and let us know your feedback.

  4. That’s great, can the vendor also create the bill which we can approve? Expected Feature: Need Vendor Owner / Assigned Vendor system just like we have for Assigned Customers where user can only see the data & transactions related to the Vendor assigned & no other data. This is highly important since you’ll never want to disclose all your expense & bill transactions to your employees who are just managing the vendors. I wish this feature is taken into consideration & implemented.

    1. Hi Sandeep thank you for sharing your feedback. Yes, allowing vendors to create bills (invoices in the vendor portal) and assigning a user for a vendor is in our pipeline. We'll definitely let you know when it becomes available.

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