# Vendors

> Contractors and suppliers as first-class records - assignments, site coverage, performance history, and the paper trail.

Source: https://app.assetlab.ca/docs/cmms/vendors

A vendor record is where an outside company's relationship with your organization accumulates: contact details, which sites they cover, the work they've been assigned, and how it went.

## Vendor records

- **Identity & contacts** - company, contacts, phone/email, trade/service type
- **Site assignments** - which [sites](/docs/asset-management/locations) the vendor serves; multi-site organizations use this to keep regional contractors scoped to their region
- **Network assignments** - which [infrastructure networks](/docs/infrastructure/features) the vendor works on, for organizations running linear assets

Quality tracking and paperwork live on the **[contract](/docs/cmms/contracts)**, not the vendor: each contract carries a 1-10 **quality score**, and documents (insurance certificates, WSIB clearance, the signed agreement) attach to the contract record. The vendor page is the index that pulls those together.

Vendors support **CSV import and export** from the vendors page - load an existing contractor list in one pass instead of retyping it.

## Vendors in the work loop

- **Work orders can be assigned to a vendor** rather than a staff member - contracted work sits in the same queue with the same statuses, so nothing lives in an email thread.
- **[Secure work order links](/docs/cmms/work-orders)** hand the vendor exactly one job's details without an account.
- **Completion still captures costs** - the invoice amount posts to the work order, so contractor spend lands in asset history like in-house labour does.
- **[Parts](/docs/cmms/parts-inventory) reference their supplier**, so "who do we buy these from?" has one answer.

## Contracts and vendors

Ongoing service agreements - snow clearing, elevator maintenance, HVAC service - link the vendor to a [contract record](/docs/cmms/contracts) carrying the term, value, covered sites, and renewal date. The vendor page shows their active contracts; the contract page shows the vendor. Between the two, procurement questions ("when does this expire? what did we pay last term?") stop requiring an archaeology dig.

## Practical patterns

1. **One vendor record per company**, not per contact - contacts change, the relationship doesn't.
2. **Rate the work while it's fresh.** A one-line note on a completed work order ("late twice, quality fine") is what makes next year's tender evaluation honest.
3. **Watch vendor spend on the [dashboard](/docs/asset-management/dashboards)** - cost by vendor over time surfaces both creep and concentration risk.