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Overview

Vendor management simply means dealing with vendors — anyone who sells you the supplies and services you need for work.

A vendor could be an internet provider, a plumber, or a package delivery service. Businesses of all sizes rely on vendors—and handling the details efficiently is critical.

If you’re still juggling vendor information using a combination of drives, spreadsheets, and other systems, it’s time to upgrade. This free template will let you manage all your vendor data in one place.

Whether you’re tracking expenses and contracts, monitoring performance across vendors, or anything in between, Airtable’s vendor management template makes it easier to manage vendor and supplier relationships.

What is vendor management?

Vendor management is the process of selecting and managing vendors. That includes a huge array of activities, including evaluating vendor performance, allocating your resources, and even getting those vendors paid.

If you’re working with more than two or three vendors, a clean organized system is essential.

Most often vendor management is broken into four steps:

  • Step 1: Establish your goals! Are you trying to buy flowers on a budget or are you seeking florals so exquisite they’d make the queen blush?
  • Step 2: Select the best vendors for your needs. This may require a bit of research before picking up the phone or sending off an email.
  • Step 3: Manage suppliers. When do you need those flowers by? How long is the delivery estimate? Getting your numbers in order—whether it’s dates, cost, or something entirely different—is a huge part of the process.
  • Step 4: Evaluate what’s working—and what’s not. By looking at an organized set of data, you can objectively decide what’s working, what needs refining, and when it’s time to scrap a vendor and start again.

Who is this vendor management template for?

If you work with a business or person who sells something you need for work, this vendor management template is for you. And vendor management isn’t just for large companies—it’s for mom-and-pop shops, classrooms, tech start-ups, commercial gyms, and just about everyone else. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most people in most industries can benefit from a template like this.

In fact, you don’t even have to have a business use-case for this template to help you. For instance, let’s say you have the daunting task of running a household. Just think about all the vendors you use from day-to-day. There’s an internet provider, maybe a grocery delivery service, a plumbing service, a gardener… it’s a lot.

This template can help keep you organized, giving you more time to spend with your family, friends, or a good book.

Benefits of managing vendors with our template

Airtable doesn’t just let you store your data in one, easy-to-find place–it also gives you the power to align stakeholders and make keen insights.

When you use this template, you can:

  • Scale processes by standardizing how you source and evaluate vendors, onboard new vendors, and schedule recurring tasks like payments
  • Improve accountability and communication for all stakeholders by assigning tasks and sharing updates, instead of communicating across long email threads
  • Evaluate performance by leveraging scorecard factors such as quality of service, rate of delivery success, complaint history, and more
  • Sync other relevant apps to your base with Airtable Integrations, ensuring no information is lost and everyone is on the same page

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