Suppliers

Supplier types

The types are your own (Settings → Your vocabulary → Supplier types). The starter list has Hotel, Transport Company, Driver, Guide, Cruise, Train Operator, Airline, Activity Provider, Attraction, Tour Operator, Ground Handler, Restaurant, Shop and Other; rename, hide or add your own. A supplier can fill several roles — a ground handler that also runs a cruise — and what each role can own (ships, hotels, trains) follows from it.

Each supplier has a status — active, inactive or pending — so old contacts stay on record without crowding the list.

The directory

• Views — grid, table and list, with pages of 12 or more
• Type tabs — the chosen type is kept in the address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked
• Search — name, contact name, email and city; and a status filter
• Sort (table view) — by name, type, city or status
• Select several and Delete Selected; WhatsApp, email and phone links on each supplier

The header has Add Supplier, the Import / Export menu and Reconcile Codes (below).

Adding a supplier

Add Supplier asks for the name and at least one type, then the contact details (contact name, email, phone, a second phone, WhatsApp, website, address, city), the commission — a rate, and whether you receive it or pay it — payment terms, status and notes. The form is the same for every type. The country is your agency’s operating country (Settings → Organization); the cities are your destination cities.

Saving a hotel, cruise company or train operator opens its Properties tab, so you can add its hotels, ships or trains straight away.

The supplier code (SUP-####)

Every new supplier is given the next code of your agency — SUP-0001, SUP-0002 and so on — shown on its Details tab. A code that arrives in an import is kept as it is, so you can bring your own numbering. Codes are unique within your agency; another agency’s SUP-0001 is its own.

The code is what makes rates portable: a rate sheet names its supplier by code, so rates exported here and imported elsewhere re-attach to the supplier with the same code instead of arriving unlinked. Reconcile Codes stamps the codes from another install’s supplier export onto your suppliers, matching them by email or phone, after a preview.

Importing & exporting suppliers

The Import / Export menu has two sheets.

The suppliers sheet

• Sample sheet, Export suppliers, Import suppliers.
• Import updates the supplier a row matches — by its Code (whatever the letter case), else by its Name — and creates the rest, each with a new code when the row has none. A renamed supplier is found by its code. A row whose name belongs to a supplier with a different code is refused.
• On an update, the cells a row fills in are written; a blank cell leaves the stored value. A row with no Type keeps the supplier’s roles (a new one lands as Other, and is reported).
• The Type cell may list several roles (hotel | transport_company), in your words or keys. Commission is a number (10 or 10%). A Properties cell (hotel:Nile Star | ship:MS Hapi) adds the hotels, ships or trains the supplier does not have yet.
• Refused, not guessed: an unknown type, a commission that is not a number, a name or code twice in one file. The rest still imports. The sample’s example row (code EXAMPLE-SUP-0001) is skipped.

The properties sheet

Export properties and Import properties: one row per hotel, ship or train, under its supplier (by Supplier Code, else name). A row updates the property with its Property ID, else the one with the same supplier, kind and name, and creates the rest. A blank cell clears that field; a column the sheet does not have is left alone. Nothing is ever deleted — retire a property with Active = false.

A supplier’s tabs

• Details — contacts, code, status, commission and payment terms, notes.
• Rates — for transport companies and drivers: the transport rates priced with them.
• Properties — for a supplier that runs hotels, ships or trains. A hotel also carries its accommodation type (from your vocabulary), which its hotel rates inherit. Renaming a property renames it on its rates too; a property its rates still use cannot be deleted — mark it inactive instead.
• Documents — contracts, rate sheets, allotments, licences and insurance: a PDF, image, .docx or .xlsx file with its validity dates, optionally tied to one property. Documents ending within 60 days are flagged Expiring soon; files open through a short-lived private link.

Deleting a supplier

Deleting a supplier deletes its properties and documents with it. If rates are priced on one of its hotels, ships or trains, the delete is refused and says how many — delete those rates first, or mark the supplier inactive.

Suppliers and money

What suppliers bill you is recorded under Supplier Invoices and what you owe under Payables — see Invoices & Payments. Their rates are on the rate pages of this group — see Tours & Rates.