Maintaining vendor and catalog attributes is a key step for creating accurate purchase orders in Inventory Planner, generating reports, and recommending replenishment accurately.

Inventory Planner downloads vendor information when possible from your connected system. For a full list of integrations and details that are pulled from every system, visit https://inventory-planner.com/integrations.

For e-Commerce systems that do not have vendor/catalog information, you must create vendors and update catalog details directly in Inventory Planner.

Shopify Users: What is the Unknown Vendor?

In this article, we will explain how to:

Note: Managing vendors and some options may not be possible if your account is set to strictly sync this information from your connection. Please reach out to the support team if there's a need to change any related configuration. If you have any other questions, please feel free to open a new conversation or contact us at [email protected].

Please note, for platforms where we sync Vendors, we recommend the Vendors be created and managed on your connected platform. We will then sync these to Inventory Planner. You can see the list of platforms that sync Vendors to us, from our Integrations page.

Create and Edit vendors directly by selecting Catalog > Vendors.

This takes you to the main Vendors' screen. Here you can Create Vendors (blue arrow), Manage Vendor Settings (red arrow), or Vendor/Variant Attributes (green arrow).

You can also update many Vendor Settings directly in the main Vendors screen including email address, currency, default tax & discounts, minimum order quantities (MOQ), and others.

Select the gear icon in the top right to add or remove columns, and update information, then select 'Save Changes'. Select the gear icon in the top right for options.

At the bottom, you will also notice the Export/Import buttons. Use this feature to export information to a CSV/Excel document, or to import vendor information directly into Inventory Planner to save time. View instructions on How to Import Data into Inventory Planner, or view step-by-step instructions at the bottom of this article.

From Catalog > Vendors, select 'Settings';

On the Vendor Settings page, you can update vendor contact, payment, and shipping details; the planning period (lead time and days of stock) for all warehouses; and, associate brand variants to the vendor.

You can also set default PO settings, to affect the specific Vendors' Purchase Orders.

For example, you can set a Default PO Note, so that this will automatically apply to Purchase Orders raised against this vendor:

This will then appear on the PO, which can be exported to PDF:

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Manage vendor attributes for variants by selecting Catalog > Vendor Attributes.

In this section, you can Associate Variants with Vendors, Manage Cost Prices, and apply Vendor Rules (eg. minimum order quantity, units of measurement) to variants.

Select the "+" button next to a variant to add another vendor;

Select a Vendor and add details (eg. Cost Price, Tiered Costs, Vendor Reference);

Select 'Save Changes' to finish updating Vendor Attributes.

Note: You can also 'Set Vendor' from the Replenishment screen by selecting items > Bulk Actions > Set Vendor. Learn more about associating variants with vendors.

Editing attributes directly in the Catalog section overrides the synced attributes information from your platform (if applicable). These can be easily filtered and adjusted at any time to refresh the synced data.

For Example: if Cost Price has been manually edited, in Catalog > Vendor Attributes you can add a Filter for "Cost Price Assigned" to see items that have been manually updated. They will be marked with "Assigned in Inventory Planner" under the Vendor column. To refresh the synced data, you can select the cost price displayed in purple text under each cost price field (displayed with red arrows below).

Select Variant > Bulk Actions (at the bottom) > Clear Attributes Assigned in Inventory Planner to reset manually edited data and restore values from your synced platform.

By default, all vendors are enabled in Inventory Planner. This means that Replenishment information is available for these suppliers on the Purchase Order Calendar. To see the calendar, go to the Purchase Order section and click 'Calendar' at the bottom of the screen.

If you do not plan to order from a supplier and therefore do not want to see reorder reminders on the PO Calendar, you can disable the vendor in the Catalog > Vendors section of Inventory Planner. To do this, select the Vendors using the left checkboxes, then click Bulk Actions > Disable.

If you order from a supplier using a different currency than the currency used in your Inventory Planner account, you can update the currency using Bulk Actions.

Read here to learn how different currencies are handled in Inventory Planner.

Select Vendors where you would like to update currency information using the checkboxes on the left of the Vendor page. Next click Bulk Actions > Set Currency.

Select the appropriate currency from the dropdown and click Apply.

View instructions on How to Import Data into Inventory Planner, or view step-by-step instructions below related to Vendors and Catalog Attributes.

Import Vendors

To add new vendors, vendor contact information, payment terms, and other vendor-specific information, you can import this information in the Catalog section of Inventory Planner. Information that can be imported includes:

Of these fields, only the name is required for import. All other fields are optional.

To import vendor information, go to Vendors from the left menu. Click Import at the bottom of the screen, then Vendors.

You can see the available columns listed at the bottom of the import section.

(We also offer the ability to download a CSV template, with the available columns for adjustment)

When your CSV file is prepared and ready, you can drag the file to the import section, or click to select your file.

Once Uploaded, proceed using the Map Columns option.

You will be taken to a field mapping screen, where you can check and confirm the columns on the file are mapped to the desired settings.

Click 'Import' to complete the import.

You will then see an import summary screen, that will confirm changes or if any errors were experienced during the import.

If you have any concerns, please reach to us using the in-app support chat.

To upload variant catalog details for a vendor:

You will then see the results of your import, including information that was successfully imported and an error log. Click on 'Download all errors as CSV' to see issues that need to be corrected. The number in the 'Line' column indicates the row in your spreadsheet where the error occurred.

To import cost prices you need to upload a CSV file with SKUs and costs.

In the Replenishment screen, select Import > Variant settings.

You can see the available columns listed on the bottom of the import section.

(We also offer the ability to download a CSV template, with the available columns for adjustment)

When your CSV file is prepared and ready, you can drag the file to the import section, or click to select your file.

Once Uploaded, proceed using the option to Map Columns.

You will be taken to a field mapping screen, where you can check and confirm the columns on the file are mapped to the desired settings.

Click 'Import' to complete the import.

You will then see an import summary screen, that will confirm changes or if any errors were experienced during the import.

If you have any concerns, please reach out to us using the in-app support chat.