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title: Suppliers
description: How to manage your supplier catalogue and use supplier service rates in quotes.
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For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL. For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.esoapp.co.uk/guides/financials/llms.txt. For full documentation content, see https://docs.esoapp.co.uk/guides/financials/llms-full.txt.

<Warning>
  Finance feature is in Development and subject to change.
</Warning>

The **Suppliers** section provides a catalogue of third-party service providers — hauliers, customs brokers, warehouses, and any other vendors you regularly use. Defining suppliers and their service rates here lets you pull costs into quotes quickly and consistently.

## Supplier fields

| Field                  | Description                                                         |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**               | The supplier company name.                                          |
| **Status**             | `active` or `inactive`. Inactive suppliers are hidden from pickers. |
| **Contact Name**       | Primary contact person.                                             |
| **Contact Email**      | Contact email address.                                              |
| **Contact Phone**      | Contact phone number.                                               |
| **Payment Terms**      | e.g. `NET30`, `NET60`.                                              |
| **Preferred Currency** | The currency this supplier invoices in.                             |
| **Tags**               | Free-text tags for filtering and categorisation.                    |
| **Notes**              | Internal notes about the supplier.                                  |

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## Supplier services

Each supplier can have multiple **service entries** — individual rate cards for the things they do:

| Field                                                                                                                                                            | Description                                             |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**                                                                                                                                                         | Short name for the service (e.g. "FCL 40ft transport"). |
| **Description**                                                                                                                                                  | Detailed description.                                   |
| **Rate Amount**                                                                                                                                                  | The price per rate unit.                                |
| **Rate Unit**                                                                                                                                                    | `per_hour`, `per_day`, `per_job`, or `per_unit`.        |
| **Currency**                                                                                                                                                     | The currency for this rate.                             |
| **Min Lead Time (days)**                                                                                                                                         | How far in advance this service must be booked.         |
| **Delivery Window**                                                                                                                                              | e.g. `2-3 business days`.                               |
| Services can be **archived** when they are no longer offered. Archived services are hidden from quote pickers but their data is retained for historical records. |                                                         |

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## Using supplier services in quotes

When adding a line to a quote, use the **Supplier Service** picker to select an active service. This pre-fills the description, unit of measurement, and buy rate. You can override any of these values before saving.

## Creating a supplier

1. Navigate to **Finance → Suppliers** and click **New Supplier**.
2. Fill in the company name and optional contact details.
3. Save — then open the supplier's detail page to add service entries.