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A supplier is a company you buy parts from. Purchase orders reference a supplier, and supplier part numbers connect a supplier’s SKU, units, and cost to a part in your Parts Library.

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Create a supplier

  1. In ION, go to Supply Chain > Suppliers.
  2. Click Create Supplier.
  3. Enter a Name. This field is required.
  4. Optional: Fill in Contact Name, Email, Phone, Address, and Description.
  5. Click Create Supplier.
The new supplier appears in the table and is available to pick on purchase orders.
To create or update many suppliers at once from a CSV file, use the Suppliers importer. See Supplier imports.

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Edit a supplier

  1. In ION, go to Supply Chain > Suppliers. Use the search box to filter by supplier, contact, email, or phone.
  2. Click into the Contact, Email, Phone, Address, or Description cell and type. ION saves the change automatically.
If your org has added custom attributes to suppliers, they show as extra columns in the table by default, and you edit them the same way. See Custom attributes. The Suppliers table shows counts that open a summary when you click them:
  • Supplier Parts: the supplier part numbers linked to this supplier, listed by Part Number and Cost. Click a row to open the part in the Parts Library.
  • Purchase Orders: the purchase orders placed with this supplier.
  • Parts Inventories: the inventory received from this supplier.
Clicking a supplier’s name shows its contact details: Description, Address, Phone, Contact, and Email.

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Add a supplier part number

A supplier part number links a part to a specific supplier’s SKU, and carries the supplier’s unit of measure, conversion factor, and cost. You add it from the part, not from the Suppliers page.
  1. In ION, open the part in the Parts Library.
  2. Open the Suppliers card on the part.
  3. Click Add Supplier Part.
  4. In the Create Supplier Part dialog, fill in:
    • Select Supplier: pick the supplier. This field is required.
    • Supplier Part Number: the supplier’s SKU. This field is required.
    • Supplier Part Units: the unit the supplier ships in, such as Reel, Drum, or Each. This field is required.
    • Unit of Measure Conversion Factor: how many of the part’s stock units are in one supplier unit. This field is required.
    • Cost: what this supplier charges per supplier unit, in your org’s default currency. This field is optional.
  5. Click Save.
The Suppliers card lists each entry by Supplier, Supplier Part #, Supplier UoM, Conversion (to part UoM), and Cost, where you can edit the units, factor, and cost inline or delete an entry. Clearing the Cost field leaves the entry with no cost rather than setting it to 0, and a negative cost is rejected. For how the conversion flows through purchasing, receiving, and inventory, see Unit of measure conversions. The cost also shows in the Supplier Part # picker on a purchase order line, beneath each supplier part number along with the supplier’s name, which tells dual-sourced options apart while you pick. Selecting a supplier part doesn’t fill in the line’s unit cost.