Managing Your Supplier Directory
How to build and maintain your supplier directory — adding suppliers and contacts, tracking performance, and keeping the directory clean.
Why the Supplier Directory Matters
Buyer24 maintains two related directories:
- Suppliers — company-level records (the organizations you buy from)
- Contacts — individual people at those suppliers
Together they form your organization's shared procurement contact book. When a buyer adds a supplier to an RFQ, they search this directory — so the more complete it is, the faster buyers can get started without re-entering details every time.
Procurement Managers and Organization Admins can view, add, edit, and remove suppliers. Buyers can search and use the directory when creating RFQs, but cannot edit supplier records.
Adding a Supplier
Go to Suppliers in the sidebar → Add Supplier, and fill in:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Company Name | The supplier's trading or legal name |
| Industry / Category | What they supply (e.g., Electronics, Raw Materials, Safety Equipment) |
| Website | Optional — useful reference |
| Notes | Internal notes about this supplier (not visible to the supplier) |
Click Save, then add at least one contact (see below).
Suppliers Added Inline (from an RFQ)
When a buyer types a new supplier name and email directly on an RFQ, that supplier is saved to the directory automatically. You'll find them in the Suppliers list afterwards — open their profile and fill in any additional details later.
Adding Contacts
Each supplier can have multiple contacts, and each contact belongs to one supplier. Click Add Contact on the supplier's profile:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Full name |
| Required — this is what buyers will message | |
| Phone | Optional |
| Job Title | Helps buyers know who they're talking to (e.g., "Sales Manager") |
| Language | Preferred language for communications |
| Primary | Mark one contact as the default for this supplier |
Primary Contact
The primary contact is pre-selected when a buyer starts a new conversation with this supplier on an RFQ. You can still choose a different contact per RFQ.
Tip: For large suppliers, add multiple contacts — regional contacts or different contacts per product category.
The Supplier Profile
Click any supplier in the list to open their profile. It includes:
- Details — company name, website, industry/category, internal notes, documents and certificates
- Contacts — all contacts with their email, phone, language preference, and primary indicator
- Activity — RFQs this supplier has been involved with, response history, and quote history
- Performance metrics — see below
Supplier Performance
Each supplier's profile page includes a performance summary based on historical data:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Response Rate | How often they reply to RFQs you contact them on |
| Avg. Quote Turnaround | Typical time from first contact to quote received |
| Quote Win Rate | How often their quote is the one selected |
| Total RFQs | How many procurement requests they've been involved in |
| Last Active | Date of their most recent response |
Use this data when deciding who to contact for a new RFQ. A supplier with a 20% response rate and an 8-day average turnaround isn't a reliable choice for urgent purchases.
Supplier Notes and Documents
On any supplier profile you can attach internal information your team should know:
Notes — Private, internal text. Suppliers never see these. Great for negotiation context, red flags, or relationship history:
- Preferred contact methods ("always email, never call")
- Historical context ("had quality issues in 2023, resolved")
- Negotiation notes ("willing to offer 5% discount for orders over $10K")
- Warnings ("Avoid for orders over $50K — capacity issues")
Documents — Upload supplier qualification certificates, ISO certificates, NDAs, contracts, insurance certificates, or product data sheets. Accessible to your whole team, never shared with the supplier automatically.
Searching the Directory
On the Suppliers page — search by company name, filter by category, or filter by active/inactive status.
When adding a supplier to an RFQ — type part of a company name, contact name, or email; results appear as you type. Select a result to add that supplier to the RFQ thread.
The Contacts page — shows all individual contacts across all suppliers, useful when you remember a person's name but not their company. Search by name or email, or filter by supplier.
Editing and Removing Suppliers
To edit a supplier's details, open them from the Suppliers list, click Edit, update the fields, and click Save.
To remove a supplier, open their profile, click Options → Delete Supplier, and confirm. What happens:
- The supplier disappears from the directory and won't appear in future RFQ searches
- Historical data — past RFQ threads, messages, quotes — is preserved
- Any ongoing RFQ threads involving this supplier remain accessible
To re-add a removed supplier, create a new supplier record.
Keeping the Directory Clean
A cluttered supplier directory slows buyers down. Keep it healthy:
- Remove suppliers you no longer work with so buyers don't contact the wrong people. Historical RFQ data is preserved either way.
- Update contact details when they change — bounced messages often mean an outdated email address. Fix it in the directory so future RFQs go to the right person.
- Add notes after notable interactions — "Offered 5% discount for orders over $10K" or "Slow to respond, always follow up after 3 days" is valuable institutional knowledge.
- Mark preferred suppliers — use the category or notes field to flag preferred suppliers for common categories.
- Add certifications and documents — store them on the supplier profile so your whole team can access them.