Suppliers
Last updated
Last updated
The Suppliers section in Silkline provides buyers with a centralized view of their suppliers, allowing for seamless management of supplier relationships, performance tracking, and streamlined communication. The page is designed to help procurement teams efficiently oversee their supplier base, track order fulfillment, and address supplier-related issues.
For suppliers (such as DigiKey, ULINE, McMaster-Carr, and Mouser) where buyers place orders through an eCommerce website, you can toggle on "Skip sending" on the supplier page to automatically mark orders as sent when the order is opened. When this setting is enabled, open Orders for that supplier will bypass the "New" tab and will automatically advance to the "Unconfirmed" tab where they can be marked as confirmed as applicable.
Silkline helps companies maintain important master data on suppliers such as their approval status and notes and required documentation.
For customers whose supplier master data comes from an external system (such as a connected ERP), some supplier fields may not be editable in Silkline.
To edit a supplier, click the pencil icon next to the Supplier's name in the title bar:
Silkline helps companies maintain an Approved Supplier List (ASL/AVL) and track the approval status and notes for each supplier. Approval statuses show up as badges throughout the app, such as when selecting a supplier on a Request.
Approved
Suppliers that are fully approved.
Restricted
Suppliers that are conditionally approved. This is useful when a supplier is in an onboarding or probation period, or if the supplier is only approved for certain pedigrees / quality levels.
Prohibited
Suppliers that are prohibited from future orders.
(None)
Supplier approval status has not been set
Add notes documenting the rationale or details of the supplier approval status. Notes show up in the tooltip when overing over the approval status badge:
Only approved vendors can be marked as preferred. Downgrading a vendor's approval status to Restricted, Prohibited, or none will automatically turn off the vendor's approval status.
Supplier tags are a useful way to categorize and organize suppliers. Tags are flexible and can be used for several purposes, such as:
Categorizing suppliers by capability / commodity group (e.g., services, sheet metal, 5-axis machined parts)
Indicating supplier approval scope or quality level (e.g., Tier 1, Tier 2)
Indicating compliance status (e.g., ITAR)
Tags can be used to select multiple suppliers at once when entering suppliers on a request. For example, a buyer could select the tag "sheet metal" to populate all suppliers with that tag.
Supplier data provides a flexible way to store and track important data for a supplier, like contracts, NDAs, W9/payment details, certifications, etc. Each supplier data item includes the following fields:
Type
NDA, Certification, Financial, Contract, or Other
Name
The name or title of the supplier data item
Notes
Internal notes or additional details you wish to record for the item
Effective date
The date the item is effective (particularly useful for contacts)
Expiration date
The expiration date for the item (particularly useful for contracts)
Files
One or more file attachments
Silkline automatically tracks key performance metrics for suppliers across four categories:
Some metrics require configuration to display. Contact support@silkline.ai if you would like certain metrics enabled for your account.
Store key contacts for each supplier, including primary and secondary points of contact. Primary points of contact as used as the default contacts when sending RFQs through Silkline.
Use tags to organize and identify contacts. For example, you could use have tags for billing, sales/quoting, quality, etc.
Silkline automatically attempts to enrich contact data such as name, job title, photo, and LinkedIn using third-party data sources. When creating a contact, you can simply enter the contact's email address and we'll attempt to fetch the rest of the contacts data. You can always manually input details by selecting "Enter Manually".
Silkline shows a transaction history for suppliers including:
Orders
Request for Quotes
Check-ins
See an overview of transaction data for a supplier and navigate to a particular item.
In addition to approval status, approved vendors can be marked as preferred, which is indicated with a plus icon next to the approved status badge:
