Any business, no matter the size, has to buy from suppliers from time to time because all supplies cannot be managed internally. When frequency of purchases and number of suppliers increase, managing orders and tracking payments can become difficult, leading to poor supplier relationships.
So Zoho Books introduces Supplier Portal which allows suppliers to access their transactions with you, communicate, view orders and more. It's secure and super convenient for your suppliers - they can skip lengthy clarification emails and directly access the transactional information they need.
Enabling the portal can help you:
Quickly process orders and negotiate prices
The purchase order you create will be immediately available in your supplier portal. This gives the supplier a record of the items and quantities you need and the price you plan to pay. Deals are uploaded in real time, so suppliers can view orders instantly and share their feedback, accept orders (coming soon) or calculate new prices in the comments section if needed.
View transaction documents and create invoices
When your suppliers have shipped or are ready to ship, they can take a photo of the invoice and upload it into the portal. You can then review the invoice and approve it to create a bill in your Zoho Books organization and create a bill in its portal.
Easily share contacts
If your suppliers change their business location or contact details, they can edit their information in the portal and it will be automatically updated in your Zoho Books account. Likewise, if you change your address, your supplier can see your new billing and shipping address in the portal and always have updated shipment details.
Chat and collaborate easily
Discuss orders, comment on invoices, and work on your purchases together. Whenever your supplier wants to send you a quick update, they can click the "Send Email" button from the portal home page and send you a message instantly.
What are the benefits for your customers?
Insightful and Actionable Dashboards
The home page in Supplier Portal is similar to the Dashboard in Zoho Books. It displays the amount of outstanding invoices, any available credit, details of the last payment received from the customer, and any documents that have been uploaded.
Secure Access Portal
Once the portal is enabled, your suppliers will be able to log in to the portal via an email invitation you send. You can set a password for the portal, which your provider can update as needed.
View, print, upload and comment on transactions
Your suppliers will be able to view all the deals you've created for them, add comments and upload images of the invoices they've created so you can verify and convert them into deals. All transaction and account statements can be downloaded or printed for use.
how to start
You can enable the portal from the client module. Simply click on the More dropdown and select Configure Customer Portal for the desired supplier.