# Create a Vendor

The fields that decide what you can promise: lead time, terms, and the pricing they gave you.

A vendor record is a replenishment input as much as a contact. What you can promise a customer next month depends on what is on it.

## Add one

- **Go to Vendors and add one**

  Name, address and the contact you actually place orders with.

  ![The Vendors list showing UK suppliers with their contact details and status, and the action for adding a new one.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/vendors/vendors-list.png)
- **Record the lead time**

  The gap between issuing a purchase order and the goods arriving. This is the number that turns a reorder point into a date.
- **Set the payment terms**

  They carry onto every bill, so a purchase does not need them retyped and the due date is worked out for you.
- **Attach a purchase rate list, if you have negotiated pricing**

  Their purchase orders and bills then fill in at the agreed rate.

> **Tip:**
>
> **The delivery address matters as much as the billing one**
>
> Goods land at a depot, not at head office. A vendor who ships to the wrong site is a transfer you should not have had to raise.

## Preferred vendors, on the item

An item can name a preferred vendor, which is what fills in first when somebody raises a purchase order for it. It is a default and not a restriction.

> **Note:**
>
> **One vendor, every app**
>
> This record is the same one Finance pays and the same one the vendor portal signs in as.