How do I set up and manage suppliers, including their names, handles, contacts, and documents?

Suppliers belong to your company, so every brand in the company uses the same list. Each supplier has a name, a handle, contacts, locations, and documents.

You can rename a supplier on its page. Purchase orders show the supplier’s current name, so existing purchase orders, their PDFs, and new emails show the new name.

Names must be unique within the company, archived suppliers included. “Supplier with this name already exists” means an active supplier has exactly that name. When the existing one is archived, the message says it “already exists for this company and is archived.” Unarchive and use that supplier, or rename the archived one first, then reuse the name.

The handle is a short identifier, such as “acme-supplier,” made from lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Endless creates one from the name, and you can change it with “Edit supplier handle.” Imports use it to find the supplier: the Supplier Handle column in purchase order and product cost imports matches it, and it takes priority over the supplier name. Handles are unique within the company, archived suppliers included. “The handle … belongs to an archived supplier” means an archived supplier already has it. Pick another handle, or change the archived supplier’s handle first.

The default contact is the supplier’s main contact. A new purchase order starts with it, the supplier export uses it, and it appears on the purchase order header. Without a default, Endless uses the oldest contact.

When you delete a contact that purchase orders use, choose another contact on each of those purchase orders’ Supplier Details card. Until then, they do not show a contact, and emailing one of them goes to the supplier’s default contact, or to the supplier’s email.

You can keep compliance documents, such as certificates of analysis, on the supplier’s Documents tab. Endless stores the files, and the document’s copy action can attach a copy to the supplier’s linked products. Contact Endless support to discuss tracking expiry dates and sending reminders.