Set up your vendors

Where your vendors come from#

You don't add vendors to VendorDue by hand. Every product in Shopify has a Vendor field, and every name used there is a vendor in VendorDue, with the products that carry it. A new name in Shopify appears in Vendors within a few minutes.

That makes the Vendor field the one thing to keep right. Two spellings are two vendors: "Alder Ceramics" and "Alder Ceramics." with a full stop are different, though capitals and extra spaces don't count.

A sale belongs to the vendor its product named on the day it sold. Changing the field later moves the product's future sales, not its past ones.

Your own stock#

A product whose Vendor field is empty, or is your store's own name, is yours. Its sales are all yours and no vendor earns from them.

What a vendor needs to earn#

A vendor's sales earn them money once two things are true, and Vendors marks each vendor with a green tick when both are:

• They have a consignor rateConsignor rate What a vendor earns from a sale. What you may call their split or commission. In the glossary. Without one, their sales are recorded and wait. Nothing is owed until a rate is set, and then the waiting sales are worked out with it.
• At least one product carries their name. Otherwise they have nothing to sell yet.

A vendor with no rate is in the Needs setup tab, with a warning triangle beside their name.

Give everyone your shop-wide terms#

Most shops pay nearly every vendor the same way. Your shop-wide termsShop-wide terms The rate, schedule, holds and agreement every vendor follows, unless they have their own. In the glossary are that way: the consignor rate, schedule, holds and agreement you chose in Store setup. To put vendors on them:

1. Open Vendors › , then Needs setup.

2. Press Set them up beside "8 vendors have no consignor rate yet".

   Vendor setup opens for all of them.

3. Press Use the shop-wide terms, check what they'll get, and press Save.

You can also tick vendors in the list and press Use the shop-wide terms in the bar that appears. Either way, they follow the shop-wide terms from then on: when you change those in Settings › , then Terms, they change too.

Set up a vendor on a different deal#

Some vendors are paid differently. In the example shop, Quillfield Goods rents a booth: they keep 90% of each sale and pay $150.00 booth rent on the 1st of every month. Vendor setup sets a vendor up from start to finish:

1. Open Quillfield Goods from Vendors and press Vendor setup at the top of their page.

2. Choose Set their own.

   You go through each step, starting from your shop-wide answers, so you only change what's different.

3. Consignor rate: choose Their own and type 90. A line underneath shows what they'd get from a typical sale.

4. Products: leave it as it is, or give a product its own rate. A product left empty earns their consignor rate.

5. Schedule, Holds, Agreement: keep the shop-wide answer, or choose their own.

6. Charges: add Booth rent, $150.00, every month, first charged on the 1st.

7. Access: add their email to invite them to their own page. See Invite your vendors.

8. Read Here is their deal and press Save.

Nothing is saved until that last press. If you close Vendor setup halfway, your answers wait in this browser and it opens where you stopped.

To set up several vendors with the same deal, tick them in Vendors and press Set up 3 in the bar. Every step then offers Keep each one's own too, so you can change one thing for all of them and leave the rest.

Check a vendor is ready#

Open the vendor. Their Summary says Owed now, Next payout and On hold, and their Terms tab reads their whole deal as sentences, with an Example sale run through it. If their terms come from the shop, the tab says Currently using: shop-wide.

When it looks wrong#

A vendor is missing#

The name isn't in any product's Vendor field in Shopify yet. Open a product of theirs in Shopify, set Vendor to their name, and save. They appear in Vendors within a few minutes, or press Check Shopify beside the logo to read your shop now.

If they sold before the field was set, those sales went to whatever name the product had. Fix the field first, then see A sale went to the wrong vendor.

The same vendor is there twice#

Their products in Shopify use two spellings. In Shopify, change every product to one spelling. The other name then has no products, and you can archive it once it has nothing waiting. See Archiving vendors.

A vendor says "No products connected"#

No product in Shopify carries their name right now. Either their products were given another vendor name, or they were deleted. Set the Vendor field on their products in Shopify.

A vendor's sales aren't earning anything#

They have no consignor rate. Open them and press Vendor setup, or give them the shop-wide terms as above. Their waiting sales are worked out with the rate as soon as you save, which can take a minute for a vendor with many sales.

Common questions#

Can I add a vendor who isn't in Shopify yet?

Not by hand. Set their name in a product's Vendor field in Shopify and they appear in VendorDue within a few minutes. More

What happens to sales made before a vendor had a consignor rate?

They wait. When you set the rate, those sales are worked out with it and join the vendor's next payout. More

Do vendors on shop-wide terms change when I change them?

Yes. They follow the shop-wide terms, so a change in Settings › Terms applies to them from the day you make it. Sales already worked out keep the rate they had. More

Can one vendor have a different rate for some products?

Yes. Give those products their own rate in Vendor setup's Products step, or add a rate row on the vendor's Terms tab. More