About Vendors
In MaintainX, a vendor is an entity that represents a company that your organization does business with. For example a vendor can represent:
- A parts supplier.
- A provider of one or more of your assets.
- A service provider that you contract with to do work on one or more of your assets, or at one or more of your locations.
Vendor Contacts​
In MaintainX, vendors have contacts. A contact is a person in the vendor's organization that you interact with. Each vendor has its own contact list, which is stored with the rest of the vendor's information. You can manage a vendor's contacts from the vendor's page in MaintainX.
For more information, see Manage Vendor Contacts.
Sharing Work Orders with Vendors​
You can also share work orders with vendors. When you share a work order, MaintainX creates a link to a limited, external version of the work order that you can send to vendor contacts. The vendor recipients can see and interact with the work order, but can't see any other information about your organization.
External work orders make it possible to track work from external contractors and suppliers using the same system you use to track the rest of your organization's maintenance work, MaintainX.
For more information see External Work Orders
Vendors and Other MaintainX Entities​
This section explains how vendors relate to other entities in MaintainX.
Vendors and Assets​
You can associate one or more vendors with an asset. Typically, a vendor you assign to an asset is either the company that supplied the asset, or a company that provides maintenance services for that asset.
When you associate a vendor with an asset, MaintainX adds the vendor to the Vendors list on the asset's page, and adds the asset to the Assets list on the vendor's page.
For more information about how to associate a vendor with an asset, see the following articles:
Vendors and Locations​
You can associate one or more vendors with a location. Usually the vendors that you assign to a location are companies that provide maintenance services for that location. For example, you might set up a vendor to represent a cleaning crew for a warehouse or office facility.
When you associate a vendor with a location, MaintainX adds the vendor to the Vendors list on the location's page, and adds the location to the Locations list on the vendor's page.
For more information about how to associate a vendor with a location, see the following articles:
Vendors and Parts​
You can associate one or more vendors with a part. Typically, a vendor you associate with a part is the supplier for that part.
When you associate a vendor with a part, MaintainX adds the vendor to the Vendors list on the part's page. You can also provide the vendor's Ordering Part Number for the part, which MaintainX uses automatically in purchase orders for the part.
When you associate a vendor with a part, MaintainX also adds the part to the Parts list on the vendor's page, so you can see at a glance which parts each vendor supplies to your organization.
Vendors and Purchase Orders​
A purchase order in MaintainX specifies the type and quantity of specific parts you want to order from a vendor. If you added the vendor's Ordering Part Number for any part, MaintainX uses it in the purchase order automatically.
Vendors and Work Orders​
You can add one or more vendors to a work order. Typically, a vendor that you associate with a work order is a company that will do some or all of the work.
When you add a vendor to a work order, MaintainX adds it to the work orders Vendors list. The work order also appears in the vendor's work order history (see View Vendor Data)
For more information, see Create a Work Order or Edit a Work Order
You can also share work orders with vendors. When you share a work order, MaintainX creates a link to a limited, external version of the work order that you can send to vendor contacts. The vendor recipients can see and interact with the work order, but can't see any other information about your organization.
For more information, see External Work Orders.