Your relationship with suppliers is one of the most important — and most undermanaged — parts of a product business. When purchasing is disorganised, you overpay, lose track of outstanding orders, receive incorrect deliveries, and struggle to resolve disputes. When purchasing is systematic, you negotiate better terms, catch receiving errors early, and build the supplier relationships that give you priority treatment when stock is tight.

iMagic Inventory’s vendor management features give you a centralised place to manage all your supplier information, create purchase orders, and track what you’ve ordered and received.

What to Store in Your Vendor Records

In iMagic Inventory, open View > Vendors to see your vendor list. Each vendor record should include contact details, your account number with that supplier, payment terms, typical lead time, and any notes about special arrangements. When it comes time to reorder and you’re looking at your reorder list, having complete vendor records in iMagic Inventory means you can contact the right person immediately without hunting for a business card.

Keeping lead times updated in iMagic Inventory vendor records is especially important — this is the data that feeds into your reorder point calculations and helps you avoid stockouts.

Creating Purchase Orders

A purchase order in iMagic Inventory documents exactly what you’ve ordered from a supplier, at what price, and in what quantity. It creates a paper trail that protects you if there’s a dispute, and it gives your receiving staff something to check against when goods arrive.

When you receive items against a purchase order, iMagic Inventory automatically updates your stock levels and confirms which items were received correctly, which were short, and which are still outstanding.

Linking Vendors to Inventory Items

For your most-used products, iMagic Inventory lets you link each inventory item to its primary vendor in View > Inventory. This means when you’re looking at your reorder list in View > Reorders, you can instantly see which vendor to contact for each item. iMagic Inventory can also group reorder suggestions by vendor, so you can place a single purchase order covering all the items you need from that supplier rather than sending multiple separate orders.

Managing Multiple Suppliers for the Same Product

Smart buyers often have two or three potential suppliers for critical products — a primary supplier and a backup in case of stock shortages or price increases. iMagic Inventory allows you to record this information so you always have an alternative when your usual supplier can’t deliver.

How to Use Vendor Management in iMagic Inventory

  1. In iMagic Inventory, go to View > Vendors and click New Vendor to add a supplier.
  2. Enter their company name, contact details, account number, payment terms, and typical lead time.
  3. Save the vendor record.
  4. Go to View > Inventory and open your product records. For each item, link it to its primary vendor.
  5. When you need to reorder, open View > Reorders — iMagic Inventory shows all items below their reorder point.
  6. Group the reorder items by vendor and create a purchase order for each supplier.
  7. When goods arrive, open the purchase order in iMagic Inventory and record what was actually received. iMagic Inventory will update your stock quantities automatically.
  8. For any discrepancies between what was ordered and received, use the purchase order record in iMagic Inventory as evidence when following up with the supplier.

The Discipline of Systematic Purchasing

Many small business owners buy reactively — they order when they notice they’re running low, sometimes after they’ve already run out. iMagic Inventory makes systematic purchasing straightforward: use the reorder list and vendor records together so you’re always buying proactively, at the right time, from the right supplier, at the agreed price.

Over time, your vendor records in iMagic Inventory become a valuable asset. You have a clear picture of each supplier’s performance, lead times, and pricing history. That information is leverage in price negotiations and a safeguard against supply chain disruptions.

Download iMagic Inventory free for 30 days and build a better purchasing system today.