This article answers to some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to suppliers in Payhawk.
What are the prerequisites for setting up supplier management in Payhawk?
Before setting up the Suppliers app, you need to prepare and upload a list of your existing suppliers or connect to your ERP to enable a sync.
How can I create suppliers in Payhawk?
Suppliers can be created manually by importing and exporting through the Payhawk platform, syncing between Payhawk and ERP systems, using the Suppliers app by accountants or administrators, or adding new suppliers when uploading expenses
via the Payhawk OCR tool.
Can employees create new suppliers in Payhawk?
No, they can only mark a supplier as new. Only administrators and accountants can onboard new suppliers in Payhawk.
What is the purpose of the supplier expense categorization feature?
The supplier expense categorization feature allows you to define values for built-in and custom expense fields that relate to expenses matched to that supplier, ensuring consistent and accurate categorization.
Can I edit the expense categorization for a specific supplier?
Yes, you can always edit the expense categorization for a specific supplier.
How do I archive a supplier in Payhawk?
If a supplier is no longer needed or details are inaccurate, you can move the supplier to the Suppliers > Archived tab.
Are there any limitations to syncing supplier data between Payhawk and ERP systems?
Yes. Currently, Payhawk doesn't sync supplier’s bank details from the ERP. Customers need to add bank details in the Suppliers app manually or when paying a supplier through Payhawk.
How often does the supplier sync with the ERP happen?
Supplier data from the ERP to Payhawk is synced daily. Supplier data from Payhawk to the ERP is synced in real-time.
Are employees treated as suppliers?
Yes. Like the ERP systems, each employee appears as a supplier in the Suppliers app.
What happens if the supplier payment details between Payhawk and the invoice do not match?
A warning message will be shown and the invoice will not be pushed to the ERP until confirmed by a Payhawk accountant.
How can I add supplier fields?
Go to Settings > Supplier fields > Additional fields. For more information, see the section on supplier fields.
How can I enable supplier-driven categorization?
Go to Settings > Expense fields > Custom fields. For any custom field, switch on the toggle for supplier-driven expense categorization. Then, go to the Suppliers > Expense categorization tab and see the field ready to be populated with info per supplier.
For more information:
I don't want to have all vendors from our card transactions included in our supplier list. Can I exclude them?
Yes, by using a so-called "default" supplier.
For example, an employee pays with their card in KFC but you'd rather exclude KFC from the company supplier list. To handle this, you can choose the "default" supplier during the review process of the spend entry.
If such a "default" supplier hasn't been created yet, create a Default - Food supplier entry.
If such a "default" supplier has already been created, select it directly.
As a result, the next time an employee pays at a KFC POS terminal, the supplier will automatically be looked up as Default - Food.
Why are some of my suppliers archived?
Suppliers of past expenses may appear archived (under the Suppliers > Archived tab) if they aren't currently present in the ERP list. That's why they don’t have an External ID.
Note that all active suppliers have an External ID while archived ones usually don’t. If you set a supplier to inactive in your ERP, the supplier will be archived in Payhawk during the daily sync. In this case, you will have an archived supplier with an external ID filled in.
The logic behind this behavior is that during the daily sync, Payhawk looks at the ERP data and if a supplier is in the ERP, the supplier will be synced as active. However, if Payhawk recognizes a supplier that was used in past expenses but isn't currently included in the ERP, Payhawk will leave it as archived so that you can unarchive that supplier and set it as active.
Can I have multiple names for the same supplier Tax ID?
You cannot have duplicate suppliers - neither with the same supplier name nor with the same supplier ID.
Can I have multiple VAT numbers with the same supplier name, for example, Amazon with different VAT numbers for each country?
You cannot have duplicate supplier names. For this specific example, you can use Amazon ES, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, and so on to have different names for the different supplier entities.
What happens if I disconnect from my ERP integration?
If you imported suppliers through an ERP integration and then disconnected, the suppliers won’t be deleted.