Supplier Management
Supplier cards in IZI warehouse are more than just a contact list. Every goods receipt you link to a supplier is stored against that card, giving you purchase history, price dynamics, and delivery frequency all in one place — without any manual bookkeeping.
Supplier card structure
Section titled “Supplier card structure”Required fields
Section titled “Required fields”Name — what your team calls this vendor. It does not have to be a legal entity name: informal names like “Dmitry Beverages” or “North Wholesale Depot” work fine as long as any admin knows who is meant without asking.
Status — active or deactivated. A deactivated supplier no longer appears in the dropdown when creating new receipts, but all historical data is retained.
Recommended fields
Section titled “Recommended fields”| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Contact person | The manager’s name — who to call when placing an order or filing a complaint |
| Phone | A working number for quick communication |
| Comment | Working conditions: minimum order value, delivery day, payment terms, how to pay |
Example of a useful comment:
“Delivery every Tuesday and Friday. Order by 18:00 the day before. Minimum order 5,000. Cash on delivery. Manager: Dmitry.”
The comment field is the right place for anything your staff needs to know before calling or ordering — not a separate spreadsheet.
Price history per supplier
Section titled “Price history per supplier”Every receipt linked to a supplier saves:
- Date of the receipt
- Line items and quantities
- Purchase prices at the time of receipt
Opening the supplier card and scrolling through the receipt list shows you how prices on specific items have moved from delivery to delivery.
Practical scenario. Your soft drink margin has dropped. You open the supplier card, look at the last three receipts, and notice the purchase price rose by 15% in the most recent batch. Now you have the data to make a decision: raise the retail price, negotiate with the supplier, or switch vendors. None of this is possible without receipts linked to a supplier — the history simply does not accumulate in one place.
Delivery frequency analysis
Section titled “Delivery frequency analysis”The receipt history also lets you track how often deliveries actually happen:
- Whether the real cadence matches what was agreed
- Whether there are gaps in specific periods (holidays, end of month)
- Whether order volumes are consistent
Why this matters. If a supplier is supposed to deliver twice a week but the history shows deliveries every ten days, you are quietly accumulating a shortfall. This shows up in your inventory dynamics: sharp jumps up after each delivery, then a long decline with stockouts on key items before the next one arrives.
The optimal delivery frequency is one where stock is replenished to its target level before any item hits zero. The right target depends on daily consumption and shelf life for each category.
Managing multiple suppliers for the same category
Section titled “Managing multiple suppliers for the same category”For risk reduction, keeping two active suppliers for high-turnover categories (beverages, snacks) is worth the small overhead. If your primary supplier has a problem — a price spike, a late delivery, a stock shortage — the backup can cover without any downtime.
In IZI this is straightforward: create cards for both suppliers. When receiving stock, select whichever vendor the delivery actually came from. History splits by supplier automatically, and over time you will see which one is cheaper and more reliable.
Switching suppliers
Section titled “Switching suppliers”When you move to a new vendor for the same product line:
- Create a card for the new supplier.
- On the first receipt from the new supplier, link it to the new card with current prices.
- Deactivate the old supplier — do not delete them, since the historical data is still useful.
- IZI applies FIFO automatically: existing stock from the old batch (at the old cost) is consumed first, then the new batch (at the new cost) flows through.
No manual recalculations are needed — the system handles the cost accounting.
After switching to a more expensive supplier, remember to check your retail prices. Once the new batch starts flowing through, margin is recalculated in the COGS and margin report.
One-time and market purchases
Section titled “One-time and market purchases”If some of your buying happens at a market or from occasional vendors, create a catch-all card — something like “Market / Misc” — and link all those receipts to it. This is better than leaving receipts with no supplier: at minimum you can see the volume and share of unstructured purchasing, which is useful when reviewing where your procurement costs are going.
See also
Section titled “See also”- First goods receipt — how to record a receipt and link it to a supplier
- COGS and margin report — how supplier prices affect your margin
- FIFO in IZI — how a purchase price change flows through to cost of goods sold
- Warehouse overview — the overall logic of inventory accounting in IZI
Frequently asked questions
Is there a limit on how many suppliers I can add in IZI?
No limit. You can create separate supplier cards for beverages, snacks, accessories — or a single catch-all card like 'Market / Misc' for one-off purchases. The structure depends on how granular you want your purchase analytics to be.
Is adding a supplier required to create a goods receipt?
No. You can create a receipt without a supplier. But linking suppliers to receipts gives you purchase history per vendor, which makes price tracking and delivery-frequency analysis possible.
How do I see how much I bought from a specific supplier in a given quarter?
Open the supplier card — it lists all receipts linked to that vendor. Use the date filter to narrow the view to the period you need, and sum the totals.
What should I do when a supplier raises their price?
Nothing needs to change on the supplier card itself. On the next receipt, simply enter the new purchase price in the receipt form. IZI saves the new batch with the new price while the existing stock retains its original cost — FIFO continues to work correctly.
Can I delete a supplier?
You can deactivate a supplier — this hides them from the dropdown when creating new receipts, but all historical receipt data linked to them is preserved. Full deletion may be restricted if the supplier has attached records.