What is vendor onboarding?
Also called: supplier onboarding, third-party onboarding
Last updated
Vendor onboarding is the process of bringing a new supplier into an organisation, from selection to the point where they can be ordered from and paid. It covers collecting their details and documents, due diligence and risk checks, the contract, setting them up in finance and procurement systems, verifying bank details and granting any access they need.
In more detail
Done badly, vendor onboarding is slow for the supplier and risky for the buyer: fraudsters target new supplier bank details, and a supplier handling personal data or system access needs security and data protection checks before work starts. The depth of checks should match the risk the supplier brings.
Most of the work involves several teams, procurement, finance, legal, IT and the business owner, and documents from the supplier. One shared list of steps with owners and a single place for the supplier’s documents keeps it moving.
Example
A company onboards a new IT contractor. Procurement collects company details and insurance, finance verifies the bank details by phone, legal agrees the contract and data processing terms, IT grants limited remote access, and the business owner approves the first purchase order.
Vendor onboarding in CheckFlow
In CheckFlow each new supplier gets their own checklist, with steps assigned to procurement, finance, legal and IT. The supplier can be sent a shared link to complete their own steps and upload documents, and approval steps halt the checklist until the supplier is cleared.
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Templates with a live demo
Each one opens as a live checklist you can try without signing up.
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Build it once as a template, then run it with owners, due dates and a record of every step.
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