Getting started with Suppliers

Suppliers is where your contractors and service providers are intended to live: the plumbers, electricians, gas engineers, cleaners and other trades that keep your properties running. The aim is to make it easy to find the right person for a job and to know they are properly insured and qualified.

What the module is for

Many operators rely on a handful of phone contacts and memory to choose a contractor. Suppliers is designed to help with problems like these:

• Not knowing which contractor covers which trade or area.
• Insurance or certification lapsing without anyone noticing.
• No record of how a supplier has performed on past jobs.
• Relying on one person who knows all the contacts.

How it connects to other modules

Suppliers carry out the jobs raised in Work, so each supplier builds up a job history. Some work is directly compliance-related, such as gas safety checks or electrical inspections, so it helps to know which suppliers hold the right registrations. Supplier invoices connect to Finance, and certificates and insurance documents belong in Documents.

Supplier businesses can also have their own Propvora workspace. Supplier onboarding asks for trade categories, a service area or postcode, an insurance expiry date and certification and public liability documents. That structure gives you a good idea of the information worth keeping about each supplier you use.

How to prepare now

• List the suppliers you use, with company name, main contact, phone and email.
• Note each supplier's trades and the areas or postcodes they cover.
• Record insurance expiry dates and keep copies of public liability cover.
• Note relevant registrations, for example Gas Safe for gas work.
• Mark preferred suppliers for each trade and any you no longer use.