What is Netsuite Vendor Management? Benefits and Overview

For accounts payable related to procurement, your business needs more effective NetSuite vendor management as an Oracle NetSuite ERP user. To increase efficiency, functionality, and accuracy for accounts payable and invoice processing, think about integrating third-party AP automation software providing advanced supplier management for NetSuite customers. 

What is Vendor Management in NetSuite?

Vendor management in NetSuite (vendor suite) consists of four components, which are Vendor Record, NetSuite Vendor Portal, Vendor Scorecard, and Multi-Subsidiary Vendor. NetSuite Vendor Management keeps all supplier information in a central record, provides vendors with an online portal, and tracks supplier performance with a scorecard to attain high quality and lower costs of items purchased from vendors through NetSuite procurement or third-party procurement software.

The basic NetSuite vendor portal is an add-on offered through the NetSuite Procurement module. It’s specifically designed for use in sourcing management, contracts, and vendor performance. For accounts payable and payments, vendor data accuracy and banking information are maintained by the AP department. The NetSuite vendor portal doesn’t provide payment status notifications. 

Therefore, the unenhanced NetSuite vendor portal creates manual vendor management challenges in the accounts payable process. 

Challenges of Manual Vendor Management

Some challenges of manual vendor management are:

• Labor-intensive, time-consuming process that requires higher staffing levels and costs money
• Manual data entry errors in the vendor master file
• Duplicate vendors in the vendor master file and inconsistent vendor name
• Need to enter vendor information more than once into separate, siloed systems
• Vendors no longer used aren’t archived
• Insufficient visibility for vendors and spend management

10 Reasons to Integrate NetSuite with Vendor Management Software

Adding vendor management software capabilities to NetSuite through integration makes financial and business sense. Here’s why.

10 reasons to integrate NetSuite with vendor management software are:

1. Achieve an enhanced and unified vendor management system that syncs in real-time between the NetSuite ERP and the add-on vendor management software. 
2. Eliminate your company’s manual data entry with an AI-driven, electronic payables processing system.
3. Shift vendor onboarding workflow to suppliers through a customer-branded supplier portal. 
4. Strengthen financial controls.
5. Automate global regulatory compliance, including checking against OFAC sanctions lists. 
6. Give suppliers and vendors a choice of preferred global payment methods in their local currency. 
7. Automatically communicate invoice and payment status updates for suppliers, available 24/7 through the vendor portal. 
8. Gain real-time visibility (with AI-driven business intelligence, dashboards, and KPIs) into vendors and spend.
9. Use global multi-entity capabilities with NetSuite OneWorld module integration and consolidated views of payables by vendor and in total.
10. Access a vendor management system that’s scalable for growth. 

When your business shifts vendor onboarding to its suppliers, your accounts payable team has a lower workload. Data accuracy is higher. The vendor name is consistent, without vendor duplicates. The vendor master file is cleaner. 

Your company automatically collects W-9 or W-8 series forms through the supplier portal before making the first vendor invoice payment. That reduces the need for time-consuming follow-up later before 1099 forms are due. 

Stronger controls include validating current suppliers in your supply chain, automatically matching invoices with purchase orders (POs) from the procurement process and receiving reports, preventing payment of duplicate invoices, and applying 26,000+ automated payment rules to detect and significantly reduce errors. 

Tipalti AP automation lets your suppliers choose from 12 payment methods to make payments to 196 countries in 120 currencies. Suppliers that are happy with payment timeliness and choices are more likely to enhance vendor performance. By providing automated payment status notifications, you can also improve supplier relationships.

Your company will process supplier invoices and vendor bills more quickly. It can save money and increase its profitability and gross margin by taking early payment discounts. When you take discounts on business inventory purchases, the savings from 2/10, net 30 early payment discounts are substantial. Paying invoices by the due date also lets your company improve its inventory management because suppliers won’t stop shipments for late payments.

The 10 reasons listed above are based on the capabilities of Tipalti-NetSuite integration for AP automation and global payments. 

Your company can also seamlessly integrate Tipalti’s procurement automation software into a unified system with your ERP to improve vendor management for procurement. Tipalti Procurement handles and guides approval for purchase requisitions and automatically uses the information to create purchase orders. 

Benefits of a Seamless Vendor Management Process

A seamless vendor management process provides these benefits:

• Eliminates the need for manual data entry and reduces payment errors by 66% 
• Results in a cleaner vendor master file 
• Shifts onboarding workload to the supplier through a portal
• Provides better vendor management and supplier communications, improving vendor relationships 
• Speeds invoice processing through AP automation capabilities to earn early payment discounts on time
• Improves vendor visibility and spend management 
• Saves the accounts payable team time to manually communicate supplier payment status 

Tips for Choosing the Best Vendor Management Integration

To choose the best vendor management integration for NetSuite users, consider:

• Time and cost savings from vendor management automation and elimination of manual and paper-based business processes for more operational efficiency
• Self-service portal for vendors and suppliers with upfront W-9 or W-8 collection
• Simplified 1099 forms reporting
• Centralized digital document management and contract management repository access
• Gaining better financial controls and error reduction 
• Guided and automated workflow for invoice approval process routing for an included unlimited number of approvers
• Automated payment status communication available to suppliers
• Automated invoice processing capabilities
• Global vendor payment capabilities in batches with instant payment reconciliation
• Customer retention and customer service ratings
• Customer testimonials for the Tipalti-NetSuite integration 

Tipalti has a 98% rate for both customer retention and customer service satisfaction and positive customer testimonials from NetSuite ERP users. Tipalti AP automation software is Built for NetSuite and it won the 2019 SuiteCloud SuiteApp of the Year award from NetSuite. 

For example, Revalize, a revenue optimization software provider to manufacturing companies is a NetSuite ERP user. Revalize has been one of Tipalti’s (currently 3,500+) customers since 2020. The following integrated vendor management functionality description and quote are from the Revalize customer testimonial case study for Tipalti:

To automate its finance function, the Revalize team implemented Tipalti to streamline its workflow processes. With Tipalti, Revalize’s vendors and contractors could self-onboard through its vendor portal. All they needed to get started was to provide an email address.

It’s almost like giving the keys back to the vendors—they have a lot of freedom and visibility into the process. It was a little shocking that this could even be this visible to them. [The Tipalti solution] has provided much more knowledge about how department heads pay vendors. It’s enabled vendors to understand the process and to be able to see payments directly. Streamlining that process gives them the freedom to manage their own business.

Revalize Finance Department

NetSuite+Tipalti integration enhances your payables process, including vendor management features and a supplier portal. 

Conclusion 

Vendor management can be improved from a manual process in NetSuite ERP to a fully automated process that starts with self-service supplier onboarding. Your business will have more NetSuite vendor management capabilities and efficiency than it would using NetSuite alone, maintain a clean vendor file, and improve supplier communications. 

Third-party vendor management software with a supplier portal and accounts payable invoice processing adds:

• Operational efficiency
• Internal controls 
• Payment error reduction 
• Better global payments 
• Real-time visibility 
• An audit trail 

The result is better business management. The add-on automation software provides scalability for business growth. To get started with Tipalti’s automated vendor management integration for NetSuite, schedule a demo with one of our experts today.