Connecting Vendors to the Vendor Portal

What the Vendor Portal does

When a vendor is connected, maintenance work becomes a two-way street:

• Vendors receive work orders assigned to them and see the full job details.
• They update job status (In Progress → Completed) so you and the tenant stay informed.
• They submit invoices as bills you can review and pay.
• They can upload photos of completed work for your records.

Step 1 — Add the vendor

Go to Vendors and click Add Vendor. Enter:

• Vendor / business name (required)
• Contact person, email, and phone
• Category — Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Landscaping, Cleaning, General Contractor, Pest Control, or Other
• Tax ID / EIN and whether insurance is on file

Step 2 — Send the portal invite

From the vendor's detail page, click Send Portal Invite. The vendor registers with their email and is linked to their vendor record.

Note: Vendors only see maintenance requests and bills assigned specifically to them — never your other vendor relationships or tenant data.

Step 3 — Assign work orders

When a maintenance request comes in (or you create one), set the Assigned Vendor field. That request instantly appears in the vendor's portal with:

• The property and unit address
• The issue description and any tenant photos
• The priority and due date

The vendor updates the status as they work, and those updates flow back to your maintenance queue and the tenant's portal.

Step 4 — Review and pay invoices

Vendors submit invoices through their portal; they land in your Bills queue. From there:

1. Open the bill and confirm the amount and property.
2. Mark it Paid once you've issued payment (by check, EFT, or bank transfer).
3. The vendor is automatically notified that the bill has been paid.

Step 5 — Track vendor performance

Use the Vendor Ledger report (under Reports) to see total spend per vendor, by property and category, over any period. This makes it easy to compare contractors and budget for next year.

Best practices

• Keep insurance on file — toggle the Insurance on File flag so you know who's cleared to work.
• Use categories — clean categories make the Vendor Ledger report far more useful.
• One vendor per specialty — assign the most reliable vendor per category per property to keep routing simple.

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Finally: Managing Staff Access & Roles.