Adding and Managing Vendors

Vendor management in Light is the foundation of AP. This article covers creating vendors, configuring banking details, managing entity assignments, and tracking vendor status.

On this page

• Creating a Vendor
• Vendor Statuses
• Banking Details and Change Requests
• Entity Assignment
• Approvers
• Vendor Details Tabs
• Related Articles

# Creating a Vendor

1. Navigate to Spend management → Vendors
2. Click + Create vendor
3. Choose Customer request or Manual entry with the switch at the top of the form:

# Option A: Customer request

Send the vendor a portal link so they fill in their own information.

Required fields:

• Name
• Country
• Entities (select one or more)
• Email (the portal invitation is sent here)

Optional:

• CC email (optional): copies an additional contact on the invitation

Click Submit request. A "Vendor information request sent" toast confirms it, and the vendor is created in Onboarding. The vendor receives a link to complete their business and banking details directly in the Light vendor portal.

# Option B: Manual entry

Fill in the vendor's information yourself via a 3-step form.

Step 1: Business

Step 2: Payment

Banking fields adapt based on the selected bank country:

Additional optional fields: BIC/SWIFT, bank name, bank address, bank recipient name, bank city, bank zip. Note: Czech Republic is an exception to the "most EU countries = IBAN only" rule and has its own additional fields.

Step 3: Accounting

Default payment method controls how bills from this vendor are paid after approval:

• Default: Light schedules the payment automatically after approval, based on your bank account's payment-scheduling eligibility.
• Direct Debit: Bill goes straight to Unpaid status, the vendor collects the payment directly from your bank account.
• Manual: Bill goes through guardrails and batch approval, then moves to Unpaid, you pay the vendor outside Light (wire, check, etc.).

Vendor banking details are optional regardless of which payment method is selected.

Click Create to save.

# Vendor Statuses

The vendor list defaults to showing Onboarding, In review, and Active vendors.

Whether a new vendor needs approval depends on the Vendor onboarding workflow. With it published, manually created vendors and submitted portal vendors go to In review until approved. Without it, they go straight to Active. The vendor picker for cards also accepts vendors that are still In review.

# Banking Details and Change Requests

When bank details are updated, either by you or through a vendor portal submission, the change goes through an approval flow before taking effect.

While a change is pending you'll see two tabs on the vendor:

• Awaiting approval: shows the proposed new banking details
• Current details: shows the existing banking details still in use

# Entity Assignment

A vendor can be assigned to one or more company entities. After picking a default entity, you can configure the following defaults that pre-fill on bills from this vendor:

• Default account
• Default tax code
• Default from account: the company bank account used to pay this vendor

The entity-specific defaults (default account, tax code, and from account) are only editable once a default entity has been selected.

Good to know: Removing an entity from a vendor keeps the vendor on documents in that entity that already use it, and drafts stay editable. Until you add the entity back, Light blocks picking the vendor for new bills, purchase orders or vendor cards in that entity, submitting or posting its bills there, and locking its purchase orders. Bills already posted there can still be paid. Adding the entity back restores the assignment, but its defaults (account, tax code, from account and cost center) need setting again.

# Approvers

Approvers can be assigned to a vendor in the Accounting step during creation, or edited later. Assigned approvers are required to sign off on bills or changes from that vendor based on your organization's approval workflow.

# Vendor Details Tabs

Once a vendor is created, opening it shows the following tabs:

# Related Articles

• Accounts Payable Overview
• Vendor portal and magic links
• Entering bills
• Bill approval workflows