What is this page about: How the vendor portal lets a vendor enter their own business and banking details, what they can fill in, how to follow an invitation through to completion, and what happens to the vendor record once they submit. Written for anyone onboarding a new vendor in Light.
The vendor portal lets vendors fill in their own business and banking information directly, instead of you typing it in for them. Vendors access the portal via a unique link sent by email.
On this page
- When the Portal Is Used
- What Vendors Can Do in the Portal
- Portal Status Tracking
- After Submission
- Related Articles
When the Portal Is Used
When you create a vendor via the Customer Request mode (see Adding and Managing Vendors), Light emails the vendor a portal link. The vendor opens the link in their browser and completes the form themselves. No Light account is required.
While the vendor is in Onboarding, two actions on the vendor manage the invitation:
- Re-send invite deactivates the old link and emails a fresh one, confirmed with "Vendor portal form resent".
- Cancel deactivates the link and clears the form, confirmed with "Vendor portal form cancelled".
Anyone opening a deactivated link sees "This link has been deactivated".
What Vendors Can Do in the Portal
The portal exposes three sections:
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Business information | Vendor name, email, phone, website, description, VAT, business registration number, country, address |
| Payment information | Bank country and the country-specific banking fields (IBAN, routing number, account number, BIC/SWIFT, etc.) |
| Attachments (optional) | Supporting documents (e.g., bank statement, registration certificate) |
The form is the same for every vendor and can't be changed: you can't add or remove fields or make a field required. VAT sits in Business information, as there's no separate tax section.
The portal prompts vendors to complete both Business information and Payment information before submitting. Light accepts a submission as soon as it carries a name and an email address, and it checks the banking fields only when the vendor has chosen a bank country, so a form can arrive with the Payment Information section still empty. Check that section yourself before approving the vendor.
To see who still hasn't submitted, go to Spend management > Vendors and filter Status to Onboarding. Use Re-send invite on any vendor who needs a reminder.
Portal Status Tracking
Each portal invitation moves through these statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sending | Invitation email is being sent |
| Sent | Invitation email sent; vendor hasn't opened the link yet |
| Send failed | The invitation email could not be delivered |
| Opened | Vendor has opened the portal |
| Partially filled | Vendor has completed at least one section but hasn't submitted yet |
| Completed | Vendor has submitted the form |
| Cancelled | The invitation was canceled |
Each section (Business information and Payment information) also tracks completion individually inside the portal. Attachments are optional, and completion tracking covers the two information sections only.
After Submission
When the vendor submits, their details flow back to Light:
- The vendor record is populated with the submitted information
- If your company has a published Vendor onboarding workflow, the vendor moves from Onboarding to In review, and the approvers get an Approve new vendor task. It becomes Active once approved
- If no Vendor onboarding workflow is published, the vendor goes straight to Active
To require approval for new vendors, publish the Vendor onboarding workflow in Settings > Workflows. See Setting Up Approval Workflows and Approving or rejecting vendors.