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Data Management

Managing Vendors

All Plans

Managing your vendor relationships is a critical part of running a bridal shop. CloudBridal provides comprehensive vendor management features to help you maintain accurate vendor information, organize color guides, and track size charts.

Contents

Setting Up Your Vendors

We recommend adding your vendors before creating inventory items or customer orders. To manage your vendors:

  1. Navigate to the Vendors page from the sidebar
  2. Click the New Vendor button to add a new vendor
  3. Fill in the vendor information form (detailed below)

Having your vendors set up first makes it easier to associate inventory items and create purchase orders.

Vendor Information Fields

The main vendor form includes the following fields:

General Information

  • Internal Name: The name used internally for the vendor (required)
  • Display Name: The customer-facing name shown on receipts and the showcase
  • Address: Physical address for the vendor
  • Email: Primary contact email address
  • Phone Number: Main phone number for vendor contact
  • Website URL: Vendor's website or ordering portal
  • Contact Full Name: Your primary contact person at the vendor company
  • Account Number: Your account or customer ID with this vendor, which is mainly used for correspondance between you and the vendor (e.g. purchase orders)
  • Inactive: Toggle to mark vendors you no longer do business with
  • Internal Notes: Rich text editor for internal comments about the vendor
  • Inventory Showcase Description: Customer-facing description that appears in your inventory showcase

Vendor Custom Fields

If you've enabled vendor custom fields in Vendor Settings, they'll appear in an "Additional Vendor Fields" section. These can be used to track information like:

  • Vendor representative contact details
  • Minimum order requirements
  • Order lead times
  • Shipping preferences
  • Payment terms

Color Management

The "Default Colors" tab in the vendor form allows you to set up standardized color options for this vendor's products:

Color Groups

Organize similar colors into logical groups (e.g., "Whites", "Pinks", "Blues") to make color selection easier when creating inventory items:

  1. Create color groups with descriptive names
  2. Add colors to each group with specific color names and codes
  3. Optionally assign a visual color swatch

Colors defined here will be available as dropdown options when adding inventory items from this vendor.

Size Charts

The "Size Guide" tab allows you to create a standardized size chart for this vendor:

  1. Add sizes with corresponding measurements (bust, waist, hip)
  2. Arrange sizes in the correct order using drag-and-drop
  3. Save to make this reference available when placing orders

This size guide appears when creating customer orders for dresses from this vendor, helping your staff select the correct size based on customer measurements.

Managing Existing Vendors

The vendor list provides several actions for each vendor:

  • Edit (green pencil): Modify vendor information, colors, or size charts
  • Delete (red trash): Remove a vendor (only if no associated inventory)
  • Purchase Orders (box icon): View purchase order history
  • Notes (yellow comment): Hover to quickly view your internal notes
  • Phone (blue phone): One-click calling the vendor (if configured)

Vendor Custom Fields

Core Plan Ultimate Plan

To enable vendor custom fields:

  1. Go to Vendor Settings
  2. Check "Use Custom Fields for Vendor"
  3. Click "Add Custom Field"
  4. Configure fields to track vendor-specific information

See Managing Custom Fields for more details.

Best Practices

  • Complete Information: Fill out all vendor fields thoroughly for better recordkeeping
  • Standardize Colors: Create comprehensive color groups that align with the vendor's catalog
  • Maintain Size Charts: Keep size charts updated with the vendor's current sizing
  • Document Communications: Use internal notes to track important conversations
  • Organize with Custom Fields: Create custom fields for information you reference frequently

After setting up your vendors, you can proceed to entering your inventory and creating purchase orders.

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