Set up suppliers to track

Every savings comparison needs a market to compare against — suppliers are that market.

What you get

• A benchmark set of suppliers every check compares your incumbent costs against.
• Savings recommendations in the Savings Center that name the supplier behind the suggestion.
• index_drift and cost-increase alerts on Alerts as soon as a tracked supplier's pricing moves against you.

Adding a supplier

1. Go to Sources.
2. Add each supplier you want checks to benchmark against — a name, a listing-page URL, and whether it is an incumbent (a supplier you buy from) or a benchmark.
3. Link your suppliers to each purchase item and mark one as primary (in the item's Suppliers section, with the incumbent_supplier column on the item CSV import, or with a supplier-links import) so a check knows which price is the one it's comparing against.
4. Save. The supplier is included starting with the next check, scheduled or manual.

Start with the suppliers that actually compete for your business rather than every vendor you've ever bought from — each one counts against your plan's source cap, and a benchmark set that's too broad makes savings comparisons noisier, not better.

Tips

• Settings → Usage shows current source usage against your plan tier — check it before a bulk add.
• A supplier you remove stops being checked but past observations, alerts, and recommendations stay on Reports & history, so removing one doesn't erase what it already told you.
• If a supplier's page layout changes and a check starts missing prices, edit the supplier's URL rather than deleting and re-adding it — that keeps its history attached to the same record.
• Approved-suppliers lists on Buying guardrails narrow which of these suppliers a switch-supplier recommendation is allowed to suggest.

How to read a supplier's history

Observed prices are kept per purchase item: open an item from the Purchase Catalog to see its price history alongside its suppliers. A gap in that timeline usually means a check skipped the supplier (a temporarily unreachable page, for example) rather than a real price change — the Alerts feed only fires on a confirmed move, not a missed read.

Contracts per supplier and observed suppliers

• One contract per supplier link. A purchase item can list several suppliers, and each linked supplier carries its own contract. Record it in the item's Contract terms section, choosing the supplier from the list; the supplier must be linked to the item first.
• At a glance. Each supplier row shows its contract dates and renewal date, or "No contract" with a pointer to where to add one.
• Observed suppliers. When a supplier shows up in a QuickBooks sync, a CSV import, your spend data or your contract system but isn't linked yet, it appears on the item marked "Observed" with its source. Nothing is assumed: use Confirm to make it an active supplier of the item, or Dismiss to drop it.

Go further

• Import what you buy — the other half of what a check compares.
• Run a check & read a savings recommendation — how suppliers factor into a check.
• Set buying guardrails — approved-suppliers lists and other rules that gate what gets suggested.
• Track contract renewals — where your incumbent supplier shows up again.