Automatic Vendor Portal

Who It's For

Manufacturing companies with 10-100 active suppliers — Those managing a supply chain with many regular suppliers buried in email, unnamed PDFs, and outdated price lists. Purchasing teams spending half their time chasing documents instead of doing strategic cost analysis.

Growing companies structuring their procurement — Those who've managed suppliers informally so far and now need structured processes without implementing a full ERP just for purchasing management.

Companies with ISO certifications or audits — Those who must demonstrate a traceable, documented supplier qualification process. Those audited who struggle to reconstruct supplier document history.

Companies with multi-level approval processes — Those who need purchase approval at multiple hierarchy levels and currently do it via email with no audit trail.

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Problems It Solves

Supplier document dispersion

Every supplier sends documents in different formats, to different email addresses, with their own naming conventions. Finding a 2022 invoice from a supplier takes 20 minutes of searching through three colleagues' inboxes. A centralized portal puts everything in one searchable place with versioning.

Informal supplier qualification

Accepting a new supplier without formal qualification is an operational and legal risk. Compliance documents, quality certifications, signed contracts — today this happens via email with Excel tracking sheets: chaotic and not audit-proof.

Constant manual reminders

The purchasing team knows supplier X hasn't sent document Y. So they email them. The supplier says they already sent it. The email search begins again. A portal with required document checklists and status per supplier eliminates this cycle.

Purchase approval via email

A purchase request arrives via email to the manager, who forwards it to the director, who replies approving it — but the email gets lost in the thread. No approval log, no trace of who approved what and when.

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Key Features

Reserved area for each supplier

Each supplier accesses their portal with dedicated credentials. They see only their documents, orders, and requests. They upload invoices, quotes, certifications directly. They receive automatic notifications on document expiry (e.g., compliance certificates expiring).

Supplier qualification checklists

For each supplier, define which documents are mandatory for qualification. The portal shows completion status: green (complete), yellow (expiring), red (missing). Impossible to issue orders to a non-qualified supplier.

Purchase order approval workflow

Purchase requests follow a configurable workflow: who can approve what, with which spending thresholds, with which co-approvals. Every step is tracked with timestamp and digital signature. The log is immutable and auditable.

Automatic quote comparison

When you request quotes from multiple suppliers for the same product/service, the portal aggregates responses in a comparison table: price, delivery time, payment terms. Decide with a clear picture, not searching through three emails.

Accounting and invoicing integration

Approved invoices are automatically transmitted to the accounting software. Supports e-invoice XML format: electronic invoices from suppliers are automatically imported and matched to the corresponding purchase order.

Purchasing dashboard

Consolidated view: spend by supplier, product category, cost center. Deviation between ordered and invoiced. Suppliers with expiring documents. Orders awaiting approval. Upcoming payment deadlines.

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Possible Integrations

• ERP / Management: SAP, Zucchetti, TeamSystem, Odoo, Sage
• Accounting and e-invoicing: automatic XML invoice import
• Digital signatures: integration with e-signature providers for legally valid approvals
• Quality management: integration with ISO quality management systems

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Custom Software vs. Standard Solutions

Vendor management modules exist in SAP Ariba, Oracle Procurement Cloud, or Jaggaer. These tools are designed for large enterprises with dedicated IT teams, significant budgets (often €50,000-200,000/year in licenses alone), and already standardized processes.

For an SMB with 20-100 suppliers, a custom portal built by Graffico is the most efficient choice: connected to your specific systems, with only the modules you actually use, with an interface that both your buyers and your suppliers (often small businesses themselves) find simple to use.

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Timeline, Budget and Process

Timeline: A functional vendor portal with core features (reserved area, qualification, orders, invoices) is ready in 8-12 weeks. Advanced features like automatic 3-way matching require 14-18 weeks.

Budget: Projects start from approximately €10,000-15,000 for a basic solution. Complete solutions with all features range from €20,000 to €45,000. No license fees: the software is yours.

Process: Free analysis of your current purchasing processes (2 hours). Identification of the 3-5 main inefficiencies. Prioritized solution proposal and fixed-price quote.