Onboard new vendors with document checks
A new supplier fills in one form. The system collects W-9 or tax forms, insurance and bank details, checks each against your policy, requests what is missing and creates the vendor record once a person approves. For procurement and finance teams that onboard suppliers over email.
Function: Operations · Industry: Any industry
Onboard new vendors with document checks
6 steps
At a glance
- Trigger
- A buyer requests a new vendor, or a supplier submits the onboarding form.
- Typical inputs
- Supplier onboarding form
- Tax forms, insurance certificates and bank letters
- Vendor risk tiers and policy
- Sanctions or screening lists you use
- Systems it usually connects to
- NetSuite
- Coupa
- DocuSign
- Gmail
- How the work splits
3 rules, 1 model, 2 person steps
How it runs, step by step
6 steps, each tagged by what does the work. Rules are fixed logic, a model reads or drafts, and a person decides.
- Rules Fixed logic in code
- Model AI reads or drafts, with a confidence score
- Person A named person decides
- 1
Start the request
RulesThe buyer's request creates a case with the right form and document list for the vendor's risk tier.
- 2
Read the documents
ModelA model extracts legal name, tax ID, address, bank details and insurance cover from the files supplied.
- 3
Check for consistency
RulesNames and addresses are compared across the documents and against the request, and policy minimums are tested.
- 4
Screen the vendor
RulesThe legal name and country are run through the screening service your policy names, and the result is stored.
- 5
Verify the bank details
PersonA finance person confirms the bank account through a known contact before it is saved on the record.
- 6
Approve the vendor
PersonProcurement approves the vendor and the system creates the vendor record in the ERP.
Where people approve
The decisions that stay with your team, whatever the confidence score says.
- Procurement approves each new vendor.
- Finance verifies bank details by call-back.
- Higher-risk tiers need compliance sign-off.
KPIs to track
What to measure, before and after. Targets come from your own baseline.
- 01Days from request to an active vendor
- 02Onboarding cases that needed more than one request for documents
- 03Vendors paid before their file was complete (should be zero)
- 04Vendors with expired documents
Questions about this workflow
Does this replace our supplier portal?
If you have a portal, we connect to it. If you do not, a simple form and a shared inbox are enough to start. The checks and the approval steps are the same either way.
Can it do sanctions screening?
It can call the screening service you already use and store the result. The decision about a potential match stays with your compliance team.
Which steps use rules, a model and a person?
Rules: start the request; check for consistency; screen the vendor. Model: read the documents. Person: verify the bank details; approve the vendor. Rules are fixed logic in code. A model reads or drafts and reports its confidence. A named person decides.
What do we need to start?
Typically: supplier onboarding form; tax forms, insurance certificates and bank letters; vendor risk tiers and policy; sanctions or screening lists you use. You also need read access to NetSuite, Coupa, DocuSign and Gmail, or the equivalents you use. A workflow audit measures your volumes and past cases first, then gives a fixed price for the build, so you can decide with real numbers.