A vendor list template is a spreadsheet that records every supplier your business buys from in one row each. It holds the legal name, category, contacts, payment terms, tax ID, status, contract end date and internal owner for each vendor.
It is a ready-made vendor spreadsheet template that gives each supplier a unique ID and a single row of master data. Anyone who needs to pay, call, renew or review a vendor reads the same record instead of hunting through inboxes and old invoices.
Procurement and finance teams set one up when supplier details are scattered across the accounting system, contracts folder and personal contact books. It doubles as a vendor tracking template: status, contract end date and owner columns show who is active, who is up for renewal and who nobody manages.
Small businesses often run their whole supplier record from this sheet. Larger teams keep it as the clean source they load into an ERP or procurement tool, and as the place to fix duplicates before they reach a payment run.
Vendor ID, legal name and trading name, so each supplier exists once and invoices match the right record.
Category and spend type, which let you group suppliers and see where money goes.
The main account contact plus billing and escalation contacts, kept on their own tab.
Payment terms, currency and tax ID, the fields AP needs before it can pay a bill.
Active, pending, inactive or blocked, the contract end date and the internal owner who answers for the vendor.
Ready to use in Excel and Google Sheets. Fill it in, save it, reuse it.
A team asks to buy from a new supplier. Check the list first, since the vendor may already exist under another name.
Gather legal name, tax ID, contacts, bank details and terms on a vendor form. Never copy them from an email signature.
Finance or procurement confirms the details and sets the status to Active. Only active vendors can be paid.
Update contacts, terms and contract end dates when they change. The owner column says who does it.
Once a quarter, deactivate vendors with no spend in twelve months and merge any duplicates the formulas flag.
Start with six columns: Vendor ID, Legal name, Category, Contact email, Payment terms, Status. Add tax ID, contract end and owner once the list is in daily use.
Every other tab reads from this one, so keep it clean. Use the supplier's registered legal name, not the brand on their website, and give each vendor an ID that never changes even if the name does. Status and contract end decide who appears in the tracking summary.
| ID | Legal name | Category | Terms | Status | Contract end | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-0001 | Brightline Software Ltd | SaaS | Net 30 | Active | 31 Mar 2027 | IT |
| V-0002 | Northwind Logistics plc | Freight | Net 45 | Renew soon | 30 Nov 2026 | Operations |
| V-0003 | Acme Office Supply | Office supplies | Net 30 | Active | None | Office manager |
| V-0004 | Kestrel Data Ltd | Data services | Net 60 | Pending | 30 Jun 2027 | Finance |
| V-0005 | Harbour Facilities | Facilities | Net 30 | Blocked | 15 Aug 2026 | Operations |
Illustrative data, not real vendors.
Works as an Excel vendor list template or in Google Sheets. Headers in row 1, data from row 2, formulas copied down.
| Col | Header | Entry or formula | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Vendor ID | =IF(B2='', | Numbers each new vendor; paste as values once assigned |
| B | Legal name | Text | Registered name, as on the invoice |
| C | Category | Drop-down list | SaaS, Freight, Facilities and so on |
| D | Primary contact | Text | Account manager or main contact |
| E | Contact email | Text | Shared inbox where possible |
| F | Phone | Text | Number you call to verify bank changes |
| G | Payment terms | Drop-down: Net 30, Net 45, Net 60 | Copied onto every invoice you log |
| H | Tax ID | Text | VAT, GST or EIN, from the supplier's form |
| I | Status | Drop-down: Active, Pending, Inactive, Blocked | Only Active vendors get paid |
| J | Contract end | Date | Blank if there is no contract |
| K | Owner | Text | Person who manages the relationship |
| L | Annual spend | Currency | Last twelve months, from AP |
| M | Days to contract end | =IF(J2='', | Negative means the contract has expired |
| N | Contract flag | =IF(J2='', | Feeds the renewal count |
| O | Duplicate check | =IF(OR(COUNTIF($B:$B, | Same legal name or same tax ID twice |
Most suppliers have more than one contact: an account manager, a billing team and someone to escalate to. Keeping them on a separate tab means the master vendor list stays one row per supplier. Add a role column so AP knows who to chase about invoices and procurement knows who to call about renewals.
| Vendor ID | Vendor | Contact | Role | Escalation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-0001 | Brightline Software Ltd | Priya Shah | Account manager | priya@brightline.example | No |
| V-0001 | Brightline Software Ltd | Billing team | Invoices | billing@brightline.example | No |
| V-0001 | Brightline Software Ltd | Tom Reed | Head of customer success | tom@brightline.example | Yes |
| V-0002 | Northwind Logistics plc | Sara Lind | Account manager | sara@northwind.example | No |
Illustrative contacts with placeholder email addresses.
Type the vendor ID in column A; the rest of the vendor data comes from the master list.
| Column | Formula |
|---|---|
| B: Vendor name (Excel 365, Google Sheets) | =XLOOKUP(A2, |
| B: Vendor name (older Excel) | =IFERROR(INDEX(Master!B:B, |
| Vendor status next to each contact | =XLOOKUP(A2, |
| Number of contacts for one vendor | =COUNTIF(Contacts!A:A, |
A flat list works until one vendor has three contracts and forty invoices. At that point, give contracts and spend their own tabs and link them back by vendor ID. The structure below is the same one most procurement tools use, so it loads cleanly when you move off spreadsheets.
| Tab | One row per | Key fields | Links by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master | Vendor | ID, legal name, category, terms, tax ID, status, owner | Vendor ID |
| Contacts | Person | Name, role, email, phone, escalation | Vendor ID |
| Contracts | Contract | Contract ID, type, start, end, notice days, value | Vendor ID |
| Spend | Invoice or payment | Date, amount, cost centre, GL code | Vendor ID |
| Documents | File | Tax form, insurance certificate, security review, expiry | Vendor ID |
Vendor ID sits in column A of every tab. Spend: B date, C amount. Contracts and Documents: E end or expiry date.
| Roll-up | Formula |
|---|---|
| Total spend for this vendor | =SUMIFS(Spend!C:C, |
| Spend in the last 12 months | =SUMIFS(Spend!C:C, |
| Number of contracts | =COUNTIF(Contracts!A:A, |
| Next contract end date | =MINIFS(Contracts!E:E, |
| Documents expired or expiring in 30 days | =COUNTIFS(Documents!A:A, |
MINIFS returns 0 when a vendor has no future contract; format the cell to show a blank for zero. Read more on supplier data management.
A long vendor list hides problems; a summary surfaces them. Review it monthly with the procurement or finance lead, and treat any count above zero in the bottom three rows as a task for that week.
Illustrative annual spend by category from a 40-vendor sample list.
| Measure | Formula |
|---|---|
| Active vendors | =COUNTIF(Master!I:I, |
| Spend for one category | =SUMIF(Master!C:C, |
| Contracts ending in the next 90 days | =COUNTIF(Master!N:N, |
| Expired contracts still marked Active | =COUNTIFS(Master!N:N, |
| Vendors with no owner | =COUNTIFS(Master!B:B, |
| Possible duplicates | =COUNTIF(Master!O:O, |
Bad data is cheapest to stop on the day a vendor is added. Most duplicate suppliers come from someone adding a row without searching the list first, so make the search the first check.
Spendflo supplier onboarding collects tax, contact and bank details before a vendor goes live.
See supplier onboardingApproved, details verified and cleared for purchase orders and payments.
Added but still waiting on a tax form, bank check or approval. No payments yet.
No spend in twelve months or the contract has ended. Kept for history and audit.
Do not buy from or pay, usually after a dispute, a failed check or a fraud attempt.
An optional flag for vendors you steer new requests towards in a category.
| Field | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | As on the tax form, including Ltd, plc or Inc | Kestrel Data Ltd |
| Category | Pick from the drop-down, never free text | Data services |
| Payment terms | Net plus days, one format only | Net 30 |
| Tax ID | No spaces, country prefix where used | GB123456789 |
| Dates | One date format across the workbook | 31 Mar 2027 |
| Shared inbox ahead of a named person | billing@brightline.example |
Illustrative values.
Check name and tax ID first, because most duplicate vendors come from skipping this.
Lock category, terms and status to fixed lists so filters and COUNTIF formulas stay accurate.
The owner answers for renewals, contacts and performance, so nothing falls between teams.
The person requesting a vendor should not be the one who sets it to Active.
Mark vendors with no spend in twelve months Inactive so they cannot be paid by mistake.
SaaS, Software and IT tools typed by different people split one category into three.
Anyone with edit access could change where money goes, so keep them in a restricted system.
Set them to Inactive instead, so past invoices and audits still find the record.
Contacts belong on their own tab, or the master list fills with near-duplicate suppliers.
Pull the vendor or supplier report from QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite and paste it into the master tab.
Fix names to the legal form, assign vendor IDs, then work through every row flagged Check duplicate.
Move contact details to the contacts tab and add each contract with its end date.
Give each active vendor an owner, then check the tracking summary monthly.
Orbit Analytics exports 212 suppliers from its accounting system. The duplicate check flags 14 rows, including Brightline Software Ltd and Brightline Software sharing one tax ID. After merging and deactivating vendors with no spend in a year, 131 active vendors remain, and 6 contracts show Renew soon. Figures are illustrative.
Every part on this page, in Excel and Google Sheets, with the examples filled in.
One master list with contacts is enough. Review it twice a year and keep tax forms in a shared folder linked from each row.
Add the contracts and spend tabs, name an owner per vendor and run the new vendor checklist on every addition. See the supplier onboarding process for the full sequence.
Add entity and currency columns and store the tax ID format for each country. Keep one vendor ID across entities so group spend adds up.
Best for one owner and lists over a few hundred rows.
Best when procurement, AP and IT all edit it.
One tab, 15 columns, no sample rows.
$3.7B in software spend processed through Spendflo, at 30% average savings.
See your savingsA good vendor list gives every supplier one ID, one owner and one status, and flags renewals before they arrive. Once new vendors arrive faster than you can check them, the fix sits upstream in how suppliers are requested and onboarded.
A master list keyed by vendor ID, with duplicate checks built in.
Open the master list →2Renewals, unowned vendors and duplicates counted on one tab.
Open the summary →3Eight checks before any supplier is set to Active.
Open the checklist →Quick answers to what people ask most about the vendor list template.
Export your current suppliers, give each one a unique vendor ID and one row with legal name, category, contact, terms, tax ID, status and owner. Then remove duplicates and set a quarterly review. You can download the template on this page to skip the setup.
At minimum: vendor ID, legal name, category, primary contact, payment terms, tax ID, status, contract end date and internal owner. Larger teams add spend, documents and multiple contacts on linked tabs, all included in the download.
Put headers in row 1, convert the range to a table with Ctrl + T and add drop-downs for category, terms and status. Add the duplicate check and contract flag formulas shown in Part 1, or download the Excel vendor list template with them already built.
A supplier list is built the same way as a vendor list: one row per supplier, a unique ID and verified legal, tax and contact details. Collect those details on a form rather than from emails, and download the template here for the column layout.
You can download one free on this page as an Excel workbook or a Google Sheets copy. It includes the master vendor list, contact list, database tabs, tracking summary and new vendor checklist.
Vendor management
Purchase orders
Contracts
Sourcing and RFx
Budgets and business cases
Procurement
Accounts payable
Purchasing
Software buying
Supply chain
Spendflo runs intake, approvals and supplier onboarding, so every new vendor arrives with verified details, and tracks contracts and renewals once they are live.
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