# Vendors and vendor catalogs

Vendors are the suppliers you buy from. Set how each one takes orders, which locations use it, and each location's delivery days, cutoff and minimum order.

For: Admins, Managers · On: Web · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [Inventory](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory) · Last updated October 13, 2026 · Mays Team

Vendors are the suppliers you buy from. For each one, set how it takes orders, which of your locations use it, and each location's delivery days, cutoff and minimum order.

**Where:** **Inventory → Vendors** on the web. The list shows each vendor's **Locations**, **Order method** and **Actions** (**Catalog**, edit and delete).

![The Vendors page: Harbor Coffee Roasters for South with the manual order method, Metro Restaurant Supply for all locations, manual, and Sunrise Dairy Co. for South by email](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__vendors-and-vendor-catalogs__01-vendors-list.5c1c81eaea.png)

## Add a vendor (admins)

1. Click **New vendor**.
2. Under **Details**, enter the vendor's name, contact name, phone, contact email and address.
3. Pick the **Order method** (see below). For **email**, enter the **Order email (where POs are sent)**.
4. Under **Locations that order from this vendor**, tick each location that buys from it. Leave them all unticked to make it available to every location.
5. For each ticked location, set:
   - **On-demand** for a vendor with no fixed schedule, **or** the **Delivery days**, **Cutoff day** and **Cutoff time**;
   - **Lead time (days)** and **Minimum order $**;
   - this location's **Rep name**, **Rep phone** and **Order email(s)**, separated by commas.
6. Click **Save vendor**.

![Editing Sunrise Dairy Co.: order method email with its order email, and the South location ticked with deliveries on Monday and Thursday, a Wednesday 2:00 PM cutoff, a 1-day lead time, a $150.00 minimum, the rep's name and phone, and the order email for South's orders](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__vendors-and-vendor-catalogs__02-vendor-form.a40271b0cd.png)

## Order methods

| Method | What **Send order** does |
| --- | --- |
| **email** | Emails the order as a PDF purchase order to the vendor. |
| **manual** | Marks the order as placed so you can phone or text it in. If the location or the vendor has any email address on file, including the vendor's contact email, Mays emails the order to it anyway. |
| **punchout**, **edi**, **playwright**, **shopify** | Place orders on the vendor's own ordering website. These are set up with the Mays team; [contact support](https://www.mays.app/help/getting-started/contact-support) to get a vendor connected. |

**Supplier logins stay hidden.** For the website order methods, each store's login to the supplier's site is saved encrypted. Once it's saved, Mays never shows it again, and the password box reads *•••• saved — leave blank to keep*. To change the login, type the new value. A field you leave blank keeps what's already saved.

Which address gets the email: the location's first **Order email(s)**, then the vendor's **Order email**, then its contact email. See [Placing purchase orders](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/purchase-orders).

## Delivery days, cutoffs and minimums

The order form uses each location's settings to show, per vendor:

- *Arrives Thu, Oct 1 · order by Wed, Sep 30, 2:00 PM*: the next delivery you can still make, and its deadline;
- *Order window for Mon, Sep 28 closed*: a nearer delivery's deadline has already passed, so the order goes on the delivery shown above it;
- *Add $24.40 to reach $150.00 minimum*, or *✓ $150.00 minimum met*;
- *No delivery schedule set* when the location has none.

Times are in the location's time zone. There's one cutoff day and time per vendor and location: for each delivery day, the deadline is the last cutoff day before it. A delivery day with no cutoff day has no *order by*.

**Lead time (days)** sets the expected delivery for an **On-demand** vendor, and for a location with no delivery days. When a location has delivery days, its delivery days and cutoff decide the delivery instead.

## What managers can do

- **Can:** set their own location's delivery days, cutoff, lead time, minimum, rep and order emails, then click **Save vendor**. The vendor's details are greyed out and marked *shared vendor — admin only*.
- **Can't:** add, rename or delete vendors, change the order method or set prices for all locations.
- **Careful with vendors for all locations.** When a manager ticks their location on a vendor that no location was ticked for, the vendor becomes available to that location only, and other locations stop seeing it. Ask an admin to tick every location that uses it.
- If a vendor is also set up for a location the manager doesn't run, their save changes only their own locations and leaves the others as they are.
- **If a save doesn't go through,** the form stays open and says why, instead of closing as if it had saved.

## Vendor catalogs

For a vendor connected to its ordering website, the **Catalog** button opens its product list. Admins map each product to one of your items once, and every location ordering from that vendor uses the mapping.

1. Click **Catalog** next to the vendor.
2. Click **Sync catalog** to bring in the vendor's products.
3. For each product, pick your item in **Search items…**, or click **New item** to create one from it.
4. Or click **Suggest with AI**, check the suggestions and click **Accept** on each, or **Accept all on this page**.

Mapping copies the product's price and pack size to the item. Each later **Sync catalog** copies them again when the vendor changes them, so recipe costs, on-hand value and the order form use the new price. The message under the buttons says how many mapped items changed, for example *Synced 120 products. 3 mapped items got a new price or pack size; recipe costs use it now.* A product the vendor lists with no price leaves your price as it is, and a price you set for one location still wins at that location.

The **Past orders** tab shows the vendor's order history from its website. For **email** and **manual** vendors the catalog stays empty: enter their prices on each item instead. See [Inventory items](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-items).

## Good to know

- **Deleting a vendor** (admins) removes it from lists and the order form. The trash icon shows for managers too, but only an admin's delete goes through; a manager sees a message saying so.
- **Prices live on items**, not on the vendor. The order form offers every vendor that has a price for the item.
- **AI suggestions don't use AI credits.**

## Related articles

- Inventory: [Inventory at a glance](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-overview) — Inventory tracks what you stock, what it costs and what you use, from items and vendors to counts, orders, invoices and waste. It's part of the Pro plan.
- Inventory: [Inventory items](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-items) — Items are what you count, order and cost, like a carton of oat milk or a pound of espresso. Each has a count unit, other units such as a case, and vendor prices.
- Inventory: [Placing purchase orders](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/purchase-orders) — Build orders from your par levels, send each vendor a PDF purchase order by email, and check what arrived against what you ordered.
- Inventory: [Vendor invoices](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendor-invoices) — Record what vendors delivered and charged. Scan or photograph an invoice, upload its PDF, share it from your phone or email it in, and the AI drafts it; check the lines next to the document, then post it to add the stock and update your prices.
- Inventory: [Recipes and plate costing](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/recipes-and-costing) — A recipe lists what goes into one menu item. Mays prices each ingredient from your vendor prices and shows the plate's cost, cost % and margin.
- Getting started: [Getting help and support tickets](https://www.mays.app/help/getting-started/contact-support) — Open a support ticket from Help in the web app, follow the Mays team's replies and answer them, or send a support request from the contact page at mays.app/contact, or call us.

## Still need help?

Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you.

[Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939)

Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendors-and-vendor-catalogs