Suppliers: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every supplier task. For what each option means, see Suppliers; for problems, see Suppliers: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’ve got a new contractor	Add a supplier
You’re moving your supplier list into COHO	Import suppliers from a CSV
A supplier’s phone, email or contact has changed	Edit a supplier
You want to group suppliers by trade	Manage trade specialisms
A trusted supplier shouldn’t wait for your approval	Choose what a supplier can do without your review
A job needs a contractor	Share a job with a supplier
A supplier says they didn’t get the job, or lost the link	Resend a supplier’s job link
Jobs should go to a different email or mobile	Change where a supplier receives jobs
A supplier phoned with an update	Update a job for a supplier
A supplier asks how to see all their jobs	Help a supplier find their jobs
An invoice needs to become a cost for the owner	Turn a supplier invoice into a financial item
You need to know who’s owed money	See what you owe a supplier
You want supplier bills in Xero	Send supplier bills to Xero
You no longer use a supplier, or need one back	Archive or restore a supplier
You need a list of suppliers	Export your suppliers

Add a supplier

Do this when you start working with a new contractor, ideally before you need to send them a job.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Suppliers. Have their company name, and their email if you’ll send them jobs.

1. Go to Menu > Suppliers and click Add supplier.
2. Enter the Company Name (required), Contact Forename and Contact Surname.
3. Enter their Email and Contact number.
4. Turn on Preferred Supplier if you use them often.
5. Add Notes and Private files for your team if you like.
6. Under Permissions, tick any review steps they can skip (see below).
7. Tick their Specialisms, or click Add new specialism to create one.
8. Click Add.

What happens next: the supplier appears in your list and in Select supplier… on jobs and financial items. They aren’t contacted.

Tip

In a hurry? On a maintenance job or financial item, click the + beside Select supplier… to add a supplier there. Set their preferred status and specialisms later from the Suppliers panel.

Import suppliers from a CSV

Do this when you have a list of suppliers to bring in at once.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Suppliers. Open Guidance & Import Template and click click here to download the template. The columns are CompanyName, ContactForename, ContactSurname, EmailAddress, ContactNumber and Notes.

1. Fill in the template. Each line needs a company name or a contact forename. Emails and mobile numbers must be valid.
2. Go to Menu > Suppliers and click Import suppliers.
3. Under Upload your CSV, add your file.
4. If COHO can’t match your columns, choose them under Company Name, Contact Forename, Contact Surname, Email Address, Contact Number and Notes.
5. Check the Preview of your CSV import with Prev and Next.
6. Click Import.

What happens next: the suppliers are added. If any line has a problem, nothing is imported and COHO shows the error; fix the file and try again. Add permissions and specialisms afterwards with Edit.

Caution

An email that’s already in your directory, including on an archived supplier, stops the import. Remove that line, or restore the archived supplier instead.

Edit a supplier

Do this when a supplier’s details change.

1. Open Menu > Suppliers, find the supplier, and click Edit.
2. Change the details and click Update.

What happens next: the changes show everywhere the supplier is used.

Note

Changing the Email here doesn’t change where existing job links are sent once a supplier has been sent a job. To change that, see Change where a supplier receives jobs.

Manage trade specialisms

Do this when you want your own trades, such as “Pest control” or “Inventory clerk”.

1. Open the Suppliers panel and click the settings cog.
2. In Supplier Settings, click Add specialism, enter a Name and click Save.
3. To rename one of yours, click Edit. COHO’s defaults can’t be changed.

What happens next: the specialism can be ticked on any supplier and used in the Select specialism… filter. Specialisms can’t be deleted; untick them on suppliers instead.

Choose what a supplier can do without your review

Do this when you trust a supplier to go ahead without your sign-off on some steps.

1. Open the supplier and click Edit.
2. Under Permissions, tick the steps they can skip:
   • Quotes submission: their estimates are accepted straight away;
   • Invoices submission: their invoices are accepted straight away;
   • Date proposal: their dates are accepted and the job is scheduled;
   • Job completion: their completed work is accepted straight away.
3. Click Update.

What happens next: from now on, COHO accepts those steps for this supplier on every job and doesn’t create an Action for you to review them. The supplier sees a message such as “The invoices you submit get automatically approved”.

Share a job with a supplier

Do this when a contractor needs to do the work on a maintenance issue.

Before you start: add the supplier, with an email address. You need edit permission for Maintenance.

1. Open the maintenance issue and click Supplier (or Change supplier).
2. Choose a supplier.
3. Do you want to share this issue with the supplier? Choose Yes.
4. Under Share job with supplier, add a Message and choose what to share: the tenant conversation, public files, manager notes, the request message, access codes, tenants’ emails and phone numbers, Invoicing instructions and Share entry permission with supplier.
5. Check the Email address and Contact number.
6. Has the supplier already accepted the issue? Choose Yes if they’ve already agreed, otherwise No.
7. Click Confirm.

What happens next: the supplier gets an email, and a WhatsApp or SMS if you gave a mobile number, with a link to the job. The supplier section shows “Shared with supplier on [date]”. You get an Action when they send something for you to review, or reject the job.

Note

Choose No to record the supplier on the job without contacting them, for example if you’ll phone them. You can share it later with Sharing in the supplier section.

Resend a supplier’s job link

Do this when a supplier can’t find the email or text.

1. Open the maintenance issue.
2. In the supplier section, click Copy link.
3. Paste the link into an email or message to the supplier.

What happens next: the link opens the job for them. To send COHO’s email again instead, click Sharing, check the details, and click Confirm.

Change where a supplier receives jobs

Do this when a supplier wants job emails or texts to go to a different address or mobile.

1. Open a job that’s shared with them, or one you’re about to share.
2. In the supplier section, click Sharing.
3. Change the Email address or Contact number, then click Confirm.
4. Also update their Email in Suppliers, so your directory matches.

What happens next: COHO sends the job to the new details, and uses them the next time you share a job with this supplier. The email the supplier’s COHO account uses doesn’t change. If they’ve claimed their account, they can change it themselves; if not, contact COHO support.

Update a job for a supplier

Do this when a supplier tells you about progress by phone or email instead of using their link.

1. Open the maintenance issue and find the supplier section.
2. Under What next?, choose what they told you: Accept job, Reject, Estimate, Awaiting parts, Schedule Job, Complete or Alert tenants.
3. Fill in the form and save.

What happens next: the job moves on as if the supplier had done it. For their invoice, use Add invoice (see Maintenance: how-to).

Help a supplier find their jobs

Do this when a supplier asks how to see everything you’ve sent them.

1. Ask them to open the link from any job email or text.
2. Ask them to click View dashboard at the top.

What happens next: they see every job shared with them, grouped under Not started, Investigating, Estimate, Scheduled, Parts, Invoice, Complete, Archive and Deferred. Closed jobs drop off after 30 days. If they’d rather log in without a link, they can choose Claim account to set a password and use the COHO app.

Turn a supplier invoice into a financial item

Do this when a job’s invoice has been accepted and the cost needs to go into Finances.

Before you start: the invoice is accepted (or you added it), the property has an owner and isn’t owned by your organisation, and you have edit permission for Finances.

1. Open the maintenance issue and find the invoice.
2. Click Create financial item.
3. Check the amounts, who pays, and any mark-up, fee or commission. Click Preview, then Create financial items.

What happens next: the financial item appears in Finances with the supplier and the invoice file, and under the invoice as “Existing Financial Items”. If you use Xero, it goes to the supplier’s Xero contact as a bill on the next supplier sync.

Tip

If Create financial item is missing, COHO lists the reason under the invoice. See Suppliers: troubleshooting.

See what you owe a supplier

Do this when you’re paying suppliers or checking a balance.

1. Open Menu > Suppliers.
2. Turn on With unpaid invoice only and click Filter.
3. Each supplier’s card shows “Sum of unpaid invoices”.
4. For the full picture, go to Finances, filter financial items by the supplier and Unpaid, and click Filter.

What happens next: after you pay, mark the financial items paid in Finances. If you use Xero, paying the bill in Xero marks it paid in COHO on the next sync.

Send supplier bills to Xero

Do this when you want supplier costs to appear in Xero as bills.

Before you start: Xero is connected and your chart of accounts is mapped under Settlements & supplier expenses (see the Xero integration guide).

1. Edit your Xero integration and set Synchronise Supplier Settlements to Yes, with a Staging date (Sync items from).
2. Under Contacts > Suppliers, map each supplier that already exists in Xero to its contact.
3. Test with one supplier: open Synchronise Supplier Invoices & Commissions, choose A specific supplier, tick Only produce report, and run it. Check the report, then run it again without that tick.
4. When you’re happy, sync A specific property or all supplier items, or turn on Automatic Xero sync with Sync supplier items.

What happens next: financial items with a specific supplier go to Xero as bills payable. Unmapped suppliers get a new Xero contact. Bills paid in Xero are marked paid in COHO on the next sync, or when you click Pull back supplier payments statuses.

Archive or restore a supplier

Do this when you stop using a supplier, or need one back.

Before you start: you need the Supplier archive permission.

1. Open Menu > Suppliers and find the supplier. For an archived one, turn on Archived only and click Filter.
2. Click Archive (or Restore). In the cards view, confirm with Archive (or Restore); in the rows view it happens straight away.

What happens next: an archived supplier disappears from your lists and Select supplier…, but stays on existing jobs and financial items. A restored supplier is back on the active list.

Export your suppliers

1. Open Menu > Suppliers.
2. Click Export (CSV).

What happens next: a file downloads with each active supplier’s company name, contact names, email and contact number. Archived suppliers, notes and files aren’t included.