Vendor Management: Overview

SiteCapture's Vendor Management feature connects two separate SiteCapture accounts so one company can assign work directly to another or give them permission to create work from their templates. It's how you can extend SiteCapture out to installers, subcontractors, inspectors, and other outside partners without giving them an internal seat in your account, or access to anything beyond the work you've assigned them.

Table of Contents

• Vendor Account Types
• One Way Vendor Connection
• How Does a Vendor Connection Work?
• What do Vendors have Access to?
• Best Practices for Working with Vendors
• Two Way Vendor Connection
• Connecting Multiple Vendors
• Vendors Working with Container Projects

Vendor Account Types

A connected vendor doesn't need a paid SiteCapture subscription of their own, but customers with an active subscription can be connected as vendors.

• Vendor-only account: the company exists in SiteCapture exclusively to receive and complete work assigned to them or to create work from the templates owned by the Client that connected them (if this permission is enabled). Each active Vendor connection will count as one seat in the Client’s user total; there is no additional cost for the Vendor Company or for added users in the Vendor’s account. A subcontractor with several techs in the field needs to set each of them up as their own field user in order to assign and share work internally.
• Vendor and customer: the connected vendor company can also be a paying SiteCapture customer with its own independent account, templates, and work; while separately being connected as a vendor to one or more other companies. In this scenario, they log in to run their own business in their own account, and separately access a Vendor view within that same account, to see work that has been assigned to them as a vendor or work they have created from the client’s templates as a vendor (permission must be enabled).

One Way Vendor Connection

In the most common setup, your company (the Client) connects to another company (the Vendor) in order to assign them work. You also have the option of allowing the Vendor to create new projects from your templates, while your company still maintains ownership of the work created.

The Client assigns work to the Vendor; the Vendor only ever sees what's been assigned to them.

How Does a Vendor Connection Work?

Once you've sent a vendor an invitation and they've accepted it, you can assign them work directly from your portal:

1. Assign a project to the vendor company from the Assign drop-down on that project (or in bulk, from the project list).

Assigning a project to a connected vendor company (“123 Solar Installation Co.”) from the Assign drop-down.

2. The project appears in the vendor's own portal, under a view that's automatically configured to your company's assignments only.

Once assigned, the project appears in the vendor's own portal under a view configured just to your company's work.

3. As the vendor's team completes the work, they update the project's Status. For example, moving it to “Submit for Review” or “Complete” so you know where things stand without having to follow up. This keeps the projects organized, allows you to keep track without following up and prevents loading issues in the Mobile apps.

Vendors update the Status field to communicate progress back to the Client.

Note: a vendor can't be assigned anything until they've accepted your connection invitation (or connected manually from their side). See: Adding and Connecting Vendors for more information.

Can the same vendor work with more than one of my clients, or with other companies on SiteCapture?

Yes, a vendor company can be connected to as many different Clients as it works with. Each relationship is managed separately: the vendor gets one clearly labeled view per Client, and nothing from one relationship is visible from within another.

A Vendor admin will work from the Web App, to review assigned by the client and sub-assign it to their field users, or create the work and assign it if you’ve enabled that setting. Vendors typically complete their assigned work from the SiteCapture mobile app rather than the web portal. If you're onboarding a new vendor's field crew, share our Getting Started on SiteCapture Mobile guide with them; it covers installing the app, logging in, taking required photos, and syncing completed work.

What do Vendors have Access to?

Vendors Have Access to:

• Work that's been assigned to them.
• Fields that haven't been restricted from Field Users.*
• Statuses that haven't been restricted from Field Users.*
• If you turn on the project-creation setting for them (off by default), the ability to create new projects using your templates, under the Types you've allowed.

*Vendors can optionally be given Admin Permissions, which extend their access to admin-only fields and statuses within their assigned projects. This doesn't grant any access to your account's Portal settings or configuration.

Vendors do Not Have Access to:

• Your account's settings or configuration, including: Template Editing, Report Configuration, User Management or Admin Settings.
• Any work that hasn't been assigned to them or created by them.
• Types you've restricted from them.

Ownership: Work created from your templates, whether it was assigned to a vendor or created by a vendor, always belongs to the Client who owns the template the work was generated from. Vendors can view, complete, and update the work while the Client maintains ownership, even if that vendor also runs its own separate SiteCapture subscription (see Vendor Account Types above).

Does connecting a vendor cost anything?

Each active Vendor connection will count as one seat in the Client’s user total; there is no additional cost for the Vendor Company or for added users in the Vendor’s account. If a vendor also has a SiteCapture subscription, they will be billed for additional users as outlined in their agreement.

Best Practices for Working with Vendors

• Don't create more than one vendor account for the same company. SiteCapture's model assumes a single connection per company with all of its work cleanly separated by Client. A duplicate account is not necessary to separate work and may cause syncing issues. Before adding a new vendor, search for their Company Name and E-mail Domain first; if a matching account already exists (even an inactive one), connect to the existing account instead of creating a new one. 
• Only one vendor can be assigned to a given project at a time. If a job needs more than one vendor's involvement, you will need to assign them one at a time. For example, one vendor for the survey stage and another for the install, rather than trying to grant simultaneous access to a single project.

Two Way Vendor Connection

If the company you're connecting with also has a SiteCapture subscription that includes vendor management, the relationship can run in both directions: they can invite your company to connect as their vendor, and assign you work the same way you assign work to them.

Each side manages the relationship from its own portal. Your company can be a Client in one relationship and a Vendor in another.

Connecting Multiple Vendors

There's no limit to how many vendor companies you can connect to. Many companies build out an entire network of installer or subcontractor vendors, each with their own view scoped to only the work assigned to them or that they have created from your templates (if that setting is enabled).

A single Client can connect to any number of separate vendor companies.

Vendors Working with Container Projects

Vendors need Admin Permissions to attach a project to a Container. Unlike your own internal users, vendors don't see the option to attach a new project to a Container at the moment they create it; the option only becomes available after creation from the project's three-dot menu. 

Assigning a vendor to a Container doesn't automatically give them visibility into everything inside it. If a Container has other projects attached that aren't assigned to that vendor, they will stay hidden from them. Each contained project still needs to be assigned to (or created by) the vendor individually before it will appear in their portal.