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# How to Use the Supplier Catalog

The **Supplier Catalog** keeps every yard, nursery and store you buy from in one place, with the phone number, email, address and contact person for each. When your crew orders on a Project Budget, they see the supplier's phone and address, can tap to call or get directions, and order emails go straight to the right inbox.

You don't start from scratch. Every supplier already on your materials or past orders is on the list the first time you open it, so all you add is their details.

## Getting to the Supplier Catalog
Click **Catalog** in the menu, then **Suppliers**.

![Figure 1: The Supplier Catalog, with saved suppliers and names from your materials that don't have details yet.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_1.png =800x425)

## Your Supplier List
Each row shows the supplier's **Name**, **Contact Name**, **Phone**, **Email**, **Address** and **Default For**:
* **Phone, Email and Address are links.** Click a phone number to call, an email to start a message, or an address to open it in Google Maps.
* **No details yet** tags a supplier that's on your materials or past orders but has no saved phone, email or address. Add them any time (see below).
* **Default For** shows how many materials use this supplier as their default. Click it to open your Materials catalog showing only those materials. Click the **✕** on the **Supplier** chip above the list to see all your materials again.

Use **Search** to find a supplier by name, contact, phone, email or address, and **Sort by** to flip the order. On a phone, tap a supplier to see its details.

![Figure 2: Clicking Default For opens the Materials catalog filtered to that supplier.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Default_For.png =800x545)

## Adding a Supplier
1. Click **Add Supplier**.
2. Enter the **Supplier Name**. Everything else is optional: **Contact Name**, **Phone**, **Email**, **Address** and **Notes**. Phone numbers format as you type, like (509) 555-0101.
3. Click **Save**.

To add details to a supplier tagged **No details yet**, click the three-dot menu next to its name and choose **Add Details**.

![Figure 3: Adding a supplier.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Add.png =300x636)

| 💡 Foremen can also add a new supplier while they're ordering, right from the Record panel on a [Project Budget](https://support.elevationadvisor.com/en-us/article/using-the-project-budgets-page-1kzch4r/). It's saved here for everyone.

## Editing a Supplier
Click the three-dot menu next to a supplier and choose **Edit Supplier**. Change any detail and click **Save**.

If you rename a supplier, every material that uses it is renamed too, so nothing has to be fixed by hand.

## Uploading Suppliers from a Spreadsheet
If you already keep your suppliers in a spreadsheet, upload them all at once:
1. Click **Upload Multiple Suppliers**.
2. Click **Download CSV Template**. It has the columns **Name**, **Contact Name**, **Phone**, **Email**, **Address** and **Notes**, with one example row. Only **Name** is required.
3. Fill it in and save it as a CSV file.
4. Drop the file on the upload box, or click it to choose the file.
5. Check the preview, for example "Ready to import: 12 new suppliers · 5 suppliers updated", then click **Save**.

A few things to know:
* **Suppliers already on your list are matched by name**, ignoring capital letters, and get the file's details. A blank cell never clears a detail you already saved.
* **A name that appears twice** in the file is counted once.
* **Rows without a name** are skipped and counted in the preview.
* **10-digit phone numbers** are formatted for you.
* Up to 1,000 suppliers per file.

![Figure 4: Uploading suppliers, with the preview before you save.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Upload.png =300x591)

## Exporting Your Suppliers
Click **Export Suppliers** to download your whole list as a CSV file, in the same columns as the template. It's the easiest way to update a lot of suppliers at once: export, make your changes, and upload the file again.

## Merging Duplicate Suppliers
Over the years a supplier can end up on your materials under two names, like "Broadway" and a typo, "Broaway". Merge them into one:
1. Click the three-dot menu next to the name you want to get rid of and choose **Merge Into Another Supplier**.
2. Pick the supplier to keep in **Merge into**.
3. Click **Merge**.

Every material and past order with the old name moves to the supplier you kept. If the old one had a phone, email or address that the one you kept is missing, those details move over too. The old name then comes off your list.

![Figure 5: Merging a duplicate into the supplier you keep.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Merge.png =448x240)

## Removing a Supplier
1. Click the three-dot menu next to the supplier and choose **Remove Supplier**.
2. If materials use it as their default supplier, pick the supplier they should switch to in **Switch to**, or leave **No supplier**.
3. Click **Remove**.

The supplier comes off your list and off any materials that mention it. Past orders keep its name, because they're a record of what happened, but that doesn't bring it back onto the list. If you add or upload the same supplier again later, it comes back.

![Figure 6: Removing a supplier and switching its materials to another one.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Remove.png =448x220)

||| ℹ️ Use **Merge** when two names are the same supplier. Use **Remove** when you've stopped buying from a supplier.

## Setting a Material's Default Supplier
Each material in your [Materials catalog](https://support.elevationadvisor.com/en-us/article/how-to-add-materials-1qkq5qv/) has one default supplier. When your crew records an order, it's picked for them, and they can choose any other supplier if they bought the material somewhere else.

To set it, open a material with **Add Single Product** or its edit button, click **Default vendor** and pick a supplier from the list. Start typing to search, or type a new name and click **+ Add** to add a supplier on the spot.

![Figure 7: Picking a material's default supplier in the Materials catalog.](https://elevation-knowledgebase.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Onboarding/Catalogs/Images/Suppliers_Material_Default.png =300x591)

## Who Can Do What
* **Owners, admins, managers, estimators, sales and accounting** can do everything on this page.
* **Foreman/PM** can view, add and edit suppliers, but can't upload, export, merge or remove them.
* **Field** can view the list.