How much time do you think you spend chasing after uncommunicative suppliers?
Studies in the U.S. found that poor supplier management processes result in an average loss of 6,500 hours a year in manually following up on purchase orders, responding to suppliers, and processing invoices. Late and missed payments that trickle down as a result of these inefficiencies can add up to $171,340 a year!
Imagine what else you could be doing for your business instead with that amount of time and money. You could develop new products, hire a core team member, or even double down on a strategy that can take your business to the next level.
You need to invest in organized supplier communication and collaboration to get this time and money back. This means moving away from clunky legacy administrative processes and adopting automation, seamless integrations between supplier tools, and a unified view of all ongoing communication threads, documents, and deadlines.
That’s where a supplier portal software can help.
What is supplier portal software?
Supplier portal software helps small businesses and agencies centralize all supplier management tasks. This includes administrative processes like handling ongoing communication, sending and receiving documents, and providing real-time visibility into inventory levels, order statuses, and project progress.
Without a supplier portal software tool, teams typically rely on fragmented channels and data sources to get a cohesive view of ongoing collaboration with suppliers. Although that doesn’t make supplier management impossible, it does make it incredibly time-consuming and more prone to errors. A single detail that slips through the cracks can lead to delayed products, unhappy customers, and lost revenue.
A supplier portal software helps you align suppliers with your expectations and targets by:
- Enabling automation for administrative tasks such as order processing, invoicing, and generating records or documents for ongoing collaboration.
- Giving suppliers a centralized location for up-to-date information, documents, and project updates.
- Creating a single source of truth for all parties to eliminate the risk of record inconsistencies, miscommunication, and unethical practices.
What should you look for in a supplier portal software?
When evaluating your options for supplier portal software, you should look for a solution that best complements your organizational structure, resources, timelines, and goals. A user-friendly interface, robust integrations, and easy-to-use customization tools can help you prioritize efficiency for your critical essential supplier processes. Not only does this reduce implementation time, but it also helps you save costs on underutilized features and software licenses for your technical team.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for a supplier portal. You’ll typically find supplier portals with a mix of capabilities — some emphasizing self-service onboarding, while others are built for procurement, project planning, and so on. Here are a few popular supplier portal features:
- Supplier onboarding: Automate supplier registration and approvals.
- Inventory management: Track and manage supplier inventory levels for real-time collaboration.
- Order request forms: Provide suppliers with self-service options to submit and edit purchase requests.
- Vendor communication: Streamline all supplier-facing communication in one place.
- Document management: Store and centralize supplier-related documents in a secure repository.
- Project management: Manage and organize cross-functional tasks or automated workflows for a particular project.
- Billing and payments: Automate and track all invoicing and payment activities with suppliers.
7 best supplier portal software to use in 2024
In this list, we analyzed and compiled supplier portals with various strengths—from fast implementation and customization to procurement automation, spend management, and more. Let’s explore what each supplier portal software does and how it might make sense for your business.
Softr
G2 rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (346 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (60 reviews)
Softr empowers businesses with a customizable platform to build supplier portals and vendor management processes that fit your needs. Use Softr’s drag-and-drop builder to develop supplier applications without any coding, instead using a library of over 100 blocks and widgets, and access to templates and logic builders. With these custom tools, you can create and implement a user-friendly portal with features for self-service supplier onboarding, inventory management, document hubs, project management, billing, and reporting.
All you need to do to get started is connect Softr to existing databases like Airtable or Google Sheets. You can then design vendor-facing interfaces, workflows, and logic around your internal single source of truth. With Softr’s vendor management template, build a self-serve supplier portal that streamlines critical processes like order requests, invoicing, contract management, document sharing, and more. You can easily adapt this template to your workflows so data remains synced between your internal databases and client-facing applications for real-time visibility into the supplier process. Businesses use Softr to get suppliers onboarded and ramped up quickly by avoiding lengthy implementation cycles, stakeholder training, and software migration.
Price
- Get started with Softr’s forever free plan
- Softr’s most popular plan for small businesses starts at $139 per month
Product features
- Integrations to over 5000+ apps via Zapier and Maker
- Over 100 pre-built application templates
- Billing and payments
- Supplier onboarding
- Inventory management
- Reporting and analytics
- Document sharing
- Project management
- Workflow automation
- Security and permissions management
Key integrations
- Zapier
- Stripe
- Airtable
- Google Sheets
- HubSpot
Kissflow
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (536 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars (56 reviews)
Kissflow’s supplier portal enables self-service onboarding and services like managing purchase orders, tracking invoices, tracking payments, and more. The portal is available on Kissflow’s Procurement App, which you can use to centralize procurement operations, including supplier management, contract management, and inventory management.
The Kissflow platform runs on apps that teams can customize with automated workflows, forms, widgets, and software integrations. Unlike Softr, you will still require some developer resources to build tailor-made applications from the ground up. With the help of your IT team, you can personalize your supplier portal UI, build approval workflows, store documents, and measure supplier performance. Because of the platform’s feature-rich procurement application, this solution is a good fit for teams who want an all-in-one procurement solution instead of a fully customizable vendor portal.
Price
- Starts at $1,500 per month.
Product features
- Supplier onboarding
- Inventory management
- Contract management
- Document and catalog management
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations
Key integrations
- DocuSign
- Quickbooks
- Google Workspace
HICX
G2 rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars (1 review)
Capterra rating: 3 out of 5 stars (1 review)
HICX is supplier portal software for businesses that want to deliver a streamlined experience for suppliers, especially if they engage with stakeholders from different departments within the company. The tool allows portal customization without coding using custom forms, widgets, workflows, and integrations. However, as a solution part of a wider ecosystem of supply chain applications, it is best suited for organizations looking to bridge the portal with HICX’s supporting products for supplier management and process orchestration.
The supplier portal is built around tasks. Suppliers have a single view of all tasks and can use HICX’s AI features to help suppliers answer support questions. Although you can’t add custom widgets or UI elements to the portal, you can configure each supplier’s task dashboard based on their priorities and projects. With a strong emphasis on maintaining supplier master data management and connecting robust supplier solutions together, HICX is a strong solution for enterprises that already use HICX partners in their existing tech stack.
Price
- Contact HICX for custom pricing.
Product features
- Supplier onboarding
- Task management
- Compliance management
- Content management
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations
Key integrations
- Keelvar
- Spendlinq
- RiseNow
Zoho Creator
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (172 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (154 reviews)
With Zoho Creator, businesses can build a supplier portal using the platform’s custom workflows and integrations with external tools. Data integrations with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems enable processes for managing purchase orders, allowing self-service tasks, and giving suppliers real-time visibility into order statuses and ongoing projects.
The portal has a simple and clean interface that suppliers can access to view payment dashboards, manage documents, track invoices, and pull up on their phones on the go. However, this interface cannot be designed from scratch or built around your workflows with existing databases. The portal also helps you centralize administrative processes like updating order statuses, viewing and uploading transaction images, auditing portal activities, and generating new invoices.
Price
- Get started for $12 per user/per month.
Product features
- Supplier onboarding
- Order and purchase management
- Invoice and payment tracking
- Automated workflows
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations
Key integrations
- SAP
- Oracle NetSuite
- PayPal
Gatekeeper
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (59 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (70 reviews)
Gatekeeper is a vendor platform businesses use to streamline their supplier portal capabilities with automated contract management and vendor performance management. Simplify vendor onboarding and compliance processes with auto-generated vendor records and configurable approvals. Gatekeeper’s portal is workflow-driven, allowing businesses to map out different automated processes within the portal — including documentation updates, performance reviews, vendor invitations, and contract approvals.
The platform’s Kanban Workflow Engine is highly customizable. You can set up everything from trigger-based notifications to complex processes across different departments. These workflows allow you to automatically register, invite, and onboard vendors via the portal. On the other hand, the portal itself does not have a flexible user interface beyond basic branding customizations and a custom URL. The vendor portal is an additional module that teams can add on top of Gatekeeper’s core platform for contract and compliance management.
Price
- Get started for $1,125 per year
Product features
- Supplier onboarding
- Contract management
- Compliance management
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations and APIs
Key integrations
- Zapier
- Salesforce
- Oracle NetSuite
Precoro
G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (150 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (217 reviews)
Precoro’s procurement platform provides businesses with tools to optimize spending with better supplier management. It helps companies improve these four processes — request management, approvals, order documentation, and reporting. These capabilities are also embedded in Precoro’s supplier portal. You can use the portal to centralize and automate vendor onboarding tasks like creating onboarding forms, capturing information from financial documents, ensuring compliance requirements, and syncing data into your tech stack.
This portal is a great choice for companies looking for an integrated solution with a supplier portal and procurement capabilities. You can further customize your portal by selecting the right modules, adding your own document fields, and managing permissions. However, it’s not an application that you can get up and running on your own, as the platform has a two—to four-week implementation and onboarding process.
Price
- Supplier Portals are available in Precoro’s Automation plan, starting at $999 per month.
Product features
- Supplier onboarding
- Purchase requisition
- Document generation
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations and APIs
Key integrations
- NetSuite
- Quickbooks
- Xero
Coupa
G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (150 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (217 reviews)
Coupa is a spend management platform with tools to help purchasing organizations reach more suppliers and accelerate the payment process. This solution is tailored for businesses that want a portal specifically to streamline invoicing processes, provide more convenient payment options, and increase visibility into overall spending. It does not have self-service capabilities for popular supplier management processes like automated onboarding and project management.
Coupa’s supplier portal is a centralized location for managing purchase orders, invoices, and online payments. You can use the portal to instantly turn purchase orders into invoices and automatically detect invoice errors before sending them. The platform integrates securely with leading banks and financial institutions. It also has its own payment product, Coupa Pay, that you can use to drive digital payments and roll out virtual credit cards.
Price
- Free plan exclusively when your suppliers also use Coupa
- Paid pricing starts at $549/year
- Support is $499/year
Product features
- E-invoicing
- Digital payments
- Reporting and analytics
- Workflow automation
- Integrations and APIs
Key integrations
- Relish Invoice API
- Interos
- DataMap
Keep suppliers aligned and on track with a supplier portal software
Strong and timely communication with suppliers is necessary to help businesses stay on top of procurement needs while minimizing the risk of costly errors. But it is easy to put the need for a centralized portal on the backburner, especially if you’re a small or growing business that is weary of hefty implementation costs and the additional responsibilities of ramping suppliers up on a new system.
Agile platforms like Softr are designed for businesses to streamline supplier-facing administrative processes without the friction of onboarding a new tool and training suppliers. Eliminate the risk of missing documents, miscommunication, and delayed processes with a supplier portal application customized around your technology stack and supplier programs. Work with your existing data sources and build automated workflows that minimize disruptions and changes on your supplier’s end. It’s a win-win for everybody — you get a modern front-end experience set up in minutes while your suppliers get a unified view of your partnership without any learning curves. Build a custom supplier portal today and create a Softr account for free!
What is Softr
Softr is the easiest way to turn your data into powerful business apps—no code required. Connect to your spreadsheet or database, customize layout and logic, and share with your team or clients.
Join 700,000+ users worldwide, building client portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards, project management systems, inventory management apps, and more—all without code.
Join 700,000+ users worldwide, building client portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards, project management systems, inventory management apps, and more—all without code.
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Winona Rajamohan
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