🏢 Suppliers (Branches, Venues & Organisations)

Suppliers are a flexible feature in the system that let you manage companies, branches, venues, or organisations. They’re often the “other side” of a relationship — the entity that users, subscriptions, or events are tied to.

Users can be connected to multiple Supplier records at the same time.

Suppliers support:

• Multiple locations (branch offices, venues, campuses, etc.)
• Up to 8 custom fields (e.g. ABN, Member Number, Sector, Notes)
• Corporate subscriptions (where one organisation pays or manages on behalf of multiple users)

📍 What can Suppliers represent?

• Branches – e.g. PwC Sydney Office, PwC Melbourne Office
• Venues – e.g. Hilton Brisbane, Sydney Convention Centre
• Organisations – e.g. Australian Medical Association, NZ Safety Council

This flexibility means you can track and link many different kinds of “companies” in one place.

📝 Supplier Details

When you add or edit a Supplier, you can store:

• Name – the organisation or branch name.
• Addresses – one supplier can have multiple locations.
  Use Address Line 1 to identify the branch (e.g. Sydney Office).
  Additional address lines for street details.
• Custom Fields – up to 8 fields configured for your organisation’s needs (e.g. ABN, Cost Centre, Region).
• Status – active/inactive tracking for reporting.

🔑 Linking Users to Suppliers

• Users can be linked to a Supplier via their email domain (automatically) or by staff.
• A user can also be linked to a specific Supplier Address (branch/venue) if needed.
• This ensures invoices, event bookings, and CPD records pick up the correct organisation and location.

💳 Corporate Subscriptions

Suppliers are also how you enable corporate subscriptions.

1. When creating or editing a Subscription Type, tick “Is Linked Supplier”.
2. This enforces that any user purchasing or assigned this subscription must be linked to a Supplier.
3. Staff can then link the corporate subscription to a Supplier/Organisation so all related members are grouped under it.

👉 Example:

• “Corporate Gold Membership” → must be tied to an organisation.
• Users signing up will need to be attached to a Supplier (their company).
• Invoices and renewals are then issued against the company, not just the individual.

📊 Where Suppliers are Used

Suppliers appear across the system in:

• Invoices – ensuring correct company/branch details.
• Events – venues can be stored as suppliers.
• Memberships/Subscriptions – for corporate or organisational memberships.
• User Records – tracking which company a user belongs to.
• Reports – filter by company, branch, or custom supplier field.

✅ Best Practice

• Use one Supplier record per organisation, and add Addresses for multiple branches or venues.
• Use Address Line 1 to clearly identify each branch (e.g. Sydney Office).
• Keep custom fields consistent — decide on their purpose (e.g. ABN, Sector) and use them across all suppliers.
• For corporate subscriptions, always tick “Is Linked Supplier” on the subscription type.

⚡ Summary: Suppliers give you a single, flexible way to manage organisations, branches, and venues in your system. With addresses, custom fields, and subscription linking, you can track and report on companies at both the organisation and branch level.

📍 Adding Multiple Locations for a Company

Sometimes a company has more than one office or branch. You can now add these directly into the system. Each branch will be linked to the company and can be used for invoices, user addresses, and reporting.

✨ How it works

• A Company (supplier) can have multiple Addresses.
• Each Address represents a location or branch office.
• Address Line 1 should be used to name the location (e.g. Sydney Office, Melbourne Branch).
• Users can then be linked to the correct branch, ensuring invoices and reports pick up the right details.

📝 Steps to Add a New Location

1. Go to the Company record
   Open the company (supplier) you want to update.
2. Navigate to Addresses
   In the Addresses section, click Add New Address.
3. Fill in the details
   Address Line 1 → Enter the branch name, e.g. Sydney Office.
   Address Line 2/3 → Enter the street details.
   Suburb / State / Postcode / Country → Fill these in as normal.
4. Mark preferred address (optional)
   Tick Preferred Address if this should be the main one used for most users.
5. Save the address.

📌 Example

• Address Line 1: Sydney Office
• Address Line 2: One International Towers
• Address Line 3: Watermans Quay
• Suburb: Barangaroo
• State: NSW
• Postcode: 2000
• Country: Australia

👥 Assigning Users to a Location

• By default, users are linked to the company’s main (preferred) address.
• Staff can manually update a user’s Relationship Supplier Address if they belong to a different branch.
• Later, we’ll allow users to pick their own branch — for now, staff control this for accuracy.

✅ Tips

• Keep the company name as-is in the supplier record (e.g. PwC).
• Use Address Line 1 to distinguish the branch (e.g. Sydney Office, Melbourne Office).
• Don’t duplicate the whole company name in Address Line 1.