Avoid the Horror of Manual Supplier Onboarding

by Ashley Poynter

Content Manager

Avoiding the Horror Story of Manual Supplier Onboarding: What Every Business Should Know

Picture this: You’re bringing a new supplier into your system. What should be a simple task turns into a back-and-forth loop of emails, missing documents, manual data entry, and inevitable errors. One minute, you’re thinking it’s almost done, and the next—you’re staring at incorrect banking details, delayed payments, and scrambling to clean up a mess that could have been easily avoided.

Sound familiar? That’s the horror story of manual supplier onboarding. And if your company is still using spreadsheets, PDF forms, and email chains to onboard suppliers, well, you’re living in a very spooky reality.

But don’t worry, this story has a happy ending. In this article, we’ll unpack why manual supplier onboarding is a nightmare waiting to happen and show you how to avoid these pitfalls. With automation, you can transform your onboarding process from chaotic to streamlined and leave the horror stories behind.

The Risks of Manual Supplier Onboarding: A Fright Fest of Errors and Delays

—Data Entry Mistakes: The Hidden Monsters

—Slow, Clunky Process: The Monster That Drags Its Feet

—Fraud Risk: The Nightmare Lurking in the Shadows

The Hidden Costs of Manual Supplier Onboarding: It’s More Than Just a Hassle

Automation: the Future of Supplier Onboarding

Escape the Horror Story of Manual Supplier Onboarding

Get Ready for Vendor Management Appreciation Day 2024

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The Risks of Manual Supplier Onboarding: A Fright Fest of Errors and Delays

Manual supplier onboarding may seem like an old-school, no-fuss method. But the truth? It’s a recipe for disaster. A supplier onboarding process that relies on manual data entry, spreadsheets, and email communications is a process prone to mistakes. And these mistakes don’t just cause minor inconveniences—they can disrupt your entire business.

Onboard, Vet, and Pay Vendors With Confidence Ready to eliminate your fraud risk and sleep better at night? Take our self-guided demo to see how easy (and stress-free!) your vendor onboarding process can be.

Data Entry Mistakes: The Hidden Monsters

Let’s be real: people make mistakes, especially when they input data manually. A typo in a supplier’s banking details? That’s not just a small error—it’s a payment that could go to the wrong place. Or bounce back, causing accounting headaches. These errors are not only costly, but they can also damage your company’s reputation.

Slow, Clunky Process: The Monster That Drags Its Feet

Manual onboarding is about as fast as a zombie crawl. You’ve got to wait for forms to be emailed, filled out, and returned. Then, someone has to manually check and manually type that data into your system. If you’ve got multiple suppliers to onboard, this slow process becomes a bottleneck that can delay projects, shipments, and, ultimately, your bottom line. Hannah Kanouff, Vendor Management Coordinator for the Office of Central Procurement at Penn State University, speaks to the woes of manual verification and the delays it causes:

Fraud Risk: The Nightmare Lurking in the Shadows

Without a standardized, automated verification process, manual onboarding opens the door to fraudsters. Weak validation steps and human error are a fraudster’s dream come true. They know that manual processes often miss red flags, giving them the perfect opportunity to slip through the cracks and commit fraud.

The Hidden Costs of Manual Supplier Onboarding: It’s More Than Just a Hassle

You might think that manual onboarding is just a bit annoying—a time-consuming inconvenience, sure, but nothing more. However, the costs of sticking with manual processes are far more significant than you realize. You’re not just losing time—you’re paying in other ways too.

Time and Resource Drain: The Invisible Energy Vampire

Manual processes are an energy vampire, sucking valuable time and resources from your team. Instead of focusing on strategic initiatives, your employees are bogged down by endless email exchanges, chasing down missing forms, and correcting mistakes. This kind of inefficiency leads to burnout and wasted talent. You hired your team for their brains, not their ability to chase paper.

Delayed Payments Hurt Relationships: The Trust Killer

Late payments due to manual errors can sour your relationships with key suppliers. Suppliers rely on your prompt payments to keep their operations running smoothly. If they’re consistently receiving late payments because of onboarding delays, they might decide you’re not worth the hassle, damaging a valuable business relationship.

Compliance Nightmares: The Risk You Didn’t Know You Had

In the maze of manual onboarding, it’s easy to miss important regulatory or tax documentation. Without an automated system, ensuring compliance with industry regulations (be honest, when is the last time you checked sanctions lists when you issued a PO???) or keeping track of supplier tax forms is a gamble. The result? Fines, penalties, and potential legal trouble. And no one wants to explain to their boss why a missed form led to a regulatory slap on the wrist.

Automation: the Future of Supplier Onboarding

Good news: there’s a way out of this onboarding nightmare. Automation. By automating your supplier onboarding process, you can leave the headaches of manual data entry and compliance risks in the past. Automation takes care of the boring, repetitive work, allowing your team to focus on what they do best—growing your business.

Reduced Errors: The End of Data Entry Nightmares

With automation, you don’t have to worry about someone typing in the wrong bank account number or creating duplicate supplier records. Automated systems ensure data is valid and entered correctly from the start, eliminating the risk of human error. No more holding your breath every time you make a payment, hoping everything was entered accurately.

Faster Onboarding: From a Zombie Crawl to Light Speed

When you automate supplier onboarding, you’re no longer waiting on emails or chasing down missing information. Suppliers are invited to enter their details directly into a secure platform, and the system verifies them automatically. The result? A process that’s fast, efficient, and doesn’t involve you frantically hitting refresh on your inbox.

Enhanced Security: The Fraud Fighter You’ve Been Waiting For

One of the biggest advantages of automation is security. Automated systems verify supplier details, flagging anything suspicious before it becomes a problem. This proactive approach significantly slashes your fraud risk. Automated onboarding platforms are designed to catch inconsistencies before they make their way into your ERP, and they provide an audit trail so you always know who did what and when.

Efficiency Boost: Doing More with Less

Automation takes the drudgery out of supplier onboarding. Your team can stop wasting time on manual tasks and start focusing on higher-value work. Instead of tracking down forms and correcting mistakes, they can spend their time auditing records, eliminating stale data, building relationships, and driving business growth.

Better Fraud Prevention: Keeping the Bad Guys Out

Automation is like having a digital bouncer for your supplier onboarding process. Automated systems come with built-in verification processes, making it harder for fraudsters to slip in undetected. This not only saves you money but also protects your company’s reputation.

Ben Lao, Head of Procurement, Ryan LLC, offers a compelling business case for using vendor management technology, and it’s pretty simple: one wrong click can wipe all your hard work (and millions of $$$) away:

Escape the Horror Story of Manual Supplier Onboarding

Let’s face it—manual supplier onboarding is a ghost story you don’t want to keep telling. The risks are too high, and the process is too slow and too error-prone. It’s time to embrace the hero of this story: automation.

By automating your supplier onboarding process, you’ll save time, reduce errors, improve supplier relationships, and drastically reduce the risk of fraud. Instead of dealing with compliance nightmares and payment delays, you can run a streamlined, efficient, and secure operation.

So, let’s put the horror story of manual onboarding to rest. Instead, take control, upgrade your processes, and leave the chaos behind. With automation, your supplier management can finally operate at the level your business deserves—efficient, secure, and ready for the future.

Welcome to the new, better way of doing things. Ready to say goodbye to the nightmare?

Get Ready For Vendor Management Appreciation 2024

While fraud is frightful, celebrating vendor managers is delightful! And that’s just what we’ll be doing on December 12th for our SECOND annual Vendor Management Appreciation Day (VMAD)!

What: A special day set aside to celebrate our heroes, vendor managers

Why: There’s no expiration date on honoring one of the most important, under-recognized roles across industries: vendor management.

When: December 12th, 2024

Join us in observing Vendor Management Appreciation Day (VMAD)! We’re gearing up for the 2024 celebration, and we want you to be a part of it!

VMAD is a new holiday geared toward unifying vendor management professionals and celebrating innovation in the field.

Moreover, we’ve released gifts each month to help you supercharge your vendor management efforts. Additionally, we’re planning some awesome events so everyone can connect and celebrate the important, strategic role of vendor management.

In the meantime, learn more here, and grab some free vendor management goodies.