# Introduction - Vendors

A vendor is anyone you buy from.

**Video: Setting up a vendor, and what every later document inherits from it.** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwxVt2QmBvg

The record holds their currency, your payment terms with them, their tax treatment and the addresses goods arrive from. Every bill, purchase order and payment inherits those settings, so a vendor set up properly rarely needs correcting afterwards.

![The Vendors screen. A table lists nineteen vendors with columns for Name, Company, Email, Work Phone, Status, Payables (BCY) and Unused Credits (BCY). Every row shows a green Active status; Payables carries a balance on the vendors that are owed money and Unused Credits reads 0.00 throughout.](https://www.neuracrm.com/help/vendors/vendor-list.png)

*Payables is what you owe today. Unused Credits is value the vendor still owes back to you.*

## What the record decides

A vendor is the purchase-side mirror of a customer, and the same four fields do the work. Three of them change what every future document calculates; the fourth just saves your team a decision every time.

| Field | Effect on every future bill |
| --- | --- |
| Currency | Fixed once transactions exist. Bills can only be raised in this currency. |
| Payment terms | Calculates the due date, which drives your payables ageing. |
| Tax treatment | Decides whether purchase tax is recoverable on their bills. |
| Default expense account | Pre-fills the account on bills and expenses, saving a choice each time. |

> **Tip:**
>
> **Set a default expense account**
>
> For a vendor you use repeatedly for one thing, such as a landlord or a software subscription, the default account means their bills code themselves correctly without anyone thinking about it.

## The vendor detail page

Open a vendor and the transactions tab shows every purchase order, bill, payment and credit against them with a running balance. Before paying anyone, this is the screen that tells you whether an unused vendor credit should come off first.

- **Open bills** are what you owe now.
- **Purchase orders** are commitments, not yet liabilities.
- **Vendor credits** reduce the next payment rather than arriving as cash.
- **Prepayments** are money already sent that has not been matched to a bill.

## Active and inactive

Inactive vendors disappear from pickers but keep every historical transaction. Use it for vendors you have stopped buying from, so your team cannot accidentally raise a new order against a supplier who no longer exists.