Supplier Onboarding Checklist

Record the legal business name (as filed with the Secretary of State), DBA, remit-to address, and ship-from address. Mismatches between the W-9 name and the name on the PO are the most common cause of 1099 corrections at year-end.

Domestic vendors submit a W-9; foreign entities submit W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E. File before the first PO is cut — chasing a W-9 in December after $600+ in payments is the textbook 1099 fire drill.

Vendor type drives downstream routing: domestic wholesale vendors need a resale certificate on file; international vendors require customs broker and HTS codes; dropship vendors need an inventory feed and SLA on ship-from-vendor timing.

Confirm general liability ($1M/$2M minimum for most retailers, $2M/$4M for hardlines), product liability coverage, and that the retailer is named as additional insured. Set a calendar reminder for the COI expiration date — expired COIs are the #1 finding in vendor audits.

For children's products, request CPSIA Children's Product Certificates and lab test reports. For textiles, confirm fiber-content labels meet FTC Textile Act requirements. For electronics, confirm FCC Part 15. Missing test reports surface during a CPSC recall — too late.

Required for imports. Capture the 10-digit HTS classification per SKU, country of origin, and the manufacturer ID (MID). Your customs broker needs these before the first PO ships from the factory; getting them at the port is too late.

Exempts your wholesale purchases from sales tax in the ship-to state. Multi-state retailers need a resale or MTC certificate per state of nexus. Without it, the vendor will charge tax on every PO.

Capture SKU, UPC/GTIN, vendor style number, case pack, inner pack, cost, MSRP, and dimensions. Validate UPCs against GS1 — vendor-assigned in-house UPCs will fail at the POS scanner and create a manual-key-entry mess at the register.

Standard terms for specialty retail are Net 30 with a 2/10 early-pay discount. Document minimum order quantity, case-pack requirements, freight terms (FOB origin vs. FOB destination), and chargebacks for late shipment or short-ship.

Request production samples (not prototypes) for fit, hand-feel, and packaging review. The visual director walks samples against the floor set; the buyer signs off on the assortment before the first PO is cut.

Document the markdown allowance percentage, RTV window for defectives, and whether the vendor accepts terminal-markdown returns. Vendors who refuse RTV on aged inventory should price accordingly — bake it into the margin calculation.

Create the vendor in NetSuite / Lightspeed / Cin7 with remit-to, terms, default GL accounts, and 1099 flag. Attach the W-9 and COI as supporting documents directly on the vendor record so AP can find them at year-end.

Coordinate with IT or the EDI VAN provider (SPS Commerce, TrueCommerce) to map the 850 Purchase Order, 856 Advance Ship Notice, and 810 Invoice. Run a test transaction end-to-end before the first live PO — production-first EDI go-lives create receiving chaos.

Common failures: UPC mismatches between 850 and 856, missing ship-to DC codes, incorrect unit-of-measure. Open a ticket with the VAN, rerun the test, and confirm green before scheduling the first live PO.

For dropship vendors only. Confirm feed cadence (real-time API preferred; hourly CSV minimum), out-of-stock threshold, and ship-confirmation timing. Stale feeds cause oversell — the customer orders an out-of-stock SKU and you cancel the order three days later.

First PO should be a small-quantity test order — one or two cases per SKU — to validate routing, labeling, and case-pack adherence before placing the full seasonal buy. Catching a labeling error on 24 units is cheaper than on 2,400.

Receiving team performs a 100% count against the PO (not just the BOL). Check carton labels for GS1-128 compliance, verify UPC scans cleanly at the POS, and inspect for damage. Sign the POD only after the count reconciles.

Document the failure against the vendor compliance matrix (short-ship, mislabel, late ship, damage). Issue the chargeback per the published vendor manual and require a written corrective action before the second PO ships.

Buyer and DC manager jointly sign off after the first receipt clears QA. Flip the vendor status to Active in the ERP, schedule the 90-day business review, and release the seasonal buy.

District manager distributes the vendor one-pager: brand story, key features, suggested talking points, MSRP, and the planogram. Sales associates who can speak to product convert at materially higher rates than those reading the tag.

Visual merchandiser builds the planogram, photographs the home-store set, and pushes both to all locations. Without reference photos, planogram drift sets in within two weeks of the reset.

Calendar the first VBR for 90 days post-launch. Agenda: sell-through by SKU, weeks of supply, fill rate, on-time ship rate, chargebacks issued, and reorder commitments. Vendors who never get a VBR drift into underperformance unnoticed.