How to add and manage trade partners
Trade partners are your supply chain in Sync: the subcontractors, suppliers and consultants you raise purchase orders to and put on site. The record holds what they do, what you owe them and the credentials you need from them before they start.
- Who uses it
- Commercial, procurement and whoever onboards the supply chain.
- Where it lives
- Trade Partners, in the main sidebar.
- What it feeds
- Purchase orders, project teams, engineers and compliance.
- What you own
- The partner type, payment terms, regions, and the credentials you hold.
Before you start
Adding a trade partner is quick, but the Type you choose decides what Sync asks of them afterwards. Check that:
- You know whether they are a supplier, a subcontractor or a consultant.
- You have their company details: registration number, VAT number and year established.
- You know the payment terms that have been agreed.
- You have an email address and phone number for them.
- Your required credential lists are set up under Config Settings.
Open Trade Partners
Select Trade Partners in the sidebar. The list shows every partner with their status, type, the services they provide, their payment terms and the regions they cover.
Start a new trade partner
Choose Create trade partner. The form uses the same three-panel layout as a customer: details on the left, address in the middle, contact details on the right.
Set the Type
Type is the most consequential field on the form, because it decides which credentials Sync will require of them and how the record is worded.
Firms doing the work on site. They get the subcontractor required-credential list, and you can hold their engineers against the record.
Materials and plant. Still raised POs against, but without the subcontractor credential expectations.
Designers, engineers and advisers, with their own required-credential list.
The record reflects the choice throughout: a subcontractor's record is headed "Subcontractor details" and its edit button reads "Edit Subcontractor".
Record what they do
Type of business is the legal form, the same list as on a customer. Service Provided is what they actually do, chosen from your configured service types, grouped into categories.
General construction trades.
M&E packages.
Testing, inspection and safety services.
Design, surveying and professional advice.
Fit-out trades and fixtures.
Materials and product supply.
Set these honestly, because this is what you filter on later when you need a second quote from someone who does the same work.
Set the regions they cover
Regions Covered runs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through the English regions to National. A partner can cover more than one.
This matters when a job comes up outside your usual patch and you need to know, quickly, who will actually travel.
Terms and company numbers
The rest of the first panel is commercial and legal: Payment Terms, Registration no, Approved date, Year Established, VAT number and UTR.
UTR is the only optional one, and it is worth filling in for subcontractors because it is what you will be asked for under CIS. Approved date is picked from the calendar rather than typed.
Address and contact details
Address 1, Town/City, County and Postcode are required, with Address 2 optional. The contact panel asks for an Email address and Telephone Number, with mobile and website optional.
Save the trade partner
Choose Save. The record opens with its status set to Active, and the Credentials tab is immediately populated with whatever your company requires from that type of partner.
Read the Summary tab
Summary shows contact details, address and company details, including the type of business, registration number, year established, VAT number, unique tax reference, payment terms, type, regions covered and status.
Nine tabs run across the top, two more than a customer has.
Contact details, address and company details, with the status badge.
The people you deal with there.
POs raised to them and invoices received, across every project.
Every job they are on.
Their people, with credential status against each.
The company-level documents you require, plus anything extra.
Internal notes on the relationship.
Files held against the partner rather than a project.
Who changed what, and when.
Canterbury
Kent, CT2 7AA
Chase required credentials
The Credentials tab opens with Required credentials: the documents your company expects from this type of partner, each with a status, an expiry date and the documents attached to it.
Until something is uploaded, every line reads Expired - needs action, which is the point: the tab doubles as your chase list. Work down it until nothing is flagged.
Add extra credentials
Below that sits Additional credentials, with Add additional credentials. Use it for anything you need from this partner but not from every partner of that type: a client-specific accreditation, a one-off method statement, a scheme membership.
Adding it here rather than to the configured list keeps the requirement where it belongs, on the one record.
Add their engineers
The Engineers tab holds the individuals who will be on site, with Add engineer to create them. Each row shows their active status, their required credentials, name, email and role.
This is the link between a company you have approved and the people who actually turn up: the company's insurances sit on Credentials, each person's tickets sit against them here.
Check the Financials tab
Financials is the commercial picture across every project: invoices received at the top with a total invoiced, and POs below with their status, reference, project, amount, attached files and invoiced value, totalled underneath.
Contacts, projects and documents
Contacts is where you add the people you deal with, since the create form does not ask for one. Projects lists every job they are on. Comments and Documents work as they do on a customer: internal notes, and files that belong to the partner rather than to one project.
Edit or make inactive
The edit button, top right, reopens the create form with everything editable. Update status switches the partner between Active and Inactive and requires a comment.
Make a partner inactive when you stop using them. Their POs, invoices and credential history stay attached to the projects they worked on.
Filter and export the list
Back on the list, filter by status, name, type, service provided or regions covered, then Export & Download the result.
That combination answers the question procurement actually asks: who is approved, doing this trade, in this region, right now.
What you can and cannot do
- Add suppliers, subcontractors and consultants, each with their own required credentials.
- Record multiple services and multiple regions against one partner.
- Hold company credentials with expiry dates and attached documents.
- Add extra credentials beyond the required list.
- Keep their engineers on the record, with credential status against each.
- See every PO raised to them and every invoice received, across all projects.
- Make a partner inactive, with a comment explaining why.
- Choose which credentials are required on the partner record. The list comes from Config Settings and is set per partner type.
- Enter a contact name on the create form. Unlike a customer, a trade partner gets its contacts added afterwards on the Contacts tab.
- Raise a PO from the trade partner record. POs are raised inside a project, and the Financials tab only reflects them.
- Edit figures on the Financials tab. Change them on the project they belong to.
- Change the status without leaving a comment.
Common issues
That is the starting state before anything is uploaded. Each line stays flagged until a document with an expiry date is attached, which is exactly what makes the list useful for chasing.
They are configured per partner type under Config Settings, Trade Partners, as Subcontractor Required Credentials and Consultant Required Credentials. Change them there and the change applies to partners of that type.
Use Add additional credentials on the record rather than changing the configured list, which would affect every partner of that type.
Much of the record is worded by type, including the heading on Summary. It is confirming what the partner is, not a different button.
Nothing has been raised yet. POs and trade partner invoices start inside a project, so the roll-up fills in once the first one exists.
New partner checklist
Before you put them on a job, check that you have:
- Type is right: supplier, subcontractor or consultant.
- Services and regions reflect what they actually do and where.
- Payment terms match what was agreed.
- Registration number, VAT number and year established are filled in.
- A contact has been added on the Contacts tab.
- Required credentials have documents attached with real expiry dates.
- Their engineers are on the record if they will be on site.
Summary
To add and manage a trade partner in Sync:
- 1Open Trade Partners and choose Create trade partner.
- 2Set the Type, because it decides which credentials are required of them.
- 3Record what they do, where they work and the agreed payment terms.
- 4Save, then add contacts on the Contacts tab.
- 5Work down the Credentials tab until nothing says needs action.
- 6Add their engineers, and use Financials to see every PO and invoice in one place.
Get the Type right and the rest of the record does its job: the right credentials are demanded, the right people are tracked, and every PO raised to that partner is in one place when someone asks what they have cost you this year.