Vendor
In accounting, vendor means a party we buy from.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 1
Not a rule
Bookkeeping convention — not codified. US GAAP governs recognition, measurement and presentation — not the mechanics a bookkeeper uses to get there. Anyone citing a standard for this word is citing the wrong thing.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Vendor, in use
Quoted from the 10 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
A variance requires a disposition, never a silent pass: accept (with reason), request a vendor credit, partial-pay, or reject.
Default coding suggested from this vendor's history, shown as a suggestion with its basis.
If your canonical model has a single Party with role flags — the Xero shape — then QBO import must decide whether to merge Customer "Acme Ltd" and Vendor "Acme Ltd (V)" into one party.
Lopifi APIs: Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite — The unification trap
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- W-9s and backup withholding: a vendor onboarding guideWhen to ask for a W-9, how IRS TIN matching works, and what happens when a vendor won’t give you one: 24% backup withholding, owed by you.
- How to pay vendors: ACH vs wire vs check vs cardACH, wire, check or card: what each payment rail costs, how long it takes, where the fraud risk sits, and how each payment is recorded in the books.
- Accounts payable process for startups: intake to paymentHow a bill moves from inbox to paid: intake, coding, approval, scheduling and recording, plus AP aging and who approves what at a 10-person startup.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- supplier (pick one — we use vendor)
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Also in Payables
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
- IBAN, routing, VAT, EINChecksums, offline. A valid IBAN is not a real account, and this says so.Tool
- Contacts, customers and suppliersIs a customer who is also a supplier one record or two?API
- Journal entry for accounts payableWhen an approved vendor bill is entered, debit the expense or asset it bought and credit Accounts payable. When it is paid, debit Accounts payable and credit Cash.Entry
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.