Adding and Managing Vendors

#Creating a Vendor

1. Navigate to Spend management → Vendors
2. Click + Create vendor
3. Choose one of two creation modes:

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#Option A — Customer Request

Send the vendor a portal link so they fill in their own information.

Required fields:

• Vendor name
• Country
• Entity (one or more)
• Vendor email (portal invitation is sent here)

Optional:

• CC email — copies an additional contact on the invitation

Once submitted, the vendor receives a link to complete their business and banking details directly in the Light vendor portal.

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#Option B — Manual Entry

Fill in the vendor's information yourself via a 3-step form.

Step 1 – Business

Field	Required
Name	✅
Country	✅
Website	—
Description	—
VAT number	—
Phone number	—
Address (street, city, state, ZIP)	—
Email	—
Custom properties	—

Step 2 – Payment

Banking fields adapt based on the selected bank country:

Bank country	Fields shown
United States	Routing number (9 digits) + Account number
United Kingdom	IBAN + Sort code + Account number
Sweden	IBAN + Clearing code + Account number + Bankgiro/Plusgiro
Denmark / Norway	IBAN + Clearing/bank code + Account number
Most EU countries	IBAN only
Australia	BSB code + Account number
Canada	Transit number + Account number

Additional optional fields: BIC/SWIFT, bank name, bank address.

Step 3 – Accounting

Field	Required
Entity assignment (one or more)	✅
Default entity	—
Default GL account	—
Default tax code	—
Default payment method	—
Default from account (payment bank account)	—
Approvers	—

Default payment method controls how bills from this vendor are paid after approval:

• Automatic (default): Light schedules the payment automatically after approval. Requires a host-to-host bank connection.
• Direct Debit: Bill goes straight to Unpaid status — the vendor collects the payment directly from your bank account.
• Manual: Bill goes through guardrails and batch approval, then moves to Unpaid — you pay the vendor outside Light (wire, check, etc.).

When Direct Debit or Manual is selected, vendor banking details (IBAN, BIC, etc.) are not required when submitting bills.

Click Create to save.

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#Vendor Statuses

Status	Description
Onboarding	Vendor has been invited but hasn't completed their information yet
In review	Vendor's information has been submitted and is awaiting approval
Active	Vendor is approved and available to receive bills
Rejected	Vendor was reviewed and rejected

The vendor list defaults to showing Onboarding, In review, and Active vendors.

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#Banking Details and Change Requests

When bank details are updated — either by you or through a vendor portal submission — the change goes through an approval flow before taking effect.

While a change is pending you'll see two tabs on the vendor:

• Awaiting approval — shows the proposed new banking details
• Current details — shows the existing banking details still in use

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#Entity Assignment

A vendor can be assigned to one or more company entities. After picking a default entity, you can configure the following defaults that pre-fill on bills from this vendor:

• Default GL account
• Default tax code
• Default from account — the company bank account used to pay this vendor

The entity-specific defaults (GL account, tax code, from account) are only editable once a default entity has been selected.

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#Approvers

Approvers can be assigned to a vendor in the Accounting step during creation, or edited later. Assigned approvers are required to sign off on bills or changes from that vendor based on your organization's approval workflow.

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#Vendor Details Tabs

Once a vendor is created, opening it shows the following tabs:

Tab	Visible when
Accounting Documents	Vendor status is Active
Tasks	Always
Attachments	Always
Onboarding	During onboarding flow

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#Related Articles

• AP overview
• Vendor portal and magic links
• Entering and ingesting bills
• Bill approval workflows