Maintain supplier and customer contact lists

Help center / Business operations

Open Suppliers or Customers from the sidebar or Business setup. Each directory belongs to the selected business and is shared across its locations. Use the records for external contact details, not for giving people access to the workspace.

1. Select the appropriate directory.
2. Search for the organization or person before adding a record.
3. Enter the name and available contact details.
4. Add operational notes that another team member can understand.
5. Save, then review the record in the list.

The public workspace is coming soon. Read the supplier list planning guide to prepare a useful contact structure before entering it into the app.

Choose the correct contact directory

Use Suppliers for organizations or people from whom the business buys goods or services. Use Customers for external customer contacts. The directories are independent, so a contact serving both purposes may need a record in each context.

Check the selected business first when several businesses use similar names. A supplier record in one business is not automatically shared with another. Locations within the same business use its shared directory, which helps avoid creating separate contact details for every store without a clear reason.

Enter a supplier contact person

Record the supplier's name and the person your team should contact, along with email, phone and address when known. Verify the details against a current source supplied by the organization before relying on them for an important request.

An illustrative record might name a packaging company and identify its account contact separately. This is clearer than using a person's first name as the entire supplier record. If the person changes, update the contact details on the existing organizational record instead of automatically creating a duplicate company.

Keep useful customer contact notes

Use notes for context needed to handle the business relationship, such as the contact's preferred team or a reference to an agreed delivery arrangement. Write enough for another authorized colleague to understand the purpose without reconstructing a past conversation.

Keep unnecessary personal details, passwords and payment-card information out of the field. The directory is not a dedicated system for sensitive records. Before recording information, consider who can see the directory and whether that information belongs in the business's contact list at all.

Search before adding another record

Search the directory when a colleague reports that a contact is missing. Check alternate spelling and existing archived records before adding a new entry. A record can appear unfamiliar because it uses the legal company name while the team normally uses a trading name.

Where helpful, add recognizable context to the existing record rather than creating two competing versions. Agree which record is current if duplicates already exist. Each directory supports up to 2,000 contacts per business, but the useful limit is how reliably the team can identify the right one.

Archive an unused business contact

Archive a contact when it is no longer part of active operations but the record is still useful to retain. Reactivate it if the relationship resumes. This is different from permanently deleting a record.

Review related processes before archiving a supplier. In particular, new workflow validation depends on an eligible supplier with the needed contact information. Archiving should be part of a deliberate handover to another supplier, rather than an unexplained change that leaves a colleague relying on an unavailable destination.

Delete an archived contact safely

Permanent deletion is available after a contact has been archived and requires confirmation. Check the selected record carefully, including its name and context. Prefer keeping an archived record when the team still needs its contact history or references.

Deleting a directory record does not cancel an agreement, settle an invoice or notify the external contact. Complete those business actions through the appropriate process. The app's directory lifecycle concerns the saved contact record, not the legal or financial status of the relationship.

Use supplier details in workflow drafts

A low-stock workflow can use a supplier with an email address when preparing an order draft. Review that address and the proposed quantity before activating the workflow. The workflow setup guide explains how to test the configuration.

The result is a draft for human review. The app does not send the email, place a purchase order or confirm a delivery. Shopify's supplier relationship guide offers broader background on maintaining a useful working relationship beyond storing a contact address.

Control who can manage contacts

Suppliers and Customers have separate screen and management permissions. Grant the access needed for the person's actual responsibilities through People and roles. Someone who works with customer details does not necessarily need to edit supplier information.

These external contacts do not sign in, become business members or consume team seats. NIST's least-privilege definition provides background for deciding which employees should see and change contact information. Review those employee permissions separately from the external directory records.

Back up external contact records

Supplier and customer records are included in operational JSON backups and are preserved when the catalog is cleared. Read Backups and restore before relying on a file to transfer a business's data.

The directories do not provide invoicing, purchasing, a live accounting connection or automatic synchronization with an external contact system. Integration setup screens do not change that limitation. When several people update details, check the latest saved record before replacing a contact's information with an older version from a separate file.

Coming soon

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