How to record new terms and check a delivery record

Two things on a supplier's page that make the difference between a contact list and a supply record: Terms history, which remembers what was agreed when, and the delivery record, which scores whether they actually deliver. See How to add a supplier and record their terms for the rest of the page.

Why record terms with a date?

Because terms change, and an order placed last March was written under last March's terms.

Overwrite the lead time when a supplier raises it and you lose the ability to answer whether an old order was actually late. Record it from a date and both answers survive.

The Terms card at the top of the page always shows what is in effect today, so the common case stays simple.

How do you record a change?

Set terms from a date. The form is pre-filled from the most recent set, so you change only what actually moved.

Each set carries minimum order, lead time, revision window and payment terms, plus the date it starts from. It runs until the next set starts.

Numbers have to be zero or more, and the form says so plainly rather than failing quietly.

Can you record a rise before it takes effect?

Yes, and this is the feature worth knowing about. Set the start date in the future and the set is labelled Upcoming until it bites.

That means a lead-time increase agreed in August for October is visible to everyone planning in September, rather than arriving as a surprise. The Terms card switches over on its own when the date arrives.

Re-saving terms for a date that already has a set corrects that set rather than adding a second one, so fixing a typo does not leave two versions behind.

What does the delivery record show?

A supplier's on-time percentage, average days late, and how many orders that score is based on, next to their purchase order list.

The sample size is always shown, on purpose. 82% of three orders and 82% of three hundred are different claims, and only one of them is worth raising in a negotiation.

When there is nothing to judge, it reads "No completed orders yet" rather than 0%. A zero would be a claim about the supplier; a blank is the truth.

What counts as a scored delivery?

Orders that can actually be judged: they had a due date, and they were either fully received or closed short.

Orders still in flight are excluded rather than counted as failures, which is what keeps the figure honest week to week.

Due date means the order's expected arrival, or its ship date when there is no expected arrival. Delivered means the day the last of it arrived, not the day the first box did.

An order closed short counts in the total but never counts as on time, which is right: you did not get what you ordered.

An order with no ship date and no expected arrival can never be scored. If a supplier's record is based on fewer orders than you expected, undated orders are usually why.

How do you use this?

Two ways.

Before a negotiation, take the on-time rate, the average days late and the sample size together. That is a fact rather than an impression.

And when you set their lead time, set the one they actually achieve rather than the one they promise. That flows straight into reorder quantities and low-stock urgency, so an optimistic lead time quietly under-orders every week.

Record why you changed it as a decision on the supplier, so the next person understands the number. See What are decisions and track records?.