Manage supplier records in SamBooks
11 min read
Create an Italian, EU or non-EU supplier with auto-filled data, complete its payment terms and addresses, and manage it through its whole lifecycle.
What it's for
In SamBooks, suppliers are the counterparties you buy goods and services from: the issuers of the supplier invoices you receive via SDI (Italy's e-invoicing exchange system) or upload manually, and — when you flag them as such — also the carriers who deliver your goods. From «Suppliers» in the left-hand menu you manage the whole record: create a new supplier (with automatic data lookup from the VAT number, for Italian companies), keep a pick-up address book, set payment terms and IBAN, and deactivate or delete a supplier you no longer work with.
In practice, most suppliers aren't created by hand: one is born automatically the first time you receive a supplier invoice via SDI from a VAT number SamBooks doesn't know yet. This guide covers both the manual path and that automatic case, plus how to complete the record afterwards.
Before you start
Creating, editing, deactivating or deleting a supplier requires the Manager or Administrative role. A Viewer can look up the list and records but not change them. Managing suppliers is included in every SamBooks plan, with no plan restrictions.
Step by step
1. Open the supplier list
Click «Suppliers» in the left-hand menu. You get search (name, VAT number or tax code), filters for Country, Status (All/Active only/Inactive only) and Carrier (All/Carriers only/Exclude carriers), and columns for Name, Country, VAT no., Tax code, Address, Open balance (what you owe this supplier, from unpaid supplier invoices), Origin (badge «Auto from SDI» or «Manual») and Status, with pagination at the bottom.
2. Create an Italian supplier with auto-filled data
Click «New supplier» at the top right: a form opens with sections — Find company, Tax identity, Registered office, Contacts, Default payment terms, Carrier, Advanced.
In «Find company», with Country left on IT, type at least three letters of the company name or its VAT number and pick the right result. While SamBooks fetches the data you see «Fetching registry data…», then name, VAT number, tax code, address, ZIP, city, province, PEC (certified email) and SDI recipient code fill in on their own, plus a read-only box with legal form and Chamber of Commerce / REA numbers when available.
Search for the company first and let it fill the fields, then complete by hand what's missing: if you type a value yourself and only afterwards pick a search result, that value gets overwritten without warning.
If the search finds nothing in the registries, a message tells you and you fill everything in by hand.
3. Create an EU supplier (VIES check)
Change Country to an EU country other than Italy: instead of the company search you get an «EU VAT number» field (without the country prefix) and a «Check VIES» button. If the EU system confirms it, you see the «VAT number verified on VIES» badge and the name fills in on its own; if VIES doesn't confirm it, a non-blocking warning — «VIES does not confirm this VAT number: you can still proceed manually» — lets you complete the data yourself.
4. Create a non-EU supplier, an individual, or on the fly from a document
For a non-EU country there's no automatic lookup: you fill in the Tax identity section directly. Under Subject type you can also choose «Individual (natural person)»: First name and Last name, both required, replace the Name field. VAT number and tax code are always optional, even for an Italian supplier: you can save without them (a non-blocking warning only flags a suspicious format).
You don't always need the list: from the supplier picker on purchase orders, delivery notes and supplier invoices you can click «Create supplier» and create one on the fly, without leaving the page.
5. Set payment terms and IBAN
In «Default payment terms» choose the Payment conditions (e.g. «TP02 — Pagamento completo», shown with the official Italian wording even in the English interface), the Payment method (e.g. «MP05 — Bonifico» for bank transfer), Payment days and Starting from («invoice date» or «end of month»), and the supplier's IBAN — useful for bank transfer or direct debit: for a supplier this is always a free-text field (never a company settlement account, which is only for collecting money from customers). Click «Create supplier»: the form closes and you land on the new supplier's record.
Tax fields and the rest of the record
The record page is split into tabs: Identity, Addresses, Payment, Item codes, Linked documents, AI history. «Edit» makes Identity, Addresses and Payment editable; VAT number, tax code and country stay editable here too (same soft warning), while legal form and Chamber of Commerce data stay read-only — they only ever come from the auto-fill at creation, never from a later edit.
Under Identity you also find Contacts (PEC, email, phone, website, SDI recipient code) and — supplier-only — «External system reconciliation» (External code + External system): useful if you import orders from a third-party system and want to match this supplier to the code that system uses for it.
To be upfront about what you won't find here: SamBooks has no field for withholding tax (ritenuta d'acconto) on the supplier record. If you work with a professional subject to withholding, the record doesn't track it: the calculation stays outside this part of the product.
Pick-up addresses
Under Addresses, below the registered office, you'll find the «Pick-up addresses» book: the points where this supplier lets you collect goods, selectable on the pick-up mandate. «Add address» asks for Name (required), Address/ZIP/City (required), Province (Italy only), plus Code, Contact person, Phone, Email, Notes; «Default pick-up address» makes it the one proposed by default — the first address you save becomes the default automatically, and if you delete it SamBooks promotes the next one. «Copy from head office» pre-fills a new address from the supplier's registered-office data. Every address can be edited or deleted from the icons next to it.
A supplier that's also a carrier
If this supplier also handles transport for you, turn on «Is a carrier» — at creation (in the «Carrier» section) or when editing, in the matching card under Identity. Turning it on reveals Carrier code (the aggregator-side slug, e.g. «brt» or «gls», optional) and Aggregator (None, ShippyPro, Sendcloud, Qapla'). The supplier then shows the «Carrier» badge in the list and becomes selectable as the carrier on delivery notes and shipments. If you use a carrier code, it must be unique across your company.
Linked documents and item codes
«Linked documents» groups everything that references the supplier: Supplier invoices and Supplier credit notes (clickable, opens the document), Purchase orders, Purchase delivery notes and Customs declarations (visible list, but only customs declarations are clickable from here) — a quick view before, say, deactivating the supplier.
«Item codes» links the code THIS supplier uses for its items on invoices to your matching item or service. «Reconcile code» creates one manually; each row shows the supplier's code, its status — «Confirmed» or «To confirm» (flagged when it's an AI-suggested match) — and the linked target. The same map also updates when you confirm a match from the panel inside a purchase invoice: from then on, the next invoice with the same code resolves itself.
The supplier SamBooks creates automatically from an e-invoice
This is the most frequent case. The first time you receive a supplier invoice via SDI from a VAT number not yet in your records, SamBooks creates a minimal supplier on its own, using whatever it finds in the invoice XML — name, VAT number, tax code, address, PEC, SDI recipient code and tax regime, when present. No action needed on your part: the document gets recorded either way.
It shows up in the list with the «Auto from SDI» badge under Origin (today just an indicator, not a filter: search by name or VAT number to find it). Opening it, you'll see the tax data and address already there, but email, phone, website, payment terms and IBAN are empty, and there's no Chamber of Commerce box (legal form, REA) — that only comes from the automatic lookup at creation, not from SDI. To complete it: open the record, click «Edit» and add at least payment terms and an IBAN if you'll pay by bank transfer; if it's also your carrier, turn on the carrier switch there too. There's no automatic later enrichment that fetches more registry data for you: it's completed by hand only.
Editing, deactivating, reactivating or deleting a supplier
«Edit» makes the fields editable, «Save» updates only what changed. «Deactivate supplier» makes it unselectable on new documents but keeps the whole history of supplier invoices available; it's reversible with «Reactivate supplier» — unlike catalog items, services and price lists, which stay disabled forever once "deleted", a deactivated supplier can always come back with one click.
«Delete supplier» is instead permanent and irreversible, and only allowed with no linked documents at all — supplier invoices, purchase orders and delivery notes, customs declarations, letters of intent, Certificazioni Uniche, items where it's the main supplier, shipments/delivery notes/returns where it's the carrier, reconciled item codes, open due dates. If even one of these exists, the button is disabled with «Not deletable: it has linked documents. Use “Deactivate”.»; if the request goes through anyway — say you ask Sam to delete the supplier — the error lists exactly which document types are blocking it, and how many of each. In practice: a supplier you've already worked with, you deactivate rather than delete — deletion is for a duplicate or a mistake caught right after creation.
Ask Sam
Every action above is also available in chat, in plain language: the two paths are equivalent. You can ask Sam things like: "Create a supplier with VAT number IT01234567890", "Mark Rossi Trasporti as a carrier with carrier code GLS", "Deactivate the supplier Beta Forniture Srl" or "List the documents linked to this supplier". Sam can also look up an Italian VAT number in the official registries for you, just like «Find company» does, and — since it has read access to your company's data — answer things like "Which suppliers were created automatically from an SDI invoice?" or "How much do I still owe supplier X?".
If something goes wrong
- "A record with this VAT number already exists": the VAT number + country pair is already used by another supplier, even a deactivated or deleted one. Search for the existing one instead of creating a new record.
- «Delete supplier» is disabled: the supplier has linked documents (see above). Use «Deactivate», or check the «Linked documents» tab to see what's attached.
- VIES doesn't confirm the VAT number: it doesn't block saving. Double-check the number (no country prefix) or proceed manually if you're confident it's correct.
- "A carrier with code ‹…› already exists": the carrier code you chose is already assigned to another carrier. Change it or leave it blank.
- A supplier auto-created from SDI has incomplete data: that's normal — only the data present in the invoice XML comes through. Complete it by hand.
- You can't find a supplier you expected: clear the Status filter (it might be inactive) or search by VAT number instead of name.
FAQ
How do I add a new supplier in SamBooks? From the Suppliers list click «New supplier», search the company by name or VAT number if it's Italian (data fills in on its own) or fill it in by hand, then confirm with «Create supplier».
How do I create a foreign supplier? Change the Country: for an EU country enter the VAT number and click «Check VIES»; for a non-EU country fill in identity and address by hand.
A supplier was created on its own from an invoice — how do I find and complete it? Look for it in the list (badge «Auto from SDI», or search by VAT number), open the record and click «Edit» to add email, phone, payment terms and IBAN.
What does the «Auto from SDI» badge mean? That nobody created it by hand: it was generated automatically on the first supplier invoice received via SDI from that VAT number.
How do I mark a supplier as a carrier? Turn on «Is a carrier» and, if you want, set a carrier code and aggregator (ShippyPro, Sendcloud, Qapla').
Where do I enter the address the supplier picks up goods from? The Addresses tab, «Pick-up addresses» book: «Add address» or «Copy from head office».
Why is the «Delete supplier» button sometimes disabled, and how is that different from «Deactivate»? The button is disabled when linked documents exist (invoices, orders, delivery notes, due dates…): the only path left is «Deactivate», reversible with «Reactivate», which hides the supplier from new documents while keeping its history. «Delete» is instead permanent and only possible with no linked documents.
Could I accidentally end up with two suppliers sharing a VAT number? No, not with the same VAT number + country. You can, however, have a separate customer and supplier record sharing the same VAT number, if the same company both sells to you and buys from you: they're two different records.
How do I enter a supplier's IBAN for bank transfers? In the Payment tab, while editing: for a supplier it's always a free-text field. It's encrypted and later shown only masked, e.g. «IT60****3456».