# Vendor Maintenance - Best Practice

**VENDOR MAINTENANCE – COMMON ISSUE & BEST PRACTICES**

If a Vendor ID is too long, the vendor may appear to disappear or not display correctly in the system. This most commonly happens when vendors are created or edited in the Portal with an ID that exceeds system limits.

**Vendor ID Requirement**

* Maximum length: 20 characters
* Vendor IDs longer than 20 characters are not supported and can cause visibility or syncing issues.

**How to Fix the Issue**

1. Open the vendor record.
2. Shorten the **Vendor ID** to **20 characters or fewer**.
3. Save the changes.
4. Refresh the vendor list to confirm the vendor is visible.

**Preventing Duplicate Vendors (Very Important)**

**Use One System to Create Vendors**

To avoid duplication and syncing issues:

* Create vendors **only in one place**:
  * **POS Manager** *or*
  * **Portal**
* Do **not** alternate between systems when creating vendors.

Creating vendors in both systems can result in:

* Duplicate vendors
* Inconsistent Vendor IDs
* Ordering and reporting issues

**Head Office (HO) Mode – Best Practice**

If you operate in Head Office mode:

* Vendor creation and maintenance should be centralized
* Create and manage vendors only at Head Office
* Avoid creating vendors at individual store levels

Centralized vendor management ensures consistency across all locations and prevents duplicates.

**Additional Cleanup Recommendation**

* Review and delete **duplicate vendors**
* Removing duplicates helps prevent inventory, ordering, and reporting issues

Refer to the **Vendor Cleanup** document for step-by-step instructions.