How the Suppliers page works

The Suppliers page helps you organise the people and businesses your business buys from or pays. In Bizwazi, suppliers can be used for inventory stock, supplier bills, or both. This is why supplier type is important.

What the Suppliers page is for

• Use it to save supplier names, contact people, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and notes.
• Use it to connect inventory stock items to the supplier you buy them from.
• Use it to connect supplier bills to the correct supplier or payee.
• Use it to separate stock suppliers from bill suppliers.
• Use it to manage suppliers that are both stock suppliers and bill suppliers.
• Use it to see whether a supplier is active or inactive.
• Use it to see stock value and bill value connected to each supplier.
• Use it to review unpaid and outstanding supplier bills.
• Use it to find suppliers connected to low-stock items.
• Use it to find inventory items that are not linked to any supplier.

The three supplier types

• A Stock supplier is used for inventory. This is a supplier you buy stock items from, such as a wholesaler, distributor, farmer, manufacturer, cosmetics supplier, food supplier, or spare-parts supplier.
• A Bill-only supplier is used for bills and payables that are not stock. Examples include rent, electricity, water, internet, repairs, cleaning, security, transport, professional services, or other non-stock costs.
• A Stock and bills supplier is used when the same supplier provides inventory and also has supplier bills or payable balances. For example, a wholesaler may supply stock and also send bills that you pay later.

Main parts of the page

• The top section shows the page title, Back to business, Inventory, and Add supplier buttons.
• The supplier type guide explains the difference between stock suppliers, bill-only suppliers, and suppliers used for both stock and bills.
• The summary cards show total suppliers, active suppliers, inactive suppliers, and linked records.
• The supplier type cards show stock suppliers, bill-only suppliers, and suppliers used for both stock and bills.
• The risk cards show top linked suppliers, low-stock suppliers, out-of-stock suppliers, and unlinked inventory.
• The search and filter section helps you find suppliers by name, contact, phone, email, address, note, status, or supplier type.
• Each supplier card shows contact details, linked items, linked bills, stock value, bills total, bills outstanding, address, notes, and action buttons.

Why this matters

• A supplier is often the missing link between stock, bills, and business cash flow.
• If stock is linked to suppliers, you can quickly see where stock comes from.
• If bills are linked to suppliers, you can see who the business owes money to.
• If a supplier is both a stock supplier and a bill supplier, Bizwazi can show both stock activity and bill activity in one supplier profile.
• This avoids mixing rent, utilities, and services with stock suppliers unless the supplier genuinely does both.

Small Kenyan business example

• A mini-mart may buy cooking oil from Mombasa Wholesale Suppliers, receive flour from Nairobi Whole Salers, and pay rent to a landlord. The wholesalers are stock suppliers. The landlord is a bill-only supplier.
• If Nairobi Whole Salers supplies stock and also sends unpaid bills for later payment, then that supplier should be marked as Stock and bills.
• A salon may link hair products to a beauty supplier and record electricity, rent, and water as bill-only suppliers.
• A café may link food ingredients to stock suppliers and record cleaning, internet, gas, and rent as bill-only suppliers.