Vendor compliance
The Vendors module carries your approved-vendor list: an approval status on every vendor, a certificate matrix with expiry tracking, and an append-only audit history. This page covers how to read it, maintain it — and where the discipline still belongs to your buyers.
The approved-vendor list at a glance
Open Vendors in the sidebar. The list opens with three KPIs — Vendors, Approved (green), and Audit due (amber when above zero) — and a table with Vendor, Approval, Certs, Terms, Balance, and Status columns.
- The Approval pill shows the vendor’s approval status (see the table below).
- The Certs pill is a one-light summary: its color is the worst state among the vendor’s required certificates — green when all current, amber when one expires within 30 days, red when one is expired. A vendor with no recorded audit shows “no audit”.
- Audit due counts vendors whose next audit falls due within 30 days — or is already overdue.
Screen: The Vendors list — KPI strip with VENDORS / APPROVED / AUDIT DUE, then rows like “Aviall Services · V1021” with a green APPROVED pill, a green “certs” pill, NET 30 terms, an AP balance, and an ACTIVE status pill.
Approval statuses
| Status | Pill color | What it means |
|---|---|---|
UNAPPROVED | cyan | Not yet evaluated — the default for a new vendor. |
CONDITIONAL | amber | Approved with conditions; watch the terms. |
APPROVED | green | On the approved-vendor list. |
PROBATION | amber | Under review after an issue. |
SUSPENDED | red | Do not buy pending resolution. |
BLACKLISTED | red | Permanently barred. |
Status values display in English in every language — they are data codes, not labels.
The status can be set three ways: picked when the vendor is created (+ New vendor defaults
to UNAPPROVED), changed on the Edit drawer, or — the recommended path — set as the
result of a recorded audit, which keeps the history attached to the change.
The certificate matrix
The vendor detail’s Approval & audits section shows a chip per certificate type, each with an expiry date and a status dot:
| Certificate | Typical evidence |
|---|---|
| FAA | Air agency certificate (e.g. Part 145). |
| EASA | EASA approval. |
| CAA | National authority approval. |
| Aviation Authority | Any other authority approval. |
| Drug Program | Anti-drug & alcohol program. |
| NADCAP | NADCAP accreditation. |
| Quality (AS9100/9120) | Quality-system certificate. |
The dot follows the expiry: green while current, amber within 30 days of expiry, red once expired, and cyan when no date is on file. Certificates the vendor is required to hold carry a small req tag — only required certificates drive the vendor’s one-light cert summary, so an expired advisory cert never turns the vendor red.
Which certificates are required for a vendor arrives with imported vendor data — the console does not yet offer a toggle to mark a certificate as required. Expiry dates themselves are maintained through audits (below).
Recording an audit
- Open the vendor and click + Record audit in the Approval & audits section.
- In the drawer (“Record audit · vendor name”), enter the Audit date — required.
- Pick the Result: the approval status this audit assigns (
APPROVED,PROBATION, …). - Set Next due — this date feeds the Audit due KPI and the NEXT DUE figure.
- Fill Auditor, and under Certificate expiries, the new expiry date for each certificate you verified.
- Add Notes, then click Record audit. The toast confirms “Audit recorded.”
Recording an audit updates the vendor’s current approval status and certificate expiries and appends an entry to the audit history — the history is never edited, so the trail of who audited what, when, with what result, stays intact. Each history row shows the date, the result pill, the auditor, the next-due date, and the notes.
Screen: A vendor detail — header with the vendor name, an APPROVED pill and an ACTIVE pill, the AP balance; below, the “Approval & audits” section with LAST AUDIT and NEXT DUE dates, a row of certificate chips (FAA · 2027-03-01 with a green dot and a “req” tag, EASA with an amber dot…), the + Record audit button, and the audit history list underneath.
What APEX does not block
Approval status is advisory today. APEX does not stop a purchase order or a repair order
from being created for an UNAPPROVED, SUSPENDED, or even BLACKLISTED vendor, and vendor
pickers list every vendor. Make “check the Approval pill before you buy” a standing rule for
your buyers, and lean on the Vendors list — filter it visually by the pills — for the periodic
review.
Your own shop’s credentials
The same expiry-pill discipline applies inward: Team → People tracks each employee’s certificates with expiry dates, so mechanic authorizations are watched the same way vendor certs are.
Roles: Any staff member can view vendors and record audits — but members restricted by a vendor data scope (set in Team → Members) only see and audit their allowed vendors. Editing team data scopes is owner/admin work.