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Procurement and RFQs

Vendor Onboarding

The process of collecting, reviewing and registering the information required before a supplier can transact with a buyer. In maritime procurement, the concept helps buyers and providers define, price, compare and authorize operational requirements.

What onboarding covers

  • Onboarding is the work of collecting and registering a vendor’s details before any transaction can happen.
  • It is a gate. Until it is complete, an order usually cannot be raised or paid.
  • It is repeated per buyer, so a company supplying five buyers is onboarded five times.

Vendor Onboarding is a term used in maritime business and operations.

The process of collecting, reviewing and registering the information required before a supplier can transact with a buyer.

In maritime procurement, the concept helps buyers and providers define, price, compare and authorize operational requirements. The exact meaning may vary with the contract, jurisdiction, port practice or workflow in which it is used.

What onboarding collects

Item
Why it is needed
Legal identity
Registration documents confirming the company exists under the name it trades as.
Bank details
Where payment will be sent, usually confirmed independently of the channel they arrived on.
Tax details
Registration numbers and status, which determine how invoices must be issued.
Insurance
Certificates and limits, checked against the work the vendor will actually do.
Certifications
Trade, quality or safety credentials relevant to what is supplied.
Contacts and terms
Who to deal with, and the payment and delivery terms agreed in advance.

Onboarding compared with approval

Onboarding
Approval
The work of collecting and registering information.
The decision taken on what was collected.
Largely administrative, often handled by finance or procurement support.
A judgement about risk, taken by whoever carries that risk.
Produces a vendor record.
Produces a status on that record.
Can complete without the vendor being usable.
Is what makes the vendor usable.
Onboarding in PortzApp

Where a buyer’s onboarding starts

In PortzApp a company’s registration is confirmed by verification before it can quote or publish its profile, and that profile already carries its services, ports and credentials. A buyer’s own onboarding still applies, but it does not begin from a blank form.

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FAQ

FAQ

The most common questions we get about Vendor Onboarding.

What does Vendor Onboarding mean?
The process of collecting, reviewing and registering the information required before a supplier can transact with a buyer.
How long does vendor onboarding take?
It varies widely, from days to weeks, depending on the buyer’s requirements and how quickly documents come back. In port call work that lag is often why a newly found supplier cannot be used for an imminent call.
Why are bank details the sensitive part?
Because payment diversion fraud targets exactly this step. Buyers commonly confirm bank details through a channel other than the one the request arrived on.