Smart Suppliers
The Smart Suppliers feature helps you choose the best supplier for each item based on the lowest available price in Ply’s database. This ensures you’re always sourcing materials at the most cost-effective rate and can save money on purchases.
1. How It Works
Smart Suppliers compares supplier prices for each item in your catalog and either:
- Suggests adjustments so you can review and confirm the new preferred supplier.
- Automatically updates the preferred supplier for you (if you choose automatic mode).
The preferred supplier is the one Ply will show as the default when creating Purchase Orders.
✅ Example: If Supplier A offers the item at $15.00 and Supplier B at $13.50, Smart Suppliers will recommend or automatically set Supplier B as the preferred option, helping you save money without extra effort.
2. Enabling Smart Suppliers
- Go to Settings → Smart Suppliers.
- Toggle the feature On.
- Choose your preferred method:
- Suggest Adjustments (recommended) – Ply will suggest a new preferred supplier based on pricing. You can review and approve changes or pick your own.
- Adjust Automatically – Ply will update the preferred supplier automatically to the one with the best price.
💡 Tip: You can also choose to enable Smart Suppliers for only certain materials.
3. Managing Smart Suppliers for a Specific Material
- Go to your Catalog and open the material.
- Open the Prices & Suppliers tab:
- If the Smart Supplier toggle is enabled, the best supplier with the lowest cost will be selected by default.
- If you want to choose your own supplier:
- Turn the toggle off.
- Select your preferred supplier from the list. From that point on, that supplier will remain the default for that item.
4. Viewing & Editing Prices & Suppliers
From the Prices & Suppliers tab you can:
- See the supplier currently marked as Smart Supplier.
- Add or update supplier pricing for accurate comparisons.
To add a new supplier price:
- Click + Add Supplier.
- Select the supplier from the list.
- Enter the Cost for Business.
- Click Add to save.
5. Reviewing Suggestions
If you use Suggest Adjustments mode:
- Go to the Smart Suppliers Settings.
- Hit “View Suggestions”
- You’ll see system-generated suggestions with the data used for each recommendation.
- Approve or modify them before they are applied.
6. Tips for Best Results
- Keep your supplier prices updated—Smart Suppliers can only work with accurate, current data.
- Use Suggest Adjustments for more control, or Adjust Automatically for a hands-off experience.
- You can still manually change the preferred supplier at any time in the Prices & Suppliers tab.