# Vendor onboarding takes weeks: how to see every stage and speed it up

> For the full documentation index, see https://250highstreet.com/llms.txt

> Why vendor onboarding drags on for weeks, and how one tracker with stage, owner and days waiting shows where each vendor is stuck.

Short answer: vendor onboarding takes weeks because the work is split across several people and nobody sees the whole path. Put every new vendor in one list. Give each vendor one current stage, one owner for that stage, and a count of days waiting. Then review the oldest waits each week. The delay is rarely the work itself. It is the time a vendor sits idle between steps.

## Why vendor onboarding drags on

Onboarding a vendor is not one task. It is a chain of small tasks, and each one belongs to a different person.

A typical chain looks like this:

- Someone in the business asks for the new vendor.
- Procurement or ops collects the basic documents.
- Finance asks for a tax form.
- Risk or legal asks for proof of insurance.
- A manager approves the vendor.
- IT or finance sets the vendor up in your systems.

Each hand-off is a place to wait. A document arrives, but the person who needs it is on leave. A form is sent, but nobody checks if it came back. An approval request sits in an inbox. Each wait is only a few days. Add six of them and you have weeks.

## Signs this is happening in your team

- Someone asks "where is this vendor?" and three people need to check their email.
- The business user is told the vendor is "almost done" for the third week in a row.
- Vendors are asked for the same document twice.
- A vendor is set up in the system before the insurance proof is in.
- Only one person knows the full list of steps, and that person is busy.

## Step 1. Write down the steps once

Before you build anything, list every step that must happen for a new vendor. Sit down with the people who do each one. Ask what they need, who they get it from and what they hand on.

For each step, write four things:

1.  The name of the step, for example "Tax form received".
2.  Who does it, by role.
3.  What it needs before it can start.
4.  What counts as done.

Keep the list short. If you have more than ten steps, some can probably be joined. One way to start is to group them into five stages: Requested, Documents, Review, Approved and Set up in system.

## Step 2. Make one list with one row per vendor

Use one list for all vendors. A SharePoint list works well for this. Microsoft says lists can hold column types such as Text, Number, Choice, Date and Time, Lookup and Yes/No.

One way to start is with these columns:

- Vendor name = Title (the vendor name column is the renamed Title column; it is required by default, so rename it or turn Require off)
- Requested by
- Stage (a Choice column with your five stages, with number prefixes so it sorts: 1 Requested, 2 Documents, 3 Review, 4 Approved, 5 Set up in system)
- Stage owner (the person who must act next)
- Stage start date
- Tax form received (Yes/No)
- Insurance proof received (Yes/No)
- Insurance expiry date
- Approved by and approval date
- Notes

Use a Choice column for the stage. That stops people from typing "in progress", "pending" and "waiting" for the same thing.

## Step 3. Show days waiting

The most useful number is days waiting. It is the number of days since the vendor entered the current stage. A vendor at 2 days is fine. A vendor at 12 days needs a call.

You can work this out from the stage start date. A calculated column cannot do it, because SharePoint blocks \[Today\] in formulas. Use a view filter such as Stage start date is less than \[Today\]-7. Microsoft says \[Today\] and \[Me\] need the classic view editor (Edit current view, then Filters). For blank and "is not equal to" filters, we also use the classic view editor. That part is our advice, not a Microsoft rule. They do not work from a column header. Or use or a daily flow that writes the count into a number column.

Also keep a second date, the date the vendor was first requested. This shows total time from request to ready. Over a few months it tells you whether you are getting faster.

## Step 4. Build views for each person

Views let each person see only what matters. Microsoft says views organize, sort and filter list data, and that a public view can be seen by everyone if you have the right to change the list.

One way to start is with three views:

- All vendors by stage, sorted with the longest wait first.
- My vendors, filtered to rows where the stage owner equals \[Me\] (classic view editor only: Edit current view, then Filters).
- Stuck, filtered to rows with more than a set number of days waiting.

The Stuck view is the one you open in your weekly review. If a vendor appears there, ask one question: who needs to do what, and by when?

## Step 5. Ask for documents in one request

A lot of delay comes from asking the vendor for items one at a time. Send one request that lists every document you need: the tax form, proof of insurance and any other items on your list. Say what the vendor should send and who to send it to.

In the list, tick the Yes/No columns when each item arrives. Then anyone can see what is still missing without opening an email thread. If a vendor has all items but one, you know exactly what to chase.

## Step 6. Route the approval so it is not lost

The approval step often hides the longest wait. You can use Power Automate to send an approval when a list item is created or changed. Microsoft says the Approvals action "Start and wait for an approval" can be added to a flow, and that approvers can respond from their email inbox, the approvals center in Power Automate or the Power Automate app.

The same page shows a flow that starts when an item is created in a SharePoint list, sends the request to the approver, and then updates the list with the decision and comments. You can copy that pattern for vendors. When the approver answers, the flow can move the stage forward and reset the stage start date.

The page also says you can send approval requests to people outside your organization by using Microsoft Entra guest users. This may help if an outside advisor signs off on vendors.

For more on approvals, see our guide "[Approvals lost in email](/guides/approvals-lost-in-email/)".

## Step 7. Add a weekly reminder

A scheduled flow can run once a day or once a week. Microsoft describes a scheduled cloud flow that starts with a Recurrence trigger, where you set the interval and frequency, such as every 1 week.

One way to start is a flow that runs each Monday. It finds vendors whose days waiting is over your limit and sends each stage owner one message with the list. Keep it to one message per person. Many messages get ignored.

## Step 8. Run a short weekly review

Spend ten minutes a week on the Stuck view. For each vendor, the stage owner says one of three things: moving, blocked or needs help. Blocked items get a named person and a date. If a vendor has been blocked twice, ask whether the request still makes sense.

Also check insurance expiry dates once a month. A vendor set up last year may now have an expired policy. A view filtered to expiry dates in the next 60 days makes this quick. For a similar approach, see our guide "[Contract renewal dates missed](/guides/contract-renewal-dates-missed/)".

## Common mistakes

- Too many stages. Five is enough to start. You can split a stage later if you need to.
- No owner for a stage. If two people share a stage, neither acts. Name one.
- Updating the stage but not the date. Then days waiting is wrong, and nobody trusts the list.
- Tracking only the vendor, not the missing items. The Yes/No columns are what make chasing fast.
- Building the full system first. Start with one list and one view. Add the flows after the team uses the list for a month.

## Honest limits

A tracker shows the delay. It does not remove it. If a step needs a person who is always too busy, the list will show that person's name next to a long wait, and you will still need to solve the load. Also, a tracker only works if people update it. Pick one person to check that the stages are current before each weekly review. Keep personal data and bank details out of the list. Store only the status of each item, and keep the documents in a place with the right access. If your team has special rules on vendor checks, follow them first and use the list to track them.

## When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: \$5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "[What a SharePoint tracker costs](/guides/what-a-sharepoint-tracker-costs/)". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: [Tools I built](/portfolio/)

## FAQ

### How many stages should a vendor onboarding tracker have?

One way to start is five: Requested, Documents, Review, Approved and Set up in system. Add more only if one stage hides a long wait that you cannot see.

### Who should own each stage?

One named person per stage for each vendor. A role can be the default, but the row should show a real person who must act next.

### What is a good limit for days waiting?

There is no standard number. Look at your last ten vendors, see how long each stage took, and set the limit a little above the usual wait. Adjust it after a month.

### Do I need Power Automate to start?

No. A list with a stage, an owner, a stage start date and a Stuck view already helps. Add approvals and reminders when the team uses the list every week.

### Should the vendor see the list?

Not by default. Microsoft says you can share a list with chosen people and set permissions. Keep the list internal and send vendors a simple request for documents.

## Sources

- [Microsoft Support, Introduction to lists](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/introduction-to-lists-0a1c3ace-def0-44af-b225-cfa8d92c52d7)
- [Microsoft Learn, Create and test an approval workflow with Power Automate](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/modern-approvals)
- [Microsoft Learn, Run a cloud flow on a schedule in Power Automate](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/run-scheduled-tasks)

## Related guides

- [Client onboarding checklist for an accounting firm](/guides/client-onboarding-checklist-accounting-firm/)
- [Event vendor tracker: quotes, deposits and day-of contacts](/guides/event-vendor-tracker-sharepoint/)
- [New hire onboarding checklist scattered? Build one trackable list](/guides/new-hire-onboarding-checklist-scattered/)
- [Vendor W-9 and 1099 tracker in SharePoint before January](/guides/sharepoint-vendor-w9-1099-tracker/)

Source: https://250highstreet.com/guides/vendor-onboarding-takes-weeks/