How much is supplier vetting costing you right now?
The honest answer in most firms is that nobody knows, because the effort is scattered. An office manager sends a questionnaire. A contract manager chases insurance certificates. A director is asked to sign off a new subcontractor at short notice because a job starts on Monday. Someone in the bid team discovers a supplier's accreditation lapsed last month while answering a tender question about the supply chain.
There is also the cost of doing it badly: a supplier working without valid cover, a client audit that asks for evidence you cannot find, or a tender marked down because your supply chain answer was vague.
A workable estimate: take the number of suppliers onboarded or renewed in a year, the internal hours each takes including chasing, and divide down to hours a week. Add the hours spent answering supply chain questions from clients and auditors. Multiply by the charge-out rate of whoever does the work and by 46 working weeks. The unbillable hours calculator handles the arithmetic, and the audit tells you whether this is the right place to start.
Why does vetting the same supplier happen again and again?
Three reasons come up repeatedly. First, evidence is received into someone's inbox and never lands in a shared record, so the next person to need it asks the supplier again. Second, expiry dates are not tracked, so renewals are noticed only when something goes wrong. Third, every client audit and tender asks for supply chain evidence in a slightly different shape, and the answer is rebuilt from scratch each time.
The supplier ends up answering the same questions several times a year, and your team ends up reading the same certificates several times a year. Neither adds anything.
What would a better supplier vetting process look like?
It starts with your own approved supplier criteria and works outwards.
| Stage | Today | Rebuilt |
|---|---|---|
| Request | The same long questionnaire goes to every supplier | Questions are chosen by supplier type and risk, so a stationery supplier is not asked about cyber controls |
| Evidence | Certificates arrive by email and are saved wherever | Documents are read on arrival, key details and expiry dates are recorded, and gaps are listed |
| Assessment | Someone reads everything and decides | A summary against your criteria is prepared, and a named person approves or rejects |
| Renewal | Noticed when it has already lapsed | The supplier is asked ahead of expiry, and the owner is told if nothing comes back |
| Reuse | Tender and audit answers are rewritten each time | Current, dated evidence is ready to cite from one record |
It uses the tools your firm already has, typically email, a shared drive or document system and whatever register you currently keep, rather than a separate supplier portal the team has to learn.
What is different for the people involved?
Office and contract managers stop chasing paperwork and start dealing with exceptions. Directors are asked to approve suppliers with a clear summary in front of them, not a folder of attachments. The bid team can answer supply chain questions from a record they trust. And suppliers deal with a firm that asks once and remembers the answer, which is its own small advantage in a tight market.
Which kinds of firm should look at this first?
Firms that depend on a supply chain to deliver their own service, or that are asked to evidence it. Facilities management companies relying on specialist subcontractors are the clearest case. Managed service providers vetting software and data suppliers, property and asset managers appointing contractors on behalf of owners, and engineering consultancies working with specialist subconsultants all carry the same load. If you bid for public work, the supply chain questions under the Procurement Act 2023 regime make current evidence even more useful, and the same record feeds tender responses.
How do the 30 days run for supplier vetting?
We begin by collecting your current questionnaires, your supplier register in whatever form it exists, and any client requirements that flow down to your suppliers, then follow a few recent approvals and renewals to see where they stalled. The build phase turns your criteria into rules, sets up the request and evidence steps in your existing tools, and loads your current suppliers so renewals are tracked from day one. It is tested on real suppliers who are due for approval or renewal. In the final week the people who own supplier relationships are trained, and new suppliers go through the new route only. We stay on for 30 days of support afterwards.