Part 2: Suppliers & contracts

Before you can create purchase orders or process invoices, you need to know who you are buying from.

In biosuite, suppliers (also called vendors) represent the companies you work with. Contracts represent the agreements you have with them.

Together, they give you a clear picture of your commitments. When purchase orders and invoices are later linked to suppliers and contracts, biosuite can automatically track how much has been spent, how much remains, and whether invoices fall within agreed amounts.

Setting up your suppliers and contracts is the foundation for everything else in biosuite.

A supplier in biosuite represents any external company you purchase services from – a CRO, a consulting firm, a lab services provider, or any other vendor.

To add a new supplier, you need to provide:

• Name – the company name of the supplier

• Country – where the supplier is based

You can also add:

• Address – the supplier's physical address

• Default currency – the currency this supplier typically invoices in (this is used as a default when creating purchase orders for this supplier)

• Default VAT code – if the supplier consistently uses the same VAT treatment

• Active/Inactive status – mark a supplier as inactive if you no longer work with them but want to keep the historical records

Once saved, the supplier is available throughout biosuite. You can link contracts, purchase orders, and invoices to it.

When you open a supplier, you see their details – name, country, address, currency, and who created the record.

Below the details, there is a Documents section. This section shows all procurement documents linked to the supplier, organised in a clear hierarchy:

• Contracts linked to this supplier

• Purchase orders linked to each contract

• Invoices linked to each purchase order

Purchase orders that are not linked to any contract appear under a separate group. Invoices that are not linked to a purchase order appear as standalone entries.

This gives you a complete overview of all activity with a supplier – from the contract level down to individual invoices – without needing to navigate to separate pages.

You can edit a supplier's details at any time – update the address, change the default currency, or mark the supplier as inactive.

If you no longer need a supplier, you can archive it. When you archive a supplier, it is removed from your active lists – but all historical data, including linked contracts, purchase orders, and invoices, is preserved.

To prevent accidental data loss, biosuite asks you to type the supplier name to confirm the archive action.

If a supplier has active contracts linked to it, archiving is blocked. You will see a list of the contracts that need to be resolved first, with direct links so you can take action.

A contract in biosuite represents a formal agreement with a supplier. It captures the key financial and organisational details of the engagement.

When creating a contract, you provide:

• Contract name – a descriptive name for the agreement (for example, "Phase II CRO Services – Oncology Program")

• Supplier – the vendor this contract belongs to

• Contract value – the total agreed value of the contract

• Currency – the currency of the contract

• Effective date – when the contract takes effect

• Clinical program (optional) – link the contract to a specific program, such as a clinical trial or development project

• Description – free-text notes describing the scope or purpose

• Status – active or inactive

The contract creation form is organised into tabs so you can focus on one area at a time: Details, Change orders, and Timeline & notes.

Contracts rarely stay exactly as originally agreed. Scope changes, additional milestones, or renegotiated terms are common in biotech procurement.

biosuite lets you register change orders on any contract. Each change order records an adjustment to the contract value – either an increase or a decrease – along with a description and a date.

Example: Your CRO contract for a Phase II trial was originally agreed at €850,000. Six months in, an additional biomarker analysis is added to the scope, increasing the contract value by €120,000. You register this as a change order.

biosuite automatically calculates the revised total – the original contract value plus all change orders. This revised total is displayed throughout biosuite, including in contract lists and supplier views, so you always know the current committed value.

Change orders provide a clear audit trail of how a contract has evolved over time, without overwriting the original agreement.

Some contracts have a defined period – a start date and an end date. Others are open-ended or recurring.

The Timeline & notes tab lets you capture:

• Contract period – optional start and end dates

• Recurrence – whether the contract renews periodically, the renewal interval, and how many days of notice are required before renewal

• Auto-renew – whether the contract renews automatically at the end of each period

• Notes – additional context, reminders, or references related to the contract timeline

Example: A consulting agreement with a regulatory advisory firm runs from January to December, renews annually, and requires 90 days' notice to cancel. You capture all of this in the timeline section.

This information is displayed on the contract view page, so anyone reviewing the contract can immediately see whether it has a defined period, when it ends, and whether it renews.

When you open a contract, you see a structured overview of all its details:

• Details – supplier, contract name, effective date, program, and description

• Financials – original contract value, change orders summary, and the revised total

• Change orders – the full list of registered adjustments

• Timeline & notes – contract period, recurrence settings, and additional notes

Below these sections, a Documents section shows all purchase orders and invoices linked to this contract – organised in the same hierarchy as the supplier view:

• Purchase orders under this contract

• Invoices under each purchase order

• Standalone invoices linked directly to the contract

This gives you a complete financial picture: how much the contract is worth, how much has been ordered, and how much has been invoiced.

When you are viewing a contract and want to create a purchase order based on it, you can do so directly.

From the contract view, use the action menu (the three-dot menu next to the back button) and select Create purchase order based on this contract.

This opens the purchase order creation form with the supplier, currency, and contract reference automatically pre-filled. You only need to add the specific line items and amounts for this order.

This saves time and reduces the risk of mismatched details between the contract and the purchase order.

You can edit a contract at any time to update its details, add change orders, or adjust the timeline and notes.

If a contract is no longer relevant, you can archive it. When you archive a contract, it is removed from your active lists – but all related data is preserved for historical reference.

To confirm, biosuite asks you to type the contract name.

Linking a contract to a clinical program helps you understand spending at the project level.

Example: Your company runs two clinical programs – a Phase II oncology trial and a Phase I rare disease study. Each program has separate CRO contracts, lab service agreements, and consulting engagements. By linking each contract to the correct program, you can see the total committed value per program across all suppliers.

Clinical programs are set up during company creation and can be managed from the settings at any time. Each program has a name, an abbreviation, and a phase.

The suppliers page provides a quick-search function so you can find any supplier by name, country, or address without scrolling through a full list.

Search results appear as you type, and you can open a supplier directly from the results.

You can also browse the full supplier list, which shows all active suppliers with their key details at a glance. From the list, you can switch between a card view and a table view depending on your preference.

The contracts page works similarly to the suppliers page. You can search for a contract by name or browse the full list.

Contract lists show the contract name, supplier, value, currency, program, and the number of change orders (if any) with the revised total. This makes it easy to scan your commitments and spot contracts that have been amended.

You can also switch between card and table views.

If you need to share supplier or contract data with colleagues outside biosuite – for instance, for a board presentation or a finance review – you can export the data to CSV or Excel format.

Exports include all relevant fields and can be generated directly from the supplier or contract list pages.