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Suppliers
Suppliers are the food and beverage vendors you purchase from. In DigiChef, creating a supplier is the first step to importing invoices and tracking what you pay for your ingredients.
Navigate to your suppliers at app.digichef.co/suppliers.
Why suppliers matter in DigiChef
Everything flows from your suppliers. When you import an invoice from a supplier, DigiChef:
- Creates any new products that don't already exist in your account
- Updates the cost of existing products to the latest price on the invoice
- Recalculates the cost of every recipe that uses those products
The more consistently you import invoices from your suppliers, the more accurate and up-to-date your food cost data will be.
Supplier types
When creating a supplier, you'll select a supplier type that helps DigiChef categorise your purchasing:
| Type | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Food | Primary food suppliers — produce, proteins, dry goods |
| Beverage | Drinks, alcohol, mixers |
| Packaging | Takeaway containers, bags, wrapping |
| Other | Cleaning supplies, smallwares, miscellaneous |
INFO
Only Food suppliers contribute to your food cost calculations. Packaging and Other suppliers are tracked for purchasing visibility but aren't included in recipe cost calculations.
Electronic Invoice Integration (EDI)
The best supplier experience in DigiChef is with Electronic Invoice Integration — a direct connection between DigiChef and your supplier that automatically imports new invoices as soon as they're issued.
DigiChef currently supports EDI with:
- Sysco
- Gordon Food Service (GFS)
If your supplier is on this list, enable electronic integration when creating the supplier. After saving the supplier, you'll be prompted to enter your account number for each of your locations.
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With EDI enabled, you'll never need to manually upload or enter an invoice from that supplier again. New orders appear in your account automatically, keeping your costs always current.
Entering account numbers
Each location in your company has its own account number with a given supplier. DigiChef needs these to know which invoices belong to which store.
- Open the supplier from Suppliers.
- Click Options > Account Numbers.
- Enter the account number for each location.
- Click Finish.
INFO
After you enter your account numbers, it can take up to 10 business days for your supplier to enable electronic invoicing on their end. You'll start receiving invoices automatically once the connection is active.
Want to see your supplier added to the EDI list? Get in touch — we're actively working to expand our integrations.
Supplier detail page
Clicking a supplier from the Suppliers Overview opens its detail page, which gives you a historical view of your purchasing relationship with that supplier:
- Stat bar — total spend over the selected period and order count
- Summary tab — an order history chart showing spend over time, plus a category breakdown of what you've purchased
- Recent Orders tab — a list of the most recent orders from this supplier, with links to each order's detail page
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The category breakdown on the Summary tab shows you what mix of products you're buying from each supplier — useful when evaluating whether to consolidate purchasing or compare spend across suppliers of the same type.
Managing supplier contacts
Each supplier can store a rep contact — name, phone number, and email. This is handy for quick reference when you need to query an order, negotiate pricing, or report a delivery issue.
To add or update contact details:
- Open the supplier from Suppliers.
- Click Edit.
- Enter the rep's contact details.
- Click Save.
Notes
The Notes field on a supplier is a free-text area where you can record anything useful — delivery schedules, minimum order values, lead times, or account-specific terms. It's visible to all users in your company.
Archiving a supplier
If you stop purchasing from a supplier, you can archive them to keep your supplier list clean without losing historical data:
- Open the supplier.
- Click Options > Archive.
Products from an archived supplier remain in your account and in your recipes — their last known cost is preserved. You can restore the supplier at any time via Options > Restore.