Resources

What Are External Suppliers?

External suppliers are third-party companies whose items you include in your customer quotes. The most common types are hire companies (for equipment like glassware, crockery, and serving equipment) and beverage suppliers. You load their items into Puree so they can be easily added to quotes — your customer sees one simple quote with everything they need.

Once those items are in a quote, Puree also helps you manage placing the order with the external supplier.

Setting Up External Suppliers

Go to Settings → External Suppliers and click Add External Supplier. Enter the supplier's name, email address, phone number, and select which category groups they provide items for (e.g. Equipment, Beverages). Then save the supplier.

Assigning Items to a Supplier

When creating or editing an item (for example, an equipment item), you'll see an External Supplier field. The dropdown will show suppliers that match the item's master category. Select the appropriate supplier to allocate that item to them.

When the item appears in a quote, the customer simply sees the item listed alongside everything else. The external supplier association is used internally by Puree to help you manage orders.

Placing Orders with External Suppliers

Once a quote contains external supplier items, you can place the order with the supplier from the Logistics → External Supplier Orders page. Here you'll see all upcoming orders that have external supplier items.

Setting Delivery and Return Details

For each supplier order, you need to specify the delivery or collection details. Puree pulls through the items that belong to that supplier and the event date. You can then set:

• Whether the supplier is delivering or you're collecting
• The delivery date and time (defaults to the event date)
• Any special instructions
• The return date and time (defaults to two days after the event)

Emailing the Order

Once you've saved the delivery details, Puree creates a draft email to the supplier. The email includes the delivery date, return date, and a list of items. Click send and the order goes directly to the supplier's email address. It's as simple as that.

Handling Order Updates

If you edit a quote and change the items (update quantities, add or remove items), Puree tracks that the supplier order has changed. The external supplier order page will show a badge indicating that an update is needed, and the colour coding will change to alert you.

If you have task reminders enabled, Puree will also send you a reminder to update the supplier. When you're ready, simply come back to the supplier order, review the changes, and send the updated email. Puree is smart enough to know which items have been updated.

Task Management for External Suppliers

In the Task Management settings, there are two external supplier task types:

• Send the order — When a quote is accepted and contains external supplier items, Puree reminds you to place the order with the supplier.
• Update the supplier — If the quote has been updated since you last emailed the supplier, Puree reminds you to send an update. You can configure how many days before the event this reminder is sent.

This is particularly useful for events like weddings where there might be many changes before the final quote is confirmed. Rather than emailing the hire company every time something changes, you can set the reminder to (for example) 7 days before the event. This collects all previous changes into one update, so you're not bombarding the supplier with constant revisions.