Onboard contractors and suppliers as QuickBooks vendors
New suppliers and contractors fill in their own details once, and the vendor record is created in QuickBooks.
New submission on your vendor or contractor onboarding form
Create a Vendor in QuickBooks with the company name, contact, email and tax details
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
Accounts payable starts going wrong at the moment a supplier is set up. A name typed off a signature block, a tax ID that never made it out of somebody's inbox, terms nobody actually agreed — every bill after that inherits the mess.
An onboarding form puts the supplier in charge of their own details, and this flow moves those details straight into QuickBooks as a vendor record. Finance teams and small operations taking on contractors, freelancers and trade suppliers use it so the first bill can be paid without a round of chasing emails.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish the vendor onboarding form and send the link to the supplier directly rather than putting it on your website — the questions ask for tax details, and it is not a page you want indexed.
- 2
Set the formformform "New Submission" trigger to that form and add QuickBooks Online with the Create Vendor action.
- 3
Map Company Name to both Display Name and Company Name, and Primary Contact Name to the given and family name fields, so bills show the firm and emails reach a person.
- 4
Map Business Address into the vendor's billing address, splitting the answer into line, city, region and postcode with a Zapier Formatter step before it reaches QuickBooks.
- 5
Map Tax ID or EIN to the vendor's tax identifier field, and add Zapier paths on Vendor Type so individual contractors get the 1099 tracking box ticked and companies do not.
- 6
Put Payment Terms Requested into Terms only if you accept them as submitted. If terms need signing off, map it to the vendor notes instead and set Terms by hand once agreed.
- 7
Add a filter requiring both Company Name and Email Address, so a half-completed form never becomes a payable account.
- 8
Submit a test vendor, check it under Expenses then Vendors, delete the test, and switch the Zap on.
What maps where
Using the Vendor Onboarding Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | QuickBooks |
|---|---|
| Company Name | Display Name and Company Name on the QuickBooks vendor |
| Primary Contact Name | Given and family name fields on the vendor record |
| Email Address | Vendor email, used for remittance advice |
| Business Address | Billing address on the vendor record |
| Tax ID or EIN | Tax identifier on the vendor, used for 1099 reporting |
| Payment Terms Requested | Terms on the vendor, or the vendor notes if terms still need approving |
Variations worth knowing
Add Zapier paths on Vendor Type so contractors are created with 1099 tracking on and a default expense account for subcontract costs, while suppliers are created without it. Month-end reporting then needs no reclassification.
Rather than creating the vendor immediately, send the submission to whoever approves suppliers and have the Zap wait on their reply. Nothing reaches QuickBooks until someone has confirmed the company is real and the terms are ones you can live with.
If something isn't arriving
Tax ID or EIN is optional on the form and suppliers routinely skip it. Make the question required in your copy of the form, or add a Zapier filter that routes submissions without one to a review inbox instead of straight into QuickBooks.
Vendor display names must be unique in QuickBooks, and a supplier who onboards twice will collide with themselves. Add a Find Vendor step before the create step and let matching submissions stop there rather than erroring.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay the supplier from the form?
Yes. Add products and priced options to the form, then collect payment through secure hosted checkout with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Payment status is tracked alongside the response.
If a supplier changes their address, will the form update QuickBooks?
Only by creating something new. Each submission is a one-way trigger, so an updated form either fails on the duplicate name or is caught by your Find Vendor step. Change the address on the vendor record in QuickBooks.
Can one form create both a vendor and a customer?
Yes, if you trade both ways with the same firm. Add a second QuickBooks action to the Zap, or use paths on Vendor Type so only the relevant record is created. QuickBooks keeps customers and vendors as separate lists either way.
Related automations
- Add new clients to your QuickBooks customer list
Every new client who fills in your intake form arrives in QuickBooks as a customer record, ready to invoice.
- Log expense claims as QuickBooks expenses
Each expense claim submitted by staff is recorded in QuickBooks against the right category, payee and date.
- Raise a QuickBooks invoice from an order request
An order placed through your form becomes a draft invoice in QuickBooks, with terms and PO number already filled in.
- Record a paid order as a QuickBooks sales receipt
An order that has already been paid for is logged in QuickBooks as a sales receipt against the right income account.
- Turn a quote request into a QuickBooks estimate
Quote requests land in QuickBooks as estimates against a named customer, ready for you to price and send.
- Add counter signups to your Customer Directory
A signup at the till or on your site becomes a Square customer profile straight away, spelled the way the customer typed it.
Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
Start free