Vendor agreement

A vendor agreement is a contract between a business and a supplier that sets the standing terms for everything the supplier will provide over time.

What it is

A vendor agreement, or supplier agreement, is signed once when a supplier joins your approved list. After that, each order can be a short purchase order that points back to it. It saves both sides from agreeing prices, quality rules and liability on every order.

From the supplier's side, the same document often looks like a sales agreement for goods or a service agreement for services. Who drafts it decides whose terms come first.

When it is used

Onboarding a new supplier before the first order.
Renewing terms with a long-standing supplier, often yearly.
A property management firm signing up contractors for repairs across many buildings.
A healthcare admin team adding a supplier of non-clinical services, such as cleaning or IT.
A platform that onboards sellers or service providers onto a marketplace.

What it usually contains

Section	What it covers
Parties and term	Who is agreeing, start date, length and renewal
Products or services	What the vendor will supply, often in a schedule
Pricing	Price lists, discounts, and how prices may change
Ordering process	How orders are placed and confirmed, often by PO
Delivery and performance	Lead times, service levels, and what counts as late
Quality and inspection	Standards the goods or work must meet, and how rejects are handled
Invoicing and payment	Invoice format, payment days and disputes
Compliance	Rules the vendor must follow, such as codes of conduct or data handling
Confidentiality and data	How each side protects the other's information
Insurance and indemnity	Cover the vendor must hold, and who pays for which claims
Termination	How either side can end it, and what happens to open orders
Signatures	Authorised signers for both businesses

Things to get right

Collect the vendor's details with the agreement. Tax forms, insurance certificates and bank details are separate documents. Gather them through your own onboarding, and confirm bank details by phone.
Keep the price schedule current. If prices change yearly, use a schedule that can be replaced by a signed update, rather than rewriting the agreement.
Know which version each vendor signed. Put the template version in the title or metadata.

General information only. This is not legal advice, and a lawyer should review your vendor terms, especially liability and data clauses.

How to send it for signature with docuinked

In the app

Upload the agreement, place fields for the vendor's signer, their title and the date, and add your own countersigner. Save it as a template called by version, such as "Vendor agreement v3".

By API

A supplier onboarding form can start the agreement when it is submitted. This example uses create_from_template, so the fields saved in the web app are already placed:

curl https://docuinked.com/v1/templates/TEMPLATE_ID/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCUINKED_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: vendor-onboard-3310" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Vendor agreement v3, Brightline Supplies",
       "signers": [{"name": "Jamie Cole", "email": "jamie@example.net"},
                   {"name": "Avery Shah", "email": "avery@example.com"}]}'

That creates a draft and sends nothing. Send it with POST https://docuinked.com/v1/documents/DOCUMENT_ID/send, or create from a PDF with https://docuinked.com/v1/documents and "send": true as on the other template pages. The API reference has both.

From an agent

A procurement agent can prepare a vendor agreement over MCP once the vendor passes your checks. A live send returns an approval_url, and a person on your team releases it. For a white-label marketplace, the vendor sees your brand on the signing page and in the email's sender name. See platforms.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-07.

ESIGN Act, 15 USC 7001: a contract may not be denied effect solely because an electronic signature or record was used in its formation.

Common questions

Is a vendor agreement the same as a master services agreement?

They overlap. A master services agreement usually covers services and project work. A vendor agreement often covers goods and ongoing supply. The name matters less than what the sections say.

How often should vendors re-sign?

When the terms change, and on whatever cycle your policy sets, often yearly for key suppliers. Send the new version as a fresh document and keep the old record as it was.

Can a vendor sign on behalf of their company from a shared inbox?

They can, but the record then shows only that someone with that inbox signed. Ask for a named person's email, and add an access code for larger contracts.

Try it in test mode

Free during the beta. Test keys send no email, so you can build the whole flow first.

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