User Guide

Vendors & contractors

Two flows: agency-routed contractors (paid via staffing vendor) and 1099 sole-prop contractors (paid directly).

🏢

Agency-routed

Staffing agency owns the relationship. Members log time under the agency's vendor entity. Firm pays the agency via vendor invoices.
🧑

Solo 1099 (direct)

Sole prop or LLC paid directly by the firm. Onboarded via the streamlined 1099 wizard. Single-person vendor wrapper built for 1099-NEC reporting.
Vendors list — staffing agencies and solo contractors with members, assigned clients, and billing cadences. Status pill surfaces invoice cadence (weekly / monthly).
Vendors list — staffing agencies and solo contractors with members, assigned clients, and billing cadences. Status pill surfaces invoice cadence (weekly / monthly).

What a vendor carries

  • ✓Tax ID + tax ID type (EIN / SSN)
  • ✓Contact info + billing email
  • ✓Assigned clients (which clients vendor can work on)
  • ✓Attached documents (W-9, COI, signed MSA)
  • ✓Vendor type → compliance baselines
  • ✓Optional members_can_log_time flag

Outbound POs — the time-entry gate

Before a vendor contractor can log billable time, the firm issues an Outbound PO:

  • ✓Contractor + client + optional project
  • ✓Period (start / end dates)
  • ✓Straight-time + overtime rates
  • ✓Optional caps (hours_cap, amount_cap)
  • ✓Billing frequency (weekly / monthly / on-demand)
Draft→Sent→Signed→Countersigned

Plus side states: Withdrawn Rejected Revoked Expired. Only countersigned POs authorize time entry.

Tip
Outbound POs ship as customizable templates with token substitution — admin can author a custom HTML or upload a branded PDF that auto-populates with each PO's data (firm letterhead, parties, rates, period, caps).

Vendor invoices

⏱️

Labor invoice

Auto-pulls approved time entries from the period (ST + OT split per week-ending). Vendor admin reviews + submits; firm-side AP queue approves.
🧾

Expense invoice

Manual line entry for travel / meals / materials / software with per-line receipts. Same approval path as labor.
Multi-invoice payment allocations
One bank transaction can clear multiple vendor invoices. Allocations are per-invoice; auto-flip to paid when the sum across allocations + discount equals the invoice total.

1099 contractor onboarding

Use the streamlined "Onboard 1099 Contractor" wizard from Users. Branches on tax-ID type:

🪪

SSN sole-prop

Role contractor_1099 — classified internally under People. Single-person vendor wrapper still exists behind the scenes for 1099-NEC reporting.
🏛️

EIN solo LLC

Role vendor_admin — the LLC is the business entity. Surfaces under Vendors. Same single-person wrapper.

Either way, the contractor gets a regular employee-style timesheet. Year-end 1099 totals roll up from vendor_payments grouped by SSN tax-ID type.

Conversion matrix
Employees can convert to 1099 contractors (and back). 1099 → agency-routed vendor consultant. Vendor user → solo 1099 with own wrapper. Cross-agency move preserves historical time-entry attribution via the vendor_id_at_creation stamp on time entries / expenses / documents.
Compliance gating
Vendor types carry required-document + required-contract baselines (W-9 / COI / signed MSA / NDA, etc.). Vendor detail page's Compliance tab shows live status per requirement. Outbound POs can be gated on vendor compliance — super_admin policy toggle in Settings → Vendors → Enforcement Policy.
← Previous
Documents
Next →
Contracts & signing