# Suppliers
GLPI supports suppliers management, in order to identity the supplier of an asset in asset management but also to attribute tickets to the supplier, either a person or a company.
When buying an equipment of make X from supplier Y, two distinct information must be managed in GLPI: the vendor (X) and the supplier (Y).
A supplier is characterized by a name, a third party type, a location (address, postal code, town, country) and a contact (web site, phone, fax...).
Supplier management allows to:
* reference all suppliers of organization assets
* ease contact in case of incident
* include suppliers in GLPI assistance
## The different tabs
### Associated Contacts
The *Contacts* tab is used to show or add linked contacts.
{% hint style="info" %}
There is a clear distinction between a supplier (which can be attached to assets) and a contact (which are the persons allowing to contact the supplier). Therefore, a supplier must be associated with contacts.
Example : M. Doe is sale assistant in company Foo. Create a supplier named Foo. Create a contact for M. Doe. Assign to this contact the type "Sale" Attach the contact to supplier Foo
{% endhint %}
### Associated Contracts
The *Contracts* tab is used to show or add linked contracts.
For each associated contract, the name, number, contract type, supplier, start date and initial duration of the contract are listed. In the last field, the end date of the contract is also shown with a red display if the date is earlier than the current date.
Go to Contracts
### Documents
Additional information is stored in the form of external documents which are files uploaded into GLPI. In the *Documents* tab, documents can be associated and unlinked with the selected item. The [management of the documents themselves](https://help.glpi-project.org/documentation/modules/management/documents) is dealt with in another chapter.
It is also possible to quickly create a document via this tab by specifying the desired file and optionally the field in which the new document is to be placed. The name of the created document will be based on the name of the added file.
Go to Documents
### Tickets
The *Tickets* tab is used to create a ticket associated with the current object. It also lists the tickets already linked to the object.
You can create a new one and then link it by clicking on **New tickets for this item**.
You cannot link an existing ticket here. If you want to link an existing ticket, go to **assistance** > [tickets](https://github.com/glpi-network/gitbook/blob/main/manual/modules/management/broken-reference/README.md). Select the relevant ticket and go to the item tab.
Go to Tickets
### Problems
The *Problems* tab is used to create a problem associated with the current object. It also lists the changes already linked to the object.
This summary table includes for each object:
* Status
* Date (opening or expiry date, resolution or closing date depending on the status of the problem)
* Priority
* Requester(s) and assigned technician(s)
* Associated elements
* Category
* Name
* Column indicating the number of scheduled tasks
Go to Problems
### Changes
The *Changes* tab is used to create a change associated with the current object. It also lists the changes already linked to the object.
This summary table includes the following fields for each object:
* Status
* Date (opening or expiry date, resolution or closing date depending on the status of the change)
* Priority
* Requester(s) and assigned technician(s)
* Associated elements
* Category
* Name
* Number of scheduled tasks
Go to Changes
### External Links
The *External links* tab is used to show associated external links.
For some items, external links are managed from the menu **`Setup` > `External links`**.
These links can use object fields such as IP, name, etc.
Go to External links
### Notes
The *Notes* tab provides a free text field for storing additional information. Notes are displayed in the order of their creation. You can also add a document
Go to Notes
### Knowledge base
The *Knowledge base* tab is used to show or add linked knowledge base articles.
From this window, you can link an existing article to a GLPI object. However, it is not possible to create an article from this section.
Go to Knowledge base
### History
The *History* tab is used to show any changes made to an item. The following information about the changes is available:
* ID of the change.
* Date and time the change was made.
* User who made the change. If this field is not filled, it means that the action was done automatically (For example: automatic inventory update).
* Field that was changed.
* Description of the change that was made.
The description of the change represents either the difference between the old and the new value (For example with location field: Change HQ to Remote Office A), or the explanation of the action which was carried out (For example: Uninstallation of a software: "Gimp 2.0").
{% hint style="info" %}
For dropdowns or objects with a parent/child relationship, the modification of a child will appear in the history of the parent element.
{% endhint %}
### All Information
For an item, all information is displayed on one page from the *All* tab. This shows all of the tabs of an object's form in one view, one below the other.