First, you will see I am using almost indifferently vendor and supplier. If you want to what is the difference between vendor and supplier, go here.
Second, this post is not academic, but based on a real-life Excel template. You’ll learn about my vendor scorecard excel template. It helps you to build a vendor scoring system from scratch, as a stand-alone solution. No database needed.
Third, this supplier performance scorecard template has a big brother with an Excel database. Pick-up the one that best suits your needs!
How does a vendor performance scorecard template look like?
Where to download the template:
Go directly at the bottom section of this article.
Some context of this supplier rating system in Excel:
Some years ago, I would have sold my kingdom to get a ready to use supplier monitoring scorecard. I searched the web for hours. Oh, I found nice pictures and consultants matrix. But nothing I could need in my real work:
- Short and impactful
- Intuitive to use
- Easy to share
So we sat down together with my team, and listed what we wanted to see on a vendor performance tracking system scorecard. It means all KPIs and criteria that measure a vendor.
How-to create a list of criteria and KPIs you need:
Let’s have a look at the necessary 5 steps on how to create scorecard in excel.
First define your targets.
Answer questions such as “why am I doing this” “when will I use it” “who is going to prepare it” “Who is going to read it” “What is the outcome”. Look further below to get some support on this.
Real-life tip: You need to already seek alignment in this phase and buy-in from stakeholders. If you are to create a new tool, or even a new way of working. This is necessary to inform decision-makers about your approach to get support for later use and implementation. Do not underestimate this part. A good way to get buy-in, is to ask for input on target definition. Once someone as set a target of a project, he feels compelled to its success.
Second is brainstorming.
List all you want, all your colleagues dream of. No limit to listing. This comes later. Go broad with your colleagues: accounting, quality, transport, Key Account,… Now you have a first draft list of vendor scorecard criteria. For brainstorming, you can use usual collaborative tools (White board, Miro,…)
Third is definition.
Align on wording. What is spend? Yearly spend? Net?… What is price? Bulk price? Unit?… The devil is in details, and better to kick him out early enough.
Important: check that the KPIs is existing in a way in your organization. If not, how to you intend to retrieve those in a regular way?
Fourth is trimming.
Cut off anything which is really complex to retrieve in your organization. Suppress nice-to-have that just over complexify the whole picture with low added value.
Real-life tip: this is the most emotional part. You want to keep all. To see all and everything. This is wrong. More is not better. Allocate for instance 5 KPIs per area and stick to it.
Next is validate.
Check with your peers and organization that you get alignment on your tool. Do not jump this stage. This is were all the work can be lost and stopped.
How to create scorecard in Excel? How to create your vendor scorecard dashboard? No worries, I did it for you…
Decide what you want graphically, what is better as a KPIs. And then comes the how. I believe in such phases in 2 tools. Excel and PowerBI. Now why did I focus on Excel?
- Excel is better-off as a start, you may always upgrade later. The link between the 2 MS-office applications is strong
- PowerBI is better used when dealing a lot of data. In this Excel vendor scorecard template, we built a stand-alone application. No database in background.
But anyway, since I did the job for you with my vendor evaluation template in Excel, you will skip this step. And just adapt my criteria to your own needs. Thanks to steps 1 to 5.
The result of our work: a comprehensive vendor performance tracking system
You surely saw many fancy screenshots of what a supplier performance card is made of. There is no single truth indeed. Nonetheless, there is a common recipe:
- One-pager
- Mixing graphics and KPIs
- Clearly vendor related and sharable
The most important is readability and comprehensiveness. Based on this recipe I have designed a vendor performance scorecard template in Excel. The criteria are grouped per category. Those can be figures, text or graphics. The criteria are as objective as possible. Vendor and own organization must accept and recognize those.
The big brother:
This scorecard vendor tracking template is the “light version”, i.e. without database in the background, of following supplier scorecard template.
Why a scorecard to measure vendor performance?
A Vendor scorecard is a 360° approach of a vendor benchmark. It streamlines the gathering of indicators across procurement, quality, finance, risk management and supply chain. This is a true supplier rating in Excel.
Evaluating your vendors as part of Vendor Relationship Management
Your vendor base is a black box? How evaluating them? This is the very purpose of this SRM tool. Well this is only a small tool, but very powerful. Who said size matters?
Once we are done, you will be best armed to talk to vendor and defend your views internally.
This tool can highly contribute to:
- Improve your vendor base
- Continuous improvement across all departments
- Strengthen your internal position.
The vendor score card template gathers all criteria about vendor performance. It can be adapted any time.
What is the value of a performance scorecard to benchmark vendors?
Let me make a simple test. I will ask you 5 questions. If you have ever heard one of those and thought: “hmm, ‘d better know this”, then you already know the value of a vendor score card.
- Tell me your worst vendor.
- Scrub your vendor base and suppress xxx vendors. Which one do you suppress?
- VIP client has reached your CEO to complain about the vendor. Your CEO tells you: give me an overview for today EOB.
- Did this vendor improved since last year.
- Which vendor do you want to propose for vendor of the year award.
Then you know why you need a scorecard xls template for vendors!
By deploying a vendor scoring approach in xls format, I successfully:
- Prepare negotiation (spend, quality,…): a comprehensive approach of your vendor on one page. A strong support to manage discussions. Use facts to back-up your decisions.
- Save time in benchmarking relevant vendors: a full view on all aspects of your vendors, from business to risks analyzis.
- Get more traction internally with strong visual documents. Become the internal benchmark in procurement department.
Is this Excel like a SRM – Supplier Relationship Management?
No, not at all. This vendor evaluation template in excel is a very small part of SRM, but by far not a full SRM. This has no database, no strategy. This is a manual tool to evaluate your vendor upon request. This is not a systematic approach of performance, no automated benchmark. So this vendor scoring template in excel is part of SRM, at the heart of it, but only a small part of it. This is what you shall start with.
Where to download the template:
Go directly at the bottom section of this article.
The Scorecard Dashboard as stand-alone tool
The Vendor score card spreadsheet template is an individual solution. It stands alone, as it does not link to any vendor database:
- Evaluate manually vendors in Excel
- Share vendor Scorecard in Excel
- Benchmark vendors graphically in Excel
This template is the “light version” of following supplier scorecard template. Kind of small brother.
Features of Excel scoring template
The Vendor Performance Score Card Excel Template is a stand alone tool. It is conceived to prepare, wihtout existing database, a comprehensive overview of a vendor. The data is entered manually and does not link to anything. Beyond those main features, the template offers flexibility:
- Scorecard graph: generated automatically based on your manual entries. It displays the scores of every vendor for each and single one criteria you have defined.
- Scorecard criteria: you can adapt those anytime
- Criteria Weights: you decide what matters to you. Set your own weights and change those in a single click.
- Vendor scoring: After criteria and weights are defined, you can start scoring each vendor. You’d better involve your colleagues to get an exact picture. This is the fun part!
- Flexible: if you want to change vendor, just copy the tab or the file and start from the same criteria and weights basis. Change colors and fonts: no restrictions in Excel, no password, no macro.
This is your vendor evaluation scorecard: making changes on your own
This vendor performance scorecard template (xls) is not build on a complex structure. If you are a regular excel user, you can modify and extend the functions. Moreover, colors and layout are easy to adapt to your company policy. There are no hidden functions, just plain Excel Formulas. No big deal.
| How To | Scorecard Internal | Scorecard external | Parameters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tab 1 | Tab 2 | Tab 3 | Tab 4 |
| A guide to help you getting ownership on the file | The scorecard, with internal comments | The same scorecard, without internal comments, ready to share | All parameters, such as vendor type, colleagues name, etc... |
Where to download the template:
Go directly at the bottom section of this article.
How to modify the header (Vendor information)
Those are basically text fields and lists linked with the parameters tab. You just overwrite manually what you need to adapt. Or Pick-up from the dropdown list.
Further below, you have additional free text fields to define ToDos and take notes. This ensures that actions will be communicated and implemented.
And now? How to master your vendors
| Before | During | After |
|---|---|---|
| Share the scorecard | Explain your scorecard | Export the scorcard and notes as .pdf |
| Show cooperation and preparation | Lead the discussions with the document | Send as minutes of meeting |
| Standardized communication | Take notes and agree deadlines | |
| Negotiation arguments |
Upon printing (or .pdf), they will fit perfectly on a Letter or A4 printout. The idea behind it is to use it directly as reporting or as minutes of meetings.
Define what parameters matter to you
What is relevant for you may not be relevant to me. That is why you can customize the vendor performance card template in Excel.
There is a chart on the side with full parameter overview. Most of the time, you do it once and for all, but this can be changed anytime you want. For example next time you change company 🙂
Customizing:
- Any text
- Product Category
- Vendor segmentation
- Scoring criteria and their weights
Top benefits of a vendor evaluation scorecard
The negotiation becomes powerful with knowledge: a scorecard. The vendor performance management excel template summarize all information into one document:
- Preparing vendor negotiation without death angle, both on hard facts and soft facts
- Continuous improvement: regularly updating scorecards ensure a virtuous process of improving your vendors. It gives impulse to change.
- Internal buy-in: I assume you are not alone in you organization. An what is best than a ready-to-use template, understood by all and supporting your view?
Download the xls template
Free Download: The Vendor Performance Monitoring Excel Template is available for free download after email registration and newsletter abo. You will receive a link. Any issue, just email me.
