Billy's Vendor Numbering feature automatically assigns a unique identifier to each new vendor your team creates. That identifier becomes the stable anchor for everything you track against that vendor certificates of insurance, W-9s, licenses, contracts, and compliance status, so your records stay organized as your vendor list grows.
Why vendor numbers matter for COI tracking
When you're tracking certificates of insurance across dozens or hundreds of subcontractors, vendor names alone get messy fast. Two vendors with similar names, a DBA that doesn't match the named insured on the COI, a company that changes its legal name mid-project — any of these can scramble your COI tracking. A consistent vendor number gives every vendor one durable reference that doesn't change, so each COI, renewal, and compliance record stays tied to the right company. It also makes vendor records easier to reconcile against your accounting or project-management system.
How to set up Vendor Numbering
Go to Settings → Team Settings and find the Vendor Numbering section. You'll set two fields:
Prefix — a letter or short string that leads every ID (for example,
VorE).Next number — the number the next new vendor will receive.
With prefix V and next number 1000, your first new vendor is assigned V1000, the next V1001, and so on. The number increments automatically with each new vendor. Click Save Vendor Numbering to apply.
To turn the feature off, leave both fields blank and save.
Good to know
Vendor numbering applies to new vendors only — existing vendors are not retroactively assigned a number.
You can view or manually edit a vendor's number on the vendor record. Open the vendor in your Directory, click Edit, and the Vendor Number appears as an editable field alongside Company Name, Phone, and the requirement-group settings.
Vendor numbers and DocuSign (W-9 e-signature)
Because the vendor number lives on the vendor record, it's available as a mappable field in Billy's DocuSign integration. When you build a DocuSign template for documents your vendors sign — such as W-9s, MSAs, or safety agreements — Billy can map vendor data, including the vendor number, directly into the document. That means the vendor number can be pre-populated on a W-9 sent for e-signature, so it's captured consistently on the signed, returned form rather than left to manual entry. (Field mapping is configured once when you set up the DocuSign template.)
Related
Requesting and tracking certificates of insurance
Setting company- and project-level requirement groups
DocuSign templates and tracking