WorkflowProcurement

Supplier Onboarding

Supplier onboarding that reads every paper and verifies every bank change before a payment leaves

New suppliers set up in days, every bank change verified before payment.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo25fieldsread from a lab's five onboarding documents, each with its page — six of seven checks passed in under a minute
demo8warning signsfound on one bank-change request — $186,420 held until a call-back to the number on file
target6.2daysmedian from request to supplier created, against a 10-day target
target100%of bank changes called back on the number on file before payment
In short

What is Supplier Onboarding?

Software that takes a new supplier from the first request to a supplier number: tax forms, bank details, insurance, Code of Conduct, sanctions and risk reviews checked before the supplier is created. Supplier Onboarding adds six agents that read every document with its page, run seven checks, open only the risk reviews the answers fire and draft one ask — and it watches every bank-detail change on existing suppliers.

How to choose AI solutions for life sciences →

Updated

The problem

Why a new supplier takes weeks, and a bank change takes one email

A life-sciences company adds suppliers all year — bioanalytical labs, clinical couriers, API makers, agencies, translators. Each one sends a W-9 or W-8BEN-E, a bank letter, a certificate of insurance, a Code of Conduct attestation and a questionnaire, and someone in procurement reads them by hand. The insurance limit that misses the category minimum, the unsigned tax form, the bank letter in the parent company's name are found late and asked for one at a time, while the scientist who needs the lab waits three to six weeks to raise a PO.

Every supplier is sent to every risk review to be safe, so Quality, Privacy and Cyber reviewers queue behind an office-supply shop that never needed them. Meanwhile bank-change emails on existing suppliers are worked from the AP mailbox. One lookalike domain and one rushed payment run can be a six-figure loss.

typical3–6weeksto onboard a supplier by hand
typical2.8$ billionin business email compromise losses reported to the FBI in 2024
Where a lab supplier's onboarding days goestimated
By hand21 days
With the solution5.9 days
  • Waiting on the supplier for documents and fixes8 → 2.1 d
  • Reading and checking tax forms, bank letters and certificates4 → 1 d
  • Risk reviews — every review, or only the ones the answers fire7 → 2.2 d
  • Approval and set-up in the ERP supplier master2 → 0.6 d

Estimated split for one lab-services supplier, in days. By hand is our estimate; with the solution follows the lab-services medians on the working solution's dashboard.

How it works

How a supplier moves

Six specialist agents read, verify and screen every supplier and bank change; people approve and make the call-back.

What comes in
Documents inSupplier documents and bank changes · portal, supplier and AP mailboxes
Agents at work
Document readerclassifies everything
Then
Tax & identity checker
Bank verifier
Sanctions & duplicate screener
Then
Risk trigger routeronly the reviews needed
Then
Follow-up writerone precise ask
A person decides
Enablement leadapproves; a second person signs bank details
What comes out
Clean supplier record
Risk reviews signed
Bank changes called back
One case, step by step

One lab onboarded, one fraudulent bank change stopped

October 7 at Northwind Bio. Dr. Maya Chen needs a GLP lab for VLT-302 PK samples before December, and a packaging supplier's bank details are about to change. Here is the morning, screen by screen, in the working solution.

  1. 01Morning

    Every supplier and every bank change on one wall

    Lena Ortiz · Supplier enablement lead

    Lena's onboarding wall has two lanes. Bank-detail changes: four existing suppliers, each with the account on file against the new one and six signals — sender, holder, account age, country, phone, history. New suppliers: eleven in onboarding against a 10-day target and one just created, each with its document checklist, seven check results and who acts next.

    “11 in onboarding · target under 10 days from request.”

  2. 0208:12

    Quillstone sends five documents

    Lena Ortiz · Supplier enablement lead

    Quillstone Analytical Laboratories, a lab in Raleigh, NC, sends its W-9, a bank confirmation letter from Cardinal Trust Bank, a certificate of insurance, a Code of Conduct attestation signed by its CEO and a 38-answer questionnaire through the supplier portal. Maya Chen's request sits beside them: GLP bioanalysis of VLT-302 PK samples, an estimated $420,000 a year.

  3. 03One click

    “Run checks” — six agents take it from there

    The agents

    The document reader classifies the five documents and reads 25 fields, each with its page. Then three checkers run side by side. The tax and identity checker matches TIN 84-2913377 to the legal name and finds the company active with the NC Secretary of State since 2014. The bank verifier confirms the account holder and that the account is six years old and shared with no supplier or employee. The sanctions and duplicate screener clears the company, its owner and its CEO.

    Each step shows what it found and how long it took — 14 s to read the documents, seconds for each check.

  4. 04Under a minute later

    Six checks pass; one is a problem

    Risk trigger router

    Identity, tax, bank, sanctions, duplicates and Code of Conduct pass, each with a numbered source. A near name, Quillstone Labs LLC, closed in 2021, has a different tax ID and bank, so it is not a duplicate. The insurance does not pass: the certificate shows general liability of $1,000,000, and lab services need $2,000,000.

    “General liability $1,000,000 each occurrence — below the $2,000,000 minimum for lab services handling study samples.”

  5. 05The ask

    One precise follow-up, drafted for Lena

    Follow-up writer

    The follow-up writer drafts one email to Elena Brooks, Quillstone's CEO, with Maya Chen copied: everything checks out except one item — a revised certificate (or an umbrella policy) with general liability of at least $2,000,000 and Northwind Bio named as certificate holder, uploaded to the portal by Oct 9. Lena reads it and sends it.

    “Drafted by the follow-up writer from the findings — edit anything before sending.”

  6. 06Revised certificate in

    Only the reviews the answers fire

    Lena Ortiz · Supplier enablement lead

    The revised certificate arrives through the portal — $2,000,000 each occurrence, valid to Mar 31, 2027 — and the insurance check passes. Lena approves the record. Two reviews open, each citing the answer that fired it: Quality for Sam Patel, because the work is GLP bioanalysis, and Privacy for Dana Okafor, because Quillstone handles coded study data. Anti-bribery and Cyber are skipped. The bank details wait for Omar Haddad's second approval.

    “In the last 30 days, 15 of 38 new suppliers (39%) needed no risk review at all — they were never sent to one.”

  7. 07Signed · supplier 100-4417

    Three sign-offs, then a supplier number

    Sam Patel, Dana Okafor and Omar Haddad

    Sam Patel signs the Quality review: GLP/GCP/GMP scope confirmed from the questionnaire, the quality agreement template sent, an audit or desk assessment scheduled. Dana Okafor signs Privacy and Omar Haddad signs the bank details. Quillstone is created in the ERP as supplier 100-4417, its bank details added and locked and payment terms set to Net 60 — and Maya Chen is told she can raise the purchase order.

    “Signed as Sam Patel — an electronic signature with meaning, name and time. Only the named reviewer can sign.”

  8. 0809:18 · the AP mailbox

    A bank letter from Corvane — the tile turns red

    Bank verifier

    “Updated remittance details — urgent” arrives from Karen Doyle at Corvane Packaging, supplier 100-2214 since 2019, with $186,420 due on Thursday's run. Lena presses Check the letter and the bank verifier works signal by signal: a sender one letter off, an account held by CVP Trading Ltd, opened 11 days ago, in Cyprus, a different phone number, and 84 payments since 2019 all to account ••2291. The payments are held and a call-back is booked.

    “4 signals red, 2 amber · call-back booked for 09:24 with Karen Doyle on +1 414 555 0187, the number on file — never the number in the email.”

  9. 09The call-back

    She calls the number on file, not the one in the email

    Lena Ortiz · Supplier enablement lead

    The change opens with the email, the bank letter and the record on file side by side, what would change from Menomonee Valley Bank to Marlowe Digital Bank, and the eight warning signs with their sources — including a letter made with an online editor three days before the email. The call script tells Lena not to read out the new account details, and to ask whether Corvane asked to change its bank account this week.

    “Introduce yourself; do not read out the new account details.”

  10. 10Blocked

    Corvane never asked — the money stays put

    Lena Ortiz · Supplier enablement lead

    Karen Doyle confirms Corvane did not ask for any change. Lena records “Did not request it” and blocks the change. Invoices INV-88412 and INV-88430, $186,420 in total, stay on Thursday's run to the verified account. The sender domain is blocked in the AP mailbox and the security team has the evidence.

    “Blocked — $186,420 stays on the verified account · sender domain blocked · security notified.”

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who touches a new supplier.

The same supplier, seen by the five people who carry it — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.

LO
Lena OrtizSupplier enablement lead · approves supplier records
Supplier enablement lead
Before
Reads every page each supplier sends and works bank-change requests from the AP mailbox. “I don't want to read 40 pages per supplier — I want the one thing that's wrong.”
Now
Opens a supplier already checked, with the one finding, its page and a drafted ask; makes the call-back when a bank letter turns red.
OH
Omar HaddadTreasury & AP controls · second approver for bank details
Treasury & AP controls
Before
Is asked to trust bank details he never saw checked. “Nobody changes where money goes on one person's say-so.”
Now
Gives the second approval for every bank detail, with the call-back, the holder match and the bank validation in front of him — never the same person who made the call.
SP
Sam PatelSupplier quality lead · Quality reviews for GLP, GCP, GMP and GDP suppliers
Supplier quality lead
Before
Gets every new supplier in his queue to be safe. “Send me the labs, not the office-supply shop.”
Now
Sees only suppliers whose answers fire a Quality review, with the answer quoted, and signs with the meaning of his signature.
DO
Dana OkaforThird-party risk, Compliance · Privacy and anti-bribery reviews
Third-party risk, Compliance
Before
Reviews suppliers without knowing why they were sent. “Show me the answer that fired the review.”
Now
Each review cites the questionnaire answer that opened it — coded study data, contact with healthcare professionals — and the dashboard shows what fired across all suppliers.
MC
Dr. Maya ChenBioanalytical sciences · needs a GLP lab for VLT-302 PK samples
Bioanalytical sciences, requester
Before
Waits weeks for a new lab with samples to analyse. “When can I raise the PO?”
Now
Is copied on the one ask that matters and told the moment her lab is created as a supplier.
Built on the engine

6 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Six specialist agents read, verify and screen every supplier and bank change; people approve and make the call-back.

Document reader

Classifies everything a supplier sends — W-9, W-8BEN-E, VAT extracts, bank letters, insurance certificates, Code of Conduct attestations, questionnaires — and reads each field with the page it came from.

  • Every field cites its source passage
  • Unreadable is reported, never guessed
Tax & identity checker

Matches the legal name and tax ID with the issuing authority, confirms EU VAT numbers and the company registry, and checks tax forms are complete and signed — down to an unsigned part of a W-8BEN-E.

  • Never creates a supplier without a tax-ID match
Bank verifier

Confirms a bank account belongs to the supplier and checks its age, and compares every bank-change request with the record on file — domain, holder, country, phone, urgency — then holds payments and books a call-back.

  • Call-backs use only the number on the record
  • Agents hold payments; only people release them
  • Two different people approve bank details
Sanctions & duplicate screener

Screens the company, owners of 25% or more and the signing officer against OFAC, EU and UK lists, rescreens active suppliers nightly, and looks for the same supplier in the master by tax ID, bank account, name and address.

  • A possible match is a finding for a person, never an automatic block
Risk trigger router

Applies the category rules — insurance minimums, a Code of Conduct signed by an officer — and opens only the reviews a supplier's answers trigger: Quality, Privacy, Anti-bribery, Cyber.

  • Every review cites the answer that fired it
Follow-up writer

Writes one precise ask to the supplier for exactly what is missing or wrong, with the page it comes from, sends reminders two days before the due date and re-runs the checks when the document arrives.

  • Sends only after a person approves
  • Never shares other suppliers' data
Enablement lead

Approves the record. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any supplier, check or bank change

Ask in plain words. Every answer comes from the documents suppliers sent, the checks the agents ran, the bank-change requests and your rules — and points to the page behind it.

Where is Quillstone in onboarding?

Day 1, and close. Six of seven checks passed: the tax ID matches the legal name, the bank account belongs to Quillstone, sanctions are clear. One finding: general liability is $1,000,000 against the $2,000,000 lab minimum. The follow-up is drafted — one click to send. Quality and Privacy reviews fire because of GLP work and coded study data.

Why did you hold the Corvane bank change?

Four reasons. The email came from corvane-packagng.com — one letter away from the domain on file. The new account is in the name of CVP Trading Ltd, not Corvane. The account was opened 11 days ago. And it pushes to act before Thursday's run and gives a different phone number. Payments of $186,420 are held until you call the number on file.

How does the call-back work?

The bank verifier holds payments and opens a call-back with the verified contact and number from the supplier record. You ask whether they requested a change — without reading out the new details — and record the answer: confirmed, did not request, or no answer. A confirmed change still needs a second approver; “did not request” blocks the change and alerts security.

Which suppliers are over the 10-day target?

Two are near or over it: Ostrava Fine Chemicals on day 9 and Tessera Imaging Labs on day 12. Both are in risk reviews, not checks. Tessera waits on Sam Patel and Dana Okafor; Ostrava has a Quality audit booked Oct 14.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

The onboarding wallBank-detail changes with six signals each, and every new supplier with its documents, check results, day count and who acts next.
Documents inThe five documents a supplier sent, the requester's reason and spend, and the W-9 open beside them before any check runs.
Six agents at workThe document reader reads first, then the tax and identity checker, bank verifier and screener run side by side; each step shows what it found and how long it took.
Seven checks, each with its sourceIdentity, tax, bank, sanctions, duplicates, insurance and Code of Conduct — six passed and one problem, every result numbered to its page.
One precise follow-upA single drafted ask to the supplier for exactly what is missing, with a due date — edited and sent by a person.
Only the reviews neededQuality and Privacy reviews with the answers that fired them, Anti-bribery and Cyber skipped, and the second approval for bank details.
A review signedThe Quality review's checklist and an electronic signature with meaning, name and time — only the named reviewer can sign.
The supplier recordEvery field with its source and confidence, the revised certificate, and the supplier number once it is created in the ERP.
A bank change caughtA new bank letter checked signal by signal on the wall: four red, two amber, payments held and a call-back booked to the number on file.
The call-backThe email, what would change against the record on file, the call script, and the eight warning signs with their sources.
Blocked, payments kept safeThe invoices kept on the verified account, the decision recorded with name and time, and the sender domain blocked.
The dashboardSuppliers created, median days from request, documents right first time, payments protected, where the days go and why suppliers were asked again.
Your rulesApprovers, insurance minimums, the new-account hold rule, sanctions lists, review triggers and where documents arrive — all settings, versioned.
Governance

Built for payment fraud and supplier risk: cited, signed, on the record.

Every field cites its pageEach value on the supplier record — legal name, tax ID, account holder, insurance limit — carries the passage it came from, and an unreadable field is reported, never guessed.
Every review shows why it openedQuality, Privacy, Anti-bribery and Cyber reviews open only when a questionnaire answer fires them, and each one quotes that answer. Sending every supplier to every review is a setting, and it is off.
Two people decide where money goesThe supplier enablement lead approves the record; a different person gives the second approval for bank details. Whoever records a bank-change call-back cannot approve that change.
Call-backs to the number on fileEvery bank change is called back on the number already on the supplier record, never one from the request, and the call is recorded with name and time. Agents hold payments; only people release them.
Sign-offs carry their meaningEach review and the bank-details approval is an electronic signature with meaning, name and time, and only the named reviewer can sign. A supplier is created in the ERP only after every sign-off, with its bank details locked.
Rules versioned, every step recordedThe rules the agents apply change only as a new approved version — version 1.7, approved Sep 30 — and every agent step, follow-up, call-back, block and signature is on the activity trail.
Configuration

Your onboarding rules, not ours

Who approves, what the agents check against, which reviews fire and where documents arrive are all settings. Every change is saved as a new version.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Approve supplier recordsLena OrtizLena Ortiz · Ines Duarte
Second approver for bank detailsOmar Haddad — never the person who approved the record or made the call-backOmar Haddad · Dana Okafor
Minimum general liability · lab services$2,000,000 per occurrence$1,000,000 · $2,000,000 · $5,000,000
Hold bank changes to new accountsUnder 30 daysUnder 30 days · Under 60 days · Under 90 days
Sanctions listsOFAC + EU + UKOFAC + EU + UK · OFAC + EU + UK + UN
Tax ID must match before a supplier is createdOnOn · Off
Hold payments while a bank change is openOnOn · Off
Send every supplier to every reviewOff — reviews open only when an answer fires their triggerOn · Off
Connections

Works with the papers and systems onboarding already runs on

Tax formsW-9, W-8BEN-E and EU VAT registration, matched with the issuing authority
Bank lettersbank confirmation letters, checked with a bank-validation service
Certificates of insurancelimits and expiry against each category's minimum
Code of Conduct and questionnairessigned attestations and the answers that fire risk reviews
Supplier portal and mailboxesthe portal, the supplier mailbox and bank-change requests in the AP mailbox
ERP supplier masterduplicate checks before, and the new supplier with locked bank details after
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
6.2days
median from request to supplier created, against a 10-day target
By hand3–6 weeks
With Botminds6.2 days
target
39%
of new suppliers cleared with no extra risk review
no review needed · last 30 days
target
100%
of bank changes called back on the number on file before payment
71 of 71 in the last 90 days

“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample supplier data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (published supplier-onboarding studies, 2025 — 3–6 weeks by hand; FBI IC3 2024 Internet Crime Report — about $2.8 billion of business email compromise losses). People, companies, banks and products named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What procurement and AP teams ask us.

What is supplier onboarding software?

Software that takes a new supplier from the first request to a supplier number: tax forms, bank details, insurance, Code of Conduct, sanctions and risk reviews checked before the supplier is created. Supplier Onboarding adds six agents that read every document with its page, run seven checks, open only the risk reviews the answers fire and draft one ask — and it watches every bank-detail change on existing suppliers.

How does it verify a supplier's bank account?

The bank verifier confirms with a bank-validation service that the account belongs to the supplier and checks its age — a bank letter alone is never enough. It also checks that the account is not shared with another supplier or with an employee's payroll account. A bank letter in another company's name, such as a parent company, is a finding.

How does it stop bank-change fraud?

Every request to change bank details is compared with the record on file and the supplier's payment history: sender domain, account holder, account age, country, phone and history. Payments to that supplier are held, and a person calls the number already on the record — never the one in the request. A confirmed change still needs a second approver; “did not request it” blocks the change and alerts security.

Does every supplier still go to Quality, Privacy and Cyber review?

No. Reviews open only when a questionnaire answer fires them — Quality for GLP, GCP, GMP or GDP work, Privacy for personal or coded study data, Anti-bribery for contact with government officials or healthcare professionals, Cyber for access to your systems. Each review quotes the answer that fired it. On the sample data, 15 of 38 new suppliers needed no review at all.

Which tax and sanctions checks does it run?

US suppliers' name and tax ID are matched with the tax authority; foreign suppliers' W-8BEN-E is checked for completeness and signature; EU VAT numbers are confirmed in the EU VAT register. The company, owners of 25% or more and the signing officer are screened against OFAC, EU and UK lists, and active suppliers are rescreened nightly. A possible match is a finding for a person, never an automatic block.

Do people stay in control?

Yes. The agents read, check, hold payments and draft; only people approve records, send follow-ups, release payments and change bank details. Two different people approve bank details, and reviewers sign with the meaning of their signature.

Can we set our own insurance minimums, hold rules and approvers?

Yes. Approvers and reviewers, insurance minimums by category, the hold rule for new bank accounts, sanctions lists, review triggers and where documents arrive are all settings. Every change is saved as a new version on the activity trail.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your onboarding policy, category rules and a sample of past supplier documents and bank-change requests — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own suppliers first.

See it on
your suppliers.

We'll run Supplier Onboarding on a sample of your own supplier documents and bank-change requests.