Property Vendors

VendorShield Compliance is a full service, vendor credentialing and insurance monitoring system. As a vendor you will have access to an easy online enrollment process and real-time view to your compliance status. A team of insurance professionals will assist in obtaining your insurance certificates directly from your insurance agency so you can focus on other tasks.

This is an important transition in the way the property management company you work for conducts business. All vendor partners will be required to participate in this Vendor Management Program and will be required to maintain an “Approved Vendor” status.

For specific questions regarding Insurance or the compliance process, please call the VendorShield Team at 1.877.890.8627.

Vendorshieldsupport@yardi.com
877-890-8627
9 AM – 6 PM CST for support hours.

You can review the VendorShield tab on the left-hand side of your profile at any time. Regarding the individual statuses for Universal Checks and Insurance, there are 3 statuses you might see.

1. The green check means in compliance.
2. The red ‘x’ signals non-compliant (except for ‘Economic Diversity Verification’ as this will read ‘not verified’ and will not affect your overall compliance status).
3. A yellow hourglass means your status is awaiting compliance.

The Vendor Credentialing approval process and enrollment fee covers the processing, and storage of your documents including Agreements, W-9, licensing information (if applicable), and insurance documents. It also covers the extensive screening procedures Windsor requires including – but not limited to – OFAC, TIN, professional license verification & liens/judgments/bankruptcies.

This verification applies to businesses recognized as economically diverse businesses (ex. Veterans owned, Minority owned, Woman’s owned, etc.) and who have labeled themselves as such within their profile under the ‘Vendor Information’ tab. A ‘Not Verified’ status means we could not identify your business as being an economically diverse business based on our research. Receiving a ‘Not Verified’ status for this check has no bearing on your overall compliance status.

To successfully complete the ‘Insurance Information’ tab, ensure that Insurance details have been entered for each Insurance policy listed. Also, for each required Insurance policy be sure to complete all ‘blue fields’ listed, as this information is critical for the VendorShield team to contact your Insurance Agent and obtain your Insurance documents. (It is extremely important to enter the correct email address and phone number for your insurance agency. VendorShield will be sending them an email requesting the Certificate of Insurance and necessary Endorsements- It will cause delays in your compliance verification if your agent does not receive VENDORShield’s COI request.)

For Workers Comp, you may check the “Not Required” box and answer questions to confirm that you do not have any employees.

For other policies, you may enter N/A in the blue required fields for coverages you do not carry. However, take note that this may result in a status of “Non-Compliant”. The client will make the final decision on whether or not to approve or reject.

VendorShield does not accept any Insurance documents sent directly from the Vendor. It is our policy to only accept Insurance documents directly from your Insurance Agent, whom our team will contact.

For the fastest turnaround time, your agent should upload the documents to the Producer Portal: www.vendorcafe.com/vendorshieldproducerportal.

For special cases where an Agent will not use the producer portal to upload Insurance documents, then request that your Insurance Agent send it to VendorShieldSupport@yardi.com. (Please note that processing times may be delayed if documents are sent via email instead of directly uploaded to the producer portal).

Your Insurance Agent should utilize the producer portal to upload the necessary documents directly to your Insurance tickets for the fastest review times: www.vendorcafe.com/vendorshieldproducerportal (Please note that processing times may be delayed if documents are sent via email instead of directly uploaded to the producer portal).

VendorShield will notify you via email 14 days, 7 days, and 48 hours prior to policy expirations. Once an insurance policy has expired, you will automatically be flagged as “Non-Compliant” in the system. If you’ve maintained a ‘compliant’ status your Insurance policies will be auto renewed, and no action is required unless your Insurance contact info has changed. Vendors who are ‘non-compliant’ will not have their policies auto renewed so this needs to be done manually.

To update your expired insurance policy, please follow the instructions below:

1. Select the “Insurance Information” tab. Here, you will be able to see which insurance policies have expired.

IMPORTANT: Always review the “Insurance Instructions” to view coverage requirements the company you work for requires. If you know that you do not meet the requirements ahead of time, please contact your Insurance Agent to obtain proper coverage. (This will reduce delays when VendorShield is performing compliance verifications).

VendorShield is the third-party compliance company hired by your Client to perform a series of compliance checks on your business. We are not able to waive any of the requirements that the Client has put in place for your business. Once VendorShield identifies the correct compliance status for your business, the Client will then be able to make the final determination of whether to approve (even in the case of non-compliant) or reject the submission and request for you to correct the items.

Both you and your Client will be notified via email sent from VENDORCafé/VendorShield that your business has been marked as either compliant or non-compliant. The VendorShield Support team is available to answer any questions relating to your compliance status. Call VendorShield Support at 1.877.890.8627.

Once the Client reviews the compliance verification for your business sent from VendorShield they will be able to make the final determination of whether to approve (even in the case of non-compliant) or reject you as a Vendor. You will receive an email from VENDORCafé/VendorShield informing you of this outcome.

If your TIN entry returns non-compliant you will be able to edit this in the case of an incorrect entry/typo. If the correct TIN has been entered and an error is still occurring (ex. Tax ID / SSN already exists, then call into VendorShield Support at 1.877.890.8627. This error requires additional technical assistance regarding your Vendor profile setup.

Navigate to the contacts tab and click the purple “Add Contact” box. Fill out the purple fields with the user’s information. “Create Separate Login for User?” will be on for all new contacts by default. If the Contact does not need their own login you can uncheck. Select the Role for User and EFT

Once the user activates their account and creates their own username and password, they too will be able to access the VendorCafe profile. Their permissions within the profile will be based on the User roles you assign when creating the contact. Note that the user will need to be added for every client you do business if you have multiple clients activated. Copy Contact can be used to make this easier on each client profile.

User Roles:

• Admin – full access.
• Invoice Only – user can only create and view invoices. User cannot update Profile information.
• RFP Only – user can only view and respond to RFP.
• WO Only – user can only view and update Work Orders.
• WO and PO Only – user can only view Work Orders and Purchase Orders. Can update Work Orders.
• EFT Access – will only apply if client offers EFT as payment method.
• Write Access – user can add EFT information.
• No Access – user will not see EFT tab at all.
• Read Access – user will see EFT tab but cannot add account. Note that after information is entered here it will only show the last 4 digits to any user.

You are not able to delete a contact. You can mark the contact Inactive on the Inactive Contact field. Switch to Yes and Save. This will make the contact inactive on that client profile. You will need to do this on each client profile they do not need to access any longer.

Profile approvals are handled directly by your property management company. The time frame on these approvals is subject to each companies’ individual policies and requirements. If your profile has been submitted, there is no additional action being required from you unless notified by the client.

For security purposes, all sensitive information is encrypted and greyed out after saved. If you need to update your TIN or registration number, please reach out to the management company directly. They will be able to issue out a new invite for the new Tax ID, allow a one-time update, or get this information modified on their end.

You will be able to opt into electronic payments by submitting your bank details through your “EFT Set Up” tab. EFT payments are subject to each management company’s approval. If you do not have an EFT tab available, the management company for the profile may not be enrolled in electronic payments. To request this, please reach out to your property management company directly.

If you have an EFT Set up tab available and you prefer to receive payment via check, you can proceed to the next tab without adding bank details. You can still submit your profile without adding your banking details. If your client requires this information, it will be communicated to you directly. You can reach out to the client to update your payment method to Check in VendorCafe if you would no longer like to see this tab. Please be sure you are using the Routing Number for EFT/ACH and not wire if your bank has 2 different numbers.

The Micro Deposit Verification process validates the bank account information that vendors present in VendorCafe. The bank details are validated with a small deposit being made into the bank account provided.

1. The deposit takes place within 24 hours of the vendor entering the bank account information.
2. The transaction may be titled “Bank Verify” or similar verbiage depending on your bank.
3. Once the funds have been received, vendor will log back into their VendorCafe profile and click “Verify EFT Amount” where they will enter the amount that was deposited.
4. If the deposited amounts match, the Submit button will become available for the vendor to click on.
5. No additional action is required from you at this point. Client will be notified so they can review and approve the newly entered EFT information.
6. If the deposit does not match the verification fails and you are asked to enter the amount again. After 3 failed attempts a Support number becomes available. You should call and they will reset the screen so you can add new data. You will see a rejected status until the banking information is successfully verified.
7. If you do not see the deposit after 24 hours, you should fail the verification to get the number to reset.

Principal’s Social Security number is required for all privately held companies to comply with federal Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. This information is used to verify your bank details.

On the Accept tab in your profile, click ‘No thanks, not interested in accepting credit card payments.’ Your payment method will be updated to EFT or Check, depending on the client’s configuration.

Send an email to vcaccept@vendorcafe.com to change your payment method. Note: This email address cannot help with other functions of the site.

Access for any client must be initiated by the management company directly. If you do not see a client, please reach out to them directly and request to be invited. If the invite has been sent, please activate the activation link in the invitation email you received.

Note that your client drop down will only show clients that you are an active email contact on. If you are conducting business under multiple TINs (Tax ID Numbers), you will see multiple vendor profiles on the login page to select from. After you are in a vendor profile, you would need to click the “Switch Profile” option under the username drop down located at the top right of your profile. Your email will need to be listed as a contact on all participating profiles for the corresponding access.

As of right now, you won’t receive any auto-generated emails from VendorCafe notifying you that there are new PO’s in the system because there would be so many your inbox would be overwhelmed. Until that change, our recommendation would be to check periodically to see if there are new PO’s.

The PO given to you has either not completed the approval process, been closed by the Management Company or is already used by another invoice. If you search the Pending and Paid invoices for this PO and do not find it linked to another invoice, you should reach out to the property manager for further details.

The Property Name field will use AJAX to find the property by name or address so you can start by typing one of these in the Property Name field. You can also click the search icon next to “Property Name” to bring up a pop-up box with the properties. Select the correct property and click “OK”. This should auto-populate in your property name and property code automatically. If you still do not see it, please reach out to your contact as the property may not be synced.

If you look on the Invoice History Tab of the Invoices Menu you will see a status of Processed if the invoice was successfully sent to the client. If you click on the “Unsubmitted” of the Invoices Menu and anything appears, you have not sent out that invoice. You can also check by clicking on the “Pending” tab of the Invoices Menu and make sure they went out. It can take up to 20 minutes for a newly entered invoice to show up under “Pending.”

Once an invoice has been submitted, the invoice cannot be edited or deleted. The best practice would be to reach out to the property and notify them to reject the invoice that is incorrect. Once an invoice shows on the Rejected Tab of the Invoices Menu you can reenter the invoice using the same invoice number with the needed corrections.

VendorCafe allows access to real time updates of invoice status and payment details. Yardi and VendorCafe do not have control over the processing times or payment schedules of transactions for each Management Company. This is subject to their individual policies.

If you have looked at the Payment Details tab for the paid invoice and have not received the payment listed, you should reach out to the Management Company for help.

VendorCafe allows access to real time updates of invoice status and payment details. Yardi and VendorCafe do not have control over the processing times or payment schedules of transactions for each Management Company. This is subject to their individual policies.

Invoicing capabilities are made available by the different management companies. VendorCafe cannot grant these permissions. Please reach out to your management company directly for alternative invoicing options.

• Invalid Property Name / Property Code – Property Name and/or Property Code is not correct. Verify the Property Name/Code under the Properties tab in VendorCafe.
• Property-Unit combination on invoice #123456 is not valid – The Unit number is not valid for the property selected. Unit and Property must be valid and match what the client shows in their system. Verify Unit number with Property Manager.
• Unit number on invoice 123456 is not valid – Verify the Unit number with the Property Manager. It must be created by the Client. Client Specific. Must match Client records exactly.
• Less/More Numbers of columns in CSV line – This is a CSV file format issue. There are special characters or other issues in the file. Double quotes are the most common, commas can cause this issue as well. Edits should be made in Excel or CSV, and not in Notepad.
• Mandatory fields (Item Description) missing in CSV line – The Item Description Field needs to be completed.
• Mandatory fields (Type, Item Sequence) missing in CSV line – The type field which indicates Invoice is missing. The item sequence number of the line item is missing, this is the order of the line item when there are multiple line items for the same invoice number.
• Special characters (<>) not allowed – Fields should only contain alpha numeric characters. The following should not be used ( , < > ! * # : ; $ )
• Invoice No. already exists – Please verify the status of the existing invoice number in the Invoices Menu.
• Invoice No. already exist in this CSV – Invoice number is listed in the CSV File multiple times with the same sequence number. You will need to add additional lines for line items for the same invoice number and number them accordingly in the Item Sequence field. Each line should have its own sequence number e.g. 1-5.
• Invoice No. Not Present – Formatting Issue, please verify that there are no special characters in any fields within the CSV File.
• Invoice Amount 0 is not allowed – There must be an amount entered into the Invoice Amount Field.
• Invoice Amount and Line Item amount not matching – The invoice total should match the sum of all line items.
• Item Amount 0 is not allowed – There must be an amount entered into the Item Amount Field.
• Job-Unit combination on invoice “12345” is not valid – The Job number or Unit number is not correct. Please verify the Job and or Unit number with the Property Manager.
• PO not Approved or PO Closed or Invalid PO. Please contact Client – The PO must be open, received and approved by the Client before you are able to invoice against the PO in VendorCafe, please contact the Property.
• Contract not Approved or Invalid Contract – Please verify with the Client that the Contract is open, approved and assigned.