Supplier scorecard template that fills itself from your POs

Prefer a spreadsheet? Download the free supplier scorecard template for Excel, which also opens in Google Sheets. No sign-up.

What is a supplier scorecard?

A supplier scorecard turns your PO history into one score per supplier. It counts how often each supplier delivered by the date it confirmed, by the date you asked for, and in full. It measures how far the supplier’s lead time strayed from its quote and how fast it answered your PO. Weights set how much each measure counts, and bands turn the score into a decision: buy more, agree one improvement, or qualify a second source.

Build it from dates rather than ratings. A buyer who rates suppliers from memory remembers the last bad week, while the dates on your POs hold every delivery, and a supplier can check them line by line.

Download the template for Excel or Google Sheets

The supplier scorecard template is an Excel workbook with live formulas and the same rules as the online version below. It holds four sheets:

• PO lines: one row per PO line, columns A to L, with the illustrative example filled in. Paste your own export over it.
• Settings: weights that must total 100, the grace days, in-full tolerance, lead-time window, acknowledgement target and score bands.
• Scorecard: one row per supplier with every rate, the days versus confirmed, the lead-time spread, the score and its band.
• Read me: the rule behind each measure.

To use it in Google Sheets, open a new sheet and choose File, then Import, and upload the file. If you only need the column headers for an ERP export, take the blank CSV template.

Decide which date each measure uses

Most arguments about a scorecard turn on which date counts. Settle it before you score anyone. These are the rules the template applies:

Early deliveries count as on time. If early stock costs you space or cash, watch lead-time adherence: a line three days early falls outside a window of plus or minus two days.

Score your suppliers from your PO lines

The template opens on four illustrative suppliers, so you see a complete scorecard before you change anything. Paste your own PO lines into the first step or upload a CSV, then open the other steps to set weights, rules and bands. Your settings travel in the page link, and your PO lines stay in your browser.

Read the scorecard before you share it

Start with the two on-time columns side by side. A supplier with high on time to confirmation and low on time to request keeps its promises and promises late. Treat that as a lead-time or capacity problem, and fix it with a new quote or by ordering earlier. If both rates are low, the supplier misses dates it set itself, and you have a stronger case for escalation.

Then read in full beside OTIF. A packaging supplier that rounds each order down to a full pallet scores high on time and low in full. Decide whether you’re looking at a short ship or a pack size you should order to.

The days versus confirmed column shows the average and the spread. A supplier with a mean near zero and a standard deviation of five days hurts your plan more than one that runs two days late each time, because you can plan around a steady two days.

Read the data-quality line before you share anything. If a score rests on four lines or on a column of missing confirmed dates, collect better data before you judge the supplier.

Four measures come from PO dates

A PO export tells you whether the part arrived on time, whether it arrived in full, how far the supplier’s actual lead time strayed from its quote, and how fast the supplier answered your PO. Those four make up the delivery half of a scorecard.

Quality, price and compliance need other sources

Take defect and return rates from receiving inspection and your nonconformance log, price variance from invoices against PO price, and certificates or audit results from your supplier files. Add each as a column in the downloaded scorecard with its own weight, and note its source beside it.

How each measure is calculated

On-time delivery: requested, confirmed and grace

Your requested date is when you need the part. The confirmed date is what the supplier committed to. Score against both. If your team moved the requested date after the PO went out, put the first date in original_requested_date. The template counts the moves and measures against the latest date, so it won’t mark a supplier late for a date you abandoned. A grace window of one or two days suits parts with buffer stock. For parts that feed a line, keep grace at zero.

In full: tolerance, split shipments and short ships

A line counts as in full when the total received reaches the ordered quantity, less any tolerance you set. The template adds up several receipts against one line and takes the last receipt date as the delivery date. A line with nothing received past its due date counts as late and short on the as-of date, so a supplier can’t lift its score by not shipping.

Lead-time adherence: average and spread

Quoted lead time is the confirmed date minus the date you sent the PO. Actual lead time is the received date minus the same send date. Their difference equals received minus confirmed, in days. The template reports the mean, the standard deviation and the share of lines inside your window.

That spread sets the buffer. A supplier whose lead time varies little gets a smaller safety stock at the same service target, and you change no setting to get it. Divide the standard deviation of actual lead time by its mean: above about 0.25, treat the supply as unreliable. The safety stock calculator takes that standard deviation as σLT in SS = Z × √(LT × σd² + d² × σLT²), so one PO export feeds both. The lesson on supplier lead time explains why the spread matters more than the average.

When timing is the risk

When late receipts are the risk and demand holds steady, a safety lead time can beat safety stock: plan the receipt a few days before you need it and hold fewer units. Short shipments are a separate risk. σLT measures timing, so a supplier that ships 95% of each order needs a yield allowance on the order quantity. The in-full column shows how often that happens.

Acknowledgement time: what starts and stops the clock

The clock starts when you send the PO and stops when the supplier acknowledges it. The template measures it once per PO and reports the median, so one PO lost over a holiday can’t skew it. Give both columns a time of day, or the hours round to whole days. A PO with a send time and no acknowledgement counts as missed, since that silence is the failure you’re measuring.

Turn the measures into one score

Weight each measure by what a failure costs you

For a casting that stops final assembly, put most of the weight on on time to request and in full. For MRO supplies, acknowledgement time and price matter more than a two-day slip. The defaults fit direct materials with some buffer stock:

OTIF starts at zero because it repeats on time and in full; give it weight if you drop those two.

Worked example: a fastener supplier

Take Keel Fasteners from the illustrative example: 12 PO lines, all received.

Received minus confirmed averages +0.08 days with a standard deviation of 2.35 days, and the median acknowledgement takes 3 hours. Select the supplier in the template to see each number worked out.

Status bands and what to do at each

The default bands are 90, 80 and 70. Treat them as a starting point and set your own. For parts that stop a line, the stricter option under the bands sets them at 98, 95 and 90.

• Preferred: offer more volume or longer agreements, and review quarterly.
• Approved: share the scorecard and the lowest measure, and agree one improvement.
• Conditional: review monthly, ask for a recovery plan, and check your own safety stock on their parts.
• Review: qualify a second source for the parts that can stop a line.

When the scorecard lies

A score is only as fair as the lines behind it. Check these before you act on one.

Small samples

With 4 lines, one late delivery moves a rate by 25 points. The template flags suppliers under your minimum and shows a 95% range in the working: 3 of 4 could mean anything from 30% to 95%.

Dates your team moved

If a buyer pushed a requested date out, the supplier shouldn’t count as late against the old one. Add an original requested date column so the template can tell the two apart.

Padded confirmations

A supplier that confirms each PO three weeks out will hit 100% on time to confirmation. On time to request and quoted lead time show the padding. Harbor Castings in the example follows this pattern.

Overwritten confirmed dates

Your ERP may keep only the latest confirmed date. If the supplier re-confirmed a day before delivery, on time to confirmation scores the last promise. Keep the first confirmed date if your system allows it.

One big PO and many small ones

The template counts lines, so 50 lines of washers outweigh one line of castings worth ten times as much. If that distorts the picture, score critical parts on their own.

Early deliveries

They count as on time and still tie up cash and space. Watch the lead-time adherence column, where early lines fall outside the window.

Missing dates

Lines with no confirmed date drop out of two measures and don’t count as failures. If one supplier accounts for most of the gaps, raise the missing dates with that supplier.

Review the score with your supplier

Score suppliers that can stop a line monthly and the rest quarterly, over a rolling window that holds at least 10 to 20 lines each. A rolling 12 months suits most suppliers. Send your supplier the downloaded CSV with the rules in Fig. 1, so the meeting covers late parts and skips the arithmetic.

To score by part, put the part number in the supplier column. To compare plants, add the plant to the supplier name, such as “Keel Fasteners / Plant 2”. A part you buy from two suppliers then shows up as two rows side by side. The lessons on purchase order tracking and promise date versus need date cover how to collect the dates.

Your scorecard is only as current as the confirmed and received dates in your export. Cartograph follows up on open POs: Scout Agent emails and calls suppliers to confirm dates and expedite late lines, and Cartograph records the promised and actual dates on each PO line. Get Cartograph free to see it on your own POs.

Supplier scorecard questions