How to add existing vendor to business network

Definitely, @accounts548. I can walk you through adding an existing vendor or customer to QuickBooks Business Network.

Selecting New Customer or New Vendor in QuickBooks Online will allow you to search the Business Network and add contacts

I'll show you how it works:

1. Go to the Company name and type in the business name. By doing so, the results will appear in the QB Business Network.
2. Choose a business from the list and the form pops up with the business' website, city, state, and ZIP code from their customer-facing address. Unless an invitation to connect is extended or accepted, the company's entire address, phone number, and email address are partially hidden from customers.
3. Moreover, you can manually add your customer's or vendor's contact information. However, if the business later updates their contact information, updating any of the information in any of the fields with links would stop automatic updates from the QuickBooks Business Network.
4. At the bottom of the form, select Save and send request to finish. By doing this, you add the company to your list of clients or suppliers and send it an email inviting it to connect. Moreover, the QuickBooks Online app for iOS or Android can send you invitations to log in.
5. Your customer's or vendor's partially hidden business contact information will become visible if they accept the invitation, enabling you to send and receive invoices over the network.

For more information about the process, see this article: Learn about the QuickBooks Business Network.

I've also included this extra guide to find out more details about handling Accounts Payable in QBO: Accounts Payable automation in QuickBooks Online.

Please let us know of this goes so we can help you further with customers, vendors, or QuickBooks. I'd be glad to assist you anytime. Stay safe!

I have been looking for this answer as well. It would be crazy to think they set it up where you can't  add an existing customer or existing vendor. 

That reply looks like adding a new vendor - not hooking an existing vendor to the network.

Welcome to the Community, @accounts548.

I'm here to provide some insights about adding existing vendors/customers to QuickBooks Business Network in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

I know how important it is to have your existing vendors/customers connected to the Business Network, as it lets you directly send invoices to your customer through the network and receive bills directly from your vendors in QuickBooks. 

I'm here to ensure that you'll get to add your vendors/customers to QuickBooks Business Network. 

To connect your vendors/customers, you can just directly edit their information in your QBO account. Here's how:

1. On your QBO account, go to the Sales tab, then select Customers. Note: Go to the Expense tab, then select Vendors to edit.
2. Locate the customer you want to link to the Business Network.
3. Click on Edit.
4. On the Company name, enter or search the business name you want them to link.
5. Once done, click on Save.

However, if you're still unable to connect your existing vendors/customers to the Business Network, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Online Support Experts to ensure that this will be examined further since they have the necessary tools like screen-sharing. Here's how:
 

1. On your QBO account, select Help (?).
2. Click the Search tab to get started:
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Enter the topic of your concern.
5. Click Continue.
6. Choose either Chat, Appointment, or Callback.

For detailed information about Business Network, kindly visit: Learn about the QuickBooks Business Network.

Moreover, I'd also like to share this link that can serve as your reference where you can search for articles that can guide you in managing your QuickBooks account: QuickBooks Online Help Articles.

Feel free to leave a reply if you require further assistance with adding your vendors/customers to the Business Network in QuickBooks. The Community team always has your back. Have a good one.

None of that seems to work. And chat support doesn't seem very useful either. At least they haven't been able to help me in the last 30 minutes or so.

This may not be an easy process for you, jimm3522. But, I'm here to provide another way so you can add an existing vendor to Business Network.

Let's try to create a new vendor and merge it with the existing one that's connected to QuickBooks Business Network. That way, the history of the existing vendor will show on the new account sent merge link.

Here's how to add a new vendor.

1. Go to Get paid & pay or Expenses, then select Vendors.
2. Click New vendor.
3. Complete the fields in the Vendor Information window.
4. Hit Save.

To merge vendors, check out this article for instructions and detailed steps: Learn how to keep your accounts, customers, and vendors organized.

If the process still didn't work on your end, I recommend contacting again our QuickBooks Live Team. I know you've already chatted with them, however, they can check it again and may provide further actions when needed.

Let me know how this goes by commenting below. I'll be right here whenever you have follow-up questions about adding an existing vendor to QuickBooks Business Network.

@MaryLandT Honestly - this should be included in the main page and video instructions for the Business Network and section on managing bills. It took me a really long time to find out how to do this. We just upgraded to use EFT payments through quickbooks instead of manual checks, so we have a lot of active vendors to get information. It's still not very easy since QB users need to make a new vendor with a different name, say by adding EFT to the end of the existing vendor name, before merging later when the vendor completes their profile.