Create Service Provider

HOAi

Create New Service Provider

Automated Vendor Onboarding from Invoice to Approval

 

OVERVIEW

What it does: Automatically creates new vendor records in Vantaca the moment an invoice arrives from an unknown service provider — including duplicate checking, documentation requests, compliance holds, and invoice routing.

Why it matters: Every time your team receives an invoice from a vendor who isn’t in Vantaca yet, your entire AP process comes to a halt. Someone has to manually research the vendor, enter their information, chase down a W-9 and Certificate of Insurance, and then track down the original invoice to keep it moving. For most teams, this happens multiple times a week — and every interruption costs time your staff doesn’t have.

The Create New Service Provider workflow eliminates that bottleneck. The moment HOAi encounters an invoice from a vendor not yet in your system, it handles everything: reading the invoice, extracting vendor details, checking for duplicates, creating the record in Vantaca, sending a documentation request directly to the vendor, placing a compliance hold so no payments slip through prematurely, and routing the invoice forward — automatically, in under 2 minutes, any time of day.

The result is an AP process that never stalls on a missing vendor. Invoices keep moving, compliance is enforced without manual follow-up, and your team stays focused on the work that actually requires human judgment.

WHY COMPLIANCE HOLDS MATTER

 

When automating vendor creation, a natural question arises: what if a new vendor gets paid before we have their documentation? HOAi addresses this directly through Vantaca’s Hold Payment flag, which is applied automatically to every new non-homeowner service provider record until their required documents are submitted.

1. It protects your associations from payment risk. Sending payment to a vendor without a W-9 or Certificate of Insurance creates legal and financial exposure. The hold ensures that can’t happen by accident.

2. It keeps compliance enforcement off your team’s plate. Without automation, ensuring every new vendor is fully documented before their first payment requires someone to manually track and verify — a step that’s easy to miss when things are busy.

3. It creates a clear queue for your AP team to manage. Any invoices tied to a vendor on hold will appear in the “Provider on Hold” tab on the Approve Invoices screen in Vantaca, giving your team a single place to track what’s outstanding. For a full overview of how invoices move through Vantaca’s approval process, see Invoice Overview.

HOW HOAI HANDLES SERVICE PROVIDER CREATION

 

HOAi processes new service provider creation automatically after a trigger condition is met — either an invoice from an unrecognized vendor or a new service provider setup action item entering the queue.

Step 1 — Reads the Invoice and Pulls Vendor Information. HOAi reads the incoming invoice and extracts everything needed to create the vendor record: the legal business name, billing address, contact information, Tax ID, and banking details if available. It knows to look for the “Remit To” or “Make Checks Payable To” address rather than the general business address.

Step 2 — Checks for Duplicates. HOAi cross-references your existing service provider list to make sure this vendor doesn’t already exist under a slightly different name (e.g., “ABC Landscaping Inc.” vs. “ABC Landscaping Incorporated”). It checks names, Tax IDs, phone numbers, and addresses. If a duplicate is found, it flags it for your team to review rather than creating a redundant record.

Step 3 — Determines Provider Type and Payment Method. HOAi analyzes the invoice to identify the appropriate service provider category in Vantaca and assigns the correct payment type. By default, new providers are set up with Check as the payment type — ACH is not used for new vendors.

Step 4 — Creates the Service Provider Record. HOAi creates the service provider record in Vantaca with all extracted information. For homeowners, a naming convention is applied (e.g., “(Homeowner) Jane Smith”) and no documentation hold is placed. For all other vendors, the Hold Payment flag is set to prevent premature payment.

Step 5 — Requests Required Documentation. For non-homeowner vendors, HOAi sends an email directly to the vendor requesting the appropriate documentation based on their vendor type. By default, most vendors are asked to submit both a W-9 and a Certificate of Insurance — however, the specific documents required can vary. For example, a vendor who performs on-site work (like a landscaper or plumber) typically needs both, while a vendor providing purely administrative or one-time services may only need a W-9. These rules aren’t fixed — your FDE will work with you before go-live to define exactly which document types apply to which vendor categories based on your company’s policies. The action item moves to “Pending Documentation” status until all required documents for that vendor type have been received.

Step 6 — Routes the Invoice Forward. Once the vendor is created, HOAi routes the original invoice so it can be linked to the new service provider and moved into your standard approval process — no manual re-routing required.

Step 7 — Escalates When It Cannot Complete the Task. If HOAi encounters a problem — an unreadable invoice, missing required fields, or an unresolvable duplicate — it flags the action item for your team, leaves a detailed note explaining what it found, and steps aside so a human can take over.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR TEAM

 

Your AP team no longer needs to interrupt their workflow every time a new vendor submits an invoice. HOAi handles the creation, hold placement, and documentation request automatically — so the first time your staff touches a new vendor record is when they’re reviewing submitted documents, not manually entering data.

Before HOAi	With HOAi
Manually entering vendor info from invoices	HOAi extracts and enters it automatically
Risk of creating duplicate vendor records	Automated duplicate check before every creation
Chasing vendors for W-9s and COIs manually	HOAi sends the documentation request automatically
Invoices stalling because vendor isn’t in the system	Vendor is created and invoice is routed in one continuous flow
5–10 minutes per new vendor	Typically, under 2 minutes, end-to-end

WHAT YOUR TEAM STILL HANDLES MANUALLY

 

HOAi takes care of creation and routing, but there are a few things your team remains responsible for:

Receiving and Filing Vendor Documentation. When a vendor responds to HOAi’s documentation request with their W-9 or COI, someone on your team needs to review the documents, confirm they meet your requirements, and upload them to the service provider’s record in Vantaca. Currently, HOAi cannot upload documents into Vantaca on your behalf.

Removing the Hold Payment Flag. Once a vendor’s documentation has been received and verified, your AP team needs to manually remove the Hold Payment flag in Vantaca. This is what allows their invoices to move forward for payment. Until the flag is lifted, all pending invoices for that vendor will remain in the “Provider on Hold” tab on the Approve Invoices screen.

Resolving Escalations. When HOAi can’t complete a vendor creation — due to a potential duplicate, missing information, or an unreadable invoice — the action item lands in your Needs Review queue with a detailed note. Your team is responsible for reviewing those notes and completing or correcting the record manually.

Marking Vendors as 1099. By default, HOAi does not mark new service providers as 1099 vendors. If your team has a process for identifying 1099-eligible vendors, that designation needs to be applied manually in Vantaca after the record is created — unless your FDE has configured HOAi with specific instructions for when to apply it.

Updating Payment Methods. New service providers are created with Check as the default payment type. If a vendor should be set up with a different payment method, your AP team will need to update that in Vantaca after the record is created.

SETTING UP CREATE NEW SERVICE PROVIDER FOR BEST RESULTS

 

Before activating this workflow, your Forward Deployed Engineer will work with you to configure it for your specific processes. Having the following in place will help HOAi perform at its best:

• A “New Service Provider Setup” action item type in Vantaca with steps for “Add Service Provider,” “Pending Documentation,” and “Needs Review” — these are the steps HOAi uses to track and route vendor creation.
• Pending Service Provider Creation — this is where HOAi links the newly created vendor back to the original invoice and routes it to approval.
• A defined documentation requirement so HOAi knows exactly what to request from new vendors (W-9, COI, or both) and when exceptions apply.
• Clear naming conventions for homeowner service providers so HOAi can apply them consistently when check requests arrive from homeowners or board members.
• Up-to-date service provider records in Vantaca — HOAi’s duplicate detection and provider type matching are only as accurate as the data already in your system.

For help configuring your Vantaca action item steps, see the Vantaca support article on Creating and Editing Service Providers.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

Q.  How does HOAi notify the vendor that we need their documentation?

A.  HOAi sends an email directly to the vendor using the email address found on their invoice, requesting their W-9 and Certificate of Insurance. If you’d like to customize the message wording or add other documents to the request, your FDE can update the workflow accordingly.

Q.  What if the vendor’s email address isn’t on the invoice?

A.  If HOAi cannot find an email address for the vendor, it will still create the service provider record but will escalate the documentation request to your team for manual outreach. The action item will be noted accordingly so your staff knows what’s outstanding.

Q.  What happens after the vendor sends their documents back?

A.  That depends on how the vendor responds. If they reply directly to the action item notification email, their response will be linked to the New Service Provider Setup action item in Vantaca, where your team can review it. If they send their documents in a separate email, it will come through your Triage & Response workflow. Either way, your team will need to review the documents, upload them to the service provider’s record in Vantaca, and remove the Hold Payment flag to release their invoices. A follow-up automation for this step can be configured — ask your FDE if you’re interested.

Q.  Can HOAi upload documents directly to the service provider’s record in Vantaca?

A.  Not at this time. HOAi can request the documents and route the action item, but uploading files into Vantaca’s service provider documents page is a manual step for your team.

Q.  What if a vendor is already in our system under a slightly different name?

A.  HOAi will detect the potential duplicate and escalate the action item to your Needs Review queue rather than creating a second record. A note will explain what was found so your team can decide whether to use the existing record or create a new one.

Q.  Does HOAi ever skip the Hold Payment flag or documentation request?

A.  Yes — for homeowners by default. Since homeowners are added to the system to receive a one-time check payment rather than as ongoing vendors, HOAi does not place a Hold Payment flag or request a W-9 or COI for them. If your team has other vendor types or special circumstances that should be treated differently — for example, certain trusted vendors you’ve already verified, or vendor categories that only require one document instead of two — your FDE can configure those exceptions as part of your go-live setup. For all other service providers, the hold is always applied until documentation is confirmed.

Q.  Can HOAi mark new vendors as 1099 vendors automatically?

A.  Yes, but it requires configuration. By default, the 1099 flag is not applied. If your team has clear criteria for when a vendor should be marked as 1099 — for example, all vendors in a certain service category — your FDE can build that logic into the workflow.

Q.  What does “Pending Documentation” mean, and how long does a vendor stay in that status?

A.  “Pending Documentation” means HOAi has created the vendor record and sent the documentation request, but the vendor hasn’t submitted everything yet. By default, a vendor stays in this status for 10 days before a follow-up step is triggered — but your FDE can adjust that timeline based on your preferences.

Q.  What if we have a more involved onboarding process for new vendors?

A.  HOAi’s default behavior covers the most common scenario, but the workflow can be customized to support more complex onboarding — such as sending vendors a form to complete, updating what makes a vendor “fully compliant,” or configuring the Triage & Response workflow to recognize vendor form submissions and route them automatically. Talk to your FDE about what’s possible.

Q.  What if HOAi can’t create the service provider at all?

A.  If HOAi is unable to complete the vendor creation for any reason — unreadable invoice, missing required fields, unresolved duplicate, or system error — it will route the action item to your Needs Review queue and leave a detailed note explaining exactly where things stand. No records will be partially created; your team will have full context to pick up where HOAi left off.

For questions about configuring service provider creation for your communities, contact your Forward Deployed Engineer.