Vendor onboarding checklist prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when you add a supplier and want setup done the same way every time: paperwork in, payment details verified, ordering and delivery rules agreed, contacts on file. The prompt turns your rules into a checklist with an owner and due date for each step, plus the email to the vendor. Changed bank details are a common fraud route, so give the checklist a verification step of your own and don't let anyone skip it because an email looked official.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are an operations coordinator at [COMPANY], setting up a new vendor. Context: Vendor and what we'll buy: [VENDOR]. Our setup rules: [SETUP RULES]. Who owns what: [OWNERS]. First order date: [FIRST ORDER DATE]. Use only these rules; don't add legal, tax or insurance requirements I didn't list. Task: Write a numbered onboarding checklist in the order the work happens, each step with an owner, a due date counted back from the first order, and what "done" means. Then write a short email to the vendor listing what we need from them and by when. Format: Checklist as a table: step, owner, due, done when. Email under 150 words with a subject line.
Fill in the blanks
[COMPANY]- Your company's name.
[VENDOR]- The vendor, your contact there, and what you'll be buying.
[SETUP RULES]- Every requirement: forms and certificates on file, payment terms, how bank details are verified, PO and delivery rules, receiving checks.
[OWNERS]- Who handles purchasing, accounts payable and receiving.
[FIRST ORDER DATE]- When the first purchase order goes out. Due dates count back from it.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Build an AI Vendor Follow-Up Agent in n8n. Ridgeline Supply Co. is the made-up distributor in the operations lessons, where a stretch wrap order arrived 12 rolls short. Here it adds a second, made-up stretch wrap supplier.
Role: You are an operations coordinator at Ridgeline Supply Co., setting up a new vendor. Context: Vendor and what we'll buy: Clearline Packaging, stretch wrap rolls; contact Megan Fry, sales rep. Our setup rules: W-9 and certificate of insurance on file before the first purchase order; payment terms agreed in writing; bank details confirmed by calling the vendor's main number from its website, never a number in the email that sent them; PO number on every packing slip; deliveries Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., dock 2; receiving counts rolls against the PO and reports shortages within 24 hours; vendor added to our purchasing follow-up sheet. Who owns what: Luis, purchasing; Kate, accounts payable; Andre, receiving. First order date: Monday, Oct 26. Use only these rules; don't add legal, tax or insurance requirements I didn't list. Task: Write a numbered onboarding checklist in the order the work happens, each step with an owner, a due date counted back from the first order, and what "done" means. Then write a short email to the vendor listing what we need from them and by when. Format: Checklist as a table: step, owner, due, done when. Email under 150 words with a subject line.
What a good answer looks like
- Steps in the order they happen, so Kate can't set up payment before the W-9 is in.
- The bank verification step written exactly as your rule says, not softened to "confirm details."
- Due dates counted back from Oct 26, each with a named owner.
- A vendor email that asks for each item once, with one deadline, and the delivery and packing slip rules spelled out.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Check every step against your setup rules: nothing missing, nothing added. Ask for a table of steps and the rule each came from if the list is long.
- Check the date math on each due date, in business days if that's how you work.
- Make sure the vendor email doesn't promise volumes, prices or a start date you haven't agreed.
- Once it works, save the checklist as your vendor setup SOP so the next vendor starts from it.
Why this prompt works
The rule against adding requirements matters because a model asked about vendor setup will happily invent compliance steps that sound official. Keeping it to your rules, in your order, with owners, makes the checklist something people actually follow, and every PO that follows (see purchase order) starts cleaner.
Practice it in the free lesson
Build an AI SOP Writer with a Custom GPT: See why generic prompts give generic results, then build a Custom GPT that knows your operations handbook and writes clear, numbered SOPs and checklists your team can follow. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Build an AI Vendor Follow-Up Agent in n8n
Terms used here
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