Work with vendors: requirements, insurance, and bids

Vendors are outside businesses that work your events: food trucks, entertainers, rentals. The page opens on Your partners, the businesses on your neighborhood's list; All businesses searches every vendor on the platform, and "Add to partners" brings one onto your list. New vendor adds a business yourself (it joins your list automatically). Fill in the owner's email there, or use Invite owner on their row later, and they get an invitation to run their own profile, photo, links, and payouts. Pending invitations sit at the top with Resend and Cancel. Vendors depend on your neighborhood's plan; if you need them and they aren't available yet, email [email protected].

Until you set vendor requirements, vendors are told nothing about insurance, permits, or setup rules. Click Vendor requirements. Under Proof of insurance, check "Vendors must show a certificate of insurance" and set the limits and wording your board or insurer asks for. Then fill in the certificate holder and who must be named as additional insured, how many days before an event the certificate is due, and "What else vendors should know" (permits, load-in, generators, how they're paid). It all appears on every bid request and vendor page.

Open a vendor and find Insurance & documents. "Request the certificate" (optionally for a particular event) emails the vendor a request sheet with your certificate holder, additional insureds, limits, and an upload link their agent can use without an account. When it comes back, check four things: the named insured is this business, the additional insureds match, the limits meet your minimums, and it expires after the event. Then click Verify, or Send back with what's wrong. A verified certificate covers every event here until it expires.

Start from Request bids on the Vendors page (pick one or more events) or from the Vendor bids tile on an event. Under Who to ask, choose vendors in the system or add businesses that aren't. Fill in the point of contact and "The facts vendors price on": expected attendance, when you'll decide, how the vendor is paid, and setup notes, so nobody has to email back to ask. Preview shows the exact email, with a test send to yourself, and Send Bid Requests sends one email per vendor per event, each with its own link to reply. Vendors don't need an account to bid.

The event's Vendor Bids page lists every request with its status: Awaiting response, Bid in, Accepted, Declined, or Canceled, plus the amount and note each vendor sent and whether they confirmed they can meet your requirements. Accept bid notifies the vendor and puts them on the event as a participating vendor right away, so their event page exists from that moment. Resend nudges a vendor who hasn't answered, Cancel withdraws a request, and "Ask more vendors" sends the same request to more businesses.

On an event, the Vendors tile opens the vendors working it; Link adds one. Under Role at this event, a Participating vendor is listed on the event page with no money involved. A Revenue-share vendor gets a percentage of the event's net revenue after it settles, which needs the Partner event type and a payout method on the vendor's side. Event access decides what the vendor sees on their own event page: attendees, financials, running check-in, sending messages, and (rarely) Full event editing.