Evaluate vendor relationships and track contract performance metrics
✓ Free to download · ✓ Excel 2016+ and Google Sheets · ✓ Custom version in 24h
Vendor management is mostly about renewal dates and who owns them. This template makes both explicit and counts down, so contracts are renegotiated rather than auto-renewed by inattention.
The actual columns, with sample rows
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vendor | Owner | Annual | Renews | Notice by | Days left |
| 2 | Cloud host | K. Owens | 42,000 | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-02 | 35 |
| 3 | CRM licence | A. Duval | 18,600 | 2026-09-15 | 2026-08-16 | -12 |
| 4 | Design tools | S. Novak | 4,200 | 2027-01-10 | 2026-12-11 | 105 |
| 5 | Payroll bureau | M. Ferrer | 9,800 | 2026-10-01 | 2026-07-03 | -56 |
Why each one is written the way it is
=[@Renews]-[@[Notice days]]
The date you must act by, not the date the contract ends. Notice periods are where auto-renewals come from — the renewal date itself is almost always too late.
=[@[Notice by]]-TODAY()
Days until the notice deadline. Negative means the window has closed and the contract will renew whether you wanted it to or not.
=IF([@[Days left]]<0,"MISSED",IF([@[Days left]]<30,"ACT NOW","OK"))
A three-state flag. Thirty days is enough to run a comparison; less is enough only to renew.
=SUMIFS(Contracts[Annual],Contracts[Owner],[@Owner])
Annual spend per owner, which is how you tell whether ownership is actually distributed.
A worked example with real numbers
A 60-person company listed its software contracts for the first time and found €28k of annual spend across two vendors whose notice windows had closed weeks earlier — both would auto-renew. Neither was still needed at that size. The list did not recover that year's spend, but the countdown column has prevented it twice since.
Tab by tab
| Tab | Contents |
|---|---|
| Contracts | Vendor, owner, value, renewal and notice period. |
| Vendors | Contacts, account numbers and support terms. |
| Spend | Actual invoices against contracted value. |
| Calendar | Upcoming notice deadlines in date order. |
| README | Where to find the notice period in a contract. |
What is included, and what to look at next
Specific to this workbook, not generic
Because the renewal date is not a decision point — the notice date is. A 30-day notice period means the real deadline is a month before the date everyone has in their calendar.
The person who uses it, not procurement. Ownership by the budget holder is what makes a renewal review a real decision rather than a rubber stamp.
In Google Sheets, an Apps Script trigger can email owners at 60 and 30 days. That is a short Apps Script job and the highest-return automation on this list.
"This vendor management system has transformed our supplier relationships. We've improved performance tracking and reduced costs while maintaining quality standards."