TL;DR: A supplier scorecard rates each vendor on 4-6 weighted metrics (usually quality, delivery, cost and responsiveness) and turns them into one score out of 100. Below are six supplier scorecard examples for different business types, each with the metrics, weights, scoring rules and a worked score you can copy into a spreadsheet.
These supplier scorecard examples all follow the same method: pick metrics you can actually measure, give each a weight that adds up to 100%, convert the raw result (for example 93% on-time delivery) to a 1-5 score using a fixed band, then multiply score by weight and add it up. A total of 3.8 out of 5 becomes 76 out of 100. What changes between a manufacturer, a distributor and an IT vendor is which metrics carry the weight, and the six examples below show that difference with real numbers.
What should a supplier scorecard include? Metrics and formulas
A supplier scorecard should include a short list of measurable metrics, a weight for each, a scoring scale with written thresholds, the period covered, and an action rule for each score band. Quality and delivery are the core: in a study of supplier evaluation practice cited on Wikipedia's supplier evaluation page, every example reviewed used both quality and delivery. GEP's guide to supplier scorecard metrics adds cost efficiency, responsiveness and risk management as the other standard categories.
The metrics that show up most often:
| Category | Metric | How to calculate it |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | OTIF (on time in full) | Deliveries on time and in full / total deliveries x 100 |
| Quality | Defective PPM | Rejected units / received units x 1,000,000 |
| Quality | DPMO | 1,000,000 x defects / (units x defect opportunities per unit) |
| Cost | Price variance | (Invoiced price - quoted price) / quoted price |
| Accuracy | Invoice match rate | Invoices matching PO and receipt / total invoices |
| Service | Response time | Average hours to answer a query or complaint |
Two definitions trip people up. OTIF only counts a delivery when it is both on time and complete; scoring the share of quantity that arrived on time breaks the "in full" part. And DPMO is not the same as defective PPM: DPMO counts every defect opportunity on a unit, PPM counts defective units.
How do you weight scorecard metrics?
Weight metrics by the cost of failure: the metric whose failure would hurt your business most gets the largest weight. A practical way to start is to reuse the weights from the RFQ or RFP that selected the supplier, then add the SLAs from the contract. Keep weights in 5% steps, 4-6 metrics total, and no single metric above 40% so one bad month cannot decide the whole score.
The scoring bands used in these examples (adjust them to your contracts):
| Score | OTIF | Defective PPM | Price variance | Response time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 98% or more | 100 or less | 0% or below | Under 4 hours |
| 4 | 95-97.9% | 101-500 | 0.1-1% | 4-8 hours |
| 3 | 90-94.9% | 501-1,000 | 1.1-2% | 8-24 hours |
| 2 | 85-89.9% | 1,001-2,500 | 2.1-4% | 24-48 hours |
| 1 | Under 85% | Over 2,500 | Over 4% | Over 48 hours |
The 98% top band is not arbitrary: research by Janet Godsell and Remko van Hoek found UK retail leading practice demands OTIF above 97% at SKU level.
1. Manufacturer scorecard for a machined-parts supplier
Scenario: a 60-person manufacturer buys CNC-machined brackets from one supplier, roughly 25,000 parts a quarter. Defects stop the line, so quality and delivery share 60% of the weight.
| Metric | Weight | Q3 result | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defective PPM | 30% | 320 (8 rejects of 25,000) | 4 | 1.20 |
| OTIF | 30% | 93% | 3 | 0.90 |
| Price variance vs quote | 20% | +0.5% | 4 | 0.80 |
| Corrective actions closed on time | 10% | 3 of 3 | 5 | 0.50 |
| Response time | 10% | 6 hours | 4 | 0.40 |
| Total | 100% | 3.80 = 76/100 |
What it shows: quality is fine, delivery is the problem. The conversation with this supplier is about lead times, not price.
How to adapt it: if you track defects by type, swap PPM for DPMO. Count OTIF per order line, not per shipment, if the supplier splits deliveries.
2. Distributor scorecard for a stock supplier
Scenario: a wholesaler resells a brand's products and loses sales when items arrive short. Fill rate matters more than anything else.
| Metric | Weight | Result | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fill rate (lines shipped complete) | 30% | 99% | 5 | 1.50 |
| OTIF | 25% | 96% | 4 | 1.00 |
| Order accuracy (right SKU) | 20% | 97% | 4 | 0.80 |
| Price vs quote | 15% | +1.5% | 3 | 0.45 |
| Invoice match rate | 10% | 100% | 5 | 0.50 |
| Total | 100% | 4.25 = 85/100 |
What it shows: a reliable supplier creeping on price. At 85 it is in the green band, so the action is a price review at renewal, not a warning.
How to adapt it: big-box retailers run their own versions of this card under other names, such as Target's On Time Fill Rate and Kroger's Original Requested Arrival Date. If you sell into them, mirror their definition so your upstream scorecard predicts your downstream fines.
3. Professional services scorecard (agency, consultant, contractor)
Scenario: a company uses an outside marketing agency on a monthly retainer. There are no units or defects, so the card scores SLAs and deliverables.
| Metric | Weight | Result | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deliverables on agreed date | 35% | 9 of 10 (90%) | 3 | 1.05 |
| Deliverable quality (reviewer 1-5) | 25% | 4.0 average | 4 | 1.00 |
| Budget adherence | 20% | 3.5% over | 2 | 0.40 |
| Response time | 10% | 5 hours | 4 | 0.40 |
| Team continuity (no unplanned swaps) | 10% | 0 swaps | 5 | 0.50 |
| Total | 100% | 3.35 = 67/100 |
What it shows: good work, late and over budget. 67 lands in the red band, which triggers a written improvement plan (see our vendor performance improvement plan guide).
How to adapt it: for subjective scores, have two people rate independently and average them, and write what a 3 and a 5 look like before the quarter starts. We cover a services-specific template in our professional services vendor scorecard.
4. Construction subcontractor scorecard
Scenario: a general contractor rates its electrical subcontractor after each project. Safety is weighted first because one incident outweighs any saving.
| Metric | Weight | Result | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety (recordable incidents) | 25% | 0 | 5 | 1.25 |
| Schedule (milestones on time) | 25% | 7 of 8 | 3 | 0.75 |
| Rework items at punch list | 20% | 4 items | 4 | 0.80 |
| Change orders vs original bid | 15% | +6% | 2 | 0.30 |
| Paperwork and compliance on time | 15% | Most, 1 late | 4 | 0.60 |
| Total | 100% | 3.70 = 74/100 |
What it shows: safe and solid work, with change orders eroding the bid price. Yellow band: keep them on the bid list but tighten scope in the next RFQ.
How to adapt it: score per project, then average the last three projects before inviting the sub to bid again.
5. IT and SaaS vendor scorecard
Scenario: a 40-person company scores its managed IT provider every quarter.
| Metric | Weight | Result | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uptime vs SLA | 30% | 99.8% vs 99.9% target | 4 | 1.20 |
| Support first response | 25% | 5 hours | 4 | 1.00 |
| Security and compliance evidence | 20% | All documents current | 5 | 1.00 |
| Cost vs contract | 15% | +1.8% | 3 | 0.45 |
| Roadmap and proactive advice | 10% | 1 review held of 2 promised | 3 | 0.30 |
| Total | 100% | 3.95 = 79/100 |
What it shows: a dependable vendor that is not adding much beyond keeping the lights on. Use the score in the renewal conversation.
How to adapt it: pull uptime and ticket data from the vendor's own reports and spot-check a month yourself.
6. Simple pass/fail scorecard for a small business
Scenario: a 10-person business with no quality team wants something it can fill in in five minutes. Each order is checked on four yes/no questions, as the Procurement Tactics lesson below recommends for beginners.
| Check (last 10 orders) | Yes |
|---|---|
| Arrived on the promised date | 9 |
| Right quantity | 10 |
| No damaged or wrong items | 8 |
| Invoice matched the PO | 10 |
| Total | 37 of 40 = 92.5% |
What it shows: the problem is damaged goods, and you can see it without any formulas. Move to a weighted card once you have more than a handful of key suppliers.
This part of the Procurement Tactics lesson walks through the metric groups a supplier scorecard should cover, then how to build one from RFP documents and contract SLAs, set priorities, and choose between yes/no checks and a 1-5 rating scale.
Picking the right template for your business type
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| You make physical products from bought parts | 1. Manufacturer |
| You resell stock | 2. Distributor |
| You buy services by the hour or retainer | 3. Professional services |
| You hire subcontractors per project | 4. Construction |
| You depend on a software or IT provider | 5. IT and SaaS |
| You have fewer than five key suppliers and no data team | 6. Pass/fail |
How often should vendors be reviewed?
Score key suppliers quarterly and everyone else once a year. Quarterly is the common cadence for formal reviews; LightSource's glossary describes programs that classify suppliers green, yellow or red each quarter and put red suppliers on improvement plans. Approved suppliers are typically re-evaluated at least annually as part of keeping an approved supplier list. Project-based suppliers, like the subcontractor in example 4, are scored at the end of each project.
What is a good supplier score?
There is no industry standard cut-off, so set your own bands and write them down before the first review. The bands used in this article:
- 85-100 (green): preferred supplier, first invitation to bid.
- 70-84 (yellow): discuss the weakest metric, recheck next quarter.
- Under 70 (red): written improvement plan with dates; two red quarters in a row means you start sourcing an alternative.
Share the score with the supplier. A scorecard the supplier never sees cannot change how they behave.
Where scorecards meet sourcing
A scorecard tells you which supplier to fix or replace; the next step is getting comparable quotes from alternatives. Price variance is also easier to score when the original quote is on record rather than in an email thread. AuraVMS collects supplier quotes without the supplier creating an account, lays them side by side and ranks them L1/L2/L3 automatically, so the quoted price your scorecard measures against is one click away. AuraVMS starts at $4.99/month, billed annually.
For the selection stage itself, see our supplier selection process guide, and for a first review after awarding a contract, the 90-day post-award scorecard.
FAQ
What is a supplier scorecard?
A supplier scorecard is a periodic report that rates a supplier on agreed metrics such as quality, delivery, cost and responsiveness, usually combined into one weighted score so suppliers can be compared and tracked over time.
What is the difference between a supplier scorecard and a supplier evaluation?
A supplier evaluation usually happens before you buy, to approve a new supplier. A scorecard measures an approved supplier's actual performance after orders start. Many companies use the same categories for both so the scores are comparable.
How many metrics should a vendor scorecard have?
Four to six. Fewer than four misses whole categories; more than six spreads the weights so thin that no single metric moves the score.
Is there a free vendor scorecard template?
Any of the six tables above works as a vendor scorecard template: copy the columns into a spreadsheet, keep the weights summing to 100%, and multiply each 1-5 score by its weight. For audits rather than ongoing scoring, use our supplier quality audit checklist.
Should OTIF be measured against the requested date or the promised date?
Against the date you requested, where you can. Godsell's research found suppliers that hit OTIF targets against their own promise dates often missed them against the customer's requested date, which hides the real delay.