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Vendor tiers group your relationships into up to five tiers so you can apply the right level of due diligence, oversight, and reporting to each group. Tiers are typically defined by risk level, business criticality, or the sensitivity of the data a vendor handles. Tiers are configured in Settings → Tiers. Changing the tier structure requires Admin or Program Manager access; assigning a relationship to a tier requires edit access to that relationship.

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The Tiers Page

Settings → Tiers lists every tier your organization has configured, in order. Each tier shows:
  • Tier name
  • Description — the criteria your team uses to decide what belongs in this tier
  • Relationship count — how many relationships are currently assigned to the tier; select the count to open the Relationships list filtered to that tier
If no tiers exist yet, the page shows a No tiers configured state until you create them.

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Setting Up Tiers

From Settings → Tiers, select Manage tiers:
1

Choose how many tiers your program uses

Pick a number from 0 to 5. Tiers are created in order — selecting 3 gives you Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3.
2

Describe each tier

Add a short description for each tier explaining what belongs in it. Descriptions appear on the Tiers page and in the tier picker when someone assigns a relationship, so they help your team choose consistently.
3

Save changes

Select Save changes to apply the new tier structure.
Reducing the number of tiers removes the tiers above your new count, and any vendors assigned to a removed tier move to Unassigned. The dialog tells you which tiers will be removed before you save.

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Assigning Relationships to a Tier

A relationship is Unassigned until you put it in a tier. There are four ways to assign one:
  • When creating a relationship — set the optional Tier field in the Add Relationship form
  • On an existing relationship — open the Relationship configuration dialog (gear icon) and select a tier under Tier; the picker shows each tier’s description
  • In bulk — select relationships on the Relationships list page and use the Move tier action (Admin only)
  • Via bulk import — include a Tier column with a value of 1–5 in your CSV (see Bulk Import)
The Move tier menu also offers Unassigned, which removes relationships from their current tier.
If no tiers are configured, the Move tier bulk action is disabled. Create tiers in Settings → Tiers first.

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Where Tiers Show Up

Once relationships are tiered, the tier is available across the platform:
  • Relationships list — filter the portfolio by tier, and save that filter for one-click reuse
  • Risk Insights — the Relationships by Tier metric breaks your portfolio down by tier
  • Risk advisories — filter by tier when choosing which vendors receive a response request
  • VISO Chat — ask questions scoped to a tier, such as “Tier 1 vendors”

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Tiers vs. Tags vs. Business Units

A relationship belongs to at most one tier, can carry many tags, and rolls up to one business unit.