Frequently Asked Questions

Simplify Your Suppliers. Streamline Payments. Optimize Your Workforce.


Contrax consolidates your staffing vendors, manages all sub-tier suppliers for you, and centralizes payments—giving you full control, visibility, and compliance without the administrative burden. Save time, reduce costs, and get your contingent workforce program performing at its best.

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Whats the Difference MSP VMS (1)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Contrax?

Contrax is a leader in supplier consolidation and payments, with deep expertise in HR and contingent workforce management.

With years of experience across North America, we help organizations streamline their supplier networks, centralize payments, and gain full visibility across all spend categories—with a focus on sub-tiering staffing agencies, and professional services.

By combining category expertise, process optimization, and technology like Conexis, Contrax enables organizations to manage their external workforce and vendor networks strategically, improving compliance, visibility, and overall ROI.

What does Contrax do?

Contrax helps organizations streamline supplier management and consolidate vendors across multiple categories of spend. We specialize in HR-focused spend, including contingent labor, gig workers, and staffing agencies, while also supporting professional services, office supplies, and other external vendors.

What makes Contrax different?

Customer Care is in our DNA.

Unlike generic platforms, Contrax combines hands-on expertise in HR, contingent labor, and procurement with technology like Conexis. We don’t just manage vendors—we optimize your supplier network to create strategic value, cost savings, and operational efficiency.

Can Contrax help with managing contingent workforce programs??

Absolutely. We combine category expertise and technology like Conexis to give you full visibility, control, and compliance across your contingent workforce. This includes onboarding, time tracking, invoicing, and performance management for staffing agencies and external workers.

How does Contrax save time and money?

By centralizing suppliers, automating approvals and payments, and streamlining HR and procurement processes, Contrax reduces administrative overhead, prevents duplicate or redundant spending, and ensures you leverage strategic vendor relationships.

How long does it take to implement a sub-vendor program?

Implementation is typically 4–6 weeks, depending on the size and complexity of your supplier network. During this time, Contrax consolidates vendors, establishes agreements, configures payment processes, and ensures all compliance requirements are met—so your program is ready to run smoothly from day one.

Is Supplier Consolidation and Sub-Tiering the same thing?

No — while they work together, supplier consolidation and sub-tiering serve different purposes.

Supplier Consolidation focuses on simplifying your existing supplier network. It brings multiple vendors under one structured program, standardizes contracts, centralizes compliance, and allows your organization to receive one consolidated invoice while maintaining your current supplier relationships.

The goal is to reduce administrative complexity, improve visibility, and create financial control — without disrupting service delivery.

Sub-Tiering, on the other hand, is about structure and hierarchy.
It organizes suppliers into tiers and sub-tiers based on priority, risk level, specialization, or strategic importance. When new suppliers are introduced, they are contracted, vetted, and placed into the appropriate tier within your structured ecosystem.

Sub-tiering ensures:

  • Clear accountability
  • Consistent contract terms
  • Faster onboarding
  • Ongoing compliance oversight

In simple terms:

  • Consolidation simplifies and centralizes your suppliers.
  • Sub-tiering structures and organizes them.

Together, they create a controlled, compliant, and efficient supplier program supported by centralized payments and real-time visibility.

How does supplier consolidation help my organization?

Consolidating suppliers reduces complexity, improves efficiency, and drives cost savings. By centralizing payments, approvals, and compliance tracking, your team spends less time on administrative tasks and more time on strategic priorities.

How does sub-tiering save time?

Sub-tiering saves time by creating structure and accountability within your supplier network — especially when onboarding and managing new vendors.

Instead of handling each new supplier as a separate, manual process, sub-tiering places them into a predefined structure with standardized contracts, compliance requirements, and onboarding workflows. This eliminates repeated negotiations, inconsistent documentation, and back-and-forth delays.

With sub-tiering:

  • New suppliers follow a clear, pre-established onboarding path
  • Contract terms are aligned and standardized
  • Compliance requirements are consistent across tiers
  • Documentation is validated upfront
  • Ongoing oversight is centralized

Because every supplier operates within a structured framework, your HR, Procurement, and Finance teams spend less time chasing paperwork, clarifying terms, or correcting inconsistencies.

In short:

Consolidation simplifies your supplier network.
Sub-tiering organizes it for speed and control.

Together, they reduce administrative burden, accelerate onboarding, and allow your team to focus on strategic priorities instead of manual supplier management.

How does Contrax improve visibility and control?

With consolidated suppliers and centralized systems, Contrax provides real-time reporting and analytics. You can track spend, monitor vendor performance, and ensure compliance—all from a single platform.

What about compliance and risk management?

Every supplier is vetted against your organization’s requirements, including insurance, tax documentation, and background checks. We ensure contracts, approvals, and policies are consistently applied to reduce operational and legal risk.

How does sub-tiering enhance workforce quality?

With a consolidated supplier network, you gain access to pre-vetted, high-performing agencies and resources exactly when you need them. This ensures your contingent workforce is skilled, reliable, and aligned with your business needs.

How long does it take to onboard new suppliers once the sub-vendor solution is in place?

Once your sub-vendor program is live, new suppliers can be onboarded quickly—typically within 1–2 weeks. Contrax handles contracts, compliance checks, documentation, and system setup for each new supplier, so your team doesn’t have to manage the administrative work. This keeps your supplier network agile and ensures you can scale your workforce efficiently whenever needed.

What is a Vendor Management System (VMS)?

A Vendor Management System is a completely cloud-based portal that automates the entire lifecycle of the source-to-pay process. It Allows an organization to facilitate, automate and consolidate all of the processes and data associated with managing both staffing agencies and externally-sourced workers. A VMS consolidates all information and gives businesses complete visibility and control over their contingent workforce. A VMS allows for the management of the entire contingent workforce lifecycle, and enables the broader managed program solution.

What VMS does Contrax use, and how does it benefit my program?

Contrax has a strong partnership with Conexis. It is our preferred Vendor Management System (VMS). Together with Conexis, we combine our expertise in supplier consolidation, sub-tier management, and payments with Conexis’ powerful platform to give you centralized visibility, automated workflows, and full control over your contingent workforce program. This partnership ensures that your suppliers are managed efficiently, compliance is maintained, and payments are streamlined—delivering a program that is both scalable and high-performing.

Should I implement both a sub-tiering solution and a VMS?

Yes—implementing a sub-tiering solution alongside a Vendor Management System (VMS) can provide the best of both worlds. Sub-tiering simplifies supplier management by consolidating vendors, handling onboarding, compliance, and payments, and giving you a single point of contact. A VMS complements this by providing full program visibility, reporting, analytics, and automated workflows. Together, they allow your organization to optimize costs, improve workforce quality, ensure compliance, and gain actionable insights, while keeping the administrative burden off your internal team.

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Learn How a Vendor Management System Can Transform Your Contingent Workforce

Check out our partner Conexis. They're dedicated to helping organizations understand the full benefits of a Vendor Management System (VMS). Whether you’re just getting started or looking to deepen your knowledge, their Education Center provides the insights and resources you need to manage your contingent workforce more efficiently, streamline payments, and optimize supplier performance.

Connect to Conexis VMS