Managing Vendors in the Administration Module

A Vendor is an entity from which Items are procured by the company. Vendors are responsible for handling the fulfillment of selected inventory items outside of the company's warehouse sites.

The following vendor operations are available in the Administration module:

• Searching for Vendors
• Creating Vendors
• Editing Vendors

Searching for Vendors

You might want to search for a vendor in order to update the vendor information, delete the vendor, or update the Items that the vendor supplies for your inventory at the warehouses or retail stores.

To search for a Vendor using the Search form at the top of the Vendor Manager page:

1. In the Inventory accordion menu, select Vendor Manager. The Vendor Manager page appears.
2. Along the top of the page are the search criteria fields. Available search criteria include:
   • Name: A drop-down list to search based on vendor name or vendor email. When the criterion type is selected, you can enter search terms based on the selected criterion type. Wildcard searches can be made using the percent (%) symbol, which represents zero or more characters.
   • Quick Search: A drop-down list to search based on a vendor's general state or workflow state. Options include the following:
     • Active
     • Alerted
     • Locked
     • Suspended
     • NotVisible
     • Closed
     • Waiting Approval
     • Duplicates
   • Flag: A drop-down list to search for vendors that are flagged with a color or “CHK” (check) flag. These flags can be used to mark a vendor for future work.
3. Click Search.

Note the following regarding the search results:

• Individual records can be opened by clicking the ID hyperlink.
• Multiple records can be selected by checking the boxes next to the records.
• All records in the search results can be selected by checking the column header box.
• Buttons below the results perform the following actions:
  • Check All to select all record boxes
  • Clear All to clear all selected record boxes
  • Check Page to select all record boxes on the page that appears
  • Clear Page to clear all selected record boxes on the page that appears

Creating Vendors

To create a new vendor:

1. In the Inventory accordion menu, click Vendor Manager.
2. Click New Vendor. The Add Vendor page appears.
3. Enter the vendor information including vendor contact, company, addresses, account numbers.
4. Click Update to accept the changes. The Vendor details page appears.
5. Edit the Vendor as described in Editing Vendors.

Editing Vendors

To edit a Vendor:

1. Search for a Vendor as described in Searching for Vendors and click its ID to open the Vendor detail dialog.
2. Click Edit in the General Information section to open the Edit Vendor page, where you can edit all the vendor information fields. Click Update to accept the changes or click Cancel to exit the page.
3. Add extended attributes in the Extended Attributes section. Select an attribute from the drop-down list and then select Add or Add All. Select an added attribute to edit its value. To show hidden attributes, click the Show Hidden Attributes checkbox.
4. You can view or change additional audit-related information from the following tabs in the Details section:
   • Purchase Orders: Shows purchase orders that are associated with the vendor. Click Add to create a new purchase order with the vendor.
   • Items: The Items tab shows the items that are attached to the vendor. Items are attached via the item record in the Inventory Manager. Click an item code to bring up the item details page for that item.
   • Activity: A historical view of and the ability to create a new activity. The Activity tab lists actions that have been taken with regard to the vendor. Click the Add button to create a new activity.
   • Emails: The Emails tab lists emails that were sent to the vendor contact. Click the New button to create a new email to the vendor.
   • System Events: An audit of both events performed automatically by Order Management and user-initiated events during the life cycle of the vendor. For example, a system event could be that the vendor was approved.
5. Suspend, lock, or apply a flag to the vendor record using the icons in the top right of the vendor details dialog.

Changes made on the vendor details page take effect immediately.