Researching and Hiring Vendors
Previous sections describe event-related goods and services that are provided either by your own organization or by the venue or venues where the event is held. One additional category of providers remains to be discussed—good and services vendors who are neither in your own organization nor affiliated with an event venue.
In Siebel Events Management, the procedures for working with vendors are quite similar to those for venues, except that the goods or services vendors provide are not as closely related to specific physical locations.
As with venues, a vendor can be associated with an event or a session. To associate a vendor with one or more sessions, you must first associate it with the event.
In preparation for working with vendor data, you should enter possible vendors as accounts. The Accounts screen allows you to enter vendors, vendor addresses, and vendor contacts before you set up an event. When entering vendors as accounts, choose Vendor in the Account Type field of the Vendor form. For more information, see Defining an Event.
The following procedure describes how to associate a vendor with an event or session. Prior to associating a vendor with a session, you should have already associated the vendor with the event.
To associate a vendor with an event
Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you want to associate a vendor.
Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
In the Events list, drill down on the events name.
Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.
In the Vendors list, create a new record.
To associate a vendor with a session
Navigate to the Site Map > Sessions view.
In the Session list, select and drill down on the session for which you want to associate a vendor.
Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.
In the Vendors list, create a new record.
After you have associated a vendor with an event, you can record the billing parameters the vendor uses, any discounts or special rates you negotiate, and optional reviews of the vendor’s performance for the event.
The following procedure describes how to record the billing parameters for an event vendor.
To record billing expense information for a vendor
Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to record the billing parameters.
Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
In the Events list, select and drill down on the event.
Click the Participants view tab, and then lick Vendors.
In the Vendors list, select the vendor for which you want to enter billing parameters.
Scroll down to the Billings subview and in the Billing list, create a new record.
The following table describes some fields in the Billing list.
Field Comments Flat Fee
The currency field for any flat fee to be charged instead of or in addition to the billing rate.
Qty
The actual quantity of basis units used by the event.
Rate
The currency field for vendor’s rate per basis unit.
Service Type
The type of responsibility the vendor has for the event.
Total Cost
A result of the automatic calculation based on Rate, Qty, and Flat Fee, when you save the record.
Units
The basis of the vendor’s rate. Typical values include Per Person, Per Item, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly.
Note: Billing records created at the Vendor level roll up to the event as expense records, with a Cost Type = Vendor.
The following procedure describes how to enter any discounts or special rates you have negotiated with the vendor.
To enter vendor discounts or other special rate codes
Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to enter vendor discount information.
Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
In the Events list, select and drill down on the event.
Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.
Billing, Rate Code, and Reviews subviews appear after the Vendors list.
Select the vendor for which you want to specify rate code information.
In the Billing subview, select Rate Code from the drop-down list.
In the Rate Codes list, create a new record.
The following table describes some fields in the Rate Codes list.
Field Comments Name
A name to designate the discount or special rate.
Type
A description of the discount amount or special rate.
Adjacent to the Billing and Rate Code subviews, there is a subview for review information about the selected vendor. For information about entering a vendor review, see Entering Venue and Vendor Performance Reviews.