Vendors

Purpose: Use the Vendors screen to work with vendors who fulfill drop ship orders.

What is a vendor? A vendor fulfills drop ship purchase orders processed through the Supplier Direct Fulfillment module.

Default vendor system required: Before you create any vendors, you need to use the System screen to create the default vendor system for your organization. The default vendor system needs to have the Vendor Default flag at the System screen selected. You do not need to set any other values for the default vendor system.

Ways to create a vendor:An integrated system such as Order Management System can create a vendor by:

  • sending the CreateDSVendor message to Order Broker. This message can include the vendor’s address and contact information, including phone numbers and an email address.
  • sending a CreateDSOrder message to Order Broker for a vendor who does not already exist in Order Broker. When you create a vendor this way, the Contact and Return Address information is blank.
  • clicking Create at this screen; see create a new vendor below for more information.

Preference and Carrier default settings: When you create a vendor through the CreateDSVendor or CreateDSOrder messages:

  • Preferences: All the vendor’s settings at the Preferences tab are blank or zero, except that the Generate Format for the pack slip is set to Both PDF and CSV, and the PDF Form Type is Graphical.
  • Carrier assignments: The vendor is automatically assigned to all active carriers.

You can use the Edit Vendor screen to change any of these defaults.

Order Management System integration: Vendors in Order Broker that correspond to Order Management System vendors must have codes identical to the Order Management System vendor codes. Order Management System uses numeric vendor codes and does not support non-numeric codes.

Vendor anonymized? If the vendor data has been anonymized, asterisks are displayed for the name, telephone, and email address:

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Also, if the vendor data has been anonymized, searching by vendor name is not supported.

A vendor is eligible to be anonymized only if there are no open purchase orders. When the vendor is anonymized, it is flagged as inactive.

See Anonymizing Data for background.

How to display this screen: Select Vendors from the Home Screen or from the Locations Menu.

Note:

Available if Use Vendor Portal is selected at the Tenant screen. Only users with Vendors authority can display this screen. See the Role Wizard for more information.

Options at this screen

Option Procedure
create a new vendor

Each of the fields at the top of the screen is required. Also, you need to create a default vendor system for the organization before you can create any vendors.

  1. Optionally, select a different organization from the Organization drop-down box. See Data Hierarchy for more information on how locations are assigned to organizations.

    Note:

    You must complete the Preferences screen for an organization before you can select it.
  2. Enter a Vendor Code. The code must be unique within the selected organization, and can be 1 to 10 positions in length.
  3. Enter a Vendor Name. The name can be 1 to 40 positions in length.
  4. Click New. If:
    • a vendor with the same Vendor Code already exists for the organization, Order Broker displays an error message.
    • you did not complete the required fields, Order Broker displays an error message.
    • there is no default vendor system for the organization, Order Broker displays an error message.
    • your entries were accepted, you advance to the New Vendor screen, where you can enter additional information about the vendor. However, if you click Cancel after advancing to the New Vendor screen, the vendor is not created.

Order Management System integration: Vendors in Order Broker that correspond to Order Management System vendors must have codes identical to the Order Management System vendor codes.

search for a vendor

The organization associated with your Default Shipping System is selected by default, but no vendors are displayed. Click Search to retrieve the first 50 vendors for your organization, or use any combination of the fields at the top of the screen to restrict the search results to matching vendors:

  1. Optionally, select a different organization from the Organization drop-down box to restrict your results to that organization.

    Note:

    You can select a blank organization to remove this field from your selection criteria.
  2. Optionally, enter a full or partial vendor code in the Vendor Code field to restrict your results to vendors whose codes start with your entry.
  3. Optionally, enter a full or partial vendor name in the Vendor Name field to restrict your results to vendors whose names contain your entry. If a vendor has been anonymized, you cannot search for it by vendor name.
  4. Optionally, select a setting in the Active dropdown field to restrict your results to vendors whose statuses match your selection.
  5. Click Search.

Case: The vendor code and name are case-insensitive for searching; for example, an entry of n matches a vendor of Northern.

activate or deactivate a vendor

The inactive icon (Illustrates the inactive icon.) indicates that the vendor is not currently active and that vendor users cannot currently log into the Vendor Portal; otherwise, the active icon (Illustrates the active icon.) indicates that the vendor is active, and vendors can log in. To switch between the settings, click the icon that is currently displayed.

When a vendor is anonymized, it is flagged as inactive.

Note:

Flagging a vendor as inactive does not prevent creating new purchase orders for the vendor.
select a vendor for review or maintenance

Click the edit icon (Illustrates the edit icon.) to advance to the Edit Vendor screen, where you can review or work with additional information about the vendor, such as address, preferences, and assigned carriers.

Note:

If the Edit Vendor screen is already open in another tab, you advance to that screen, where the previously-selected vendor is displayed.
delete a vendor

Select the delete icon (Illustrates the delete icon.) next to a vendor to delete the vendor from Order Broker. You can delete a vendor only if there are no existing purchase orders for the vendor.

Fields at this screen

Field Description
Search/new fields:
Organization

See organization. Required to create a new vendor. Defaults from the organization associated with the Default Shipping System from your user profile, but you can override this default.

Note:

You must complete the Preferences screen for an organization before you can select it.
Vendor Code

The code identifying the vendor. Required to create a new vendor. Can be 1 to 10 positions in length. Vendor codes in Order Management System are always numeric and a maximum of 7 positions.

Case-insensitive for searching; for example, an entry of n matches a vendor of Northern.

Vendor Name

Vendor names can be 1 to 40 positions in length, and do not need to be the same as the name or description of the vendor in the integrated system, such as Order Management System. Required to create a new vendor. If a vendor has been anonymized, you cannot search for it by vendor name.

Case-insensitive for searching; for example, an entry of n matches a vendor name of Northern.

Active

Indicates whether the vendor is currently active and whether vendor users can currently log into the Vendor Portal. Optionally, select a setting in the Active dropdown field to restrict your results to vendors whose status match your selection.

Note:

Flagging a vendor as inactive does not prevent creating new purchase orders for the vendor.
Results fields:
Organization

See organization.

Vendor Code

The code identifying a vendor.

Vendor Name

The descriptive name of the vendor. Asterisks are displayed if the vendor has been anonymized.

Telephone

The phone number from the vendor’s Contact address. See the Edit Vendor screen for information on the fields at the Contact tab. Asterisks are displayed if the vendor has been anonymized.

Emails

The vendor’s email address(es) from the Contact address. See the Edit Vendor screen for information on the fields at the Contact tab. Asterisks are displayed if the vendor has been anonymized.

Active

The inactive icon (Illustrates the inactive icon.) indicates that vendor users cannot currently log into the Vendor Portal; otherwise, the enabled icon (Illustrates the active icon.) indicates that vendor users can currently log in. To switch between the settings, click the icon that is currently displayed.

When a vendor has been anonymized, it is flagged as inactive.

If someone attempts to log in to the Vendor Portal for an inactive vendor, the login screen displays an error: Log in failed.

Note:

Flagging a vendor as inactive does not prevent creating new purchase orders for the vendor.
Edit

Select the edit icon (Illustrates the edit icon.) to advance to the Edit Vendor screen.

Note:

If the Edit Vendor screen is already open in another tab, you advance to that screen, where the previously-selected vendor is displayed.
Delete

Select the delete icon (Illustrates the delete icon.) next to a vendor to delete the vendor from Order Broker. This option is available only if there are no existing purchase orders for the vendor.