Vendor Management System Startup Overview

This section provides an overview of the Vendor Management System startup process.  It describes the major data files used by the system and how to load and configure the Vendor Management System as part of a new StreamV installation.

The Vendor Management System is used by the Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Product Management, and other StreamV systems.  The vendor and vendor contact information that is maintained in the Vendor Management System is shared by numerous applications, so the vendor information is normally loaded into StreamV early in the system setup process (typically before product , purchasing and accounts payable data is imported).

Items that should be completed prior to Vendor Management Startup

•      Verify that StreamV has been installed and that you are pointing at your startup dataset.

•      Verify that the basic tables such as division, department, terms, shipvia,  zip code, currency, language, and operator have been loaded.  Vendor data points to information in these tables, so the table data should be present when you load the vendor information.  (you can also add missing items to the table if required, but it is often worth

•      Verify that the General Ledger system has been loaded and configured.  Vendor records can be loaded with a general ledger default account and subaccount (used during accounts payable invoice entry).  This step can also be done after vendor records have been imported (by mapping the vendors to the correct accounts manually or using another method)

•      Review your buyer strategy and determine if vendors should be assigned to specific buyers (buyers can also be determined by customer, item, product line).

•      Determine if you will be maintaining separate accounts payable subledgers and general ledger accounts for groups of vendors.  Some companies like to track payables to parent or sister companies using multiple ap autopost and general ledger accounts.

Vendor Management Startup Basics

This section provides startup oriented information about the Vendor Management System, including the primary files used to store vendor data, the other files that store vendor related data, and the basic steps or tasks that must be completed to prepare the system for operation.

Vendor Management Data

The primary files or  tables in the Vendor Management System are

•      Vendor File  The vendor file contains all of the vendor companies that you do business with.  Each vendor should have a unique name and a unique account number.  The vendor file is used by the accounts payable, purchasing, product management and any other programs that deal with a vendor company.

•      Vendor Contact File  Vendor contacts are the individuals that work at each vendor company.  Multiple contacts can be maintained for each vendor, and some of these contacts (like the AP clerk) are used by the system for automated processes (like emailing invoices).  Vendor contacts have a first and last name, and a unique contact#.  Vendor contacts are pointed to a company in the vendor file based on the Company Name field in the Vendor Contact record.

Other files that contain vendor related information (that may not be part of or specific to the Vendor Management system) are.

•      Comment File  Multiple comments (text note records) can be maintained for each Vendor and Vendor contact record.  Vendor comments have a comment source of VM and are linked to the vendor  company using the comment ID field – which is loaded with the vendor account number.  The comment line number is used to allow multiple comments for each vendor.   Some comment line numbers (VM 1220,2001)  are reserved for specific purposes.  Please see the comments application note for more details.  Vendor Contact comment records are assigned comment source of VC and are linked to the contact using the comment ID field – which is loaded with the contact# for the vendor contact.

•      Images File  The Images file is used to link documents (scans, word docs, and other files), to records in the StreamV database.  If you wish to import vendor documents, and other files, you can link them to the vendor using Images records.

•      Cross Reference  Cross reference item records or Crossref records allow you to map your internal item numbers to vendor item numbers (so the vendor item can be used when you print a purchase order for the vendor)  Cross Reference records can be loaded into the system, or created manually once your vendors have been loaded.  Vendor cross reference records should be created with a Document Type of V, status A, and they are linked to the vendor company using the Company field in the cross reference record.

•      Company Item  The Company Item (Compiitem) file is used to support item specific comments for each vendor (notes that are automatically printed on a purchase order when you order the item from the vendor).  The company item records contain a company (the vendor company), your item number, and a unique comment number that is assigned from a system counter (F248:CUSITEM).  The comment is assigned a source of CI, and the ident field is loaded with the unique comment number from the Company Item record.

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Vendor Management System Startup Tasks