Frequently Asked Question

Information on up to six Alternate suppliers for each category and; or part number.

Additional enhancements added to include this information in product inquiry and the expanded part information shown in invoicing.

Processing

Purchasing Parameter Maintenance

Within the Purchasing Parameters the system must be set to allow Alternate Supplier in order to take advantage of this feature. This setting, Alternate Suppliers? is found on screen 1 of the Purchasing Parameter Maintenance and must be an Y.

The Purchasing Parameter Maintenance is found under System Setup > Purchasing.

Category Maintenance

The Category Maintenance screen now offers an option to add Alternate Supplier information. This information is accessed through Inventory > Data Maintenance > Master Files > Category Master. 

When adding or changing a category, after accepting (F1) the first screen a prompt “Alternate Vendors?” will be displayed. 

Answering “Y” to this question will bring up the Alternate Vendor Maintenance screen where you can setup the alternate supplier code and attach a price book vendor to be used for pricing the items where the part number is common between both suppliers. This step must be completed in order to create default values and make the process function

To properly price the product from the alternate supplier the non-stock pricing parameters must be added for the price book vendor being used. Providing the price book already has the pricing information for this price book vendor the system will advise you if no pricing multipliers have been setup and will offer you the option to add them from the Alternate Vendor Maintenance screen.

Product Maintenance

The Product Maintenance screen now offers an option to setup Alternate Supplier and Part Number information. This is accessed through Inventory > Data Maintenance > Master Files > Product Master. When adding or changing part numbers, after accepting (F1) the first screen a prompt “Alternate Vendor parts?” will be displayed. 

If you have no alternate vendors set up, answering 'Y' to this question will bring up the alternate vendor maintenance screen as shown above. Otheriwse, Answering “Y” to this question will bring up the “Change Vendor Part #” screen. 

This will display the alternates found in the Price Book based on the settings in the Category information and other alternates can be added manually if required. Here you can modify the alternate supplier's part number

Suggested Order Maintenance

When converting a suggested order into a Purchase Order the default will be the primary supplier for the items being purchased. If the supplier is changed to the Alternate Supplier a confirmation question “reprice p.o.?” will be asked. The default here is “Y” to reprice the purchase order using the alternate supplier’s pricing. When the P.O. is repriced any items where the alternate supplier pricing could not be found will be displayed on screen to confirm the prices being used.

If the alternate part number is different to the inventory part number a remark is added to the purchase order “your part [alternate vendor part number]”.

Purchase Order Receiving

When the purchase order is received the average cost will be updated using the costs from the alternate supplier on the purchase order.

Product Inquiry

The Product Inquiry screen has been modified to show the Alternate Vendor and Part Number information entered through Product Maintenance by using the option “A” at the message “V(iew Sales hist),O(rder det),P(urch hist),S(pecials),A(lt parts),L(og)”.

Expanded Part Information in Invoicing

The expanded part information available in the invoicing screen by Clicking on the part number in the body of the invoice has been modified to include the Alternate Vendor and Part Number entered through Product Maintenance