Vendor Maintenance Form

Use the Vendor Maintenance form to add, modify, and delete vendor records. To access this form, choose Purchasing > Database > Vendor or Payables > Database > Vendor from the Main Menu.

Vendors are used by many application transactions including customer orders, inventory, purchase orders, and payables. A vendor may be any company or individual that provides goods or services to your company. In some cases, vendors are paid directly for the goods or services, but in others, another vendor may be the pay to (payee). The most common example of this would be a co-op who is paid by your company for goods purchased from vendors the pay to has a business relationship with.

Form fields such as name, address, and other contact information are fairly self explanatory. The "Pay To" is used to indicate when payments are directed to another party (vendor); otherwise, the pay-to should be the same (current) vendor. When necessary, "Pay To" vendors are set up in this same area. The "pay to" is used for payment selection prior to disbursement in Payables, not the purchase vendor.

New

The "New" button can be used to generate a vendor code automatically. The generated number will be a sequentially assigned integer value along with an optional prefix character. Numeric ranges as well as the optional prefix character can be assigned from the Payables tab of the Parameters form (Main Menu, Database, Parameters). The button will only be visible if numeric ranges have been assigned.

Continue Mode

When using this form to change or view the same settings on multiple vendors, continue mode can be used to retain the current selected folder tab between vendors. Otherwise, the form would normally reset back to its default state with the first tab being visible.

Foreign Vendor / Currency / Country of Origin

If the "Customs Manifest" or "Multi-Currency" options are turned on in Parameters, three options will be visible on the Vendor Maintenance form: Foreign Vendor, Currency, and Country of Origin(Customs Manifest Only). By selecting the Foreign Vendor option, you are indicating that purchases from this vendor are made through the customs manifest feature or a vendor is billing you in a currency other than your local default value. The Currency field is the currency the vendor deals in. If a vendor deals in multiple currencies, you would setup multiple vendors with a different currency. The Country of Origin defines where the product is from. For more about setting up vendor records to use foreign currency, see Setting up Currency Exchange Rates and Using Them in Transactions.

Address Fields

Formatting of address fields are determined by parameters as well as your computer's region and language settings. The address appears differently based upon whether your company is located in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. The same address control is used in a wide range of transactions and forms; however, each area may use the address differently. Branches, customers, contacts, jobs, and vendors all have associated address data.

Name

This is the name associated with the address and is typically the first (top) line when an address is printed or displayed. This part of the address can be up to 50-characters in length.

In some cases, the "Name" address field performs additional functions that might not be obvious. For example, when adding a new customer, the name becomes the default for the "sort name" field and also the name of the "primary contact" for the account. The sort name can then be modified so that it is different from the address "name;" however, changes to either the "name" or the name associated with contact zero automatically update to keep both fields the same.

Company

This is the company name associated with the address (if any). If supplied, the company prints/displays below the "name" and above the address lines (1 & 2). This part of the address can be up to 30-characters in length.

Address Line 1

This is the first of two (2) lines provided for the address. Both are optional. Usually, when an address is displayed or printed on a document, an address line is only shown when it has been assigned a text value. This is done to avoid unnecessary blank spacing between address lines. This part of the address can be up to 30-characters in length.

Address Line 2

This is the second of two (2) lines provided for the address. Both are optional. Usually, when an address is displayed or printed on a document, the address line is only shown when it has been assigned a text value. This is done to avoid unnecessary blank spacing between address lines. This part of the address can be up to 30-characters in length.

City

This text area is reserved for the "city" (city, town, village, etc.) part of the address. This part of the address can be up to 30-characters in length.

State or Province (Code)

This portion of the mailing address varies based on your software region setting located under the Parameters database (United States vs. Canada) or your computer's globalization setting. When shown, it is a postal abbreviation used for the state, province, or territory where the address is located. When using a zip code database, entry of a zip code ("postal code" in Canada) can result in this field automatically completing. Listings of state and province codes also include territories. This part of the address can be up to 2-characters in length. In some cases, the printed address will only show the state/province if the "city" part of the address is also present.

Upon request, support can enable a parameter that would include country codes in addition to the state or province code.

States, provinces, and country codes are grouped together. If your company is located in Canada, province codes are listed first in the drop down followed by states and then countries (if enabled). In the United States, state codes are listed first followed by Canadian provinces and then country codes (if enabled). If your company is located in the United Kingdom (UK), this field is not shown nor is it typically printed. There is no "UK" parameter setting. If you are located in the United Kingdom, the software uses the region and language settings of your computer as well as the database region (in certain cases).

Postal Code (aka. ZIP Code or Postcode)

In certain cases, postal (ZIP) code changes can trigger other changes such as setting the sales tax location. This part of the address can be up to 10-characters in length. In North America, the zip code is numeric and is listed to the right of the city and state/province. In the United Kingdom, the postcode is printed as a separate line (the last or bottom line of the address).

Delivery Point

The USPS (United States Postal Service) assigns delivery points in addition to the zip + 4 codes as a way of designating multiple delivery points at the same address (4 offices in the same building -- or -- 2 apartments in the same house, for example). Delivery points are not typically printed (except for Canadian users in certain cases) but are included when POSTNET bar-coded mailing labels are printed. Usually, this is a single digit added to the end of the ZIP code, ZIP+4 code, or a combination of both codes when printing a barcode. Typically, a check digit is also added after the delivery point (if included). This part of the address can be up to 4-characters in length.

For Canadian users, the delivery point field has an alternate use (see below):

Settings for Canada

If your company is located in Canada (and assigned to the Canada regional parameter), the delivery point can be used to add a country notation to addresses on documents. If the delivery point is US, USA, or CAN, these is printed with most document addresses. Again, this is only done for Canadian systems (as determined by the "Canada" system parameter).

Folders

Most settings, beyond the address and general information about the vendor, are found within the folder tabs in the lower half of the form. These folders are "static" meaning they are always shown and not dependent on the Folders (F4) function as folders are in some other areas. For more information about the settings found on the folder tabs, please see the following topics (or use the links listed below):

Codes

Contacts

Attachments

Units of Measure

Totals

Rebates

Options

Deleting, Merging, or Renaming a Vendor

The menu marker offers two (2) options that may be used to remove or change an existing vendor: delete or merge/rename. Access to this menu can be individually disabled for those users who don’t have access to “secure” menus by a system administrator.

Delete Vendor option allows you to permanently remove a vendor under certain circumstances. The reason why a vendor may not be deleted is provided if deletion is attempted and fails. A vendor may not be deleted under the following circumstances:

•The vendor is currently assigned as the pay-to for another vendor.

•The vendor has any activity for either the current or prior year.

•There are open Purchase Order documents associated with the vendor.

If a vendor is deleted, any data older than the prior year will still reference the vendor; however, it is possible that information directly referencing the vendor record on documents, etc. may no longer be available. This depends on whether the data is maintained with the data used to build the document or not. If any errors are produced as a result of a vendor deletion, re-add the vendor code and see if the error is resolved. Information that is directly associated with the vendor such as units of measure and contacts is permanently removed when a vendor is deleted.

The Merge/Rename option allows vendors to be either renamed or merged with another existing vendor. Both of these options modify all occurrences of the vendor code in all tables referencing the vendor in the database (this includes data for past activity). Archived data is maintained in a separate database and not modified, so renaming (or merging and then deleting) vendors may cause issues referencing archived documents for the vendor. The rename option effectively removes the original vendor code if the operation completes successfully. The “merge” option combines the totals for the vendors after the operation completes (modifying the vendor codes in the database) and then disables the “from” vendor. Merging doesn’t immediately remove the original vendor; however, it is possible to then manually delete the vendor after the merge has completed.

We strongly suggest that any type of merge or rename be done outside of regular business activity in order to minimize the chance that the vendor is currently in use. It is possible for merges and renames to affect system performance. Additionally, merge/rename may cause errors if the vendor being changed is in use at the time of processing. There is no undo for merged data. A rename can be reversed by changing the vendor back to its original code. In some cases, it may be a better choice to disable the vendor and create a new vendor code in its place.