Vendor Price Lists

Some Company has different agreement with their vendors, and will negotiate prices on a price list per vendor. This price list will be updated by new prices once or multiple time a year depending on each agreement with their vendors.

From this screen, the vendor has the ability to update the new price lists received by his vendor in advance and specified the effective date of this new price list. As of the effective date, the system will automatically updated all prices enter in the Inventory Maintenance of the items entered in that list, under the Cross-Index tab. As of this date, whenever an item that is on the updated price list is add on a Purchase Order, the system will automatically applied the new price as per the price list.

Reference: This field is required and needs to be generated by the user. The field is alpha-numerical and can have up to 15 characters. This will defined the reference of the new price list.

Therefore, if the user needs to modified anything on this price list (i.e: add a missing item, delete an item, change a price, etc.) - from this same screen the user will only have to recall the reference ID of the price list, or press F1 to have access to all Pending or Updated list already created in this menu. 

Vendor: From this field, the vendor will specified the vendor name associated with the price list enter. The user can either manually type in the vendor number assigned from the Vendor Maintenance - or press F1 to open th search window.

As soon as a Vendor number will be entered in that field, the system will prompt the following window:

The system will give to the user 3 different ways to update the Price List:

•Cross-Index : The cross-index represents the tab in Inventory Maintenance that will display all prices by vendor for each item (please refer to this section for further explanation). Therefore, if the price list of the vendor always include the same products and just give an updated price, the user might want to chose this options. This will recall on the grid all items that has a price related to the selected vendor from the cross-index with the actual price entered. The user will just need to go over that list and updated the prices;

•Another Reference: If selected, this options will give two additional options to the user: selected from a current or an updated reference. Therefore, is there was a list already created in the past for this vendor, the user can select from an existing reference and go over that list to update the prices;

•Nothing: If selected, this means that the user will have to create his own list from nothing and add manually each product or category one at a time. This option might be use if this is the first time a price list is enter for a new vendor - or if the price list is completely different from the old ones already entered in the system.

Description: From this field, the user can customize the name of the list. Therefore, if there is more than one price list saved for the same vendor, it will be easier to look for it later on. This field is alpha-numerical and can go up to 40 characters.

Effective date: As explained above, everything entered from this menu will be updated automatically in the Cross-Index of each product that are showing on the list. The user can enter the price list in advance, and the price will only be updated as of the effective date entered on this field. This define the starting date that the prices are now effective.

Mark down percentage / Mark up percentage: If the list is created from an existing list (i.e created from the Cross-Index or Another Reference) - the user can applied a mark up or mark down percentage above the price of all products that are on this list. This will automatically updated the prices on the list.

Other Function Keys

Add: By clicking on Add, the user has the ability to add an individual item / a category of items / or a category/sequence of items to an existing reference, or to a new list. The user will need to check the appropriate option (Product, Category, Category/Sequence) to define how the products will be import to the price list.

Delete: If an item was add by mistake, or if the user is starting from an existing reference or the cross index - by clicking on delete the user can delete a specific line. To do so, the user will need to first click and highlighted the item that will be deleted - than click on delete.

Delete list: If selected, this will deleted the whole reference.

Vendor Price List Import Mapping

On the bottom of this screen, this menu has an Import function key. This can be use if the list is already created on another source (i.e an Excel Spreadsheet). Instead of typing one item at a time from this menu, the user can import the list directly to this menu.

By clicking on Import - the system will open the following screen where the user will have to map each field of the document imported:

Before doing anything on this menu, the user will either need to:

•Create a Template name: If it is the first time that the user is importing a price list with specific field on it, the user will want to create a new template. This template can be saved in the system and recall anytime the importation tool is used. The template saved will define how the fields are presented on the file imported (i.e: First column is the Product #, Second column is the Price of the Product).

•Recall an existing Template: If the listing that will be imported is already map like a template that is saved in the Vendor Price List Import Mapping menu, from the drop down list the user can selected a saved Template. This will save time to the user because the mapping of each field will not be required unless some changed needs to be done to the existing template.

Importing the file

•The user will need to save the document that will be import to this menu on a specific location on the PC. The location will be specified on the menu just above the Data Files field:

•From the Data file field, the user will be able to import the document. By pressing F1 in this field, the system will open a list of all document save under the location. The user will only have to select the right one from this list.

Mapping the fields 

On the left side of the screen - the user will define each column of the document that will be imported on the grid. There can only be 2 fields import n the Vendor Price List Import Mapping. Because they are all highlighted in red, it means that they are all required to be mapped:

•Product:

•List Price.

If there are additional fields that are showing on the document imported - the user can also select the Ignore Column fields. If selected, the system will skip this column an only imported the one that are mapped.

The user will have to map each column with a Phoenix Vendor Price Fields. To do so, the user needs to click on one of the Phoenix Vendor Price Fields, and use the arrow that pointed to the right side of the menu to drag and drop the field name under the correct fields number.

I.E: On the Price List imported from an Excel Spreadsheet, the first column represents the Product Number, the second column is additional information that can not be mapped from this menu, and the third column is the list price.

The user will first click on the Product field from the Phoenix Vendor Price Fields box - select the arrow that points to the right side of the menu. This will drag and drop the Product fields beside field #1.

The user will than double click on Ignore Column that. This will drag and drop the Ignore Column beside field #2.

The user will finally click on the List Price field from the Phoenix Vendor Price Fields box - select the arrow that points to the right side of the menu. This will drag and drop the List Price beside field #3.

If an error is made - the user can always remove the fields from the right menu (fields) to the left menu (Phoenix Vendor Price fields) by clicking on the fields that is map incorrectly and clicking on the arrow that points to the left side of the menu.

The user can also click on Reset Fields and start all over again.

Other options

Before the file is previewed on the Vendor Price List Import Mapping grid - the user might one to review additional options by selecting Options from the Function keys, or pressing F8.

The following field will show:

•Ignore First Line (column headers): If the file include Header on the first line, this option should be selected. The fields that were map from the previous step will replace these headers. If unchecked and there are headers on the import file, the system will import this line as a regular line and the user might get some errors because the fields do not respect the right Data Format;

•Accept Blank Fields: If the file imported include blank field, the system will import them without showing any error;

•Limit field Size to Phoenix Field Size: All field in Phoenix Software are limited to a certain number of characters. By selecting this option, the system will limit the field size so it matched with Phoenix Field Size. i.e: If the Description of the Product is a very long on the file imported - the product field on the Inventory Maintenance is limited to 60 characters. Therefore, the system will only show the 60 first characters on the preview. This will give a better idea of how the data imported will actually look once it is imported in the system; 

•Delete/ Ignore illegal Characters: If the file include illegal characters such as !@#$%^&*( etc. the system will do a clean up in the file imported if this option is selected;

•Convert all field to UPPERCASE: If everything documented in the system is done as an UPPERCASE as per the Company requests - the use will want to select this option;

•Date format: This might not be applicable for this menu since the Date is not n available field. This option would defined the format date presents on the document so it is imported accurately on the system.

Preview

Once the user is done mapping all fields and selecting the options that are applicable - the user will have to click on Preview or Press F5.

A preview of the listing imported based on everything selected will than show on the bottom portion of the screen.

If the item are imported with a colour - this is a signed that there is an error on the list imported and it needs to be review by the user.

To understand what the error is, the user can either:

1) Positioned is cursor on the New Record field of the item that has a problem, and wait until the system will display a small message that gives further information about the error;

2) Press F9 or click on Legend from the function Keys. The system will then display the following window that gives additional information about the nature of each error based on their colour code:

•New record missing fields: This error means that the field imported was blank. To avoid this type of error, the user should checked the options Accept Blank field before previewing the listing if blank field should be accepted;

•Illegal Character: This error means that the field imported includes some ilelgal characters such as !@#$%^&*() etc. To avoid this error, the user should checked the option Delete/Ignore illegal characters. This will clean up the file before it is previewed;

•Incorrect Size: This error means that the field imported is longer than Phoenix Field size. To avoid this error, the user should checked the option Limit field Size to Phoenix Field Size. The file will than be previewed with the actual Phoenix Size and the user will decide if any changes need to be done so it is imported as needed;

•Ignored: This is not an actual error. This will show if the user selected Ignore Column from the previous mapping. The system will still display this column on the previous but advise the user that this one will be ignored through the importation. The user will then have the whole information and see if the correct column was ignored or not.

Importing

The user can review the preview as long as needed - if the file or the mapping need to be modified before the file is imported in the system - the user can start all over again by clicking on Reset Fields. This will clear everything on this menu (the mapping and the preview as well).

If the preview is review and the file is ready to be imported - the user can either click on import or press F7. 

The following warning will prompt:

If the user clicks on continue - there will be another warning that tells the user that is we go further, this action can not be undone.

Once the importation is finalized, the user will get a summary of everything that was imported - including the options selected and the results of the preview. However, at that point, it is too late to go back because the importation is finalized.