A partner is any company that you do business with, or even, potentially do business with. Partners have an address and other information relating to the terms of business. Partners may have associated personnel.
The partner card can be accessed from any part of the system where a partner is listed. Each partner must have a unique short name that is used for displaying on the screen and for reports designed for use internal to the company. Wherever in the system this short name is shown in the system it is a hyperlink which, when clicked, will open the partner card in a new window. All relevant details for a partner can be viewed and edited from this window, which is called the "Partner card".
A listing of partners can also be found in the various main menus under the name of their normal usage e.g. "Customers" in the sales section and "Suppliers" in the purchase section.
Partners can be members of user-defined "families", and their membership determines if they are customers and/or suppliers etc. It is possible to buy and sell from whichever partner. However partners identified as customers will be presented first when entering a sales order, and similarly for purchasing. Partner addresses can also be linked so that a certain partner may have, for instance, multiple delivery addresses.
Partners can also be in ad-hoc "Groups" and have associated "Activities". These together are the PRM features of the system (Partner Relationship Management). These PRM features can be accessed from the Partner card, but there are additional tools for managing this information in the PRM side menu of the Sales section (not available in standard version).
Work cells may be related to partners if routing is in use. Inventory locations are related to partners in the system.
Partner data is used for inventory locations and material transfers.
Your own company contact information is also recorded as one partner record. This is normally partner 1. This can also be edited from the System settings where more information about the special meaning of this partner is described.
Licensing
The following license modules affect the Partner Card:
| PartnerNet | Person can be added as a user to the PartnerNet system. |
| PRM | Can use the Activities tab to maintain ad-hoc |
| Order tracking details | Customer can be set to see details of their order. Check box for this is on the E-business tab. |
Using the Partner card
The Partner card shows an overview of the partner’s information. The top section of the Partner card shows:
| ID | This is the unique numeric id for the partner. When creating the new partner the next available number will be automatically allocated according to the numbering sequence specified in the Company settings section. |
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| Short name | A unique short name for the partner, maximum 15 characters. This is the name used on screen and for internal reports. |
| Name | The full official name as used on documents such as sales invoices etc. |
| Company phone | The company switchboard. Individual personnel can have phone numbers specified separately. |
The top section also shows the web site, default contact person and phone as links. These are entered in the appropriate places in the Contact info tab and Personnel tab respectively.
The actions of the buttons on the Partner card are as follows:
| Save | It saves any changes made to the data. If it is attempted to close the window without saving, than a message will be shown. |
| New partner | It saves the current partner, closes it and creates a new partner with no data. |
| Copy partner | It creates a new partner by copying the current partner. The "belongs to company" field will be set to the current partner so that the current and copied partners are linked. See below for the meaning of this. |
| Delete partner | It deletes the current partner. Note that a partner cannot be deleted if there have been any activities such as sales or purchase orders. In this case it is recommended to set the status of the partner to "Inactive" if the partner should not be listed in the system any more. |
Contact info tab
The data to be recorded is as follows:
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Address |
Company address as printed on documents. Note that there may be some restrictions on the length of characters in the address transmitted when electronic invoicing is in use. |
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Post code first |
If there is a tick mark in this tick-box, the postcode will be printed before the city instead of being printed after the city. It affects the address fields on the documents. |
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Type |
Defines whether the address is the company main address or one of the other addresses. There are four address types in the system:
An example on a case of more than one address could be a main office as the company main address and a production site as a delivery address. If only one address is created - which means one ID - for a company, its type is naturally a main address. If creating more addresses, create the main address first. |
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Belongs to |
If an address has the type ‘confirm’, ‘delivery’ or ‘invoices’, it must be linked to the company’s main address. To do this, the company’s main address ID is entered in the ‘Belongs to’ field. Either enter the ID or press the action button next to ‘Belongs to’. This will lead to the ‘Choose Company’ page, where you can find the ID using the company name and type as criteria. When you click on the main address, its ID will be recorded as the main address to which this new address belongs. |
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Status |
Company status can be either Active or Inactive. An example of a company that is ‘Inactive’ could be a company that has been closed down. Old addresses are not removed; the company’s status is just changed. This is how old documents etc. will stay correct. |
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Currency |
This specifies the default currency that will be used with this company. The currency will automatically appear on purchase and sales orders. (See Company Information to learn about updating currencies.) |
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Language |
The documents for this partner will be printed out in the selected language, if languages are available. |
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Country code |
Select the country from the list. If the required country is not on the list, the country must be marked as ‘in use’ in the ‘Own Company’ section. |
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VAT number |
VAT number is required for EU customers; otherwise VAT must be added to sales invoices. (Also called GST or tax number according to your system's localisation |
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Business ID |
Official registration number |
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Domicile |
Specify the domicile of your own company and your partners. Your own domicile will appear at the bottom of official documents such as invoices. |
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WWW address |
Company home page. The address can be opened from the link at the top of the form |
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Bank account |
Appears automatically on a purchase invoice after the invoicing company has been selected. |
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Bank account (IBAN) |
Bank account in the IBAN (international) format. |
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SWIFT |
SWIFT or BIC code of the bank (used in international banking) |
Status tab
It shows on screen reports for sales and purchase history, open orders, order history and item history.
| Status graphs | Onscreen graphs of sales and purchase history up to the end of the previous month. |
| Open orders | A drill down report of open sales or purchase orders. |
| Order history | A drill down report of completed sales or purchase orders |
| Item history | List of items that have been bought and sold. |
Reports can be exported to a number of common formats such as PDF or Excel for printing.
Grouping tab
Define to which customer, supplier or other family a company belongs. This defines that the company is a customer, supplier etc. and is shown on the appropriate pick lists. Any company can be a customer and a supplier at the same time.
The options in this grouping are
- Customer family
- "Other" family
- Supplier family
- Subcontractor family
- Manufacturer family
- Prospect family
The options that are used in the menus are defined in ‘Company’ information. Note that the same group of options is used in every grouping menu.
For instance if the partner is a customer, check the "Is customer" box and ensure that an appropriate selection is made for the customer family.
The stock location box will set this partner to be shown as a stock location when Multi location inventory is in use.
The stock availability check box means that any inventory stored at this location will be available for allocation to sales orders in the material planning system. If this box is unchecked, then any inventory at this location will not be available for sales orders, except for sales orders sold directly from this location. In other words the system will rather plan to manufacture additional product than allocate this stock.
Negative stock can be allowed or disallowed at each stock location. When a system is running correctly it is best to not allow negative stock levels as this stops users making logical errors such as issuing materials to work orders before they arrive. However at start up time it can be useful to allow negative stock. Exception to negative stock checking can also be made on individual items.
Sales tab
The sales tab contains the default values for various data fields that are used when this company is selected to a new sales order or sales invoice. In most cases the values are copied to the corresponding fields on the order and can be subsequently changed there. The alternative values of any dropdown lists are generally set in the ‘Company Properties’ page, which can be found via ‘System settings’ from the side menu of the Admin page.
| Automatic text | Sales order text, Sales quotation text and Sales invoice text are standard ‘boilerplate’ text that will automatically appear in sales orders and sales invoices. The text items are defined in the company properties. |
| Sales payment terms | The default payment terms. The number of days in the payment terms is set in the company properties and will be used to set the due date and discount date for the invoice. |
| Sales prices list | The default price list copied to a sales order when this company is selected. Price lists are created in the company settings, and product pricing is set in the Item card. |
| Sales discount | The discount is automatically applied to a new line. Discounts can also be specified by price list item. This is a discount that will apply to all sales to this company. |
| Direct sales price list | The price list used for sales using the Direct sales feature of the system. |
| Direct sales discount | Default discount for sales made using Direct sales. |
| Agreement price list | The price list used by default on new agreements. Requires the Agreements extension. |
| Delivery terms | Typically Incoterms are used (e.g. EXW = Ex works) but it is possible to create user defined terms as well. |
| Delivery methods | It specifies the default carrier or method. |
| Delivery terms location | It is used together with the delivery terms e.g "Ex works Helsinki". |
| Freight paid by | Default value for shipments. The choices are "Shipper" or "Receiver". |
| Invoice type | The default choice of the available invoice formats. |
| Invoice co. | The default invoice company that will be entered to a sales order when this company is selected as the customer. If this is blank then the invoice address will be the same as the customer address. |
| Comm co. | The default commission company that will be entered to a sales order when this company is selected as the customer. If this is blank then the commission address will be the same as the customer address. |
| Comm person | The default person for the commission company. |
| Allow combined invoice | When selected the system will combine multiple deliveries to the same invoice when using the bulk invoicing feature. |
| Default sales account | The default sales account for invoices. The tax code of this account will be used by default when entering sales orders and this account will default to the invoice line when invoices are being created |
| Default receivable account | The default receivable account for sales invoices. If there is only one receivable account this does not need to be set. |
| Factoring agreement | The factoring agreement to be used by default for invoices to this company. Note that a valid factoring connection must be set up on the system for this to have any affect. |
| Main product family | Products (as defined as items) that the company mainly buys, sells or manufactures. When entering a sales order, products from this family will be shown first by default. |
| Project | Default project for new sales orders. |
| Credit limit | Leave blank for no credit limit checking. |
| Cost centre | The default cost centre for orders for this company. |
| Default warranty period in months | Used by the Agreements feature. This overrides the default warranty period set in system settings. |
| Other terms | Text that will be copied to sales order and appear on the confirmation. |
Purchase tab
This tab can be ignored if you are entering data for a customer.
| Purchase order text | Select tandard ‘boilerplate’ text for purchase orders. The text items are defined in the company settings. |
| Purchase payment terms | Default payment terms. The dates for the terms are set in the company settings. |
| Purchase delivery method | Default delivery method. |
| Purchase delivery terms | Typically Incoterms are used but user defined terms may be set. |
| Purchase delivery terms locations | Used together with the delivery terms. E.g. "Ex works Lahti". |
| Default purchase account | Default account for new purchase invoice lines. The tax code of this account will be used by default when entering purchase orders and this account will default to the invoice line when invoices are being created |
| Transport time days | The allowance for transport time used by the system’s planning function when planning purchases for this company. |
| Delivery cost multiplier | The multiplier for calculating the difference between purchase order cost and landed cost. The inventory value of the item is calculated from landed costs. Landed cost multiplier can also be set on a per item basis on the item card and can be changed on the purchase order line and also on the purchase invoice linked to the receipt. |
| Invoice line description | The text that will appear automatically on a new purchase invoice line when that line is created manually (not from linking purchase receipts). When an invoice is registered or activated without any lines, then a single line will be added to the invoice with this text and a quantity of one and a value of the invoice value. This reduces the work in entering minor, miscellaneous invoices. |
| Purchase Discount | The discount entered is automatically applied to a new line in a purchase order connected to this company. This discount will apply to all purchases from this company. (Individual discounts can be specified in a purchase order.) |
| Confirmation by (days) | The number of days that pass before the supplier is sent a reminder that a purchase order is not confirmed. This setting only applies to suppliers that are configured to use the optional PartnerNet system. |
E-business tab
EDI data is only used if some EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) system is integrated to your account. By default there are no such systems configured.
| EDI identifier | The identifier for your company in this partner’s computer system. |
| EDI method | The method used for electronic data interchange with this partner. |
| E-invoice | Select PDF by email in order to automatically send sales invoices to the customer when an invoice is activated. |
| E-Invoice identifier | Identifier used for electronic invoicing if an electronic invoice system is integrated (Scandinavia only) |
| Customers can see the detailed situation of their sales orders | When order tracking is enabled in the Company section and also the Order tracking details extension is licensed then this customer can see a detailed manufacturing status of their orders. If not checked, then the customer can see only basic information of their orders. |
Relationships tab
Purchase planning, especially automatic purchase planning benefits if there is a link between a supplier and the manufacturers that it represents. If a formal quality system is in place than this link marks approved suppliers for a certain manufacturer.
It is possible to mark a supplier as preferred for a certain manufacturer. This information is used by the optional automatic purchase planning system.
Depending whether you are working with a supplier or manufacturer, press the appropriate button to add and remove companies from the list of linked partners.
Note that a partner is defined as a supplier or a manufacturer by having a non-blank partner family specified in the appropriate field on the Grouping tab.
The screen also shows a list of all related addresses as set in the Contact info tab "Belongs to company" field.
The OEM manufacturer box sets this supplier to be, or appear to be, the manufacturer of the goods it supplies. So the supplier is automatically an approved supplier for its own goods. Use this for buying subcontract parts or if you wish to use the suppliers part numbers instead of a separate manufacturer's part numbers.
Personnel tab
It is possible to create and link personnel to a partner. When creating an order it is possible to specify the contact person at the company. Their contact details will be included in the system.
Press Add on the Personnel tab. Give the new contact person a short name (ID) that will be used for retrieving the person from the system. Typically the person's first name is used. Enter the actual name and contact information.
Select one contact person as the default contact person by checking the box ‘Default contact’.
If the box ‘Email automatically’ in the contact person’s information is checked, the (subcontractor) contact person will automatically receive via email:
- A copy of a purchase order where the goods are delivered directly to the subcontractor
- A copy of a sales order that is delivered directly from the subcontractor.
In other cases checking this box only prefills the email check box for this person when producing a sales order or purchase order confirmation, but it does not send the report automatically.
The email address of a contact must be unique to all partners of type "Main" (so a person can’t be repeated in a delivery or invoice address for instance).
It is possible for a person to be a member of a group as well as a company. Add and delete a person from a group on this screen. Add and delete a company from a group on the Grouping tab.
If a person can access the optional PartnerNet system, then check the appropriate user rights and press Save. The person will receive an email inviting them to access PartnerNet together with the log in credentials. The log in name for PartnerNet is the email address of the person as specified here. See the separate user manual for PartnerNet for further details.
Activities tab
It is possible to add an ad-hoc Activity to a company from the Partner Card and also from many other places in the system where there is an Activities tab. An Activity is a free text note that is associated with a partner and optionally with a person of that partner. The note can also be associated with a certain order or other activity in the system, for example a sales order, but in that case would need to be created from the Activities tab on the particular sales order.
The partner card shows the list of all Activities associated with this partner, regardless if there is a link to an order or not.
Certain Activities will be inserted automatically by PartnerNet. See the separate user manual for PartnerNet for further details.