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Global Vendors

Businesses use vendors in order to create purchase orders. A lot of child locations have the same vendors, so to prevent the duplicate work of setting up the same vendors in multiple accounts, you can now create vendors at the parent level and have all the child locations share them. In this article, we will walk through the steps on how to create vendors at the parent level.

Things to know:

  1. Global DB for inventory must be enabled on the parent account. This is controlled by a hidden setting that can only be enabled by the MyTime team. Please contact our Support Team at support@mytime.com
  2. Global vendors are visible on the child account but can only be edited at the parent level
  3. Vendors can be imported from the parent account
  4. The parent account can exclude certain locations from using the vendors
  5. A globe icon will be displayed next to global vendors when logged in at the child level
  6. New child companies created with the template_copier will have only global vendor SKUs. 

Contents

Adding Vendors Manually on the Vendor Profile Page

To manually add a global vendor:

  1. Log in as the parent account owner (franchisor) 
  2. Navigate to Inventory 21584390-fcc625d7e6b7b2004d32eb67940b8c3b.png
  3. Select Vendor Profiles on the left panel 21584463-8c724ca8eb9281b7ea1f584a17f15375.png
  4. Once the page loads, select the Create Vendor button vendorrr.png
  5. Here, you will be able to add the following information:
    • Vendor's name: - Name of the vendor
    • Vendor's Address: Vendor's complete address
    • Vendor's contact information: Vendor's email address and phone number
    • Payment Method: The payment method(s) that will be used to pay the vendor when you submit your purchase orders.
    • Location: Select the child locations where the vendors can be used. If the vendor location is not checked, the vendor will not be available at that location. 
    • Account ID: The account ID associated with the vendor. This is not required. vendd.png
  6. Once you have added all the details, go ahead and save your changes vendor2.png

Importing Vendors on the Vendor Profile Page

Things to know:

  • Inventory Manifest file should not be edited. This file is used internally by MyTime
  • Inventory Vendor CSV file should be completed first, followed by the Inventory Vendors SKU CSV file
  • Do not delete or rearrange any of the columns on the spreadsheet
  • Exported vendor files will include vendor_skus only from that parent level 

To import a vendor:

1. Gather all information about your current inventory vendors together in one place

2. Navigate to Inventory

3. Select Vendor Profiles on the left panel 21584463-8c724ca8eb9281b7ea1f584a17f15375.png

4. Once the page loads, click on the 'Export' link to download the zip file

5. Open the zip file and update the necessary information in the CSV files

An explanation of how to add or modify each row is below

INVENTORY VENDORS CSV FILE

Adding New Vendors

  • vendor_id - This field is required. This is the external ID of the vendor.
  • mytime_vendor_id - The internal MyTime ID of the vendor. This field is provided and
    used only by MyTime for existing vendors. Please ignore.
  • name - This field is required. Enter the name of the vendor
  • phone_number - This field is optional. The phone number of the vendor
  • fax_number - This field is optional. The fax number of the vendor
  • email - This field is optional. The email address of the vendor
  • street_address - This field is optional. The street address of the vendor
  • street_address_2 - This field is optional. The second street address line of the vendor
  • city - This field is optional. The city of the vendor’s address
  • state - This field is optional. The state of the vendor's address
  • country - This field is optional. Two-letter country code e.g. US
  • zip - This field is optional. The zip code of the vendor's address
  • deleted - This field is optional. Indicates if the vendor was deleted. If left blank, it defaults to 0.
    • Enter 1, if a vendor should be deleted (soft delete)
    • Enter 0, if a vendor should not be deleted
    • If a row for an existing vendor is deleted, then no change will be made to that vendor in MyTime

INVENTORY VENDORS SKU CSV FILE

Adding New Vendor SKUs

  • vendor_sku_id - This field is required. This is the external ID of the vendor SKU.
  • mytime_vendor_sku_id - This is the internal MyTime ID of the vendor SKU. It can be
    used to update a vendor SKU already in the system. This field is provided and used only
    by MyTime. If both mytime_vendor_sku_id and vendor_sku_id are provided, the
    importer first matches by vendor_sku_id. If it can't find anything, then it matches by
    mytime_vendor_sku_id.
  • vendor_id - This field is required. This is the external ID of the vendor. If both
    mytime_vendor_id and vendor_id are provided, the importer first matches by vendor_id.
    If it can't find anything, then it matches by mytime_vendor_id.
  • mytime_vendor_id - This is the internal MyTime ID of the vendor. It can be used to
    update a vendor already in the system. This field is provided and used only by MyTime.
    If both mytime_vendor_id and vendor_id are provided, the importer first matches by
    vendor_id. If it can't find anything, then it matches by mytime_vendor_id.
  • sku_name - This field is required. The full name of the SKU.
  • vendor_code - This field is optional. This is the product number this specific vendor
    assigned to the SKU if different from the manufacturer SKU number.
  • cost - This field is required. How much does it cost your business to buy this product
    from the vendor?
  • min_order_quantity - This field is optional. The minimum order quantity the SKU must
    be ordered in when replenishing stock. If no value is entered, it defaults to 0.
  • discontinued - This field is optional. Is the product available for Purchase Order?
    (TRUE or FALSE)
  • deleted - This field is optional. Indicates if the vendor SKU was removed from the
    vendor.
    • If the vendor SKU should be deleted - 1
    • If the vendor SKU should not be deleted - 0

6. Once the files are updated, zip the files (3 in total - inventory manifest, inventory vendor, and inventory vendor SKU)

7. On the All Vendors page, click on 'Import17669965-e9dfb7aac069ef40d9efd8c983bd0d17.png

8. The screen below will appear, select ‘Upload File Here

17670000-1b0128bbd0e2768b6056a139de6dfcbd.png

9. Select the Upload button 17670161-47b74ae66821717c833003f8dbda7415.png

Your vendors are now added and will appear in your Vendor Profile section of MyTime.

 

FAQs

1. If a vendor exists at a child company, but the business wants that vendor to be global, what should they do?

The parent will need to add the vendor after the child company removes the vendor

2. Will/should global vendors be affected by access controls in any way? 

  • For Vendors we have the Manage Inventory Vendors access control, found in the POS section of access controls.
  • For VIEW INVENTORY VENDORS, child staff can only VIEW both global and local vendors and cannot make any edits.
  • For MANAGE ALL VENDORS, child staff can ONLY edit Account ID.

3. Will users be able to add local products to global vendors?

No

4. Can purchase orders be placed at the parent level?

This will not be available for now

5. What can the child company edit in the vendor profile?

  • Account ID
  • Child companies can see which locations are enabled and what payment method, but not edit them
  • Child companies cannot edit or delete products from global vendors

6. When the parent account excludes a location from the global vendor, can that child account still see the vendor in the list? What if the Child location has 3 locations and only one of them is excluded?

If all locations of a child company are excluded, the global vendor will not be displayed to the child company 

7. What if the user is creating a local vendor on a child account that has global inventory, and is using a name that is the same as the vendor name that already exists on the parent but not shared with that child (so the vendor is not shown on the child since none of its locations is selected). 

An error message will be displayed

 

If you have any questions, please contact our Support Team at support@mytime.com

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