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Creating Vendors

A vendor is an individual or organization from whom you purchase goods and/or services. Ultimately, you pay for these goods or services using accounts payable invoices. If you create a purchase order to purchase the items, you always create a purchase order invoice to the purchasing vendor. If you do not create a purchase order and you are simply purchasing goods and/or services, then you create a vendor invoice to pay for the goods or services. When purchasing non-inventory services, e-automate allows you to identify a general ledger account on the vendor to speed the creation of invoices for the vendor.

You can pay a vendor for goods and/or services via a standard check, or—if both your financial institution and your vendor's financial institution support electronic funds transfers (EFTs)—you can pay via an EFT. For more information on configuring and using EFTs, see the topic, Configuring e-automate for EFT.

You can use the vendor record you create to track your purchases and payments throughout the duration of your relationship with the vendor.

Getting to the TransactionGetting to the Transaction

On the e-automate tool bar, click [Vendors] to open the Vendors window.

Click [ New] to open the New Vendor window.

Basic InformationBasic Information

In the Name field, enter the vendor's name.

In the Number field, make no change to accept the system-generated vendor number, or assign your own number to identify this vendor.

Note: When you enter a value in the Name field, e-automate generates a vendor numbers as follows: If the vendor's name is two or more words in length, the system uses the first letter from the first word and the first letter from the second word in the vendor's name plus two digits that are incremented each time a new vendor number is generated for a vendor for whom the first two letters are the same as an existing vendor's first two letters. For example, e-automate would assign the letters JD to vendor John Doe; if this vendor is the first one to whom e-automate would assign the letters JD, e-automate would assign vendor number JD00. The next vendor with these two letters (e.g., Jane Doe) would be assigned JD01, and so on. If the vendor's name is a single word, the system uses the same process listed above but uses only one letter—the first letter of the first word (e.g., for the first vendor whose one-word name begins with J, the system would assign J00).

Once the customer is created and added, the date the customer was created displays in the Create date field located under the Number field. You may hover your cursor over the Create date for more information.

Verify the Active checkbox is selected.

Address/Contact TabAddress/Contact Tab

Click the Address/Contact tab to bring it forward.

In the Billing area, in the Contact field, use the lookup to select the billing contact associated with this vendor, or click the drop-down menu icon and select [ New] to create a contact. The Name, Phone, Fax, and E-mail fields will automatically populate.

In the Purchasing area, in the Contact field, use the lookup to select the person to contact when purchasing from this vendor, or click the drop-down menu icon and select [ New] to create a contact. The Name, Phone, Fax, and E-mail fields will automatically populate.

In the Address area, complete the following fields as appropriate:

Street: Vendor's street address.

Note: This is the address to which you remit payment. You can add lines in this field by pressing Ctrl + Enter on the keyboard.

City: City where the vendor is located.

State: State or province where the vendor is located.

Zip: Postal or zip code of the vendor.

Country: Country where the vendor is located.

Website: Web address of the vendor.

In the Return area, in the Contact field, use the lookup to select the person to be contacted for returns, or click the Drop-down Menu icon and select [ New] to create a contact.

Order From TabOrder From Tab

Click the Order from tab to bring it forward.

Note: You use the Order From tab for vendors that have one remit to address and multiple locations from which you can order merchandise. You select the appropriate order from vendor when creating a purchase order. If you do not have vendors that fit this description, do not complete the information on this tab.

Click [ New] to open the New Order From Address window.

Complete the following fields as appropriate:

Order from: Number or identifier of the order from.

Description: Description of the order from.

Attention: Name of the person to be responsible for the handling of your purchase associated with the order from.

Street: Street address of the order from.

City: City where the order from is located.

State: State where the order from is located.

Zip: Postal or zip code of the order from.

Country: Country where the order from is located.

Preferred order from: When checked and you use this vendor on a purchase order, e-automate automatically sets the Order from field to be this order from on the Order/Shipping tab.

Active: Verify this box is checked so users will be able to see and use this "order from" address.

Click [OK] to save the information entered in the New Order From Address window to the vendor profile.

Note: You use [ Delete] to delete an order from and [ Edit] to modify an order from.

Miscellaneous TabMiscellaneous Tab

Click the Miscellaneous tab to bring it forward.

In the Account information region, complete the following fields as appropriate:

Account number: Account number assigned to your company by the vendor.

Credit limit: Maximum amount of credit extended to you by the vendor.

Note: Your purchases are monitored by e-automate and identifies when you go over the credit limit.

Unlimited: When checked, this box grants you unlimited vendor credit.

Terms: Typical terms extended to you by the vendor. These terms are populated automatically by e-automate when this vendor is selected. They can be changed on the transaction if necessary.

On Hold Code: When populated, this vendor is on hold with your company for the specified reason.

Ship method: Typical method by which you receive shipments from this vendor.

Fed. Employer ID: Federal Employee Identification number of the vendor.

1099 Required: When checked, specifies that a 1099 form is to be filed for this vendor.

Note: E-automate does not print the 1099 but offers a report in preparation of the 1099.

Order Method: The method used when placing orders.

PO export module: A tool that converts purchase orders into a format that can be exported and sent to the vendor for import.

Note: This functionality is only available for participating vendors and requires setting up a PO export module. For information, see the Setting Miscellaneous Options topic.

In the Defaults for vendor invoices region, do one of the following:

To specify GL Account, Department, and Branch defaults for vendor invoices, do the following:

Select the Account/Department/Branch radio button.

In the GL account field, use the lookup to select the account—if any—the system should list by default in the Account field of the Add Charge window accessed from the New - Vendor Invoice window when entering a vendor invoice from this vendor.

In the Department field, use the lookup to select the department—if any—the system should list by default in the Department field of the Add Charge window accessed from the New - Vendor Invoice window when entering a vendor invoice from this vendor.

In the Branch field, use the lookup to select the branch—if any—the system should list by default in the Branch field of the Add Charge window accessed from the New - Vendor Invoice window when entering a vendor invoice from this vendor.

Note: This field is only displayed when branching is enabled.

To specify a GL Distribution Code default for vendor invoices, do the following:

Select the GL distribution code radio button.

In the GL distribution code field, use the lookup to select the GL distribution code—if any—the system should list by default in the Distribution Code field of the Add Charge window accessed from the New - Vendor Invoice window when entering a vendor invoice from this vendor.

EFT TabEFT Tab

Click the EFT tab to bring it forward.

To pay this vendor by electronic funds transfer (EFT) or automated clearing house (ACH) transaction, check Pay by EFT.

Note: When checked, e-automate activates the fields on the EFT tab.

Note: For an EFT to work, you must first have configured e-automate for use with EFTs.

To indicate a prenote still needs to be sent to your bank to allow your bank to verify the EFT file is set up correctly for paying this vendor by EFT, select the Pending prenote radio button.

Note: A prenote is a zero-dollar entry that precedes the first live entry. The purpose of a prenote is to verify account information is correct. Vendors that have prenotes pending cannot be paid electronically. For information on having the system generate an EFT prenote file that you can send to your financial institution, see the Configuring E-automate for EFT topic's "Creating an EFT Prenote" section.

To indicate this vendor is eligible for EFT payment processing via Pay Vendors as of a specified date, do the following:

Select the Active as of [date] radio button.

In the Active as of [date] field, enter the date on which this EFT account did (or will) become active.

Note: When you use the system to create an EFT file containing a prenote for this vendor (which you must send to the financial institution for processing), the system selects this Active as of [date] radio button and populates the Active as of [date] field with the prenote creation date plus the number of days listed in the Wait the following days after sending pre-note to activate vendor for EFT field on the EFT Options window (which you access by clicking Tools > Options to open the Options window, clicking Accounts Payable to display the Accounts Payable options, and then clicking the [EFT options]... button). For more information, see the Configuring E-automate for EFT topic's "Creating an EFT Prenote" section.

Complete the following fields as appropriate.

Account type: The type of account used by the vendor for EFT transactions.

Account number: Account number of the account to which EFT payments are to be deposited.

Routing number: The routing number of the financial institution used by this vendor for EFT transactions.

Note: This field has a nine-digit validation to verify the authenticity of the routing number.

Name: Name of the contact person at the vendor to be notified when EFT payments are processed for this vendor. This notification includes an e-mail containing the invoices paid by the EFT file.

Phone: Phone number of contact person associated with this vendor’s EFT transactions.

E-mail: E-mail address to which notification is sent when payments are electronically processed in e-automate for this vendor.

BCC: E-mail address to which a blind carbon copy of payment notification is to be sent.

Completing the TransactionCompleting the Transaction

Click [ OK] to save the vendor information.