Supplier References

When printing purchase orders, any supplier's references can be printed on the order alongside or instead of your codes. This makes things a lot easier for your suppliers and tends to reduce errors and misunderstandings.

These references are your supplier's internal codes for the items you are purchasing.

When printing orders, you can elect to show your code, your supplier's code (reference) or both (if they are different)

GTINs (Global Trade Identification Numbers)

Supplier References may or may not be GTINs which are 14 digit international identification codes usually assigned to manufacturers and retained down the supply chain of distributors, wholesalers, retailers and finally consumers.

Once an item changes or forms a part of a larger assembly, the existing GTIN(s) become irrelevant and are replaced by another reference (which may itself be another GTIN)

In a project based enterprise such as house building it is highly unlikely that you would assign a GTIN to your finished product as they are all different and relatively few in number and your clientele would not have the expertise or motivation to use them. However, your more sophisticated suppliers will and they have a vested interest in receiving your purchase orders quoting their GTINs.

These supplier GTINs are largely invisible to the Databuild user. They are imported into your system directly when bringing in data from your suppliers

Ambiguous Supplier's References

In most cases, there is a simple one to one relationship between your codes and theirs.

However in some situations, your supplier may have many codes to your one.

To allow this, check Multiple Supplier References in Suppliers / Details

The system handles this by having multiple lines in the Supplier's Prices grid.

To select the correct item, the system uses the comments field to try to match up comments with the item's workup text.

When pricing an item using Supplier's Prices (such as when processing purchase orders), the system

The system then writes the comments to the head of the workup text so that the next time the routine is run a match will be made automatically

For instance, in the example above if "white LH" appeared anywhere in your workup text, the system would select "CVanWL" as your suppliers code

Care should be taken to ensure that all comments on a particular item are mutually exclusive.For instance, do NOT have "Yellow" and "Yellow LH" on the same item as the system might match "Yellow" incorrectly with "Yellow LH" in the workup text.

The comments fields can be imported from suppliers, or automatically generated by comparing differences between supplier's descriptions using SPLAT

Scan for Ambiguous References

The above screen appears when you are actually producing purchase orders. However,prior to producing orders, you can scan all the unlogged orders on a job.

This is done by selecting the Actions / Scan for Ambiguous Supplier References menu in either Orders or Bill of Quantities

This routine has the added bonus of being able to split one item into several. Since your supplier will only be able to accept a single reference for an item (especially if using electronic ordering), you need to separate your single item into separate items, each with a different reference.

This screen is similar to the one above, except that it also shows quantities and workup.

To select Reference(s), enter quantities in the quantity grid column ( or double click here to set the quantity to match total required.

Any workup can also be copied or cut from the workup area and pasted in the workup area of any reference row.

If more than one reference is selected, additional items will be created when you press the button