What a supplier record controls, and what it only records — transcript

Play this as a presentation — one slide per step, with the same narration. Every word of every step is on this page.

This presentation is for you if you keep GadgetSphere’s supplier records, or you are the one asked why a supplier invoice says what it says. In about eight minutes you will know which supplier details travel onto a document and which are read later, which settings are records rather than rules, and how to load and retire suppliers safely.

Step 1 — Know what an invoice copies, and what it reads later

After this step you will know why changing a supplier does not change last month’s invoices, except in one way. When you pick a supplier on a purchase invoice, BigLedger copies its details onto the document: the name, code, contact details, currency, e-invoice tax number and SST number, and the self-billed flag. Picking a supplier set up in US dollars, such as a Singapore distributor, switches the invoice to US dollars. From then on the invoice keeps its own copy, so correcting the supplier’s address later corrects nothing already raised. The one exception is the accounts receivable and payable type, AR/AP type for short. It is not copied: the posting reads it at that moment, from the Company Linking row for the invoice’s company if there is one, otherwise from the Main tab. So changing the value an invoice reads moves it when it next posts, even an older one posted again.

Reference: Purchase Invoice (Internal) — What the invoice keeps of the supplier, and what it looks up later

Step 2 — Record the terms, and keep the payment calendar yourself

After this step you will know what a supplier’s credit term and credit limit actually do: nothing that stops or dates a document. On a purchase invoice, Credit Terms offers the supplier’s terms, and the terms are stored on the invoice only when Purchaser is filled in. What the invoice never stores is a due date. The Due Date field is switched off, so Overdue Documents never lists a purchase invoice. And nothing reads a supplier’s credit limit, so no purchase order is ever stopped by one. So the payment calendar is yours to keep. Work each invoice’s due date from its transaction date and the terms, and check it against the Payment Voucher’s list of outstanding invoices before each payment run.

Reference: Credit Limits and Payment Terms — Step 5: Do the same for suppliers, knowing it is a record and not a control

Step 3 — Keep the terms list short, and name each rule in words

After this step your terms will say what the supplier actually agreed. Terms and limits are shared records: build them once in the Credit Term Listing and Credit Limit Listing, then attach them to suppliers. To stop the list growing every time somebody is in a hurry, switch on the applet setting that removes the create-new toggle from the pickers, so people may only attach a term that exists. Give each term a name that says the rule in words, such as net thirty days. Do not lean on the End of Month choice: it fills in only some of the numbers, so the arithmetic starts from the transaction date instead. An invoice dated the tenth of March then falls due on the ninth of May, not at the end of April.

Reference: Credit Limits and Payment Terms — Step 1: Build your payment terms

Step 4 — Give replenishment the prices it chooses suppliers by

After this step Stock Replenishment will order from the supplier you expect, at the price you agreed. For each item it reads the item’s supplier pricing links, the same data as the supplier’s Item Pricing tab, ignoring any link to an inactive record or a non-supplier, and takes the highest supplier priority; on a tie, whichever comes first. With no usable link it falls back to the supplier on the item’s last final purchase invoice, and with neither the run fails. The fulfilment line starts at that link’s purchase price and shows its minimum and maximum order quantities; the purchase order takes the Price and Quantity To Approve showing when you generate it. Priority and lead time are set on the item’s entity pricing in Doc Item Maintenance. So give each fast-moving smartphone one clear first-choice supplier, and keep the price on that link current.

Reference: Stock Replenishment Applet — Before you can use it

Step 5 — Predict the price a purchase return starts at

After this step you will know when the supplier’s return pricing option counts. The Main tab offers one: last purchase price, moving average cost, or purchase invoice price. But the Purchase Return applet asks its own setting first. Only when that is left at none does it take the supplier’s option, then the company’s, and finally last purchase price. And it applies only to a line added by hand, where purchase invoice price fills nothing, because there is no invoice to take it from, so you type the price. Lines brought in from the original invoice carry that invoice’s price, which is usually what you want when you send faulty laptops back. So if different suppliers need different return pricing, leave the Purchase Return setting at none and set each supplier.

Reference: Purchase Return (Internal) — Applet settings

Step 6 — Load suppliers in bulk, and retire rather than delete

After this step you can load a hundred suppliers and remove one without losing anything. File Import needs four columns, supplier name, supplier type, currency and AR/AP type, and a column name it does not recognise fails the whole file. If any row fails its checks, the job stops before any supplier is created; read the Checking tab, fix and upload again. File Export is not a full copy: it leaves out the e-invoice tax number, the self-billed flag, SST, tourism tax, industry code and category, so it is no backup of those. When a row’s supplier code matches an existing supplier, a missing column or a blank cell leaves those stored values alone, so a blank cannot clear a field; do that in Supplier Edit. A supplier with an outstanding balance on any active document cannot be deleted. Set it to inactive instead; the documents already raised are untouched.

Reference: Supplier — Bulk load and extract

How the steps fit together

    flowchart TD
  s1["Step 1 — Know what an invoice copies, and what it reads later"]
  s2["Step 2 — Record the terms, and keep the payment calendar yourself"]
  s3["Step 3 — Keep the terms list short, and name each rule in words"]
  s4["Step 4 — Give replenishment the prices it chooses suppliers by"]
  s5["Step 5 — Predict the price a purchase return starts at"]
  s6["Step 6 — Load suppliers in bulk, and retire rather than delete"]
  s1 --> s2
  s2 --> s3
  s3 --> s4
  s4 --> s5
  s5 --> s6
  

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

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