Vendor Rating Management#

Overview#

Vendor rating is used for classifying and categorizing vendor master data based on transparent standards.

This means that vendor rating supports you in evaluating critical vendor requirements.

The following requirements can be defined:

• Audits
• Adherence to schedules
• Adherence to quantities
• Freely definable rating types

Setup#

Before you can use the Vendor Rating Management app, prepare the system accordingly. This section describes and explains the required setup.

Vendor Rating Setup#

The basic setup for Vendor Rating Management is done in the Vendor Rating Setup card. Open this card via the Tell Me function.

In the Rating Reference Date, you can specify the reference date used for determining adherence to schedules. The following options are available:

1. Promised Receipt Date
   Specifies the date for which the vendor promised delivery of the purchase order line items.
   
   
2. Expected Receipt Date
   Planned Receipt Date + Safety Lead Time + Inbound Whse. Handling Time = Expected Receipt Date
   
   
3. Planned Receipt Date
   Order Date + Vendor Lead Time = Planned Receipt Date

In the Audit No. Series field, you can specify the number series for audits.

Rating types#

You can create various rating types in the system, distinguishing manual and system-defined criteria. System-defined criteria are the criteria for adherence to schedule and quantity, as well as quality.

For each rating type, you can specify rating values. To do so, select the desired rating type and click Rating Values from the ribbon.

You can enter rating points for each rating value. To do so, select the desired rating value and click Rating Points from the ribbon.

Rating Templates#

Using rating templates, it is easy to rate your vendors based on identical criteria. As a prerequisite, you need to define the rating template.

To do so, open Rating Templates card via the Tell Me function. To create a new rating template, click New in the ribbon. The available fields are explained below:

General FastTab#

Rating Types FastTab#

On the Rating Types FastTab, you can add any number of rating types for your rating template. The available fields are explained below:

Classification FastTab#

Vendor Group Ratings#

On the Vendor Group Ratings card, you can group vendors so that rating points can be defined individually for each group.

Open the Vendor Group Ratings card via the Tell Me function. Click New to define a new vendor group, using the fields described below:

Once defined, the vendor rating group can be assigned in the Vendor Group Code field on the Vendor Rating FastTab of the corresponding Vendor Card.

Item Group Ratings#

On the Item Group Ratings card, you can group items so that rating points can be defined individually for each group.

Open the Item Group Ratings card via the Tell Me function. Click New in the ribbon to define a new item group using the following fields:

Once defined, the item rating group can be assigned in the Item Group Code field on the Vendor Rating FastTab of the corresponding Item Card.

Audit Questions#

Audit questions help you define audits in a structured manner. First, open the Audit Questions card via the Tell Me function.

Click New to define a new audit question using the fields described below:

Use the Instructions action to specify more detailed instructions for the corresponding question. These instructions will be copied to the audit templates or audits automatically and help clarify the intention of the interview to be conducted.

Audit Templates#

Audit templates will ease your job when composing an audit for a vendor.

For this purpose, open the Audit Templates card via the Tell Me function. Click the New action to define a new audit template. The available fields are explained below:

General FastTab#

Lines FastTab#

Use the Instructions action on the ribbon to specify more detailed instructions for the corresponding question. These instructions will be copied to the audits automatically and help clarify the intention of the interview to be conducted.

Report Selection - Vendor Rating#

Several reports are available for vendor rating:

• Vendor Rating
• Rating List
• Finished Audits
• Audit

Before you can use these reports, you need to initialize the report selection once. To do so, open the Report Selection - Vendor Rating card via the Tell Me function. Click the Initialize action to initialize the reports. Initialization automatically sets the reports in the report selection.

Item#

Vendor Rating FastTab#

On the Vendor Rating FastTab of the Item Card, you can specify the following vendor rating settings:

Vendor#

Vendor Rating FastTab#

On the Vendor Card, you can specify the following vendor rating settings on the Vendor Rating FastTab:

In addition, this FastTab shows data of the last vendor rating that was performed. For more details, see the Rate a Vendor section.

Vendor Rating#

Automatic vendor rating#

Automatic vendor rating refers to the Quantity, Due Date, and Quality rating criteria. When the system posts a purchase order, it will automatically register the adherence to quantity and schedule (due date), and quality rating criteria.

Manual rating#

The purpose of manual rating is to record soft rating criteria, such as communication, and to include them in vendor rating. Besides automatic rating using the Quantity, Due Date, and Quality rating criteria, you can add manual criteria in all purchase-related documents. This applies to the following documents:

• Purchase Quote
• Purchase Order
• Purchase Invoice
• Purchase Return Order
• Purchase Credit Memo
• Warehouse Receipt

The function can be invoked in an identical manner in all these documents. Select the desired line, open the Lines FastTab, click the Line menu item and select Manual Rating.

As an alternative, you can specify manual vendor rating directly in the associated Vendor Card. To do so, click Actions > Vendor Rating > Manual Rating from the ribbon.

Manual rating includes the following information:

You can enter multiple ratings in this form.

In order to generate vendor rating entries based on manual ratings, you need to post the manual ratings. To do so, invoke the posting function by selecting Actions > Post Manual Rating from the ribbon. When the action is completed, the system displays an acknowledgement message Then, the Manual Rating Entries area of the form will display the generated vendor rating entries.

In the Manual Rating form, you can also cancel a vendor rating entry resulting from manual rating. To do so, click Cancel Manual Rating next to Manual Rating Entries. This opens the Cancel Rating Entries form. For details, please refer to the Canceling Vendor Rating Entries section.

Vendor Rating Entries#

The Vendor Rating Entries page is the central place for vendor rating data. It stores the results of both automatic and manual entry registrations.

Source Document Action#

You can display the source document of each vendor rating entry. The source document is the document that triggered the generation of the vendor rating entry. This includes both manual and system-generated (Quantity, Due Date) ratings.

Reference Document Action#

A vendor rating entry may reference a reference document. In this context, a reference document is considered a purchase order or a purchase return order because links to other documents, such as Warehouse Receipts, Receipts, Invoices, Return Receipts, and Credit Memos, are based on these documents. This means that if a vendor rating was entered, e.g., for a posted purchase receipt, the posted purchase receipt is entered as the source document in the entry. The purchase order, which was the basis for creating the receipt, is then entered as the reference document.

Cancel Rating Entries Action#

It is possible to cancel vendor rating entries. For this purpose, you can use the Cancel Rating Entries action in the Vendor Rating Entries list. When you invoke this action, the selected vendor rating entries are displayed in a separate cancelation document. For details, please refer to the Canceling Vendor Rating Entries section.

Cancel vendor rating entries#

It is possible to cancel vendor rating entries, no matter whether they were generated automatically by the system when you posted a document or whether they were created manually. Canceled vendor rating entries are not taken into account for vendor rating.

Vendor rating entries can be canceled in the following ways:

1. Automatically when canceling a purchase receipt:
When you cancel a posted purchase receipt, the vendor rating entries associated with the corresponding lines are also canceled. You need not do anything.

2. On the Manual Rating form:
The Cancel Manual Rating function is directly available on the Manual Rating form for canceling selected vendor rating entries. To do so, click Cancel Manual Rating next to Manual Rating Entries. This opens the Cancel Rating Entries form, displaying the selected entries. Here, you can cancel these entries after entering a cancelation description.

3. Directly from the Vendor Rating Entries list:
The cancelation function for vendor rating entries is also available in the Vendor Rating Entries list. To cancel entries, select them from the list and then click Actions > Cancel Rating Entries from the ribbon to open the Cancel Rating Entries form. Here, you can cancel these entries after entering a cancelation description (reason for canceling) in the Cancelation Description field.

It is not possible to cancel entries without giving a reason. Then, cancel the vendor rating entries by clicking the Cancel Rating Entries action.

When a vendor rating entry has been canceled, the following fields will be populated:

Rating entries on purchase documents#

Vendor rating entries can not only be displayed on the Vendor Card, but also in the associated purchase documents. This applies to open and posted as well as archived documents. For this purpose, the Vendor Rating Entries action is available on the Lines FastTab.

When you select the Vendor Rating Entries action, the system will show the entries associated with the corresponding document line where this document line has been specified as the source document.

Exceptions are purchase orders and purchase return orders because links to further purchase documents, such as posted purchase receipts or posted purchase invoices, are based on these documents. For these types of documents, vendor rating entries can be displayed in the following ways:

1. Document Rating Entries
Document rating entries are vendor rating entries that are associated directly with the document. Such a direct association exists if the respective document is specified as the the source document in the vendor rating entries.

2. Related Rating Entries
Related rating entries are vendor rating entries that have not been associated directly with the corresponding purchase order / purchase return order, but reference the corresponding purchase order / purchase return order as a reference document. Example: The vendor rating entries for Quantity and Due Date that are associated with a posted purchase receipt (source document), but contain the related purchase order as the reference document. This means that the corresponding entries can be viewed in the corresponding purchase order as Related Rating Entries.

Audit#

Define and perform audits#

Audits are helpful to review and evaluate processes, requirements, and rules using general investigation procedures. This is a method used frequently in quality management. You can define, rate, and document audits of your vendors and use them as proof, if required. Audit rating results yield a possible characteristic for vendor rating.

Open the Audits card via the Tell Me function. To create a new audit, click New in the ribbon. As an alternative, you can create the audit directly from the Vendor Card by clicking Actions > Vendor Rating > Audits from the ribbon.

The fields available on the Audits card are explained below:

General FastTab#

Lines FastTab#

Use the Instructions action on the ribbon to specify more detailed instructions for the corresponding question. These instructions may clarify the intention of the interview to be conducted.

If an answer is given to a question that cannot be accommodated in the Comment field due to its length, click the Audit Comment action to enter it there.

Actions#

Set Template#

The action bar includes the Set Template function. It can be used to add previously created audit templates to the audit so that the questions defined in the template will be used in the audit.

Print#

The Print action (available via Reports) allows you to print the audit questionnaire.

This printout can be forwarded to your vendor, asking them to answer it, or you can use it when conducting the audit. For this reason, neither the points scored nor the comments are included in the printout.

Change Status#

To change the status of your audit, click the Change Status action. The following options are available:

Archived Audits#

Audits with the Completed status are listed in the Archived Audits list. Alternatively, the archive can be invoked directly from the Vendor Card by clicking Related > Vendor Rating > Archived Audits from the ribbon.

Rate a vendor#

Vendor rating can be conducted either by opening the respective Vendor Card and clicking Actions > Vendor Rating > Vendor Rating, or generally by opening the Perform Vendor Rating window via the Tell Me function. If you call the function from the Vendor Card, a filter has been set for this vendor.

The following filter criteria are available on the Vendor Ratings form:

Generated vendor ratings can be viewed later either generally via the Tell Me function by entering Vendor Ratings or, for a particular vendor, by opening the respective Vendor Card and clicking Related > Vendor Rating > Vendor Ratings from the ribbon.

The following fields are available on the Vendor Ratings list:

Vendor Card#

On the Vendor Card, the Vendor Rating FastTab shows the last rating determined for this vendor.

API communication#

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central¹ On-Premise and online provide an API that allows integration with other services. In order to activate the integration using these APIs, some preliminary steps must be performed to enable access to the APIs. For more details, please refer to Enabling APIs for Dynamics 365 Business Central.

KUMAVISION Vendor Rating Management adds multiple endpoints to the standard API in order to enable the integration of the Vendor Rating app.

API resources#

• Rating
• Rating Type
• Rating Entries
• Audit Template
• Audit Template Line
• Audit
• Audit Line
• Archived Audit
• Audit Archive Line