CM-E  Enter Vendors

Purpose of Program

Use this program to enter history notes and follow-up codes and dates against vendors.  Unlike AR-A, Enter Customers, and CM-A, Enter Contact Accounts, in which there are two separate files, there is only one vendor file.  CM-E, Enter Vendors, is identical to AP-A  Enter Vendors.  The program is located in both modules for convenience.

Vendor history and follow-up can be used to track vendor quotations, promises, deliveries, etc.  The history notes and follow-up codes are identical in function with those of CM-A  Enter Contact Accounts, but they are kept in separate files so as not to mix customer and sales prospect information with vendor information.

General Program Operation

For details on entering new vendors or changing existing vendor records, see AP-A, Enter Vendors.

Entering History Notes

You can enter history notes of phone conversations and meetings through history notes.  To access history notes for a vendor, press F5 (or click on the Hist button) while the vendor record is on the screen.  You will be asked for your Rep password.

The last note entered is displayed, and the cursor is on a new line ready to enter the next note.  The date defaults to today's date, but can be overridden.  The Rep field defaults to your Rep code (which it knows from the password you entered) and does not require an entry.

The Cd defaults to your personal default history code set up through SM-I-I  Enter Reps and Passwords, if there is one.  The code classifies what type of history your are recording (phone call, sales call, etc.).  The Ev field is assigned by the system and ties together multiple history lines with the same vent?number so they are treated as a block paragraph.

If the history code has been coded to present a phone window through SM-I-C  Enter History Codes, then a pop-up window will appear, which lets you enter the start time, stop time, and actual minutes fields.  These are used to record phone calls for statistical purposes.  If you enter a start time and stop time, the program will automatically calculate the actual minutes.  You can always go back to this window anytime and enter the times after-the-fact.

Enter history notes in the Remarks field.  You can enter as many lines as you wish to record a particular event.  Each line is automatically saved when you press <Enter>.  If you exit the screen before pressing <Enter>, you will lose the last line entered.

To edit existing lines, use your <PageUp> and <PageDn> keys and up and down arrow keys to move the cursor to the line you wish to edit.  Make your changes, press <Enter>, and the changes will be saved.

Entering Vendor Follow-up

Vendor follow-up lets you program in a follow-up code and date that alerts you to perform some form of follow-up activity, such as a return phone call.

To access vendor follow-up, press F6 (or click on the Follow button) while a vendor is on the screen to access the vendor follow-up entry window.  Enter a follow up code or select one from a pop-up window by pressing the F2 key (or clicking on the Lookup button).  Follow up codes allow you to set up different classifications of follow-up so that they are not all mixed  together.  For example, you might have phone follow-ups separated from appointment follow-ups.

Enter the follow-up date and any remarks as to what you are to do for the follow-up event.  Press F10 (or click on the Save button) to save the follow-up record.

To get a listing of follow-ups to be performed, run CM-F-C  Print Vendor Follow-up.  If you are using follow-ups to plan AP payments, you can have follow-ups print on the aging report (AP-I  Print Aging).

You can return to the Enter Vendors screen by pressing the <Esc> key or you can enter additional follow-ups.