Manage vendors and price contracts

You can manage your vendors in Helm CONNECT, including contact information and custom fields for extra details you want to track. Once you add a vendor, you can do the following:

• In Logs, on the Onboard menu, or in Overview, on the Maintenance menu, you can select the name of the vendor in the New Task or Modify Task windows when you plan a task.
• Throughout Helm CONNECT, if you have a custom field that uses the Vendors data source, you can select the name of the vendor anywhere that custom field appears. This can be useful for tracking or reporting.
• In Requisitions, on both the Onboard and the Maintenance menus, you can select a default vendor for an entire requisition or individual vendors for some of the line items. If you have valid price contracts for the selected vendors, the system will estimate the price of the requisition for you.
• In Reports, on the Reports menu, you can use the Vendor Part Prices data source to build reports about your vendors, including any custom fields that use the Vendors data source.

Manage your vendors

In Parts, on the Setup menu, there are three tabs for managing your vendors:

• Vendors From this tab, you can add new vendors and manage information about existing vendors.
• Vendor Custom Fields From this tab, you can add new custom fields that will be available on the Vendors tab when someone adds or updates information about a vendor. Any custom fields you add for your vendors can also be included in your reports.
• Vendor Custom Fields Configurations From this tab, you can control which custom fields should be hidden or shown on the Vendors tab, and whether or not each one is required when someone adds or updates information about a vendor.

To add a vendor

1. From the Setup menu, select Parts.
2. Click the Vendors tab.
3. Click New Vendor.
4. In the Name field, enter the name for the vendor.
5. To add a contact for the vendor, click Add Contact then complete the Name field and any of the other fields. Repeat this step to add another vendor contact.
6. Do one of the following:
   • To save the vendor, click Save Changes.
   • To discard the vendor, click Discard Changes.

Manage your price contracts

On the Parts tab in Parts, on the Setup menu, you can set up and manage price contracts for any vendors you've already added to the system. Each contract includes an effective date and an optional end date. Although you can have multiple contracts for one vendor on a single part, the dates on those contracts can't overlap.

To add a price contract

1. From the Setup menu, select Parts.
2. Click the Parts tab.
3. From the list, select the part that will be associated with the new contract, then click Edit.
4. Click Add Price Contract.
5. Enter the details:
   1. From the Vendor field, select the vendor this contract is with. This list only includes vendors added on the Vendors tab.
   2. (Optional) Use the Vendor Part Number field to enter the part number the vendor uses for the part.
   3. Use the Price field to enter the price for the part.
   4. Use the Effective Date fields to enter the date and time the price will take effect.
   5. (Optional) Use the End Date fields to enter the date and time the price will end. If you don't include an end date, the contract will remain valid indefinitely.
   6. If applicable, complete the custom fields. These are any custom fields added on the Vendor Custom Fields tab.
6. Do one of the following:
   • To save the contract, click Save Changes.
   • To discard the contract, click Discard Changes.

Report on vendors and price contracts

In Reports, on the Reports menu, you can use the Vendor Parts Prices data source to build reports that include information about the vendors and price contracts you have in the system. For more about reports, please take a look at our online help.