Purchasing#

Purchase order types and payment terms#

Purchase order types can optionally be provided with payment terms. If the corresponding purchase order type has been selected in the transaction, these terms of payment override the terms of payment stored in the vendor's master data.

To store terms of payment for a purchase order type, call up the "Purchase order types" via the user search.

Via "New" in the menu ribbon, you can create a new purchase order type or edit an existing purchase order type via "Edit list".

In the field "Zlg. condition code" you can deposit a payment condition to the respective purchase order type.

Create article reference from shopping line#

Suppliers usually use their own article numbers in their price lists. These supplier article numbers can be used in the field "reference number" during order entry, provided that they are maintained in the article or vendor master in the article references.

To make the master data maintenance easier for you, these reference numbers can be maintained or created in KUMAVISION trade365 from the purchase line.

Establishment#

To use this function, activate the "Insert article reference record" button on the "KUMAVISION trade" info tab in the "Accounts Payable & Purchasing Setup".

Procedure#

A purchase line is recorded with the following fields:

The system now automatically creates a reference entry for this article and this vendor.

If there is already a reference entry in the system for the combination of article and vendor, you will be prompted whether the existing reference entry should be overwritten.

If you confirm this message with "Yes", the existing reference entry will be overwritten. If you select "No", the process is canceled and the entered number is not saved in the article references.  

Extension for direct delivery / special order#

In Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™ Standard, direct delivery purchase orders and orders are firmly linked. This means that once an order has been created, it is no longer possible to make changes with regard to deviating quantities, units or changed item numbers.

Especially in the retail environment with daily changing articles or critical availability times, this circumstance is not feasible, because e.g. an article was ordered, but another article is delivered by the supplier as a replacement.

With this enhancement it is possible to modify purchase orders that were created as direct deliveries for orders. As well as to delete orders, which were created as direct deliveries, again.

The following extensions were made:

• Exchange of articles (ordered was article A1, manufacturer can deliver however only article A2).
• Quantity change (ordered 5 pieces of article A1, manufacturer can deliver however only 3 pieces or supplies 6 pieces).
• Delete link (order was entered as direct delivery, but manufacturer does not deliver the goods to the customer, but to the house).
• Posting the sales invoice before the purchase invoice.

Exchange / change of article, quantity and unit code#

To exchange an item in a direct delivery order or to make changes to the quantity / unit code, first call up the purchase order in the system.

Make the changes in the corresponding order line. After entering a different article number or changing the quantity / unit codes, the system will ask you if you want to update the changes in the corresponding sales order. Confirm the query with "Yes".

The change is executed. The link between the sales order line and the order line remains intact.

When the order is deleted, the referencing is removed from the order line so that the order can be processed further as a "normal order" or a new direct delivery order can be created.  

Delete "Direct delivery" or "Special order" link from the order#

In the purchase order, the referencing of the direct delivery and special order to the sales line can be deleted.

To do this, first call up the purchase order in the system.

Then select the desired order line and choose "Lines" > "Order" > "Direct delivery" or "Special order" in the info tab and then execute the "Remove direct delivery link / special order link" function.

When these menu items are called, the corresponding link of the order line currently selected in the order to a sales line is deleted, there is then no direct delivery link or special order link between the order line and the sales order line, the documents can continue to be processed as "normal" order line and sales order line

Archiving reasons purchasing documents#

Purchasing documents can be archived for different reasons, the origin of this archive record is not documented in the standard. By using KUMAVISION trade365, the system-side archiving reasons are automatically documented in the respective archive version.

Archiving reasons for requests:

• Manual
• Delete
• Print
• Request after order

Archiving reasons for purchase orders/purchase complaints:

• Manual
• Delete
• Print
• Booking

Archiving reasons for blanket orders:

• Manual
• Delete
• Print  

Marking sale items in purchase#

Sales articles are articles that are being discontinued from the product range. They can either be articles that are no longer reordered by the company or articles that are no longer supplied by the supplier. By using this indicator, purchasing employees are informed in the ordering process that this order may no longer be fulfilled by the supplier.

Articles or only individual article variants can be marked for sale.

To mark an article or an article variant as a sell-off article, first call up the desired article card.

On the "Article" info tab, you can mark the article accordingly by activating the "For sale" button.

Alternatively, you can mark each variant by checking the "For sale" checkbox for the corresponding variant.

When entering an article marked for sale in a purchase request/order, users will receive a notice that this is just such an article.

The order or request can be processed by default, as this is only a message. The planned receipt is also displayed in the availability overview of the article.

Minimum order quantity and purchase lot size#

If you are working with the "purchase order worksheets" function, the lot sizes in which an item can be purchased can be controlled on the item card or in the inventory data. However, if an item is ordered from multiple vendors and their minimum order quantity and purchase lot size is different, this cannot be mapped in the standard Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™. In addition, if the minimum lot size is entered, no information is provided to users if they enter a manual purchase order for this item. This is solved in KUMAVISION trade365 by the function of minimum order quantity and purchase lot size per supplier.

Basically, when working with minimum order quantity, purchase lot size and stock/receipt lot size, these sizes have to be maintained in dependency of each other. The minimum order quantity must always be a multiple of the purchase lot size. If you also work with the stock/receipt lot size, this must correspond to the purchase lot size or the minimum lot size.

Minimum order quantity#

The minimum order quantity is used in the article/supplier catalog to control per supplier how large the smallest quantity to be ordered must be. If, for example, the supplier requires a minimum purchase quantity of 1,000 pieces, 1,000 is entered here.

The minimum order quantity has no effect on the order worksheets. The order worksheet is controlled by the field "min. Lot size". However, the order worksheet will check if there is a minimum order quantity for this vendor if:

• manually the "quantity" field is entered.
• manually the vendor number is entered.

The system will issue a warning message accordingly. This message is a warning message, not a cancellation message. I.e. a smaller quantity than the minimum order quantity can be ordered. If the smaller quantity is ordered from the order worksheet, no further message appears.

The check for the minimum order quantity is also performed when an order is entered manually. Here it is checked if

• The Quantity field is entered
• The field Variant code is entered (even if the article with variant obligation is entered via the matrix window).
• The reference number is entered
• The unit is entered.

The minimum order quantity of the supplier is also checked when a purchase order is called off from a blanket purchase order.

Purchasing lot size#

The purchasing lot size is the same as the "Inventory/Receipt Lot Size" field on the item card. However, it controls the purchasing lot size per vendor. It has no effect in the calculation of the purchase order worksheet. This is calculated based on the default "min. Lot size" field. The basic application is the same as the setting in the "Warehouse setup". More detailed information can be found here.

If the vendor is changed in the purchase order/planning worksheet and the quantity in the worksheet row does not match the inventory and acceptance lot size, users will receive a message and can decide whether to round up or down. If a purchase order is subsequently created for such a worksheet line, it is recommended to set the planning flexibility to "none" when doing so, in order to exclude the possibility that a recalculation in the event of over-coverage will not suggest a change to this purchase order.

If a purchase order is entered manually, or the purchase order worksheet line is changed manually in the "Quantity" field, users will be asked if they want to round up or down to the next larger inventory and purchase lot size.

This allows only a quantity that is a multiple of the inventory and purchase lot size to be entered and ordered.

When entering an article with stock and purchase lot size in a blanket purchase order, there is only a message indicating that the quantity does not correspond to the stock and purchase lot size. However, when the "Quantity current delivery" is called off from a blanket purchase order in a purchase order, the check is performed again. If the "Quantity of current delivery" does not correspond to a multiple of the stock and purchase lot size, a termination occurs and the purchase order cannot be created. If the "Quantity of current delivery" is entered manually, the Round to stock and purchase lot size window appears again and you can round up or down.

Display of volume and weight per vendor in the order worksheet#

To better plan the purchase of items from the purchase order/planning worksheet, you can display the total volume and total weight planned in the purchase order/planning worksheet for each vendor.

To do this, select a row in the purchase order/planning worksheet. The values are determined for the vendor stored in the line. By clicking on "Volume / Weight (Vendor)" in the menu ribbon, the system calculates the volume and net weight of the goods to be ordered using all the lines in the order/planning worksheet and displays the values.

Statistics on-time delivery#

The on-time delivery performance of suppliers can be evaluated. Optionally, the data "desired date of receipt of goods", "confirmed date of receipt of goods" or "expected date of receipt of goods" can be defined as basis for the evaluation. The setting which date should be evaluated is done in the "Accounts Payable & Purchasing Setup" on the info tab "KUMAVISION trade".

The evaluation table is opened directly on the respective vendor via the call "Delivery date adherence". The table shows the number of deliveries by "week" or "day" (selectable).

It can be selected in which time horizon the deliveries should be considered, i.e. how much deviation should be considered in the evaluation.

All deliveries that are not in the time frame are displayed as before or after.

Order worksheet without date reference#

The purchase order worksheet in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™ Standard always calculates the items to be ordered at the correct time (as late as possible) based on the demand originator and the demand creator. This leads especially in case of postponements to cancellation suggestions and new orders based on the correct demand date. In retail, the Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™ proposal with strict date reference often cannot always be implemented effectively.

For customers who can no longer reorder goods once they have been ordered and for whose requirements in purchasing it is sufficient to have goods orders suggested and, after the order has been triggered, to simply see the ordered quantity as the requirement cover, without reference to goods issue and goods receipt data shifts, there is therefore an addition in the order worksheet in KUMAVISION trade365.

In the order worksheet, the "Simplified plan calculation" can now be called and executed via the menu ribbon.

Calculation of the order quantities with the simplified plan calculation#

In general, all requirement quantities are totaled, as are all requirement coverages. Requirement sources of the simplified plan calculation are the same as in the normal order worksheet, i.e. also minimum stock and safety stock messages.

The planning period is always start date to end date. If in this period the total requirement is larger than the requirement coverage, an order worksheet line is created with order date = work date.

The following replenishment procedures are supported:

• Fixed order quantity
• Replenishment to maximum stock
• Lot-by-lot

Replenishment parameters from the inventory data have priority over the replenishment parameters of the article card analogous to the standard order worksheet.

In addition, open (unreleased) sales or purchasing documents can be excluded for the calculation of the purchase order worksheet.

Process Simplified plan calculation#

Call up the planning run as described above from the order worksheet.

This opens the options page, where the desired planning parameters are entered:

Options tab:

In the "Articles" tab, individual articles or article groups can be filtered for planning analogous to standard planning.

When planning, the storage location filter must always be set.

As a result, users receive a filled order worksheet. From here, as in the standard, it can be decided which default lines will be ordered.  

Minimum order value and freight limits in purchasing#

For the wholesale trade an optimization of the order costs is mandatory. In KUMAVISION trade365 it is possible to consider the minimum order values and freight allowances of the suppliers in the ordering process.

To define a minimum order value or freight limit for your supplier, call up the desired vendor card.

On the "Delivery" info tab, enter the desired amounts in the "Minimum order value" or "Freight allowance" fields. The specification of the two fields at the vendor always refers to the currency of the vendor.

The values entered here are displayed in the order statistics and in the order/planning worksheets, but do not cause the process to be aborted.

Order statistics#

In an order, you can view the order statistics in the ribbon > "Order" > "Statistics".

In the "Vendor" info tab, the two fields "Minimum order value" and "Freight allowance" are included. Thus, this information can be viewed directly in the order creation process. The display of the two fields "Minimum order value" and "Freight limit" in the order statistics in the info tab "Vendor" is always done in the currency of the vendor, regardless of which currency the purchasing document currently has.

Order worksheet#

In the order/planning worksheet, below the proposal sheet, you will also see the minimum order values and freight limits (if any) of the vendor.

In addition, the amount already planned by the respective vendor is displayed in this order/planning worksheet in the "Vendor order value" field.

When an entered purchase order is released, the values are checked against the freight allowance and the minimum order value. If the values fall below these limits, a corresponding message is displayed.

When releasing an order, a check of the order value against the minimum order value only occurs if the currency of the order is the same as the currency of the vendor.

Users can decide at this point whether the order should be released anyway.

The minimum order value, which is stored at the vendor, is compared with the net or gross value of the order lines, depending on the setting of the switch "EK prices incl. VAT". If this switch is set, the system compares with the value including VAT of the order line and determines whether the minimum order value is reached. Therefore, when the order is released, a check is only made if this switch is the same as the switch of the vendor for the order to be released.

In the purchase order worksheet, the purchase prices are recorded accordingly. In the order worksheet line there is no field "line amount". Here the "Line amount" is added, which would result from the fields "Quantity", "EK price" and "Line discount %". In the case of EK price incl. VAT = Yes, the VAT amount to be expected in an order is added per line.  

If "Purchase from vendor" and "Payment to vendor" differ, the settings of "Purchase from vendor" will be taken into account for the check.

Manual assignment of blanket order#

If a purchase order is entered manually, users can also transfer the conditions of the blanket purchase order by assigning the blanket purchase order line in the purchase order. To do this, the relevant framework order number is entered in the "Framework order no."/"Framework order line no." column in the purchase line. Users are prompted whether the purchase price and the percentage line discount are to be transferred from the blanket purchase order line.

If confirmed with "Yes", the corresponding conditions will be transferred. If confirmed with "No", the price of this line will be kept as in the purchase order.

Time limitation of blanket orders#

The standard limitation of the quantity of blanket orders by KUMAVISION trade365 can also be limited in time. A time limit was added so that after the expiration of the validity, the conditions of the blanket order can no longer be used.

In the blanket purchase order card, the validity of the blanket purchase order can be entered in the "Valid until" field. If the field is not filled, the blanket purchase order is considered to be valid for an unlimited period of time.

Frame order Remaining quantity#

In the standard system, the blanket purchase orders show the remaining quantity to be delivered. What is not directly visible to the user is the quantity from the blanket purchase order that has already been called off in a purchase order but has not yet been delivered. For this purpose, the blanket purchase order lines have been extended by the fields "Quantity in purchase order" and "Remaining quantity less purchase order".  

Container management#

In overseas business, the ordered goods are usually delivered by ship or air freight in containers. The delivered containers often contain various partial deliveries from several orders.

Suppliers are invoiced by the container, as payment is usually due when the container is loaded onto the ship, i.e. when the risk is transferred.

The compilation of the individual partial deliveries by container takes place several times during the handling of the business process in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™, e.g. when goods are received on board, when they are transferred to the bonded warehouse, when invoices are issued, when surcharges for customs and freight charges are distributed. To simplify these processes, container management is integrated in KUMAVISION trade365.

Container plant#

First, containers are created with the container number. To do this, call up the "Containers" via the user search. Via "New" in the menu ribbon you can define a new container with the help of the table below.

In the list of containers it is possible to branch to the documents in which this container number is used. Containers can be displayed in

• Orders
• Goods receipts
• Post. purchase deliveries
• Stock transfer orders

be used.  

Container in orders#

Containers can already be assigned in a purchase order at header or row level. This procedure simplifies the later creation of a goods receipt consisting of different purchase orders.

To assign a container to a purchase order at the header level, first call up the desired purchase order. On the "General" info tab, you have the option of assigning a container to the purchase order in the "Container no." field.

If the container is already stored in the order header, it can be automatically entered on all lines of the order if the query is answered with Yes. This query appears only if lines are already included.

When entering the lines, the container number is automatically transferred from the header to the lines. In the order lines the container numbers can be changed manually if this goods is packed in another container.

Create goods receipt for container#

Manual assignment#

If the container number is not yet maintained in an order, it can be assigned via the goods receipt. For this purpose, a goods receipt is created, the container number is entered in the header and the order lines are retrieved via the available functions Get origin document or Get origin document lines.

The container number from the header is automatically transferred to the lines. When the goods receipt is posted, the container number at line level is also transferred to the posted delivery lines and is thus available for further processing.

Retrieve container to a goods receipt#

As an alternative to manual assignment, by maintaining the container number in the order lines or order header, you can filter on this when executing the Get origin document or line function.

Create transfer order for container#

To create the transfer order from the warehouse at the port to the customs warehouse or even the final warehouse, the necessary transfer order can be created for the Create transfer order function in the container list.

First, a page opens where both storage locations (the departure and the arrival storage location) and the transit storage location for this stock transfer are specified. By clicking OK the stock transfer order is created.

This can be accessed via the lookup on the number of stock transfer order lines.

The external document number from the container is transferred and all posted goods receipts to the issue warehouse with this container number are transferred to the stock transfer order lines.

When posting the stock transfer, the container number is transferred to the respective posted documents.

Alternatively, the stock transfer order can be created manually and the Get Container function will retrieve all purchase delivery entries for this container number.

As an alternative to the container number, the purchase order number or the vendor delivery note number can also be used to retrieve the containers.  

Retrieve container in purchase invoices#

To retrieve deliveries from a container into a purchase invoice of the supplier, a new purchase invoice is created and the function Get goods receipt lines is used to branch to the posted deliveries. Here it is then possible to filter on the container number.

Allocation of addition/deduction for containers#

If a customs invoice or a freight invoice is subsequently posted, the costs of which are to be allocated to the delivery from a container, then the container number can also be filtered in the allocation of surcharges/deductions.

Country of origin in item#

If goods are purchased in different countries, the indication of the country of origin on the article card alone is not sufficient. It must be possible to store this information specifically for each goods receipt at the article item. If you want to work with one article (one article number) and several countries of origin at the same time, it is mandatory to work with serial / or batch numbers and the corresponding information cards for the unique assignment.

In order to use the function of storing countries of origin in the serial or batch information cards, this must be activated once in the "Warehouse setup".

To do this, call up the "Warehouse setup" via the user search. On the info tab "KUMAVISION trade" activate the checkbox "Country of origin per serial no./batch".

In the goods receipt document the serial or batch numbers are entered as usual. The field "Country of origin" will be preset from the article card and can be changed if necessary.

The goods receipt is posted. In the article items of the article, the countries of origin are now specifically stored per serial number/batch number.

If required, the article item information can be accessed in reports or evaluations. Furthermore, the information is taken into account in the Intrastat report.

If the item tracking is called up from the order document and the "Country of origin" field is not updated, the data can be displayed according to the posting in the goods receipt using the "Update country of origin" function.

Vendors delivery bill no. in delivery lines#

To improve the management of purchasing deliveries, the field "Credit delivery no." has been added to the purchasing delivery lines. If a delivery is posted in the goods receipt, the credit delivery number is transferred from the corresponding field in the order header or goods receipt header to the posted delivery at line level.

The credit delivery number is also available when calling up goods receipt lines in purchase invoices, so that the assignment of the vendor delivery to a vendor invoice is simplified.

Range planning#

The classic minimum stock planning is sufficient for the retail customer in most cases. However, due to the usually very large article masters, it is almost impossible to permanently maintain this MRP parameter. The range of coverage planning functionality calculates the average consumption per day for a defined period. This value multiplied with the procurement time is then suggested again as minimum stock for the article. I.e. on rising or declining sales of articles "automatically" in the Dispo is taken into account.

The prerequisite for this is that a so-called weighting scheme is stored for the article, in which the date formulas for the reference periods are stored with percentage weighting. The basis for the calculations of the range of coverage planning are the article items with the item type "sales" and "consumption".

The weighting scheme can be stored on the following levels and in this prioritization:

• Article category
• Article
• Stock data

Setup weight scheme:#

The weight scheme is used to calculate the weighted "consumption" of an item in the "Items" table. Here we understand the "consumption" of the item as the sum of its items of the item type "Sales", "Assembly consumption" or the item type "Consumption" in production. The consumption of the item can be calculated in different time periods, which are defined in the rows of the weight scheme. Variable periods (Date formula) or fixed periods (Fixed date) can be defined. In the case of the former, date formulas are specified for the start and end of a period, and in the case of the latter, concrete start and end dates are specified. The weighting of the individual periods can be different for each period. It is specified in the "Weighting %" field. The sum of the field over all lines of the weighting scheme must be 100%.

To create a new weighting scheme, call up the "Weighting scheme overview" via the user search. Via "New" in the menu ribbon you can define a new weighting scheme with the help of the table below:  

"General" information tab#

"Weighting scheme lines subform" info tab#

A period or several periods with different weightings can now be entered in the rows of the scheme.

Assignment weight scheme#

The weighting scheme can be stored at the following levels and in this prioritization:

• Article category
• Article
• Stock data

Article category#

Call up the article categories via the user search. In the desired article category, you have the option of storing the weight scheme via the "Consumption weight scheme code" field.

Article#

Call up the articles via the user search. On the desired article card, you have the option of storing the weight scheme on the "Planning" info tab via the "Consumption weight scheme code" field.

Stock data#

In the inventory data of the item on the info tab "Planning" via the field "Consumption weight scheme code" the possibility to store the weight scheme.

Range Planning Procedure:#

Range planning is carried out in the article Planning parameter proposal. You can call this up via the user search. This is a book sheet. As with other book sheets, any number of book sheet names can be created for different filling runs.

In the book sheet the data of the article are shown with or without special data for variants or storage locations. The "Calculate rows" report in the ribbon is used for filling.

The filling run passes through all articles (filtered by the user, if applicable). The user has the option of first transferring all the data to the book sheet, editing it there and then transferring the edited data to the database. One or more book sheet rows are created per article, depending on the setting in the options part of the report.

The following logic is used to determine the data when filling the book sheet and the weight scheme of a book sheet line determined in the process:

Priority 1:

Have the article and the stockkeeping data equally.

If a concrete data record from the stockkeeping data exists for the article and the specifications for the used storage location filter and article variant filter of the book sheet line, the weighting scheme assigned to the stockkeeping scheme is determined.

If no applicable stockkeeping data exists or no weighting scheme is assigned there, the weighting scheme assigned to the article is used.

The determination of stockkeeping data, if they exist at all, can therefore only be successful if the storage location filter used contains exactly the code of one storage location and not, for example, a filter of several storage locations.

The same applies to the article variants in analogy.

The "Stock data available" field of the book sheet also shows this. If in this way a weight scheme is already determined either from the article or from the stockkeeping data, this weight scheme will be used.

Priority 2:

If no weighting scheme is assigned to the article or the stock data, the next step is to check the article category that may be assigned to the article.

If no weighting scheme has been determined in this way for a concrete book sheet line, the book sheet line will not be inserted into the book sheet during filling, because no range can be determined for the data of the book sheet line without a weighting scheme.

The calculation determines the "Calculated consumption per day" using the weighting scheme and the periods defined in it. Taking into account the "Reference date" (this comes from the field of the same name from the options part of the calculation report) results in a range (date) of the determined stock.

Users can also view the calculation of the "Calculated consumption per day" in detail for checking purposes. To do so, they either click on the drill-down arrow of the field itself or on button Line - Range of coverage calculation in the menu ribbon. A corresponding diagram appears for display.

In addition to the range calculation with current stock and weighted consumption, the Parameter suggestion article also suggests new planning parameters based on these values. These can be edited in order to manually enter deviating data, if necessary. In addition, the old planning parameters, which have been transferred from the master data, are displayed in read-only mode.

The logic of how the new parameters are calculated from the old parameters is as follows:

• The new safety stock is the same as the old safety stock with the following exception:
  In the event that the "Lime. Consumption per day" of the book sheet line is <= 0 and the user has ticked the "Clear safety stock at 0 consumption" checkbox in the options part of the fill run, then the New Safety Stock = 0.

• The new minimum stock level is equal to the new safety stock level plus the consumption that results from the "Calc. Consumption per day" in the period Procurement time + safety margin procurement time.

The new maximum stock level is equal to the new minimum stock level plus the consumption resulting from the "calculated consumption per day" in the time span procurement time + safety margin procurement time. Consumption per day" in the time span order cycle results.

When filling the book sheet, there is a possibility to include in the book sheet only those lines whose values in the proposed new parameters differ from the values in the existing parameters. This is done with the help of the "Show rows without changes" button in the calculation run option part.

Users can, after manually adjusting the proposed new parameters if necessary, transfer them to the master data of the article or stock data. For this purpose, two functions "Apply changes to article..." and "Apply changes to stock data..." are available, which have an effect on the previously marked rows in the book sheet (Windows mark).  

Sale proposal#

The same logic as for range of coverage planning and the same prerequisites regarding the weighting scheme can be used to fill the "Article sales proposal" booklet. You can call up the "Article sales proposal" via the user search.

The "Article sales proposal" book sheet contains the cost price and the sales price of the article, as well as the contribution margin. The application fills these by calculating with the corresponding fields of the article or the stock data (cost price only). Again, the values previously contained in the master data in read-only old fields of the book sheet, are compared to the editable values in the new fields.

The suggestions of the values of the new fields are always set equal to the values of the old fields by the calculation. Users can change them manually. Users can transfer the values of the selected lines into a campaign by means of a function. This campaign will be newly created and the new prices from the marked lines will be set up as sales prices for this campaign. This is done via the function call "Create sales campaign" in the menu ribbon.

Catalog item extension BMEcat#

While the active article master of a typical wholesale company basically contains about 40 - 50,000 articles, several 100,000 articles can in principle be supplied. This difference results from the fact that a company can procure all articles from the corresponding partner companies. From a performance point of view as well as from the area of data maintenance, a direct transfer of the article data of the suppliers into the article master of the company does not make sense. For this reason, the catalog management area is used for this purpose. In Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™ Standard, catalog articles should represent the so-called "shadow article master", i.e. all articles that could be supplied in principle but have never been moved.

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central™ Standard offers the possibility of reading article catalogs from suppliers into the catalog articles via a standard interface.

For wholesalers, however, it is necessary not only to read in new articles, but also to make changes to the master data of the articles via read-in, or to obtain information about which articles have been changed in price by the supplier, for example, and are already in "active" article master. This is possible for the interface BMEcat.

Basic procedure:
It is first read in via an import list from the input files (incl. Mapping), thereby e.g. also articles which have changed are marked separately.

In addition, an import suggestion is available, which offers certain defaults and possibilities for the import. From the import list, the next step is to import into the catalog article master, and depending on the import template, the active articles are updated directly.

TRADE Catalog Article Furnishings#

To define the necessary facilities in advance, call up the "TRADE catalog article setup" via the user search.

Generally you have to activate the use of the extended catalog articles of the trade solution KUMAVISION trade. Please restart the application after activation.

In the following, the setup fields will be explained to you in more detail:

Catalog items interfaces#

Catalog item interfaces are used to define the various import formats. The call is made via the user search "TRADE catalog article interface". A BMECat interface is supplied as standard with the industry solution.

Business Central objects are assigned to the freely storable codes and descriptions via the fields "Object type" and "Object ID", which ensure the import of the respective data. This way, individual interfaces can be integrated at this point, if necessary.

In KUMAVISION trade365 the "Report 5157138" for the BMEcat import is included by default. Alternative objects could process e.g. Excel files, CSV or other separated files, XML-based formats as well as Datanorm, Eldanorm or own formats, these interfaces are not included in the scope of delivery.  

Catalog Articles Catalogs#

Different catalogs can be stored for each catalog item interface. The catalogs are used to identify the imported data and are saved with the catalog article import or the catalog article (origin of the data). The catalogs can be used to name different suppliers that use the same interface, as well as to store the annual catalogs for the import.

To store different catalogs of a catalog article interface, first select the desired interface. You can define the catalogs via the ribbon > "Associated" > "Interface" > "Catalogs".

Data mapping#

A data mapping code can be assigned to each catalog article catalog. This code is used to name the respective data mapping that is to be used for the corresponding import. Field value substitutions can be made via the data mapping. For example, the value "PCE" is transferred via a supplier catalog for the unit "Piece". This can be converted into the customer-specific unit via the data mapping. The mapping itself takes place during the import.

Behind the mapping codes are the field assignments that define the individual field mappings.

A special feature applies here in relation to the article categories and product groups, since these must be set via a hierarchical assignment, the fields are to be deposited via a special area.

TRADE Catalog Article Templates#

Via the "TRADE Catalog Item Templates" different formats can be defined which are used for the transfer of catalog item imports into catalog items. Thus, for example, it can be set up that a creation template is used for the creation and modification of data, whereas another template is only used for the transfer of price changes and does not change any master data.

The following settings can be made in the templates:

In the area of the lines you can define for each field how the transfer of the individual fields should take place. In doing so, you can also, for example, supplement missing information with standard information.

Via Actions "Insert all fields" you can fill the following lines with the available fields of the table and then define them according to the following description.

Article creation templates#

The article creation template differs from the catalog article creation template in that here you can define the settings (analogous to the previous description) to be used when creating articles in connection with the transfer from the catalog article import or at a later time.

In this section only the fields that are different from the catalog creation template are explained:

Importing an article catalog in BMEcat format#

To perform the import, call up the "TRADE catalog item import overview" via the user search.

Via the "Actions" > "Functions" > "Import..." menu ribbon, you have the option of selecting a corresponding catalog and importing it.

Then the selection of the file name for the import and the specification of a directory for the MIME information (images, documents etc.) and the selection of a creditor takes place.

Now the import run is started. And the articles are read into the "Trade catalog article import overview".

To transfer the catalog articles read in this way to the catalog article master, the "Transfer catalog article import" function is called up in the Actions menu ribbon.

The selection of the import template follows. Afterwards the articles are created or changed in the catalog article master.

Comparison report and comparison list#

To get an overview of the changed or new articles of a import, there is a comparison report. The comparison report is called up via the ribbon from the "Catalog items import overview" > "Reports" > "Print comparison..." window.

The report runs over all catalog items import entries. Filters or options can still be set.

In the Catalog Item Import Log (Ribbon > "Actions" > "Functions" > "Import Log") it is recorded who has imported what and when.