Article #88 How to Create a MultiVendor in Solid Business Central?

Answer: For companies using the licensed feature Solid MultiVendor™ (aka 'Super Customer'), they have the ability to direct customer invoices to be paid directly to a Supplier Record within their business system. This process, also known as third party billing, allows the invoices to indicate that although the product was delivered by the company to a customer location, the customer is to pay the supplier directly, who will then in turn reimburse the company. For a better idea of how this will all look on an invoice, click to enlarge the image of a MultiVendor invoice printed on a 4" slip.

• The 'Pay To' address is that of the MultiVendor supplier.
• The 'Ship To' address is the customer where the invoice was made and inventory delivered to.
• The 'Bill To' address is the Customer Record that will be paying this invoice, which in this case is a Head Office account.
• All items on this invoice were supplied to the company by the MultiVendor supplier, and all items not supplied by them were separated and printed on their own invoice, to be paid directly to the delivery company.
• The second line from the bottom indicates the company that delivered the items to this customer, and the Solid Route Accounting™ invoice number is also written for the company's reference.

Once the additional license required for this feature has been purchased and activated, the MultiVendor record is now ready to be created. For further information on using MultiVendors and pricing of this licensed feature, please contact a Solid Innovation Product Specialist who will be happy to assist you.

The first step in creating this setup is to ensure that the MultiVendor supplier already has a Supplier Record within Solid Business Central™, which can be verified within [Datafile / Supplier / View]. Once the Supplier Record has been added, follow the steps below:

1. In order for the MultiVendor's 'Pay To' address to print on an invoice, it must exist within the company's Customer Records. We do this by creating a Customer Record and directly linking it to the MultiVendor Supplier Record within Solid Business Central™. To begin, navigate to [Datafile / Customer / View].
2. In the bottom left corner of the screen, just above the grey 'Menu Choices' box, the text [ALT+F3 - for Super Customer] will show by default. If this is the case, use this key combination to change the section just above this option from showing Sales History to show the 'Super Customer and Print Info'.
3. Use the [Insert] key twice to add a new Customer Record, leave the 'RT' field as 999, and enter in a 'Company Name' for this MultiVendor in the 'Company' field. We recommend this to be some combination of the supplier's name and the word 'MultiVendor' so that it's apparent that this is a MultiVendor Customer Record, when browsing customers in a list such as 'Crispy Chips MultiVendor' for example. Also ensure the 'CCnt' field is set to 999 as well.
4. We are now ready to assign this MultiVendor Customer Record to the MultiVendor Supplier Record. In the 'Super Customer and Print Info' area, move to the 'Account' field and enter in the ID of the MultiVendor Supplier Record. Once entered in, use [CTRL+END] to save this new MultiVendor Customer Record. When a new customer record displays, use the [Escape] key and answer Yes to confirm 'Cancel Customer Add' to return to viewing the Customer Records, where the new MultiVendor Customer Record will be displayed.
5. To set the 'Pay To' address that will print on the MultiVendor invoices, use [F2 - Edit] to make changes to this record once again, and just to the right of where the 'Account' Supplier ID was set, there will be four lines of text that can be used to enter in the address. Whatever is entered into these four lines will print exactly as entered onto the MultiVendor invoices. The following format is recommended:
   Line 1: MultiVendor Supplier Name
   Line 2: Street Address
   Line 3: City, State, Zip
   Line 4: Additional Information
6. Use [CTRL+END] to save this 'Pay To' address and we are now ready to decide which customers will make payments directly to this MultiVendor Supplier. As it shows in the lower left of the screen, use [ALT+F3 - for Sales History] to change this area to show the customer's Sales History once again, as this information is much more useful to a company's daily business.

How to Assign Customers to MultiVendor Suppliers:

7. In Solid Business Central™, navigate to [Datafile / Customer / View] and display a Customer Record that will 'Pay To' the MultiVendor Supplier Record. NOTE: If this affects an entire store chain, then these steps need only be applied to that store chain's Head Office Customer Record.
8. While viewing the Customer Record, use the [Insert] key once to change the menu along the bottom to the 'Customer Add New Info Menu', from which select [F6 - Super Customer Product Info] to bring up a list of all MultiVendor Suppliers that this Customer Record has been assigned to.
9. Use the [Insert] key to Add a new MultiVendor Supplier to this list. In the 'Super Customer' field, enter in the MultiVendor Customer Record's customer number, or type the name of the record to select it from a list of all Customer Records. Set 'Bill To' to C to use the default payment setting, and ensure 'Pay to Super Customer' is set to Y. Use [CTRL+END] to save this, followed by [Escape] to return to the list of assigned MultiVendors. Use [CTRL+END] to save this assignment, and complete the setup.

Additional Recommended Settings:

• Only Inventory Record that have been assigned to this MultiVendor Supplier will be included on the MultiVendor invoices. To review Inventory Records within Solid Business Central™, navigate to [Datafile / Inventory / View] and ensure that all the inventory from this MultiVendor Supplier have their 'Supplier' field set to this MultiVendor Supplier's ID.
• To enable the Special MultiVendor Invoice Format available in Solid Business Central™, navigate to [System / Configure / Bill], set the 'Print special MultiVendor Invoice format' field to Y, and use [CTRL+END] to save this change.
• Ideally, if both regular and MultiVendor items are included on the same invoice, the regular items should print on one invoice, and the MultiVendor items should print on a separate invoice that indicates 'Pay To: (MultiVendor Name)'. To enable this in Solid Business Central™, navigate to [System / Configure / Company / Settings] and set the 'Split MultiVendor Orders' option to Y. Save this change with [CTRL+END] to apply the setting.