Managing categories
You can link suppliers to one or multiple categories. This is important because it assists purchasers in navigating and quickly ordering from the right supplier.
Categories visible to purchasers
A buyer sees all the suppliers they are authorized to order from on the Requests page. On this request page, the categories for the buyer are listed at the top:
By clicking on a category, all the suppliers categorized under that category are displayed. This helps the user to order from the right supplier more quickly.
Adding and managing categories
As an administrator or a member of the Procurement department, you can add and manage categories. You can do this under Application Management / Procurement / Categories. Here, you can add both main and subcategories. The use of categories is intended to simplify the process of ordering items. Therefore, think carefully about logical terms and organization for the categories.
Keep the names of the categories as short as possible. For example, use 'Office' instead of 'Office supplies for the workplace.'
- Add a Main Category
By clicking the 'Add Main Category' button at the top of the list, you can create a new main category. In the 'Default General Ledger Account' section, you can specify which general ledger account will be automatically filled in when coding an order line from this category.
If a general ledger account is also set for the item or subcategory, the general ledger account of the item will be filled in, otherwise, it will be filled in from the subcategory.
Selecting "Yes" for "Display on homepage" will show the category on the Requests homepage.
- Adding a Subcategory
From the category overview, you can click on the plus icon at the end of a category's row to create a subcategory under the selected category. On the page that opens, you can see at the top which category this is. Then, fill in the required fields to create the new subcategory. If you add a default general ledger account, it will be automatically filled in when coding an order line from this category.
Using the "Expand All" and "Collapse All" buttons at the top of the list, you can show or hide subcategories under the main categories.
- Editing a Subcategory
When you edit a subcategory by clicking on the pencil icon, you can, if desired, move it under a different main category. You can do this by selecting another main category under 'Part of'.
Layout example
In the image below, you can see an example of how you can categorize.
In this example, the categories highlighted in orange are the main categories. The blue ones are subcategories, and the green categories are referred to as sub-sub-categories. Only the orange categories will be directly visible on the new requests page. The other categories can also be found, but only when the requester hovers the mouse over the main category.
Distributing suppliers among the categories
To create a shortcut to a supplier, you need to link a category to the supplier in the Suppliers menu. This supplier will then be displayed on the Requests page under the associated category.
Note: Suppliers with an assortment cannot be linked to categories; the option below is then displayed in light gray. In the Application Management / Procurement / Assortment menu, these suppliers are divided into categories at the article level.
Best practive procurement categories
To make the categories as clear as possible, we recommend using a maximum of 10 main categories. For clarification, you can then attach subcategories to these main categories.
Have you just started to set up categories or would you like to clean up your categories? We are happy to help you by providing you with the top 15 most commonly used main categories. Use this list to put together a top 10 that suits your organisation.
Most commonly used main categories, regardless of industry
- Office supplies
- ICT
- Power supply
- Facility
- Cleaning
- Flowers
- Books/Educational resources
- Attentions
- Inventory
- Printing
- Working Clothes
- Medical
- Concern
- Furniture
- Tools
Do you want to help your colleagues make an order request faster? Then get started right away and discover how to set up and merge main categories. View the article here for a 'How to guide' for setting up the categories.
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