- About Working in Procurement as a System or Corporate Account
- Add Vendor and Distribution Centers (DC's) to Accounts
- The DC-Specific Vendor Product List
- Understanding Vendor Products Selected for Food Items
- Create Approved Purchasing Lists (APLs) to Control Products a Child Account Can Purchase
- Manage Vendor Product Selections per DC
- Generate Cost Report for Corporate Menu Specific to Each DC
- Publish DC-Specific APL to Child Account
- Viewing Selected Vendor Products of Child Accounts
About Working in Procurement as a System or Corporate Account
The Procurement module in MealSuite is a powerful and comprehensive feature set that allows a system or corporate account to manage vendor products for its corporate menus used by their child accounts. This article provides a high-level overview of the procurement functionality and the recommended steps to follow when working in procurement as a system or corporate account.
Add Vendor and Distribution Centers (DC's) to Accounts
Within your parent account, the vendor and its distribution centers (DC's) need to be added.
Adding a Partner Vendor and DC's
A partner vendor in the MealSuite system is a vendor with an interface that allows for the automatic import of a DC-specific vendor product list. Instructions to add a partner vendor and its DC's to an account are here: Selecting a MealSuite Partner Vendor (i.e., Interface-Enabled Vendor).
Adding a Non-Partner Vendor and DC's
There are two types of non-partner vendors that can be added to your account:
- System vendor - a vendor and its DCs that exist in the system and can be selected by a facility account.* With a system vendor, its products are also maintained in the system, meaning they will be verified and linked to their appropriate food items (i.e., ingredient or prepared food). Note that a system vendor is also referred to as a "managed vendor".
*Depending on facility account permissions from the facility's corporate account, the facility account may not have the ability to select a system vendor.
- Account-specific vendor - a vendor and its DCs that are manually created by your account. Because the vendor is specific to your account, any products added by your account will only be specific to your account, and as such you will have to request that the products be verified and linked to the appropriate food items (i.e., ingredient or prepared food) in the system (see Suggesting a Vendor Product be Linked to a Food Item). Note that an account-specific vendor is also referred to as "user-maintained vendor".
Instructions to add a non-partner vendor and DC's in a corporate account are here: Corporate or System Account: Adding a Non-Partner Vendor and DCs to Your Account.
Once a vendor/DC combination exists in the parent account, then that vendor/DC combination is available for the child accounts to add to their accounts (see Facility Account: Adding a Non-Partner Vendor and DC to Your Account). Once that vendor/DC combination exists in a child account, then the parent account has the ability to publish the DC-specific vendor product list to that child account (explained below).
The DC-Specific Vendor Product List
DC-Specific Vendor Product List with Partner Vendor
If the vendor is a partner vendor, then the vendor product list for each DC is initially imported via the import interface, and then subsequently updated via the import interface.
- Instructions to view a vendor product list are here: Opening the Vendor Product Selection Screen.
- Instructions to view when the vendor product list was last updated are here: Viewing When Vendor Product List was Last Updated.
DC-Specific Vendor Product List with Non-Partner Vendor
If the vendor is a non-partner vendor (i.e. vendor without interface), then the vendor product list for each DC must be uploaded manually via an import of an Excel® file, such as an order guide. Subsequent updates to the vendor product list must occur manually via fresh imports of the file.
As the parent account, you can publish a DC-specific vendor product list to a child account who orders from the DC. Instructions to import a vendor product list from an Excel® file and publish the list to a child account are here: Importing Vendor Product List from Excel® File.
Understanding Vendor Products Selected for Food Items
In the MealSuite system, a food item (i.e., an ingredient or prepared food used in a recipe) is associated with one or more vendor products. An associated vendor product is one that has been verified to match the food item.
From a food item's verified vendor products, one will be selected to be used for that food item via the system product-item selection logic. The product that is selected determines the nutrient data and price for the food item.
Create Approved Purchasing Lists (APLs) to Control Products a Child Account Can Purchase
An approved purchasing list (APL) contains vendor products from a DC that are preferred to be selected for food items.
From a food item's verified vendor products, the system will first look to select a favoured vendor product for the food item. If there is no favoured vendor product, then the system will look to select a vendor product for the food item if the vendor product is on an APL.
An APL is ideal for a parent account to control what vendor products their child accounts can purchase. The parent account creates an APL for each DC, and then publishes each DC-specific APL to a child account who orders from that DC.
Manage Vendor Product Selections per DC
As a corporate account, you can manage the vendor product selections for each vendor distribution center (DC).
Managing the vendor product selections for a DC is done via a "DC Review Unit", which is a faux account set up in MealSuite that represents the DC and has an imported vendor product list from that DC.
As a corporate account, you open the Vendor Production Selection screen, select the DC review units, and review the vendor products selected from each DC for each ingredient on your corporate menu (click here for instructions to do so). You can then make product selection changes as needed via the DC-specific approved purchasing list (APL) that is published to the DC review unit. See the following instructions as needed to make product selection changes via the APL.
Resolving a "No Matching Vendor Product" Label for a Food Item
If a food item on the Vendor Product Selection screen has a No Matching Vendor Product label (screenshot below), see the following article for resolution options: If a Food Item has the "No Matching Vendor Product" Label?
Identify and Troubleshoot Cost per Serving Discrepancies
From your list of vendor products selected for food items, it is recommended to perform quality assurance (QA) on the cost per serving. A cost per serving discrepancy will be obvious, such as in the example below where the apple sauce is $3.09 for a 100 gram serving:
Instructions to identify and troubleshoot cost per serving discrepancies are here: Identifying and Troubleshooting Cost per Serving Issues (via the Vendor Product Selection Screen).
Generate Cost Report for Corporate Menu Specific to Each DC
For your corporate menu, you can generate a cost report for each DC review unit and make further adjustments to the vendor product selections if necessary. There are two menu cost reports available; click on the appropriate link for more information and specific instructions on generating the report for a DC review unit:
Publish DC-Specific APL to Child Account
When a corporate account has reviewed and confirmed the item-product selections for a DC review unit, then the DC-specific APL can be published to the child account that orders from the DC. To do so, see Parent Account: Publishing APL to a Child Account.
Viewing Selected Vendor Products of Child Accounts
As a parent account, you have the ability to view the selected vendor products of your child accounts (screenshot below; right-click image to open and expand in new tab). Instructions to view selected vendor products for food items are here: Viewing Selected Vendor Products for Food Items.