- What is an Approved Purchasing List (APL)?
- Creating an APL
- Adding a Product to an APL
- Changing the Selected Product for a Food Item via an APL
- Removing a Product from an APL
- Determining if Vendor Product Selected for Food Item is Result of an APL
- Determining Ownership of an APL
- Viewing the Vendor Products in an APL
- Tutorial Video - Viewing Vendor Product Selections from Corporate APLs and Associated Costs
What is an Approved Purchasing List (APL)?
An approved purchasing list (APL) contains vendor products from a vendor distribution centre (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.
Creating an APL
See the separate topic: Configuring an Approved Purchasing List (APL).
Adding a Product to an APL
An APL is originally populated from an import of an Excel® file provided by your vendor (see Configuring an APL to do so).
However, if a verified vendor product for a food item is not assigned to an APL, then that vendor product can be manually added to the APL so that it is now set as the preferred product to be selected for that food item.
Note: You can add a product to an APL only if your account owns the APL, which means the APL was created within your account and not published to your account by a parent account. An APL owned by your parent account can only have its products updated by the parent account. See Determining Ownership of an APL below for more information.
Assuming the APL is owned by your account, then complete the following steps to add a verified vendor product to an APL:
- Open the Vendor Product Selection screen (Procurement > Buying Preferences).
- In the Search field, enter the name of the food item and click the magnifying glass to return results (note that entering the food item ID in the Search field does not return results). You can also locate the food item using the necessary filter tools.
- Click the gear icon in the Actions column for the food item and select Edit (first screenshot below) The Similar Vendor Products window appears for the food item (second screenshot below). By default, the Vendor Product Linked To Food filter is selected, which lists the verified vendor products for the food item. The product that is currently selected for the item is highlighted in yellow. From this window, with the Vendor Product Linked to Food filter selected, you will continue with the steps below to add your preferred product to the APL and therefore select that product for the food item.
(Right-click image to open and expand in new tab)
- For the product you want to add to an APL, click into the Approved Purchasing List field and select the desired APL. You can add the product to multiple APL's as needed, such as what would be required if you are a parent account adding the product to DC-specific APL's on behalf of your child accounts.
Note: If the preferred product is not displayed with the Vendor Products Linked to Food filter, then you can search for a vendor product that is currently not verified for the food item and submit a "Suggest Link" request to the MealSuite Nutrition Services team to have that vendor product verified and linked to the food item. Click the All Vendor Product filter to do so; if needed, see the separate Suggesting a Link for a Food Item article for instructions. In addition, you can still add the product to the APL so that once the product is approved by the Nutrition Services team it will already be on the APL.
- Click the Save button to apply your changes.
Changing the Selected Product for a Food Item via an APL
If the vendor product selected for a food item is the result of an APL and you want a different vendor product selected for the food item, then for that food item you will first remove the currently-selected product from the APL and then add the preferred product to the APL.
Food Item | Remove Currently-Selected Vendor Product from APL | Add Preferred Vendor Product to APL |
Chicken Noodle Soup | Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup |
Note: You can change the selected product for a food item via an APL only if your account owns the APL, which means the APL was created within your account and not published to your account by a parent account. An APL owned by your parent account can only have its products updated by the parent account. See Determining Ownership of an APL below for more information.
Assuming the APL is owned by your account, then complete the following steps to change the selected product for a food item via the APL:
- Open the Vendor Product Selection screen (Procurement > Buying Preferences).
- In the Search field, enter the name of the food item and click the magnifying glass to return results (note that entering the food item ID in the Search field does not return results). You can also locate the food item using the necessary filter tools.
- Click the gear icon in the Actions column for the food item and select Edit (first screenshot below). The Similar Vendor Products window appears for the food item (second screenshot below). By default, the Vendor Product Linked To Food filter is selected, which lists the verified vendor products for the food item. The product that is currently selected for the item is highlighted in yellow. From this window, with the Vendor Product Linked to Food filter selected, you will continue with the steps below to remove the currently-selected product from the food item and add your preferred product for the food item via the APL.
(Right-click image to open and expand in new tab)
Note: If the preferred product is not displayed with the Vendor Products Linked to Food filter, then you can search for a vendor product that is currently not verified for the food item and submit a "Suggest Link" request to the MealSuite Nutrition Services team to have that vendor product verified and linked to the food item. Click the All Vendor Product filter to do so; if needed, see the separate Suggesting a Link for a Food Item article for instructions. Once the product is linked, it can then be selected for the food item via an APL (step 5 below).
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For the currently-selected product, remove it from one or more APL's by clicking into the Approved Purchasing List field and clicking the APL to remove its check mark.
- For the product you want to add to an APL, click into the Approved Purchasing List field and select the desired APL. You can add the product to multiple APL's as needed, such as what would be required if you are a parent account adding the product to DC-specific APL's on behalf of your child accounts.
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Removing a Product from an APL
You can manually remove a product from an APL so that is no longer set as the preferred product for its associated food item.
Note: You can remove a product from an APL only if your account owns the APL, which means the APL was created within your account and not published to your account by a parent account. An APL owned by your parent account can only have its products updated by the parent account. See Determining Ownership of an APL below for more information.
Assuming the APL is owned by your account, then complete the following steps to remove a product from the APL:
- Open the Vendor Product Selection screen (Procurement > Buying Preferences).
- In the Search field, enter the name of the food item and click the magnifying glass to return results (note that entering the food item ID in the Search field does not return results). You can also locate the food item using the necessary filter tools.
- Click the gear icon in the Actions column for the food item and select Edit (first screenshot below) The Similar Vendor Products window appears for the food item (second screenshot below). By default, the Vendor Product Linked To Food filter is selected, which lists the verified vendor products for the food item (the product that is currently selected for the item is highlighted in yellow.)
(Right-click image to open and expand in new tab)
- To remove a product from an APL, click into the Approved Purchasing List field and click the APL to remove its check mark.
- Click the Save button to apply your changes.
Determining if Vendor Product Selected for Food Item is Result of an APL
To see if the vendor product selected for a food item is the result of an APL, complete the following steps:
- Open the Vendor Product Selection screen (Procurement > Buying Preferences).
- In the Search field, enter the name of the food item and click the magnifying glass to return results (note that entering the food item ID in the Search field does not return results). You can also locate the food item using the necessary filter tools.
- For the food item, click its gear icon in the Actions column and select Edit.
- The Similar Vendor Products pop-up appears (screenshot below). By default, the Vendor Product Linked To Food filter is selected, which lists the verified vendor products for the food item. The product that is currently-selected for the item is highlighted in yellow. (Right-click image below to open and expand in new tab).
- If the vendor product is selected as a result of an APL, the APL is listed in the Approved Purchasing List drop-down.
Determining Ownership of an APL
If an APL was created within your account, then you are considered to "own" the APL and therefore have the ability to use that APL to select vendor products for food items and to edit the APL properties.
However, if the APL is owned by your parent account and published to your account, then you do not have the ability to use that APL to select vendor products for food items and to edit the APL properties.
To determine ownership of an APL:
Select Procurement > Approved Purchasing Lists. The Approved Purchasing Lists screen appears.
- An APL owned (i.e., created) by your account has the gear icon available in the Action column, indicating it is editable (i.e., can be updated) by your account.
- An APL owned by a parent account does not have the gear icon in the Action column, indicating it is not editable (i.e., cannot be updated) by your account.
Viewing the Vendor Products in an APL
To view the vendor products currently in an APL, complete the following steps:
- Select Procurement > Approved Purchasing Lists. The Approved Purchasing Lists screen appears, listing existing APLs.
- Click the name link of the APL whose products you want to view. The screen specific to the APL appears, listing the vendor products of that APL (screenshot below; right-click to open and expand in new tab).
- See Also:
Using Filters
Via the Filters section (screenshot below), the following filters are available to determine what products are displayed:
- Stock Item Category
- Category
- Availability
- Vendor
- Product Brand
- Favorites
Setting Columns
You can set the columns to display on the APL screen, along with their sort order. To do so:
- Click the Set Columns button. The Set Columns pop-up appears.
- For the columns you want onscreen drag-and-drop them from the right side of the pop-up to the left side of the pop-up.
- You can determine the sort order of the columns displayed onscreen by clicking, holding, and dragging a column to it desired spot in the column list.
- Click Apply to apply your changes and close the pop-up.
Exporting APL to Excel® File
To export the APL to an Excel file, click the Export button.
Tutorial Video - Viewing Vendor Product Selections from Corporate APLs and Associated Costs
This video is for a facility account whose vendor product selections are controlled by their corporate account via a DC-specific APL. It demonstrates how to view the vendor product selections, the resulting costs on your menus, and how to generate the following menu cost analysis reports: Cost Summary Report (Menus) and Cost Analysis Report (Menus).