The business landscape is different today. Securing fruitful partnerships and gaining a competitive edge is essential to thriving in the market. One powerful avenue to explore is becoming a registered vendor, a gateway that opens doors to a plethora of lucrative opportunities. However, navigating the vendor registration process can often be a tough task, filled with complexities and uncertainties.
This article provides a step-by-step explanation of the vendor registration process, highlighting key functionalities and their significance.
Functional Overviews:
- Business Scenarios:
Understanding the different scenarios in which vendors are managed and registered ensures a comprehensive approach to vendor management. Converting prospective vendors into vendor master records, allowing for efficient management and tracking of vendor information. All this is needed for easy and smooth vendor onboarding in Dynamics 365, even for later processes.
Converting Prospective Vendors to Vendor Master Records:
- Requester submits a prospective vendor request with available information.
- Reviewer conducts manual checks for duplicate vendor names and registration IDs.
- Reviewer updates additional information if provided.
- Requester is notified of approval or rejection through email.
Closing or Blocking Vendors:
- The business decides to terminate its relationship with a vendor.
- The vendor is marked as closed or blocked.
- The vendor is no longer eligible for future engagements or transactions.
By effectively managing these scenarios, businesses can streamline vendor management, ensure accurate vendor information, and make informed decisions regarding vendor relationships.
- Prerequisites:
Vendor registration process prerequisites include configuring procurement and sourcing parameters, accounts payable settings, and various vendor-related components such as vendor groups, payment terms, delivery terms, currencies, address books, sales tax groups, procurement categories, payment methods, bank groups, and user groups.
Additionally, configuring vendor reasons, establishing data sharing across legal entities, creating VC user requests, and configuring security roles are essential. It’s important to note that VC access may involve B2B license costs. Ensuring these prerequisites are met establishes a solid foundation for a smooth and successful vendor registration process.
- Configuration Checklist:
To facilitate a seamless registration process, it’s important to ensure proper configuration of the following key settings:
- Vendor Reasons: Procurement and Sourcing > Setup > Vendors > Vendor reasons
- Terms of Delivery: Accounts Payable > Setup > Terms of delivery
- Methods of Payment: Accounts Payable > Payment setup > Methods of payment Accounts Payable > Setup > Terms of delivery
- Payment Days: Accounts Payable > Payment setup > Payment days
- Terms of Payment: Accounts Payable > Payment setup > Terms of payment
- Summary Update Parameters: Accounts Payable > Setup > Summary update parameters
- Proc. & Sourcing Parameters: Procurement & Sourcing > Setup > Procurement & Sourcing parameters
- Prospective Vendor Requests: Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing parameters > Vendor prospect requests Tab
- Vendor Collaboration: Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing parameters > Vendor collaboration
- Accounts Payable Workflows: Accounts payable > Setup > Accounts payable workflows
- Document Types: Organization administration > Document management > Document types
- High-level process flow
We cannot cover it all in one blog, but here is the overview of the process flow:
- Initiation: Prospective vendor expresses interest and submits a request with basic information.
- Review and Validation: Requester's information is verified for accuracy and completeness.
- Approval or Rejection: Requester is notified of approval or rejection via email.
- Vendor Management: Approved vendors become active and engage in business transactions.
- Vendor Closure or Blocking: Termination of vendor relationship results in closure or blocking.
This will all contribute to streamlining your supply chain process. Whether it is about purchase requisitions or risk management before time, you will be able to automate the process. Ultimately making it easy for both customers and vendors.
Note: Configuration and prerequisites are essential for a smooth registration process.
Step-by-Step Explanation of the Vendor Registration Process:
To provide a clearer understanding of the vendor registration process, let’s examine a step-by-step example scenario:
Step 1 - Prospective Vendor:
In this scenario, Mr. Lee, representing Alpha LLC, desires to become a vendor for BEG. BEG utilizes the D365F&O system, which allows anonymous vendors to submit registration requests through their website.
Step 2 - Customer Website:
Mr. Lee will initiate the vendor registration request by contacting BEG through their online portal, located at www.beg.com. Vendors can reach out via email or other means of communication if an online portal is unavailable.
However, if the prospective vendor chooses the website option, OData integration is necessary with D365. Once the vendor has signed up, the contact person can update essential information such as the vendor name, justification, organization number, and contact person’s email address.
Alternatively, if DMF integration is not used, the Data Management Framework (DMF) can be employed to import prospective vendors into D365.
Step 3 - Setup D365 Workflow for New Prospective Vendor:
After the prospective vendor’s details are available in the Prospective Vendor Import form, a workflow is configured to convert the prospective vendor into an approved vendor in D365 Finance and Operation.
To guide the business through the necessary steps for creating an approved vendor, the workflow is set up under System Administration > Workflow > User Workflows (New Prospective Vendor).
Now, you will set up Azure Active Directory B2B. As part of the workflow properties, a manual step involves creating the prospective vendor (contact person) in Azure AD.
Step 4 - D365FO Prospective Vendor Registration Request:
The vendor registration requests can be found in the D365 Prospective Vendor Registration Request form. A procurement specialist will review the details of the prospective vendor request.
If everything appears to be in order, the procurement specialist will proceed with the invitation process by clicking the “Invite User” button.
This action changes the processing status of the vendor registration request to “User requested.”
Within the workflow, a new user account is initiated in both Azure AD and D365FO.
The procurement specialist will review the user request details for approval, and as part of the workflow, they will manually create the Azure AD B2B user.
Step 5 - D365 Vendor Collaboration Request:
Once the basic data for the prospective vendor is available in D365, it will be flagged in the Prospective Vendors Registration form.
To access this form, navigate to Procurement & Sourcing > Vendor Collaboration Requests.
By following these steps, organizations can effectively manage and register vendors, ensuring a streamlined process that facilitates efficient procurement and vendor relationships.
Conclusion:
Understanding the vendor registration process is essential for organizations seeking to establish productive relationships with suppliers. By comprehending the functional aspects, prerequisites, and step-by-step procedures involved, businesses can successfully navigate the vendor registration process and enhance their procurement operations.
If you are having technical troubles with your vendor management software or registration processes, we at DHRP are always here for consultation. Just keep in touch, and let’s make vendor registration easy for you.
