Training & Support

Getting Schooled on your Free Purchase Order Software

Hey kids,

We’re a bit late for back-to-school but nevertheless thrilled to announce that SpendMap now comes with Walkthrough Tutorials to help you learn how to use your Free Purchase Order Software quickly and easily.

Unlike the “external” video tutorials, our new Walkthrough Tutorials are built right into SpendMap and take you step-by-step through popular areas of the software, guiding you every step of the way as you work in the system…

tutorial-PO-item

We’re starting off with 10 Walkthroughs in the Free Version of SpendMap that cover the basics of the Purchasing, Receiving and Email Integration Modules.

You can start the Walkthroughs from the droplist at the top-right corner of the Main Menu in SpendMap…

tutorial-droplist

Evaluation Copy with Sample Data Only

Please note that the Walkthrough Tutorials are only available in the Evaluation Copy of SpendMap (the copy with all the sample data) but they do not show in your Live Copy of SpendMap.

That’s because the Walkthroughs are dependent on the sample data in the system.  That’s also why we recommend that you complete the tutorials before making any significant changes to the sample data in your Evaluation System.  For example, if you delete a supplier or item that’s referenced during one of the tutorials, the Walkthrough will stop because the data in the system will be different from what the tutorial expects.

How Else can we Help?

We think we’ve covered the basics with the 10 Walkthroughs that we’ve already built but if you have any suggestions for other areas of the system that could benefit from one of these tutorials, please shoot us an email and let us know.  Thanks!

Self-Service Error Console in your Free Purchase Order Software

tech-supp-callWe love helping people who are using the Free Version of SpendMap.  Feel free to log a Support Ticket if there’s anything we can do for you.

But for those who prefer to go it alone, in v14.5 of SpendMap we enhanced the system’s Error Management Console to provide better information in the unlikely event that something goes wrong while using SpendMap.

In previous versions, if something went wrong, SpendMap would save all the details to an Error Report and then you had to log a support ticket.  But we’ve found that most errors are for obvious reasons (e.g. a power failure, getting disconnected from the network/server, etc.) and are not actually a problem in SpendMap itself.

So, if you happen to see an error, please review the on-screen information in the new Error Management Console.  In many (most) cases, you can clear the error and get right back to work.  And for those times that you’re just not sure, just click the [Send to SpendMap] button and our Knights in Shining Armor will jump right in to help.

 

How to Receive Orders in your Free Purchase Order Software (Video Tutorial, v14.5)

Here’s a new video tutorial that shows how to receive products and services in the Free Version of SpendMap…

You can enable the Receiving Module during the Setup Wizard that runs automatically when you log in to your Live Copy of SpendMap for the first time.  If you missed that, just use the check-box at the top of the screen in…
– RECEIVING > Setup system > Receiving options

Please Like and Share our videos to help spread the word about SpendMap.  Thanks!

 

User Accounts in your Free Purchase Order Software (Video Tutorial, v14.5)

Here are some tips for setting up new users in the Free Version of SpendMap.

Your first user account will be created during the Setup Wizard that runs automatically when you log in to your Live Copy of SpendMap for the first time but if you need to add additional users, this new video tutorial is a good place to start…

 

Forms and Documents in your Free Purchase Order Software (Video Tutorial, v14.5)

It’s not quite as good as your Christmas present but here’s a new video tutorial on how to set up your PO form in the Free Version of SpendMap.

We’ll just call it a belated stocking stuffer.  Ho-ho-ho!

New Tutorial: Prepayment Invoices (e.g. deposits)

If you’re using SpendMap’s Invoice Approval Module to simplify the approval of your suppliers’ invoices, things are going to get even easier with the upcoming 2017 release of SpendMap.  Stay tuned for more information and official release dates.

SpendMap now supports Prepayments, such as deposits and progress payments, to authorize payment to a supplier before the products or services have been delivered.

SpendMap will keep track of the outstanding prepayments when processing subsequent invoices for the Purchase Order, to make sure that you pay the correct amount in the end.

Check out our new video tutorial on Prepayment Invoices and don’t forget to follow this blog (see right sidebar) to be notified when the new release is ready.

Updated Video Tutorials for your Free Purchase Order Software

We started updating some of the video tutorials on our YouTube Channel to show the 2016 release of SpendMap (v14).

Note the version number in the title of each video.

We plan to update more videos in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, feel free to refer to the older videos, even if you’re using the latest release of SpendMap.  We never take features away, so anything that you see in the older videos will still apply to newer releases of SpendMap, albeit with some differences in the screens.

Youtube-SM-logos

Finding answers about your Free Purchase Order Software

Chris works at a construction and maintenance services company in the United Kingdom and was asking about something that we wrote about a few months ago.

Of course we love to hear from anyone who has a question about their free Purchase Order Software but did you know that you can often find answers to your questions right here on this Blog?

To search for a topic, try clicking on the little “magnifying glass” at the right side of the menu at the top of the page or using the “Search Posts” widget in the right sidebar.

Catch a friend a fish and you feed them for a day…show a friend how to fish and you feed them for life!

fishing-for-answers in free PO software

Popular Videos for Buyers and Purchasing Managers

Our YouTube Channel is approaching 80,000 views.

And the video that reviews our Free Purchase Order Software is about to hit 25,000 views itself.

Aside from helping you implement the free version of SpendMap, our video tutorials are a good way to learn about the benefits of e-procurement software in general.

Thanks for  your time and interest.

– The Free-Procurement Project Team

Youtube-SM-logos