History of sent e-mail messages in your Free Purchase Order Software

Jose works in the irrigation services industry in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and was asking how to see a history of e-mail messages that were sent from SpendMap…

“I couldn’t confirm whether the PO, RFQ was sent to the recipient….How do I know the PO and RFQ are being sent successfully?“

There are two options for sending e-mail from SpendMap, 1) MAPI and 2) SMTP.

If you would like e-mails that are sent from SpendMap to show in your Outlook Sent Box, then use the MAPI option (using the two fields at the top of the E-mail Setting Screen).  TIP: In most cases, you do NOT need to enter any of the other MAPI-related settings further down the screen.

If, however, you prefer the SMTP option, you can enable the Sent E-mail Log, using the setting called “Maintain a log of sent e-mail messages” (also in E-mail Settings), and you will see a history of the outgoing e-mail messages in…
– PURCHASING > Utility > e-mail and internal messaging > e-mail log > Log of sent e-mail messages

Email Logs in free PO Software

TIP: It would be unusual for SpendMap users to verify that each and every e-mail was sent successfully (e.g. by checking Outlook or using the Sent E-mail Log), since you will be notified if an e-mail could NOT be sent.  If SpendMap cannot connect to Outlook or your SMTP server to send a message, you will see a “failed e-mail” icon in the Main Menu of SpendMap, and the failed message will show in the E-mail Error Log, in here…
– PURCHASING > Utility > e-mail and internal messaging > e-mail log > Local/Server e-mail error log

Or, if SpendMap is able to pass the message to the outgoing mail server but the message fails for some other reason (e.g. bad e-mail address), the mail server will send an “undeliverable mail” message back to the sender.

How to copy items, suppliers and other Master File codes in your free PO Software

On the heels of last week’s blog post on time-saving tips, John makes custom t-shirts and was asking if he can copy items to save time…

“Is there any way of duplicating an item? I have several items that are all the same except for item (part number) and description.”

Yes, you can copy items, suppliers, account codes, and most other Master File codes in SpendMap to save time and reduce data entry.

Just go into the applicable Master File and click the [ADD] button to get a blank screen, then enter an existing code in the Code Field and you will be prompted to copy the existing code to a new code.  All details (fields) will be copied to the new code, any of which can then be modified as required.

This section of the Online Help has more information about generic features that can be used across all Master Files in SpendMap…
– System-Wide Features and Information > Master Files > About Master Files

Copy-item

5 time-saving tips for your free Purchase Order Software

Here are a few time-saving tips and tricks for your free version of SpendMap…

<END> Key to Switch Users

Sometimes, especially in the early stages of setting up and testing the system, you may want to switch user accounts, that is, log into SpendMap as a different user.

Instead of using the menu SPENDMAP > SWITCH USER or exiting the system and logging back in, try using the <END> key while at the Main Menu.

<TAB> Key to Select Last Menu

Since menu options in SpendMap are grouped by functional area, there are times that you exit one menu/utility and then need to select another related menu that is right next to the last one that you just selected.  Instead of drilling back through the menus, just hit the <TAB> key on your keyboard to “jump” to the last menu you selected.

<?> Keyboard Shortcut for Lookup/Search

You are probably accustomed to clicking on the little [?] button next to fields to display a drop-down list of the underlying table (e.g. a list of Master File codes, a list of POs or other documents, etc).

Another way to display the Lookup List is to just type a question mark <?> in the field and hit <ENTER>.  This avoids taking your hand off the keyboard and can speed up data entry, especially on screens with many fields.

Extended Search

On the topic of searching for Master File codes and documents with the Lookup Feature, did you know that using the [?] button or <?> key to get a list of codes in alphabetical order is just the most basic way of using Lookup?

To perform an “advanced search”, including the ability to search by keyword and/or pretty much any other field in the underlying table, just RIGHT-mouse click on the little [?] button.  Alternatively, you can also do a regular Lookup (left-mouse click on the [?] button) and select the [Advanced Search] button at the bottom of the primary Lookup List.

You can learn more in this section of the Online Help…
System-Wide Features and Information > System-Wide Features and Utilities > Lookup (Searching)

<F2> Key Alternates Between Code/Description

Did you know that you can use <F2> to alternate between the code and description of most fields on most screens?  For example, let’s say you’re looking at a Purchase Order in View PO Status and you see the vendor code is “12345”.  Just hit <F2> to see that vendor “12345” is really Acme Office Supplies.

Same goes for most other Master File codes, such as items, account codes, etc.

In many cases, you can also click on the code/description hyperlink to “drill” into the actual Master File itself.  For example, you might need to see the full address or phone number for Acme.

You can lean more about this one in…
PURCHASING > Setup system > Master file settings > Master file code/description display options

Removing toolbar buttons in your free Purchase Order Software

Tom works in the hotel industry in Florida and asked how to remove buttons from the toolbar at the top of the Main Menu in SpendMap.

Toolbar Button

There are actually two ways to do that – you can remove toolbar buttons for only certain users or you can remove them altogether, for everyone.

By User

To remove a toolbar button from someone’s User-Definable Menus, use this…
– PURCHASING > User Setup > User definable menus and pop-up prompts > Add/Remove individual menus and pop-up prompts

Just remove the menu option associated with the toolbar button.  As a reminder, toolbar buttons are shortcuts to menu options in SpendMap, so if you take the menu away from the user, the toolbar button will also disappear automatically.

System-Wide

If you would like your users to have access to a menu option but prefer to NOT show the associated button in the toolbar, you can remove the toolbar button with this…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > User defined terminology and settings > Modify menu titles and toolbar buttons

Just UN-check the option to “Include this menu option on the toolbar” and the button will be removed from everyone’s toolbar but they will still be able to select the applicable menu option (unless you removed it from their user-specific menu, per above).

turn-off-toolbar-option

 

Printing Invoices in your Free Purchase Order Software

Sean wasn’t the first to ask about printing invoices in SpendMap…

“I am trying to learn about SpendMap to see if we can use it for our small business…I can’t find where to add our company logo to the Invoice form. Can you point me in the right direction?”

SpendMap does not print invoices – your suppliers will.

To clarify, SpendMap’s Invoice Approval Module is used to approve your supplier’s invoices, by allowing you to quickly and easily match their invoices to your Purchase Orders (and optionally Receipts too), to make sure that you bought and received the stuff before paying for it.

But SpendMap is not an invoicing (Accounts Receivable) system, so we don’t print/generate invoices (i.e. to send to your customers).  That would be something that you might find in a Sales/Distribution system but not a Purchasing System.

If, however, you’re looking to add your logo to the PO form, then yes, you can upload your logo in a couple ways. The most common way would be during the Setup Wizard that runs automatically when you log into your Live Copy of SpendMap. If you missed that or if for some reason you’re trying to change the logo in your Evaluation Copy of SpendMap (the one with all our sample data), then you can do that in here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase order settings > PO printing settings > Settings

Just click the [CHANGE PO LAYOUT OPTION] button, and upload your logo using the link on the right-side of the screen.

Establishing the In-Stock Quantity of Items in your Free Purchase Order Software

John works in the IT Consulting industry in Georgia and was asking how to tell SpendMap how much of each item he has in-stock when first setting up the Item Master File…

“I am about to import the Items but do not see where I can put in the qty that we currently have in inventory. Where can I import this in – we have 2016 items in inventory. Thanks,”

It is a two-step process to 1) add the items in the Item Master File, and then 2) tell SpendMap how much of each item you have in stock…

So first, you need to get the items into the Item Master File in any of these ways…

  • By importing the items using…
    – PURCHASING > Utility > Data Interfaces > Item Master File > Item Data > Import >
  • By clicking the [Add] button in the [General] Folder of the Item Master File
  • By adding the new items “on-the-fly” as you work in other areas of the system, for example, while creating a new POs or other documents

Then, you can tell SpendMap how much of each item you have in stock by performing a physical inventory count….

  • You can key the count information into the Inventory Count Work Area manually…
    – INVENTORY CONTROL > Adjustments > Inventory counts > Inventory count Work Area
  • Or you can import the in-stock quantities using…
    – INVENTORY CONTROL > Utility > Data Interfaces > Inventory count Work Area > Import >

Either way, the last step is to process the transactions in the Inventory Count Work Area, using…
– INVENTORY CONTROL > Adjustments > Inventory counts > Process count and adjust stock

Only a Few Items?

If you need to update inventory levels for just a few items, it may be more convenient to just post inventory adjustments, rather than doing a full inventory count…
– INVENTORY CONTROL > Adjustments > Adjust stock > Manually adjust stock levels

Perpetual Inventory Maintained Automatically

Going forward, as stock items are added and removed from inventory (e.g. when items are received, when inventory usages are posted, etc.), the inventory levels in SpendMap will be updated automatically, so the system will know exactly what you have in stock for each item at any point in time. Therefore, you won’t have to do a physical inventory count to determine what’s in stock for things like reordering, calculating your inventory value for your financial statements, etc.

Sender of email messages in your free Purchase Order Software

mail-GREENMichael works in the construction industry in England and was asking about the “From” field when sending Purchase Orders and other documents to his suppliers by e-mail…

“Do all emailed purchase orders need to be sent from the same email address irrespective of user? … Is it possible to have individual email addresses for each user, if so how do I set this up?”

You actually have both options.  The e-mail can come from the individual Buyers (i.e. the person who processes the Purchase Order in SpendMap) or it can be the same e-mail address regardless of who is sending the order, such as “Purchasing@YourCompany” or similar.

It’s controlled by the setting “Sender of external automatic messages” in…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > e-mail settings

Per the Online Help for that setting, the “sender” is noteworthy as the recipient might reply to a message or an error might occur during transmission (in which case the sender would typically get an “undeliverable mail” message from the outgoing mail server), so if you decide to use a single e-mail address for all messages, make sure that someone is set up to receive messages to that account.

Hope that helps.

No web-based Shopping Cart in your Free Purchase Order Software

We’ve had a few questions about the new video that we posted, showing how easy it is to enter Requisitions in the e-Series Thin Web Client.

As a web-based component, the e-Series is only available in our paid version.  Sorry folks, our YouTube channel is for both our free and paying customers. However, you can still use (pretty darn easy) Item Requisitions in the free Windows/desktop version…it just uses a slightly different format/UI.

For more details about the various types of Requisitions in the free version of SpendMap, check out this section of the Online Help…
– Requisitions and Approvals > Types of Requisitions and Workflow

Easy Requisition Software System