Sharing vendors, customers, or items between sites

You might want an administrator to control adding, updating, and deleting of shared customers, vendors, and items across the system. Keep in mind that each site can control its local customer and vendor records, and these records are independent of other sites.

Shared vendors

If you have a master site, use the Multi-Site Vendors form at the master site to add and update multi-site vendor records for all sites on the intranet. The A/P, Ledger Consolidation (or G/L) and Inventory/Transfers categories must be replicating in order to use this form.

If no master site is required, but If A/P replication is set up between sites, some vendor data is replicated to other sites when a new vendor is added at one site. The new record does not automatically appear in the Vendors form at the other sites. However, the new vendor number does appear in the drop-down list when you start to add a new vendor at the other sites - so you can select it and add a new record for it. This ensures that the vendor number is the same at all sites.

Any changes made to the vendaddr records in one site are automatically replicated if the vendor number exists in the other site and the A/P category is replicated. Note that the vendaddr_mst table contains other information in addition to the vendor’s address.

The currency code cannot be changed for a vendor after the record is saved. However, an additional vendor record can be added with the new currency code.

Shared customers

If you have a master site, use the Multi-Site Customers form at the master site to add and update multi-site customer records for all sites on the intranet. The Site Admin and Multi-Site Customers categories must be replicating in order to use this form.

If no master site is required, but if A/R or Centralized Order Entry replication is set up between sites, some customer data is replicated to other sites when a new customer is added at one site.The new record does not automatically appear in the Customers form at the other sites. However, the new customer number does appear in the drop-down list when you start to add a new customer at the other sites - so you can select it and add a new record for it. This ensures that the customer number is the same at all sites.

Any changes made to the custaddr records in one site are automatically replicated if the customer number exists in the other site and the A/R or COE category is replicated. Note that the custaddr_mst table contains the customer’s credit information as well as the address and other information.

The currency code cannot be changed for a customer after the record is saved. However, you can specify additional currencies for the customer, to be used with specific transactions.

Using Credit Hold in a Multi-Site Environment

In a multi-site environment, the originating site of a customer order controls the credit hold status of the customer order for all sites from which the customer order may be shipped. Also, when you initiate the Order Credit Hold Change Utility in a multi-site environment, the system performs the processing at all sites for the selected customers.

SyteLine checks the customer's credit limit to determine if it is exceeded to determine whether to use credit hold:

  • If a customer's credit limit is exceeded and the shipping site is the originating site of the customer order, the order is placed on credit hold.
  • If a customer's credit limit is exceeded and the shipping site is not the originating site of the customer order, a warning message displays, but the customer order is not placed on credit hold.

Shared items

If you have a master site, use the Multi-Site Items form at the master site to add and update multi-site item records for all sites on the intranet. The Site Admin and Multi-Site Items category must be replicating between the sites in order to use this form.

If no master site is required, and Inventory/Transfers replication is set up between sites, some item data is replicated to other sites when a new item is added at one site. This data appears in the Global Items form. The Global Items form also contains a default Shipping Site, which is used to determine how the Customer Order Line ship site defaults when entering a centralized order for the item. Typically, replicating sites have identical Global Items default values when all sites are within the same country. If sites are in different countries, the Description and U/M fields can be updated as required on Items records.

The new record does not automatically appear in the Items form at the other sites. However, the new item number does appear in the drop-down list when you start to add a new item at the other sites - so you can select it and add a new record for it. This ensures that the item number is the same at all sites.

Coordinating units of measure at different sites

Item units of measure (U/M) are handled differently for customer order entry and transfer orders:

  • Transfer Orders: Items on transfer orders must have identical U/Ms at all sites.
  • Order Entry: It is not necessary to have the same U/M defined at different sites, as long as the shipping site has defined a U/M conversion between the item’s base U/M and the U/M used in the order line.

If an item could be both sold on a customer order and transferred between sites, then the item must have identical units of measure at each site.

Replicating item routing and BOM information

Use the Multi-Site Bill of Material Builder utility and the Multi-Site BOM Builder replication category to copy an item's bill of materials from a site to other sites. The Builder copies a single level at a time. For more information, see the help on copying a multi-site item bill of materials.