Preferred contracts and manufacturers
If associated with a manufacturer, the contract is used to set the price for goods and services. If associated with a distributor, the contract serves as a starting price that the distributor honors before applying a markup or discount.
A preferred manufacturer is used to designate which manufacturer your company prefers to purchase items from. When you link an item to a preferred manufacturer and add the item to a contract, the preferred manufacturer is the default on the contract.
A manufacturer code is used to identify a specific manufacturer for an item or a specific manufacturer department/division when an item is purchased against a particular contract or from a particular manufacturer without regard for cost. For example, a particular surgeon prefers one manufacturer over the cheapest contracted manufacturer. In that case, there must be a way for the system to override the normal defaulting structure that determines suppliers, and in turn costs.