Vendors

A vendor is a business that sells a product or service. SL1 provides a list of vendor records to help manage and consolidate your list of vendors and maintain contact information for each vendor. You can view, manage, and create new vendors, generate a report for a single vendor, or generate a report for multiple or all vendors, among other features.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
To view a page containing all the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

This section includes the following topics:

Viewing and Searching the List of Vendor Records

You can select from the drop-down list of all vendors defined in the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors). The Vendor Manager page displays information on each vendor and allows you to search for vendors, among other options. To view a list of vendors:

Go to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).

The Vendor Manager page displays the following information about each vendor:

Vendor Name. Name of the vendor.
ID. Unique numeric ID, assigned to each vendor by SL1.
City. City in which the vendor resides.
State. State in which the vendor resides.
Phone. Vendor's main phone number.
Email. Email address for the vendor.
Assets. Specifies the number of asset records associated with the vendor. Clicking the asset icon () icon in this column leads to the Vendor Assets page, where you can view a list of asset records associated with the vendor.
User Edit. The user who created or last edited the vendor record.
Date Edit. Date and time the vendor record was created or last edited.

Filtering the List of Vendors

The Vendor Manager page includes nine filters, in the top row in the list of vendors. You can specify one or more parameters to filter the display of vendor accounts. Only vendor accounts that meet all the filter criteria will be displayed in the Vendor Manager page.

You can filter by one or more of the following parameters. The list of vendor accounts is dynamically updated as you select each filter.

For each filter except Date Edit, you must enter text to match against. SL1 will search for vendor accounts that match the text, including partial matches. Text matches are not case-sensitive. You can use the following special characters in each filter:

, (comma). Specifies an "or" operation. For example:

"dell, micro" would match all values that contain the string "dell" OR the string "micro".

& (ampersand). Specifies an "and" operation. For example:

"dell & micro" would match all values that contain the string "dell" AND the string "micro".

! (exclamation mark). Specifies a "not" operation. For example:

"!dell" would match all values that do not contain the string "dell".

Vendor Name. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching name.
ID. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching ID.
City. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that are located in a matching city.
State. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that are located in a matching state.
Phone. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching phone number.
Email. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching email address.
Asset. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching number of associated asset records.
User Edit. You can enter text to match, including special characters (comma, ampersand, and exclamation mark), and the Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have a matching "edited by" value.
Date Edit. You can select from a list of time periods. The Vendor Manager page will display only vendor accounts that have been created or edited within that time period.

Creating a Vendor Record

You can create a new vendor record from the Vendor Manager page. To create a new vendor record:

Go to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).
In the Vendor Manager page, click the Create button in the top right of the page.

The Create New Vendor modal page appears. To define a new vendor record, supply values in the following fields:

Vendor Name. Name of the Vendor. Can be any combination of characters up to 64 characters in length.

Click the Google icon () next to the Vendor Name field to search for information about the vendor.

Street Address. Street address of the vendor. Can be up to five lines, with up to 60 characters per line.
City. City where the vendor is located. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
State. State where the vendor is located. Select from the drop-down list.
Postal Code. Zip code of the vendor. Can be up to 15 characters in length.
Country. Country where the vendor is located. Select from the drop-down list.
Phone. Business phone number for the vendor. Can be up to 36 characters in length.
Fax Machine. Fax number for the vendor. Can be up to 36 characters in length.
Toll Free Number. Toll-free phone number for the vendor. Can be up to 36 characters in length.
Email Address. Vendor's main Email address. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
Contact First Name. First name of vendor contact. Can be up to 128 characters in length.
Contact Last Name. Last name of vendor contact. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
Title. Contact's title. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
Department. Contact's department. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
Customer ID. Customer ID associated with the vendor. Can be up to 24 characters in length.
Service ID. Service ID associated with the vendor. Can be up to 64 characters in length.
Memo. Users can add notes and memos about the vendor in this area.
Vendor URL. Users can add up to three URLs associated with the vendor. Users can then click the globe () icon to execute the URL after the vendor record has been saved. URL must include "http://" (without the quotation marks).

To save the vendor record, click the Save button. To discard all changes and reset all fields to their previous values, click the Refresh button.

Editing a Vendor Record

You can edit existing vendor records from the Vendor Manager page. To edit an existing vendor record:

Go to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors.
Find the vendor record you want to edit. Click its wrench icon ().
The Vendor Profile page appears, with the same fields as described in Creating a Vendor Record. You can edit the values in one or more fields.
Click the Save button to save your changes. Clicking the Refresh button will discard your changes and reset all fields with their previous content.

Deleting a Vendor Record

You can delete one or more vendor records from the Vendor Manager page. To delete one or more vendor records:

Go to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).
Find the vendor(s) you want to delete. Select their checkbox to the right of the page ().
For each vendor record you want to delete, select its checkbox.

In the Select Action drop-down field (in the lower right), choose DELETE.

Click the Go button.
The selected vendor record(s) will be deleted from SL1.

Generating a Report for a Single Vendor

From the Vendor Manager page, you can generate an HTML report for a single vendor. The report displays all the information from the Vendor Profile page and the Vendor Assets page.

To generate a report for a single vendor:

Navigate to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).

In the Vendor Manager page, find the vendor for which you want to generate a report. Click its printer icon ().

An HTML report appears, populated with data from the selected vendor. You can print the report or right-click to save the HTML page.

Generating a Report for Multiple Vendors

From the Vendor Manager page, you can generate an .XLSX report on all, multiple, or a single vendor in SL1. The report will contain information about all vendors in the Vendor Manager page.

To generate a report on all or multiple vendors in SL1:

Navigate to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).

In the Vendor Manager page, click the Report button.

NOTE: If you want to include only certain vendors in the report, use the search fields at the top of each column. You can then click the Report button, and only the vendors displayed in the Vendor Manager page will appear in the report.

After clicking the Report option, specify whether you want to save the report to your local computer or open the report immediately. The report will contain all the information displayed in the Vendor Manager page.

Creating a Ticket for a Vendor Record

You can create a ticket about a vendor record from the Vendor Manager page. A ticket is a request for work, and allows you to monitor required work tasks associated with your network.

To create a ticket for a vendor report:

Navigate to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).
Find the vendor record for which you want to create a ticket. Click its life ring icon () to the right of the page.
In the Ticket Editor page, supple a value in each field.
Click the Save button to save the ticket. To read more about creating tickets,see the section on Ticketing.

Relationships Between Asset Records and Vendor Records

An asset is a piece of equipment owned by an organization. An asset record is a collection of information about that asset. SL1 allows you to associate asset records with a specific vendor. You can view associated asset records from the Vendor Manager page and the Vendor Assets page.

To associate an asset record with a specific vendor:

Navigate to the Asset Manager page (Registry > Assets > Asset Manager).
In the Asset Manager page, find the asset record you want to associate with a specific vendor. Click its wrench icon ().
The Asset Properties page appears. Click the Maintenance tab. The Asset Maintenance & Service page appears.
In the Asset Maintenance & Service page, in the Vendor field, select from the list of all vendor records to associate with the asset.

Click the Save button to save the changes to the asset record.

The asset record now appears in the Vendor Manager page. From the Vendor Manager page you can also access the Vendor Assets page, which displays information about each asset associated with the vendor.

To view the Vendor Assets page:

Navigate to the Vendor Manager page (Registry > Accounts > Vendors).
In the Vendor Manager page, an asset icon () will appear for each vendor record that is associated with an asset record. Click the asset icon to view a list of assets associated with a vendor record.
The Vendor Assets page appears, and displays the following information:

Asset Make. Manufacturer of the device. If possible, SL1 populates this field automatically.
Asset Model. Model description of the device. If possible, SL1 populates this field automatically.
Device-Link. Name of the device in SL1. SL1 populates this field automatically. Clicking on the device icon () leads to the Device Properties page. Clicking on the bar-graph icon () leads to the Device Summary page.
Organization. The organization to which the asset is assigned.
AID. Asset ID. A unique, numeric identifier, assigned to the asset record by SL1.
Function. Description of the asset's function. If possible, SL1 populates this field automatically.
Serial No. Serial number of the asset.
Asset No. Asset tag of the asset.