To manually add, update and delete trading partners in Trading Programs, admin users will need to access the Structure module of Trading Programs by clicking on Config at the top of the page and then on Structure in the drop-down menu.
This will take you initially to the Dimensions page. You will then need to click on the Trading Partners tab near the top of your screen (which will be labeled with the name given to your trading partners, e.g. suppliers/customers/vendors, etc). You will be presented with the Maintain list page showing a list of your trading partners in alphabetical order once they have been configured.
You have the option to either add trading partners one at a time via the user interface or update your trading partners in bulk using a CSV upload process.
Upload in bulk
To upload multiple trading partners in bulk, you will need to navigate to the Maintain list tab (as mentioned above), where you will see a Download template button located at the bottom right of the page. Clicking this button will give you the option to populate the CSV file with existing data or download it as a blank template.
Leaving the Populated with existing option unticked will generate an empty CSV file with column headers. If you name your trading partners ‘Suppliers’ for example, there will be a column header called ‘Supplier’ and another called ‘Reference’. You will need to populate each column appropriately. For example, the name of the trading partner as you wish it to appear in Trading Programs will be entered into the ‘Supplier’ column, and the trading partner reference will be entered into the ‘Reference’ column. There may also be additional columns for attributes that have been configured that you can fill in with additional information.
Clicking the Populated with existing option will generate a CSV file with column headers 'Supplier' and 'Reference' along with your list of trading partners and references. If configured, there will also be attribute columns in which you can input additional information that you would like to store against each supplier. Using this populated CSV file, you can update your trading partners.
Once you have finished updating and have saved your CSV file, you can upload this new CSV file by clicking on the Browse option located on the right of the page. You will then need to select the file you wish to be uploaded and click Open. Once a file has been selected you will then need to select Upload in the bottom right-hand corner. Once Upload is clicked, the import process will begin, and the progress of the trading partner upload will be reported at the bottom of the page.
Once the upload is complete, you will notice that the panel on the right-hand side will change to Upload results. This panel will also show if your upload was successful or if any rows were rejected, which will be shown in the Rejection reason column.
Add individually
Alternatively, to add trading partners one at a time, first navigate to the Maintain list tab as mentioned above. Click the + button and an Enter details panel will appear on the right-hand side of the screen (as shown in the screenshot below), where you will be able to configure the following options against each trading partner:
- Name · A free text unique name identifier.
- Reference · A free text unique reference that provides a shorter and more consistent identification mechanism for trading partners.
- Enable automatic trading program replication · A tick box, which when selected means trading programs belonging to a given trading partner will be automatically replicated based on the configuration set by Enable system administrators. Please see the article Replicate a trading program for more information on trading program replication.
- Reset accruals at program line end ·A tick box, which controls whether the accrual reset delay setting should apply (this pertains to the functionality whereby the accrual earnings for a program line will be reset to the actual earnings after the program line has ended).
- Program lines must coincide with phasing periods · This is specifically for channels that use Forecasting. A tick box, which determines whether program lines are required to run for specific phasing periods or if program lines are free to run for any period of time within the limitation of the trading program.
- Approval for trading partner-fed transactions · This is specifically for channels that use Collaborator. A single select list with three choices:
- Not required – You will not need to approve any transactions uploaded by this supplier.
- Updates only – You will only need to approve submissions that are updates to existing transactions.
- All submissions – You will need to approve all submissions made by this trading partner.
Please note — there is a 100 character limit for the trading partner name and a 20 character limit for the trading partner reference.
Delete individually
On the Maintain list tab, you can delete individual trading partners by simply selecting the trading partner that you desire to remove and click the Delete button, located in the top left-hand corner.
