What's New in Release 7.00
PremierConnect® Supply Chain ERP & Sourcing and Contract Management

New Features and Enhancements - Release 7.00

A summary of enhancements made in updates since Release 6.10 is also included in this document.

Important: Internet Explorer Browser Support

Support for all versions of Internet Explorer prior to Version 11 will end when Release 7.0 is available.
After September 23, 2018, only Internet Explorer Version 11 will work for ERP (Materials Management, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Fixed Assets) and SCM (Sourcing and Contract Management).

ERP Materials Management and Financials

• Enhancements for partially matching credit PO invoices and receipts.
• The Invoice Number field is increased to 30 characters.
• Requisition lines now have fields for a Discount Amount and Discount Percent.
• The Consolidated Approval Queue lets you review all invoices, journal vouchers, requisitions, and check requests from one list.
• Recordings of ERP/Financials User Groups and classes are available from the User Support menu in online Help.

Sourcing and Contract Management (SCM)

• New contracts that are imported into SCM cannot begin with Premier GPO prefix characters.
• The Tier Start Date and Tier End Date fields are included on the Single Tier and Multi Tier Contract Templates.
• Premier Entity information is available on the SCM Product Index Layer and Local Entity Search panel.
• The Invoice Number field is increased to 30 characters.

Reports

• New Report Objects/Report Fields

Administration

• A new role object is available to control editing access to departmental records.
• A new data import feature populates approver groups, and assigns approvers to organizations and departments, making setup easier for administrators.
• User maintenance is more efficient with the user record import and export, available in this release.

Problem Resolutions

• Documentation: The criteria for moving file and non-file items to Recoverable Savings is corrected in documentation.

ERP Materials Management and Financials - This Release: 7.00

Enhancements for matching credit PO invoices and receipts.

These enhancements make the matching process more efficient, and allow you to avoid workarounds.

You can now partially match credit POs.

In the past, matching a credit PO required matching the UOM and quantity for the credited items exactly.

Assume that a credit PO has the Status Complete, and enters the invoice matching process. When the invoice arrives, the returned items have quantity discrepancies, compared to the credit PO. In the past, ERP could not handle the exception, and users had to work around it manually. This enhancement allows ERP to handle quantity discrepancies for partial matches with credit POs in the same way as for regular POs. The only rule is that you cannot match more than the receipt amount.

To use this enhancement, follow the normal invoice matching process.

- For the item in question, enter both the correct quantity and unit cost for the UOM.
If you update only the unit cost, an error occurs. You can enter any valid UOM for the item, as long as the quantity does not exceed the remaining amount to invoice.

Notes: The above enhancement applies to file items. For non-file items, partial matching can only be done in the ordered/received UOM. For multiple invoices that apply to the credited item, the invoice amount may be off slightly due to rounding in the prior matching activity. Tax lines are not affected in resolving the exception.

You can add missing lines to credit PO invoices and receipts.

As with the previous enhancement to partially match credit POs with invoice discrepancies, you can now add missing lines on credit invoices, similar to the invoice match for regular invoices.

To use this enhancement, follow the regular invoice matching process. When you open the Invoice for PO edit panel, on the bottom you will see the Missing Lines tab for entering the missing lines (Figure 1).

Missing Lines Tab on an Invoice for a Credit PO

Materials Management main Contents > Invoicing > Create Invoice From Purchase Order > create header > Submit

You can now process tax exceptions on credit PO invoices.

You can resolve tax exceptions on credit PO invoices using the same process as for regular purchase order invoices.

Sales tax exceptions occur when an invoice contains a taxable amount, but the matching purchase order is not taxed; or vice versa: when the purchase order contains a tax amount, but the invoice contains none. The discrepancy is a tax exception, and must be cleared to complete the invoice.

For detailed instructions on working with and resolving sales tax exceptions, see the online topic "Sales Tax Exceptions."

 The Invoice Number field is increased to thirty characters.

Invoice Numbers with 30 characters or less can now be entered into the invoice number field.  The additional character length in the invoice number field will reduce the need for users to store longer invoice number field data in other text fields.

 Requisition lines now have fields for a Discount Amount and Discount Percent.

Users making requests can now add a Discount Amount or Discount % to non-file lines on a requisition so that the discount information will auto populate on the purchase order without a buyer having to manually key in this information. These fields are available on a regular, blanket, standing, or bill-only requisition. The Discount Amount and Discount % fields are also available on report objects that contain requisition data.

Figure 2 is an example of a requisition line with the new fields.

Requisition Non-File Line Edit Panel with New Discount Fields

Materials Management main Contents > Requisitioning > Requisitions > New or Edit

 The Consolidated Approval Queue lets you review all invoices, journal vouchers, requisitions, and check requests from one list.

The Consolidated Approval Queue contains all your invoices, journal vouchers, check requests, and requisitions needing approval in one list. You can access the Consolidated Approval Queue from each main area of ERP: Materials Management, Accounts Payable, and General Ledger.

This panel is helpful for approvers who approve multiple types of transaction documents...such as invoices and requisitions...so that they do not have to go multiple approval queues in the ERP application.

To access the Consolidated Approval Queue,

From the Materials Management, Accounts Payable, or General Ledger main contents, select Consolidated Approval Queue. Figure 3 is an example for Accounts Payable.

The Consolidated Approval Queue in Accounts Payable

The application opens the list of your pending transaction documents for review/approval. Figure 4 is an example.

The Consolidated Approval Queue

In Figure 4, the user has two transaction documents to review and approve, as displayed in the Review Status column. One is an invoice and the other is a journal voucher.

• From the Menu next to the invoice, requisition, journal voucher, or check request, select the appropriate action: Approve Now or Reject Now.
• Or, click Review to review the transaction document, and accept or reject it.

The links and menu have the same options as those on My Approval Queue or on All Approval Queues.

Recordings of ERP/Financials User Groups and classes are available from the User Support menu in online Help.

PremierPedia recordings from ERP and Financials User Group sessions and online classes are now available from the User Support menu in Online Help.

1. From the Materials Management, AP, or General Ledger main Contents, click Online Help.
2. Select User Support > User Group and Premier Academia Webinars.
   A list of available recordings appears.
3. Click the recording title to open it in Windows Media Player.

Sourcing and Contract Management - This Release: 7.00

 New contracts that begin with Premier prefix characters cannot be imported into SCM.

You can load local (i.e., non-Premier managed) contracts into SCM directly using templates for the single-tier or multi-tier Generic format. However, new contract numbers that begin with certain initial characters are considered Premier-managed contracts and cannot be imported into SCM. A contract upload that begins with any of these restricted prefixes will fail with an error like that in Figure 5. You must remove or change the prefix to complete the contract upload.

The following list of restricted character codes cannot be used as local contract prefixes: PP, FA, GB, GS, PS, AS, EB, RS, IC, SD, SP-, IN-, PIMS, or GH.

Error Message When Uploading New Contracts Using Restricted Prefixes

SCM main Contents > Supplies > Contracts > Load and Activate Workbench > Upload New Contract

The Tier Start Date and Tier End Date fields are included on the Single Tier and Multi Tier Contract Templates.

The Tier Start Date and Tier End Date (Figure 6) are now required fields on the following Excel contract upload templates:

• Single Tier Contract Template (fields are located in header)
• Multi Tier Contract Template (new columns have been added for fields)

You should populate the Tier Start Date and Tier End Date fields with data before uploading the contract template. These dates will then appear on the Tiers tab of the "Work with Contract" page.

Tier Date Fields in Header of Single Tier Contract Template in Excel

SCM main Contents > Supplies > Administration > Other > Download Multi (or Single) Tier Contract Template > open saved Excel template

Local contracts that were previously uploaded and accepted before this update will not show any tier date information on the Tiers tab. When exported, the Tier Start Date and Tier End Date fields on these contracts will default to the Contract Start Date and Contract End Date to fill in the missing tier dates.

Important: You must download these updated Excel templates before you can add new single-tier or multi-tier contracts to SCM via the Load and Activate Workbench or the Excel upload add-in. The older Single Tier and Multi Tier Contract Template files are now invalid and will result in a warning message indicating incorrect date formatting was found.

For detailed instructions on downloading Contract Template files, see the following online topic: Download a Contract Template.

Premier Entity information is available on the SCM Product Index Layer and Local Entity Search panel.

Note: This enhancement improves the compatibility between SCM and SCA when users employ both applications.

Contract managers who need to register vendors or manufacturers in SCM can now see the following Premier entity information on the unregistered vendor/manufacturer panels: Manufacturer Premier Entity Name, Premier Entity Code, Top Parent Entity Name, and Top Parent Entity Code. This information helps contract managers ensure that they are registering the vendor/manufacturer correctly.

To view this information for a vendor or manufacturer, click the Premier Entity Code in the search results (see Figure 7).

Premier Entity Code on the Product Index Layer and Local Entity Search Panel

SCM main Contents > Supplies > Analysis Workbench > All Spend Analysis > View Unregistered Vendors > Register > Search

 The Invoice Number field is increased to thirty characters.

An invoice number with 30 characters or less can now be entered into the Invoice Number field. ERP and SCM users will note that the longer field length is now active in both applications.

Reports

 New Report Objects/Report Fields

• The new requisition line Discount Percent and Discount Amount fields have been added to these report objects:

- PO Requisition Analysis
- Requisition Details - Warnings and Errors
- Requisition Details

• A new report object -- "PO Lines with Open Balances" -- lets you create reports (for POs with project codes) that show how much is left to pay on a PO line. These purchase orders have been authorized and fully received, but have not been paid in full. This report object will be especially useful to sites that feed purchase orders with outstanding balances to the Strata application.
  The report fields are:

As purchase orders are fully paid, they drop off the report.

Notes:

Only non-stock, non-file, and direct-delivery lines (those tied to a department) will appear on the report. Stock items that are not direct delivery will not be included. Credit POs are not included. Incomplete and unauthorized POs are not included.

PO line cost differences are calculated after any adjustment is made; for example, to clear a price exception. Or, if a Next Estimated Receipt Unit Cost is entered, that amount will be used to  calculate the unreceived total amount, instead of the regular PO line Unit Cost.

Reports using the "PO Lines with Open Balances" report object do not match figure-for-figure with GL accounts. For this reason, you should not use this report object for reconciliation reports. Also, reports using this report object are not secured by data profile settings. Use a report profile to authorize access.

Administration

A new role object is available to control editing access to departmental records.

Sites would like the ability to control which users are able to display and edit departmental data. Department records are available from this location: Materials Management main Contents > Requisitioning > Departments.

A new role object "DeptReqView" controls users' ability to create, edit, and view department records. This new role object works in tandem with the existing role object "DeptReq" to provide access as follows:

The online documentation topic "Set Up and Maintain Users, Administration, Security" outlines user security in detail.

A new data import feature populates approver groups, and assigns approvers to organizations and departments, making setup easier for administrators.

These features allow administrators to create and populate new requisition and invoice approver groups via mass import into ERP. The import avoids the need to go into the ERP application and populate each approver group manually.

Once you have uploaded newly completed approver groups and direct approvers, you can assign them to departments using another new upload feature. These features allow administrators to quickly create approver groups and incorporate approvers from newly acquired units and facilities into medical center operations by assigning them to departments via a mass import.

The approver group import tool applies to invoices, requisitions (including bill-only requisitions and invoices), and check requests. You can create both requisition and invoice approver groups and populate them in the same import.

Detailed information on approvers and approver groups, including setup and how to assign users, is in the online topic "Set Up Approvers and Approver Groups."

For creating and populating approver groups, and assigning approvers/groups to departments, the role object "Approver Group Import" (Approver Group Import Processing) must be set to Create, Modify, or All. The default setting is None.

Note: If a check request approval route and limits are the same as the requisition approval route and limits, only one approver group is needed. Otherwise, if the check request approval route and limits need to have differing approver paths, users, or dollar levels, then a second approver group is needed.

- To define a requisition approver group, from the Materials Management main Contents, click Requisitioning > Approver Groups.

- To define an invoicing approver group, from the Materials Management or Accounts Payable main Contents, select Invoicing > Invoice approver groups.

• Users who will be designated as approvers must exist in the application, and have the appropriate roles ("approver"), approver settings, and authorizations in their User Profiles.
• Roles, role objects, organizations, departments, and data profiles must exist and be assigned to the users who will serve as approvers.
• If your site uses Approval Profiles, they must also be set up.

Populating New Approver Groups
Note: This feature enables mass population of approver groups with members. Mass maintenance of approver groups is already available in ERP.
- To use mass maintenance, from the Materials Management main Contents, select Requisitioning > Mass Approver Change.

Security: The new role object: "Approver Group Import Processing"  controls access to the Approver Group Import Template and the import menu options. The initial setting is None. Settings All and Create allow administrators to create and import approver groups.

To populate approver groups, use the new Excel template for entering fields.

You then upload and import the spreadsheet into ERP as a .csv file.

1. From the Materials Management or Accounts Payable main Contents, select Imports/Exports & Financials > Approver Group Import Template.
   Follow the instructions to open the template in Excel. Figure 8 is an example.

Excel Template for Creating New Approver Groups

2. On the template, enter the Approver Group name and values for approver group fields in the appropriate columns.
   - Fields highlighted in yellow are required. Be sure that the B1 cell contains your Customer ID. and the C1 cell contains the date.
   - Enter information right over the text that says <required>. For the Appr Group Type, enter an R (requisition) or I (invoice).
   - If you import the spreadsheet with the <required> word and other words still in a cell, the application will take it as an invalid value, and will send an error message.
   - Click the worksheet tab Info for instructions on completing and saving the template.
   - The last entry on the template must be <EOF>.
3. When you finish entering values in the fields, save the spreadsheet as a .csv file on your local network.
4. Upload and import the spreadsheet to ERP.

Importing New Approver Members Groups to ERP

After you assign approver group members on the template, you can import them back to ERP.
Important: The file you import must be in .csv (comma-separated values) format.

To display imported Approver Group files and upload a new one,

From the Work in Administration main Contents, select Materials Management or Accounts Payable > Imports/Exports & Financials > Approver Group Imports.
The Approver Group Imports list appears (Figure 9). Uploads appear on the list, if there are any. Otherwise, No Data appears.

The Approver Group Imports List

Materials Management or AP main Contents > Imports/Exports (& Financials) > Approver Group Imports

General instructions for uploading .csv files are in the section below: General Instructions for Importing .csv Files Using the Standard ERP Upload.

Assigning Approvers and Approver Groups to Departments and Organizations

This feature lets you link an existing approver group or direct approver to an organization and department within your ERP application.  The link is implemented by a process in which you download a department's current approval setup parameters; enter approver groups and direct approvers; and upload the approver data. You can use the upload to add or change approver assignments. This capability supports acquisition of new units at a medical center, and quarterly audit compliance. The feature uses the standard import. An audit capability is also provided.

Prerequisites:

Approval Groups must exist before you can assign users to them via the mass import. The department must also have associated Approval Profiles.

Users assigned as direct approvers or members of approver groups must have the correct authorizations in their User Profiles, the appropriate security objects set in their roles, and the organization/department permitted in their Data Profiles.

Notes:

If a site wants an AP check request approver group at the department level, they select one from the invoice or requisition approver types.

Assigning departmental approvers has these steps:

- Downloading the department's approval settings. The download generates a template that you can use to enter direct approvers and approver groups.

- Entering approvers in the template, saving it, and uploading it to ERP.

To download department templates,

1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Imports/Exports and Financials > Department Approval Template.
   The Department Approval Template list appears with organizations and departments (Figure 10). The organizations and departments are based on the department/organizations allowed in your data profile.
   - Use the Quick Filters and the column sort to filter the list so that it displays only the department of interest.

Department Approval Templates List

2. Click the organization/department of interest. (The row turns blue.)
3. Click Spreadsheet (Figure 10). An Excel spreadsheet template opens.
4. Save the spreadsheet to a local network folder where you can work on it.
5. On the spreadsheet, enter the direct approver names, or the approver groups as needed. Figure 11 is an example.

The Department Approval Template Spreadsheet

6. When you have entered all the approvers that you need, save the spreadsheet to a local file. Be sure to save the spreadsheet as a .csv file. The last cell in the spreadsheet (following your data) must be <EOF>.

To import the Departmental Approvals Spreadsheet,

1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Imports/Exports and Financials > Department Approval Import. The Department Approval Import appears (identical to Figure 19).
2. Follow the instructions in the section below General Upload Instructions.
   When the file imports, you can open the Department record (Materials Management > Requisitioning > Departments > Edit ) and display the approvers or approver groups that you have added. Figure 12 is an example from the data in Figure 11.

Imported Departmental Approvers/Groups on Department Record

User maintenance is more efficient with the user record import and export in this release.

The new user record mass maintenance import/export feature is available. This feature allows a security administrator to create new users and to maintain and audit an existing user base without having to go into the ERP application and update each user individually, or create new users manually. 

Some sites find it convenient to use the import to create one or more "generic" users with particular User Profile settings. Then, once in the application's Administration module, they copy the "generic" users and enter values for real, new users.

For maintenance purposes, administrators can export all user settings in the ERP application, make changes and import that data back into the ERP application to update users' profiles.

Security: This feature is controlled by the "Administrator" role object.

Creating New User Records

To create user records, an Excel template is available for entering fields that you will upload and import into new User Profiles.

1. From the Work in Administration main Contents, select Administration > User Create Import Template.
   Follow the instructions to open the template in Excel. Figure 13 is an example.

Excel Template for Creating New User Profiles

2. On the template, enter values for User Profile fields in the appropriate columns.
   Important:
   - The fields highlighted in yellow are required.
   - Enter information right over the text that says <required>. If you import the spreadsheet with the <required> word still in a cell, the application will take it as an invalid value, and will send an error message.
   - Click the worksheet tab Info for instructions on completing and saving the template.
   - The last entry on the template must be <EOF>.
3. When you finish entering values in the fields, save the spreadsheet as a .csv file on your local network.
4. Upload and import the spreadsheet to ERP using the General Instructions for Importing .csv Files Using the Standard ERP Upload.

Maintaining Existing Users - Exporting User Data from ERP

For maintenance, first export existing user records to an Excel worksheet. Then, using the worksheet as a template, make changes as needed to the user data, Save the worksheet as a .csv file, and finally upload it to the application.

The upload is the standard upload process. A panel lets you work with uploaded user records.

Export data from the User Settings (All Columns) list.

1. From the Work in Administration main Contents, select Administration > User Settings (All Columns). Figure 14 is an example.
2. You can click Search to filter the list of users by organization, department, role, and other parameters to identify a subset for import/export, if you wish.

The All Users Panel with the Spreadsheet Link for Exporting

Work in Administration > Administration > User Settings (All Columns)

3. Click the Spreadsheet link (Figure 14, red arrow, upper right). If you have a large number of user records, the application sends a request for you to identify the number of records that you would like to download (Figure 15).
4. Click the number.

How Many Records Would You Like to Download?

Download and security information appears.

5. Follow the message panels to either open the export file, or save the file, and then open it. The export file opens in Excel. Figure 16 is an example of part of an export. The downloaded file is formatted according to what the application will expect when you import the file back to ERP.

Note: You will need to save the file as a .csv file for the export.

Sample Downloaded User List

6. Edit values for users in the spreadsheet. Here are some tips:

• Columns that are defined as "YN" are shown with column headings ending in _ Y _ N. Enter only a 0 (No) or 1 (Yes) in these columns.
• Columns that are defined as dates are shown with column headings ending in _MMDDYY.
• Columns that normally contain a valid value (e.g. 0,1,2, etc.) are shown with the actual value description. This value will be translated on import back to the actual valid value.

7. Enter <EOF> in the first cell of the row following the last line of data. This value is critical, so that the import can find the end of the file (Figure 17).



Entering the End-of-File Marker <EOF>

8. Save the file as a .csv (comma-separated) file. You are now ready to import the file back to ERP.

Importing New or Edited User Data to ERP

After you create or edit user records, you can import them back to ERP.
Important: The file you import must be in .csv (comma-separated values) format.

Follow the steps below and those in General Upload Instructions.

1. Select the import panel from ERP Work in Administration main Contents > Work in Administration > Administration.
   • For new user records, select User Create Imports.
   • For maintenance to existing user records, select User Maintenance Imports.
   The User Imports panel appears. Figure 18 is the panel for maintenance, but the panel for new user records is similar. This panel lists previous imports if any, and lets you create new imports.

The List of User Record Imports

Work in Administration > Administration > User Maintenance Imports

General Instructions for Importing .csv Files Using the Standard ERP Upload

1. Open the appropriate list of imported files: Users and User Settings, Approver Groups, etc.
2. On the list of imports, click New (upper right). An Import Panel appears (Figure 19).

The User Maintenance Upload Panel

3. Enter the file that you wish to import in the File to Upload field.
   - Click Browse to locate the file on your network, then click the file to select it.
4. At this step, you have a choice. You can work through the import process in either one stage or two stages.
• If you have uploaded files to the application before, use the one-stage approach, as follows:
  - Click Submit. The system attempts to upload your file and validate it. The appropriate imports list appears.
  - Click Refresh to see your file listed.
• For users working with import files for the first time, we recommend the two-stage import approach. The two-stage approach first loads the file and validates it. Click Load and verify, no import. Once the file has successfully loaded, you can process it manually from the Imports panel Menu.
- Click Help on the Imports panel for details on the processing step.
• On the list of imports, each import has a Menu that lets you Reprocess, View Details, Download or Delete an import file. Clicking Menu > View Details lets you display messages and edit the import record.
• Uploaded files that process completely with no errors have the Import Status of Complete.

User Record Imports - Notes:

• For new user records, the import creates a new User ID with the settings from the uploaded template that you entered for each User ID on the template.
  - For existing user records that you edited, the changes that you made are in the Users' Profiles.
• You can view the new or changed User Profiles from either list:
  Work in Administration > Users or User Settings (All Columns).
  When you import a user as inactive, click Show All on the list to make the user data appear.

Handling Import Errors

Valid rows on the spreadsheet will import into the application. If some rows are valid, and other are not, the invalid rows will not be imported.

When the Import Status of the uploaded user record file is not Complete, the import encountered errors.

To work with errors, you need to review the import details, make corrections, and reprocess the data.

1. Next to the import, click Menu > View Import Details to display any errors or warnings that may have occurred.
   - On the Import Details panel, each imported record appears. The Messages column contains Yes if errors or warnings exist for any record.
   - Click Menu > View Messages.
   - Click Menu > Edit to edit any unprocessed data and correct it.
2. After making corrections, from the import list, click Reprocess to rerun the process for any imports that do not have an Import Status of Complete.

Problem Resolutions

No major issues to report for Release 7.0. Several problems were resolved in 6.10 Updates.

Documentation Correction

• The criteria for moving file and non-file items to the Recoverable Savings list has been corrected in documentation.

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