Using Vendor Requests to Manage On-boarding New Vendors
Built into Dynamics AX is a feature for managing the setup of new Vendors which allows users to request for new vendors to be added, for the purchasing group approval process by the way of workflows, and finally automatically create new vendor records. Additionally, if you are using the Vendor Portal, the on-boarding process will allow you to co-ordinate the setup of the vendor users, and if you want to, you van also have the prospective vendors update and approve their information before they are approved to ensure that their details are correct, and that they want to do business with you as well. This process is a great way to streamline the vendor setup process and is also a time saver because people are involved through the workflow process and all activities are tracked.
In this blueprint we will show how the vendor on-boarding process is handled through the Vendor Requests function within Dynamics AX.
Here are all of the topics that are included in this blueprint:
- Configuring the Vendor Justification Workflow
- Creating a New Vendor Request via the Employee Self Service Portal
- Approving New Vendor Add Justification Requests
- Configuring the Vendor Application Approval Workflow
- Approving New Vendor Applications
- Configuring the User Provisioning Request Workflow
- Requesting a Portal User Account for a Vendor
- Configuring a new Vendor Portal User Account
- Allowing Prospective Vendors to Update Their Information
The vendor on-boarding process makes the setting up of vendors so much easier, especially when you have multiple people involved in the setup and approval process.
In this example we have just shown a couple of the options that are available to you. Once you have mastered the basics, you can try the following:
- Adding questionnaires for gathering additional information from the vendors during on-boarding
- Tweaking the vendor justification options
- Automating the user setup process workflows
- Adding multiple routings and approval steps for the workflow processes.
This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and may be overkill for some of you, but for those that do have more formal processes in place for adding vendors, this will definitely be a life saver and allow you to manage the on-boarding process a lot more effectively. Give it a go, I’m sure it will be worth the setup.
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A Tinkerers Notebook 
This is pretty cool. Always wanted to know how this feature works but never had the time to go through it, but you’ve just nailed it from start to finish. Thanks very much for your work.. Cheers!!!
Is it possible to use the Vendor request functionality without providing Vendor access to the vendor portal? What our client would like to do is to have an internal user complete the Vendor information.
Also, it would be nice to have a single simple vendor request workflow where the internal user creates the request and its approval results in a new vendor (instead of the 3 workflows). Is that possible without modification?
Thank you
Brent, I am pretty sure that you can use the Vendor Request without using the portal, although I would need to work though it to be sure – you would probably just want to automatically run the user provisioning workflows to speed up the process. Although another option would be to develop a new workflow that allows you to put prospective vendors on hold and then have internal users approve them – answering your second question. Murray.