Part Categories Management (Admin)

The Part Categories functionalities are available to all users as configured by admins. Management of Part Categories is only accessible to admins and those with permissions.

Admins can set up Population rules based on a column belonging to a Part Category. Through the connection of your data from your Part Master via the Part Categories templates, this allows you to import data from Part Master into other modules. You can view the Part Categories article for more information on how they're used throughout the modules. 

Add New Part Category

When creating a Part Category as an admin, you can set the parameters and validation rules for each column within that Part Category. You can define the different options available for each column in your Part Category, such as:

• Part Master Rule
  • Allow the column to be available in Part Master and BOM Insight
• Internal Rule in RFQ
  • Allows the column to be available and editable by the users in the RFQ
• Supplier Rule in RFQ
  • Allows the column to be available and editable to the suppliers in the suppliers’ portal
• Validation
  • Mark as “Required” or not in the Supplier Portal
    Note: When marking a column as required in Supplier Portable, you will need to ensure that the column is also checked as "Viewable & Editable by Suppliers" in order to prevent errors.
• Data Type
  • Set type and specify Min and Max values for numeric data
• Data Source
  • Specify using a Lookup Table or Accepted List of Values

To access the Part Categories section, from within the Part Master, click on Part Categories.

Then click on Add New Part Category to open the side modal of Create New Part Category.

 In the Create New Part Category modal, define the Part Category Name and choose all applicable columns/fields that are available from the System Template Columns. If you cannot find a specific column, then click the “System Template” link in the modal to go and create a new "User Defined" system template column within the System Settings section.

You can select when needed a Parent Category from the dropdown. Check the box of Use Supplyframe Intelligence for this category if you’re wanting to display its data for this category template. Then click on Create to save your new category.

You'll then be taken to your new Part Category template with all of your selected column names on the left and their rule specifications listed horizontally to the right.

Part Category Template Settings

You can easily modify a Part Category template from within it. Click on Settings within the category to edit the Part Category Name. Also, you can check or uncheck if you want to Use Supplyframe Intelligence for this category. Then click on Save when ready to finalize your changes.

Part Category History

You can also view any historical changes made to the part category. This provides an enhanced audit trail, ensuring critical data changes are tracked for greater oversight. Clicking on History, you can see the person who made the change; a description of the change; and the date and time of changes.

Part Category Templates Column Rules and Options

Within a Part Category, you can set the parameters and validation rules for each column within that specific category's template. In the far right, click on the pencil icon for the specific column.

Rules allow you as admins to create formulas that, when true, will indicate an error to the user. Setting the template “Rules” will flag a row with an “!” whenever the formula is true for a line. This can be used to draw attention to that line for the user. In addition, it can help ensure that certain conditions are met, as well as work across multiple columns.

Template Column Rules

Part Master Rule (custom user-defined columns only): If selected, it allows columns to be available in Part Master and BOM Insight.

Internal Rule in RFQ: If left unselected, this column will be available only for reporting purposes and it will not be viewable/editable by your internal team in the RFQ. You can choose if it should apply the same logic through the Available in Scenarios for RFQs and check if the column needs to Multiply based on Qty Breaks. To use a custom column for the Responses "Set Criteria" functionality within the Spend & Savings, you will need to have Available in Scenarios checked.

Supplier Rule in RFQ: If selected, this column will be available to your suppliers in their portal. Any validations set will apply to suppliers' data.

Note: When marking a column as required in Supplier Portable, you will need to ensure that the column is also checked as "Viewable & Editable by Suppliers" in order to prevent errors.

Default Value: When a column/field is editable by a supplier in their portal, but is not populated by the supplier, it will assign a Default Value of "0" to that field. You can also change the value to "1" using the dropdown. Therefore, when calculating formulas with no input from the supplier, it will assign the default “0” or “1” value so that the formulas will calculate correctly.

Part Category Template Column: Validation

Validations are used to ensure that erroneous data is not uploaded or manually entered. In the Validation tab, you can choose to make the category template column’s field required by suppliers when responding to your RFQs by checking the Supplier Portal box.

Having validation set to “Required” in the Supplier Portal will trigger a validation error to the supplier when a field is missing data in that particular column for your supplier’s RFQ.

Note: When marking a column as required in Supplier Portable, you will need to ensure that the column is also checked as "Viewable & Editable by Suppliers" in order to prevent errors.

Choose if you want the Data Type to be either a string, integer or numeric. For integer and numeric types you can set minimum and maximum acceptable values.

Data Source parameters allow you to specify if this category template column should be validated against data from a provided acceptable list of values or by none. When a system/user defined column from system/demand templates is in an RFQ (sourced from BOM or forecast), has list values and is set as editable in RFQ, then those fields will be displayed with a dropdown box listing the allowed values for that field.

Part Category Template Column: Populating

In the far right Populating tab of the category template column options, you can create a rule by using a Formula. This allows you to generate data through a formula into this column for use in your RFQ when using this category template.

To include a specific field in your formula, you will use the corresponding letter for the specific column from your template. The first column field will title it "A", the second column will be labelled as "B"... etc. Make sure that you use capital letters: lowercase "a" is not valid, but uppercase "A" is valid. Mathematical operators are supported, such as: + (plus), - (minus), * (multiply),  / (divide), and () used to group the order of the calculations. Spaces between operators and parameters are required.

Otherwise, instead of a formula, you can Add Conditional Fees by defining conditional rules in certain categories columns.

To enable the “Add Conditional Fee” feature you need to:

1. Open the Part Category template.
2. Edit the column to be used for the additional fees.
3. In the “Edit Column” window go to “Populating” tab.
4. Select the “Formula” radio button.
5. Check the “Add Conditional Fees” box.
6. Select the specifications and values.
7. Indicate if it's to "Apply a Fee" or a "Percentage" with those details.

This enables the conditional fees functionality, which disables the “Formula” function. These two features can’t be used simultaneously. For the logical operation that you want the condition to be based on, these are the following guidelines:

• Equal to (=), Greater than (>), Less than (<), Greater than or equal to (>=), Less than or equal to (=<), Not equal to (<>)
• Enter a value when needed to compare the condition against.
• Click on Add to add more conditions: 
  AND means that all conditions must be met
  OR means that one condition must be met
• Configure your fee to be either a flat fee or a percentage of the base price:
  When applying a flat fee, then enter the exact dollar amount of this fee.
  When applying a percentage, enter the percentage amount and the price column that you want the fee to add on.
  Adding a negative value will allow you to issue a discount instead of an added fee.

Considerations for multiple conditional fees in the same column:

• You can create up to 20 different conditional fees in a single template column.
• The systems check all configured conditional fees to see if any conditional fees must be applied.
• If the system finds multiple conditional fees that are met, then it will add them up and apply them to the final charge/discount. If you only want one condition to be considered then only use conditions that are mutually exclusive.

When needed, click on the trash can icon to delete a condition. 

Duplicate Part Category Templates

When creating a Part Category template, you can quickly Duplicate existing templates as needed. This is best practice when creating a similar template that’s only slightly different in its column selections.

On the Part Categories page in the far right column, click on the duplicate icon. This will open up the Duplicate Part Category Template window. Enter in the New Part Category Template Name of your duplicated category and then click on Duplicate to save.

Disable Part Category Template

When no longer using a Part Category template, you can mark that category as being inactive. Deactivated templates can still be reviewed. From the far right column, click on the X icon.

The modal will ask you to verify "Are you sure you want to disable this category?" Click on "Yes, I'm sure" to confirm or on Cancel.

You can change your display view of Part Categories to just show those that are only “Active” or “Inactive”. Click on the Status column's filter and check the box "Inactive". The Status column in your Part Categories list will show all deactivated categories with a status of "Inactive".

Templates can be reactivated at any time by clicking on the checkmark in the same far right column on the Part Categories page.

Add New Columns in a Part Category Template

You can edit an existing Part Category to add additional columns by clicking on Add New Column.

From the list of available columns, check the columns that you want to add or uncheck columns to remove them from this template. Then click on Add Column to save your changes. 

When needing to use columns not listed here, then as admins you will need to first add them as "User Defined" custom System Template columns. Please see training resources for more information.

Remove Columns from Part Category Templates

You can remove columns when possible from a Part Category template by opening the template, and clicking on the trash can icon for the column. 

It will ask if you "Are sure you want to remove the column?" Clicking on Remove will delete the column or you can click on Cancel.