Tradesimple Portal Notifications: Troubleshooting Trading Relationship Issues

 Overview

This article outlines initial troubleshooting steps to take when a Portal Notification is received advising that there is an issue with a trading relationship code. This includes ‘Branch References’ and ‘Sender Codes for Recipients’ mentioned in the notifications. Trading relationships exist between the 'customer' and the 'supplier'.

Please be advised that as the customer manages trading relationships, the troubleshooting steps in this article are aimed at them.

Trading Relationships

To trade with a site, there must be a unique trading relationship between the site and the supplier. This is known on Purchase to Pay as the ‘Suppliers Code for Unit’. This can also be known as ‘Sender Code for Recipient’ and ‘Account Code.’

In most instances, the supplier provides Supplier Codes for Units. The customer manages them when logged in at Head Office level. 

Failure Reason: Invalid Senders Code for Recipient 

Suppliers sending documents (such as Purchase Order Confirmations and Invoices) into the system usually receive this type of notification. 

Fig.1 - No recipients found for these codes

If there is no established Supplier Code for a Unit between a site and a supplier, or if the provided code is not associated with any site, the document will not be processed successfully. This applies as well in instances of duplicate Supplier Codes for a Unit under the same supplier (it's possible to have the same code linked to different suppliers). In such cases, the system won't be able to determine the intended site for the document, resulting in the generation of this notification.

Customer Troubleshooting Steps 

The correct code will need to be confirmed or input against the relevant site(s) and the document resent. Customers can check the status of the relationship and the codes via the path below.

• Navigate to Maintain Suppliers
• Against the supplier in question, select Relationships (Fig.2)
• Search for the site
• Validate or input the Suppliers Code for Unit
• Select Save All Changes to save any updates

Fig.2 - Maintain Suppliers

Please note for Inventory customers the process is different. Please see this guide for Inventory steps for adding a code: Inventory Restaurants: Entering a Supplier Site Code

Troubleshooting Duplicate Codes

To check for duplicate codes, follow the path outlined above, then

• Select the Search Suppliers Code radio button
• Put the code in the Search Text field and select Search

This will bring back any sites with the specified code (Fig.3).

Fig.3 - Example of a duplicate supplier code for unit

• When removing a duplicate, save the Suppliers Code for Unit as a dash '-' first, then save with the correct code

There is system logic in place to prevent duplicate codes from being added via the website, however, there may still be duplicates in the system from trading relationship load files or from before the logic was put in place.

If a duplicate code does not appear in this search, it may be under a site that has been disabled from trading. Closed sites do not show under Maintain Suppliers. The site will need to be enabled again by the Customer temporarily to remove the code.

Access to do this will be dependent on user permissions. Speak to a system administrator if there is no access to the below path.

• Navigate to My Business
• Search for the site and select Enable Trading

The site should now be searchable via Maintain Suppliers and the duplicate code is available to remove. It is best practice to remove any associated Supplier’s code for Units before disabling a site.

• Disable the site again once the duplicate code is removed.

Once the code is unique for the site, the document can be re-sent by the supplier.

Failure Reason: Invalid Branch Reference

Suppliers sending documents into the system usually receive this type of notification. Please see Fig.4 below for an example of how the notification looks.

Fig.4 – Invalid Branch Reference

The Branch Reference usually refers to a supplier PL account. This is in use by certain customers as a way to split suppliers (into separate price bands for example). If the Branch Reference is incorrect the system will not be able to determine the correct PL account the document relates to.

Customer Troubleshooting Steps 

The Branch Reference is also known as the Supplier's Contract Code. This can be found at:

• Navigate to Maintain Suppliers
• Search for the desired PL account
• Select Edit against the PL account
• Validate the Supplier's Contract Code (Fig.5)

Fig.5 - Supplier's Contract Code

Also to note

On occasions, notifications can fail to generate. This can happen when a large file fails to pass validation and the resulting email is too large to generate. Failure to generate a notification can also occur when the file sent in has too many issues present within the file.

Please raise a technical ticket with the Support Team if documents still fail after the troubleshooting steps have been taken.