Vendor Management

The optional Vendor Management App is available in Version 4.3 as a central place to manage vendors and vendor relationships with both your company and your clients. By using this system any vendor bills you enter can automatically populate Work Orders with each line on the vendor’s invoice with pricing dictated by rules (see Markup below). Note that QuickBooks Essentials or above is required to use the Vendor Management app.

All lines entered for Vendors need to be entered using Services codes that you define in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, click the Gear in the Upper right and then Product and Services. Use Services codes unless there is inventory to be handled. You can enter a code for each specific service that you want to track (e.g. Handyman, HVAC, Plumbing, Landscaping, etc.) but if you don’t need that kind of detail, the recommendation is to enter a “Reimbursable Services” service code such as the screenshot below. This can act as a general place to catch the information until you device which specific service codes you wish to create in the future.

The important thing to note on these Service Codes is to fill in the items under Purchasing Information – namely the “I purchase these” and the Account to charge for the expense. Don’t forget to include the Income account, which can define where you want the amounts you bill your client to go. Sometimes these two accounts can be the same (to just “wash” the amounts on your P&L), but frequently the sales account will point to something in Income and purchase account to a charge account in your Expenses. (E.g. Income from subcontractors and Subcontractors expense accounts.)

You can manage “Markup” rules for each vendor, both at a vendor level and at a services code level. The markup calculation consists of two parts: a percentage and a flat amount. The two work together to calculate the amount that you are going to charge your client for any services provided by this vendor.

As an example, you have the markup pct set to 10% and the Flat Amount to $15. If you were to enter in an invoice from this vendor for $200, your client would have a line (or lines) added to his Work Order for $235 ($200 + 10% markup + $15 markup).

Starting with the Vendor Maintenance screen, you’ll see information that has synced from your QuickBooks system (and will continue to sync in the future), along with some Home Watch specific information.

1. Contains information about the vendor’s insurance status: Do you have a COI from them? You can also upload the COI copy into the Attachments on the vendor. And, are you named as an additional insured?
2. These are the default markup amounts for this vendor.
3. Additional information sections that will be covered individually below.

The Customer Agreements section on the Vendor Screen consists of two sections:

1. This section lists each of the Customers that utilize this Vendor. By adding the Customer here the Vendor will also appear on the Customer’s screen in the Vendor section. If necessary, you can add additional information by clicking on the Update Agreement button (see the next section for details).
2. To assign this Vendor to a Customer easily, select the customer from the dropdown and press the “Add” button. You can then manage the Agreement easily using section 2.

When selecting the Update Agreement button noted on the screen above, you will be taken to a screen to manage the actual agreement between the Customer and the Vendor. There are 3 main sections on this screen:

1. Identifies the two parties for the relationship shown on this screen.
2. Allows you to manage detailed notes about the relationship or services that the vendor provided/provides for this Customer. The notes can be as detailed as necessary.
3. This section contains any special rates that might be applicable when this Vendor bills this Client. If these are specified here, these markup rates would be applied when the bill is added to a Work Order rather than the Default Rates on the Vendor Screen. You’ll see that there is a line for “Default Rates” which would apply to any lines entered for that Customer/Vendor relationship. If you have different rates depending on the Service provided, you can enter any number of Service codes on the lines below and specify rates that are specific to that service.

This section will list all Bills for the Vendor and show which Work Orders have been attached to each Bill. 

Using the buttons on each line, you can (1) Open the Work Order assigned, (2) Create a New Work Order for a particular bill, or (3) Assign a Bill to an existing Work Order. Note that Bills entered through the Home Watch Business Management System are entered through the Work Order and will be attached from the start. Bills entered through QuickBooks, which have synced here, will not be assigned and can either be (a) attached to an existing Work Order or (b) create a new work order to attach them to.

This section lists all Work Order that have been assigned to this Vendor and offers a quick button to jump to that Work Order itself.

From here everything functions as shown in the Work Order Entry documentation – enter in a Vendor Bill and the lines will be copied to the Work Order using the markup rules configured on these screens automatically. The only difference is that Bills are now entered using Service Codes instead of Expense Accounts.

As mentioned you’ll be able to access the vendor information and agreements from the Customer screen as well.