Vendor Catalog & Imports
Vendor Catalog is another extension for Pimics.
It allows you to control and manage incoming data from vendors and suppliers. This module also contains items, but they are independent of your standard Business Central items. However, there is a process to move items from Vendor Catalog to your items and then to your sales and marketing channels. We call this process item activation. Our customers use several import types to get data into Vendor Catalog. See Imports to learn more about these options.
Tip
The Vendor Catalog contains similar data as Pimics does. But it should be used just for control of importing data. All product management should be done in Pimics modules like Product Information Management, Classifications, and Publications. There is better functionality to handle all the requirements of managing rich data.
One of the important tasks in Vendor Catalog is creating a mapping between incoming data and your data. Because you can get the same product from two different suppliers, you need to merge it into one. In this case, you will have two items (or more) in Vendor Catalog. Another challenge is that not all data is good enough to use. All of these topics are handled during item activation.
Related tasks
The following table outlines related tasks.
| To... | Go to ... |
|---|---|
| Manage vendor items | Manage Imports and Items |
| Select and activate items to BC items | Activate Vendor Items |
| We have a new supplier who gives us an Excel file | You need to create Partner, Mapping for the Excel and finally import data using the wizard |
| We have a new supplier who gives us an XML file | You need to create Partner, Mapping for the XML and finally import data using the wizard |
| We need to import BMECat with ETIM classification | First, import the ETIM classification, and then import the BMECat file |