If you have set up a customer to use the Business-to-Business portal (B2B), if they have a lot of staff then the customer may wish to have their employees log in and do their own ordering. The ‘Business to Employee’ platform (B2E) is for that purpose and allows employees to register their details and enter their own orders.
The B2B customer can optionally define a yearly allowance so that employees cannot purchase items over that allowance without approval.
The following describes how to configure the system for B2E and how to on-board B2B customers.
System Wide Configuration
The setup requirements here only have to be done for the first use of B2E.
Contact Type
Each employee is required to register their details (name, phone, email etc.) before they can use the B2E application. These details are stored as Contacts in the database, and the Contact Type is a required field for Contacts. So, it is necessary to define a Contact Type for new employee contacts.
The Contact Type can be used as a filter when reporting on contacts to target employee registered contacts. It can also be used to exclude them when working on other types of contact so we do recommend setting up a new Contact Type explicitly for the purpose of defining B2E Employee Contacts.
Tip: Enter ‘Contact Types’ in the function finder tool if you don’t know where to find it on the menu.
Once you have chosen or established a new Contact Type, you need to set this contact as the one to use for new Employee Portal Registrations. Use eCommerce Options to set the default contact type for employees under the B2E portal section.
You only have to set up one new contact type to be used for all employee contacts and set it as the default once. i.e. you do not have to do this step for each customer you on-board to the B2E platform.
Order Class
Set up a new Order Class for orders coming in via the B2E portal. Set the Order Class Type to ‘B2E’.
The Order Class is recorded on each order and this can be used as a filter when reporting on orders that come in via a B2E portal, or as a way of excluding those types of orders when reporting on open orders.
Customer Configuration
There are a few things to set up when on-boarding a B2B customer for B2E. You will need to know the ‘Customer Code’ of the B2B customer.
Template User
Create a new user via User Details that will be used as a template for creating employee users on registration.
Application Mode – set this to ‘B2E’
Primary Ecommerce customer – set this to the customer’s account code
Additional customer accounts – set this to branch accounts of the B2B customer if they have them. This is optional and is used if the B2B customer has different ‘departments’ and they want to track employee purchases by department or if employees in different departments have different products/items to order.
Email the Online Advantage help desk to advise them of the template user code set up. They will set up the B2E platform for the customer account with the template user and provide you with a URL to pass to your customer that they can then, in turn, pass to their employees.
Customer Account
Employee spend limit
If the customer allows employees to order up to a certain amount per year, then enter that amount on the customer via the Customer Details function in the Ecommerce section under ‘B2E Auto Approval Threshold’.
When the employee enters an order, the YTD value of previous invoices and any outstanding orders is compared against this limit. If the value of the new order is still under the set limit then it will be saved as a firm Sales Order (auto approved). If the value of the new order puts the employee over the spend limit, then they can only save the order as a Draft Order. A ‘Draft Order Confirmation’ is emailed to the nominated contact for the B2B customer and they can log in to the B2B portal and delete or approve the draft order to make it a firm sales order.
Leave this amount empty if there are no constraints on employee spending.
B2B Approval Contact
Where an employee spend limit is established, you will need to define a contact on the B2B customer who is the contact to send Draft Order Confirmations for approval to. Do this via Customer Details under the Contacts section. Choose and existing contact or add a new contact and set up an email address for that contact. Under the Document Delivery section, choose ‘B2E OC For Approval’ as the document and tick email.
Emails
There are several emails that may get sent and the subject and body of the email can be configured. Configure the email wording using the Standard Stationery Messages function.
Please note: the emails and attachments are formatted with your own logos. If your customer wants their logo then we can customise that for you, but it is a chargeable activity.
Each email is described below.
Employee: B2E Registration
This email is sent to the employee when they successfully register their details. It provides them with a user name and temporary password so they can log in to the B2E portal and start ordering.
Employee: Order Entered Notification
This email sends an Order Confirmation to the employee’s email address when they enter an order. The ‘From Address’ and ‘Subject’ should be configured here. The email body is somewhat irrelevant in this case as this email is configured to send as ‘html in-line’ – which just means the Order Confirmation is embedded as the body of the email rather than sent as a pdf attachment.
The Order Confirmation will show it is a ‘Draft’ order so the employee knows their order is subject to approval.
Supervisor: Draft Order Notification
If the employee order is a ‘draft’ due to spend limits, the Contact nominated on the Customer as the one to receive draft Order Confirmations for approval is sent this email. When they receive the email, they should log in to the B2B portal and approve or delete the draft order as needed.
Only draft orders are sent for approval. If the Employee enters an order within their spending budget, no intervention by a B2B ‘supervisor’ is required.
Employee: Order Approved
Once the supervisor approves a draft order, an email Order Confirmation is sent to the employee so they know their order is approved. Again, this email is ‘html in-line’ so the body of this email does not need to be changed.
Employee: Order Rejected
If the supervisor deletes the draft order, then this email is sent to the employee letting them know their order was cancelled.
Customer Onboarding
You may find the following useful for introducing customers to the B2E platform.
Sample Customer email
Dear xxxx,
If you have many employees and you would prefer them do their own ordering of xxxx, then you may be interested in using our ‘Business to Employee’ (B2E) portal.
We will provide you with a unique URL to give to your employees. They register to use the employee portal and from there, they can choose the xxxx items they need in the sizes/colours they require.
You can set a yearly spend limit. Orders below the spend limit are automatically confirmed and we will pick and ship the items to the address nominated by the employee at registration and send the invoice to your accounts team.
Where the orders are above the limit, the order will be saved in ‘draft’ mode, and an email with the order details will be sent to an email address nominated by you so that you can review the order and approve it or reject it via our ‘Business to Business’ (B2B) portal.
Watch this video for a short demonstration.
If you are interested in using or B2B portal or B2E portal please contact xxx to discuss.
NOTE: You can use our standard B2E video below or we can prepare you a customer specific video if required – time required would be chargeable.
Employee Onboarding
Your customer may find the following useful for introducing employees to the B2E platform.
Employee email
All employees may now order their own xxxx via this link.
First time users must register their details. Registration is easy and only takes a few minutes.
Once registration is confirmed, you will be sent an email (usually within 5 minutes) with your access name and password.
When you first log in, you must change your password. If you haven’t logged in for some time, you are asked to check your details are still correct.
Watch this short video on how to place an order.
All employees have a spend limit of $nnn per year. If you place an order that puts you above the limit, the order is set to ‘Draft’ status and is subject to approval by our purchasing team. You will receive an email if the order is approved or denied.