Vendor Rating on Product Documentation

Overview

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

BE-terna Vendor Rating helps you evaluate vendors in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in a structured, objective, and traceable way. The solution combines automatically calculated operational indicators with manual assessments from audits and self-disclosures.

Business value

Uses existing Business Central data for quantity reliability, delivery time, complaints, and PPM values.
Complements automatic indicators with qualitative input from audits and self-disclosures.
Evaluates vendors with a consistent scoring model and clearly defined criteria.
Makes results transparent for operational analysis and management decisions.
Supports continuous improvement of purchasing and quality processes.

Functional focus

Configurable rating model

You define main criteria, subcriteria, thresholds, grading logic, and classifications to match your requirements. This allows vendor evaluation to reflect different quality and purchasing strategies.

Setup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

Before you rate vendors, configure the core parameters for BE-terna Vendor Rating. This setup defines the time frame, scoring logic, and classification model that all later evaluations and reports are based on.

Prerequisites

BE-terna Vendor Rating is installed and available in Business Central.
You have access to the setup area as well as the relevant master and transaction data.
The rating period, scoring logic, and desired vendor classification have been aligned from a business perspective.

Recommended order

Maintain the rating setup with periods, total score, and business criteria.
Define grade percentages so manual ratings can be converted into points.
Define classifications with percentage thresholds.
Optionally create an example setup as a starting point.
Complete the rating criteria schema, thresholds, and vendor-specific settings.

Setup components

Rating setup

The rating setup defines the basis for later evaluations. This includes the relevant posting period, the maximum score, and the business criteria that are taken over from Business Central.

Example setup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

The example setup helps you get BE-terna Vendor Rating up and running quickly. It creates a predefined baseline structure that you can refine afterwards to match your business requirements.

Prerequisites

The basic Vendor Rating setup is already in place.
You want to start with a predefined rating schema.
No productive, individually designed criteria structure is in use yet.

Recommended order

Open the Vendor Rating setup.
Switch to the example setup area.
Create the example configuration once.
Review and refine the schema, weightings, and criteria afterwards.

Setup components

Open the example setup

You can reach the function through Setup and then Example setup. Use it when you do not want to start from an empty criteria structure.

Rating criteria schema

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

The rating criteria schema is the core element of BE-terna Vendor Rating. It defines which main criteria and subcriteria are used to evaluate vendors and how strongly each area contributes to the final result.

Prerequisites

The basic Vendor Rating setup is complete.
You have decided which quality, audit, and business criteria should be rated.
Responsibilities for weighting and evaluation have been aligned from a business perspective.

Recommended order

Create main criteria as the top-level evaluation areas.
Add subcriteria for each main criterion.
Define weightings in percent.
Enable rating types and calculation options.
Review audit, factbox, and business-criteria options for each subcriterion.

Setup components

Create main criteria

Main criteria provide the business structure of your vendor evaluation. Typical examples are quality management or logistics. For each main criterion, maintain the number, description, criterion level, rating type, percentage weighting, and the Confirmed calculation option.

Grade definitions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

Grade definitions let you define what each grade means for a given subcriterion. This makes manual grading more consistent and easier to understand.

Prerequisites

The rating criteria schema with the relevant subcriteria is available.
The relevant subcriterion is not evaluated only through a business criterion.
The intended business meaning of the grades has been aligned.

Recommended order

Open the relevant subcriterion in the rating criteria schema.
Switch to the grade definitions.
Maintain a short and unambiguous description for each grade.
Verify the display of the grade description in the rating audit.

Setup components

Prepare the subcriterion

Grade definitions are maintained for subcriteria that are evaluated manually. These descriptions help auditors and reviewers assign ratings consistently in audits and self-disclosures.

Thresholds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

Thresholds define how operational deviations for business-rated subcriteria are translated into grades. This turns process data into a reproducible evaluation result.

Prerequisites

The rating criteria schema contains subcriteria with Business rating enabled.
The corresponding Business criterion is selected for each subcriterion.
The desired business tolerances have been aligned.

Recommended order

Open the relevant subcriterion in the rating criteria schema.
Enable business rating and choose the correct business criterion.
Maintain thresholds that match the criterion.
Verify the outcome with real process data.

Setup components

Evaluate delivery time

For the Delivery time criterion, maintain thresholds as a deviation in days from the agreed delivery date. When the goods receipt is posted, the system compares due date and actual posting date and derives the appropriate grade automatically.

Vendor card

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose

On the vendor card, you define whether a vendor is included in vendor evaluation. The page also shows key figures from the last rating as well as PPM-related target values.

Prerequisites

The vendor exists as master data in Business Central.
The basic Vendor Rating setup and classification logic are maintained.
You know whether the vendor should also be evaluated through PPM.

Recommended order

Open the relevant vendor.
Go to the Rating section.
Enable vendor evaluation for the vendors that should be rated.
Decide whether PPM should be calculated and maintain target values.
Review the result of the last rating.

Setup components

Relevant fields in the Rating section

In the Rating section, you maintain or review the following fields in particular:

Process catalog

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Goal

This process catalog shows where operational data and manual assessments enter BE-terna Vendor Rating. It helps you understand how purchasing processes, complaints, and audits together shape the final vendor result.

Context

Vendor Rating combines indicators from purchasing processes with manually maintained assessments. The quality of the result therefore depends directly on how consistently purchase orders, goods receipts, complaints, and audits are maintained.

Prerequisites

The basic setup and the rating criteria schema are maintained.
Relevant vendors are enabled for vendor evaluation.
Thresholds, grade percentages, and classifications are defined.

Process catalog

Process Purchase orders Maintain appearance grades directly on the purchase order when no separate goods receipt is used. +

In purchase orders, the Appearance grade field is available on both the header and the lines.
The grade can be copied from the header to the lines and adjusted individually per line.
Grades 1 to 6 are supported; grade 1 is the default value.
After posting, the appearance grade is reset so follow-up and partial deliveries can be rated independently.

Click to enlarge

Reports and evaluations

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Purpose

The reports and evaluations in BE-terna Vendor Rating make results, trends, and root causes transparent. They support both operational analysis of individual ratings and the overall assessment of a vendor.

Business value

Shows individual ratings together with their origin and timestamp.
Makes historical developments in vendor evaluation visible.
Consolidates main criteria and subcriteria into one clear overall report.
Supports internal analysis and vendor discussions with reliable data.

Functional focus

Rating entries

Rating entries document every individual assessment of a criterion. They show which grade was assigned, when the rating was captured, and from which process or audit it originated.