iVend Retail – Overview and Understanding of the Subsidiary feature

This document describes the Subsidiary feature. Highlights of the functionality are:

· You can define and create single or multiple subsidiaries.

· All the stores will be defined under these subsidiaries.

· The head office can manage and distribute master data from the iVend Enterprise.

· Each subsidiary will have its own tax structures, pricing, item costing, customer balances and promotions.

· The application will allow retailers to define replenishment plans and policies across subsidiaries from the head office. 

· Stock movement across subsidiaries will be completed using the Stock Transfer document.

· Retailers will be able to define local currency, display settings and time zones for every subsidiary.

This feature allows back office users at the Head Office to have a consolidated view of:

· Sales across subsidiaries

· Payment collection across subsidiaries

· Stock Status across subsidiaries 

Note: This feature is available with iVend versions 6.5 and above AND the feature works with iVend unplugged only.

Business Scenario:

Let’s say we have Head Office at France with currency as Euro with two subsidiaries in two other countries namely the United Kingdom with currency as GBP and the United States with currency as USD.  Further to this, each of these subsidiaries have their own bricks and mortar stores in respective countries. Each subsidiary will have their own tax structures, item costing and promotions.

Refer to the diagram below to understand the subsidiary structure for the above business scenario pictorially:

Figure 1 – Subsidiary Diagram

How to enable and use the Subsidiary feature in iVend 6.5

Log into the iVend Management Console and then go to: Administration > System Initialization > Enterprise. On the Enterprise screen scroll down to the Subsidiary section, to enable this feature

Note: If iVend is running in the environment and you as a retailer enable the subsidiary feature then, the system will automatically create a default subsidiary in the system and this default subsidiary will then get attached to all subsidiary relevant masters.

Figure 2 – Enterprise Settings Screen

Note:  - If you want to assign newly created customers to all subsidiaries, then there is a checkbox, Assign Customers to all Subsidiary, which needs to be checked in the Enterprise Settings, Subsidiary section as well.

In the Subsidiary section, when you enable this feature, by selecting “Multiple Subsidiary Enabled”, the system generates a warning saying it’s an irreversible process and once it has been enabled it cannot be reversed.

Figure 3 – Subsidiary Warning

Once the Subsidiary is enabled in the system, the next step is to create the subsidiaries in iVend, for this go to: Administration > Retail Configuration > Subsidiary – the Subsidiary Search screen comes up.

Figure 4 – Subsidiary Search Screen

Click on [F3 New] button to create a subsidiary, enter the necessary details.

Figure 5 – Subsidiary Setup Screen

Go through the following information while creating the subsidiary in the system.

· Define Code, Description and the Local Currency with which the subsidiary will run

· Select the checkbox “Tax Inclusive” if items created in the Subsidiary are going to be tax inclusive else leave it unchecked if tax exclusive

Figure 6 – Subsidiary Setup Screen

Note: If you wish to assign the new subsidiary to existing masters like Products, Customers, Vendors and Employees you will have to select the corresponding checkboxes.

In some of the Masters, multiple subsidiaries can be assigned and on some only a single subsidiary can be assigned. The list of masters with the Single / Multiple option is provided below in the following table.

Note: There are certain fields which can be setup as subsidiary specific. For example, you want a different preferred vendor for different subsidiaries. Another example could be that in one subsidiary the product is tax Inclusive and in the other it is tax exclusive. Therefore, go through the list below for subsidiary specific masters with respective fields:

· Subsidiary specific fields for Products: Vendor, Maximum Open Price, Is Inclusive, Is Tax Exempt, On Hold

· Subsidiary specific fields for Customer: Balances, Order Balance, Layaway Balance, Sales Tax Code, Price List, Credit Limit, Tax Number, Electronic Id, Payment Type, Tax Exempt, Tax Free, Is Active, On Hold

· Subsidiary specific fields for Vendor: Purchase Tax Code, Price List, Tax Exempt, Tax Number, Is Active, On Hold

Assigning Multiple and Single Subsidiaries in the Masters.

As can be seen in the screen image below, the customer master screen can be assigned to multiple subsidiaries.

Figure 7 – Customer Master Screen

Whereas on the other hand, the Tax Code screen, you can only select a single subsidiary.

Figure 8 – Tax Master Screen

This concludes the KB on iVend Retail – Overview and Understanding of the Subsidiary feature.