BirchStreet - Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents:

Benefits	1. Benefits of BirchStreet A) Avendra B) Integrated Suppliers C) Declining Check Book D) Customer Service & Support	Page 2
Avendra	1. BirchStreet’s Relationship with Avendra	Page 2
Vendors	1. Supplier Types A) Punch-Out B) Adopted C) Supplier On The Fly (“SOTF”)	Page 2
	2. Adding New Suppliers	Page 2
	3. Responsibility - Updating Pricing	Page 2
	4. How Suppliers Update Pricing	Page 2
	5. Changing the Delivery Day	Page 3
	6. Vendor unable to make Delivery	Page 3
	7. Vendor Maintenance	Page 3
Budget Impact	1. Pending Orders	Page 3
	2. Pre-Paid Expenses	Page 3
	3. Declining Check Book	Page 3
	4. Budget Impact & Approving	Page 3
	5. Current Budget for Department	Page 3
Reports	1. Un-Received Orders	Page 3
	2. Items Received / Not Invoiced	Page 3
	3. Report Formats	Page 3
	4. Viewing submitted PO’s that have not been Received	Page 3
Purchase Order Creation & Maintenance	1. After the fact Purchase Order’s	Page 4
	2. Submitting Orders to Impact Past Budget	Page 4
	3. Unit of Measures	Page 4
	4. Creating a PO with Multiple Departments / GL Accts	Page 4
	5. Selecting items from Multiple Vendors	Page 4
	6. Creating Purchase Orders with Past Purchase Date	Page 4
	7. Copying Purchase Orders	Page 4
Order Guides	1. Assigning default Department & GL Accounts	Page 4
	2. Importinga List of Items	Page 4
Approving	1. Approving Multiple Orders	Page 5
	2. Logging in to Approve	Page 5
	3. Approving while Traveling	Page 5
	4. Reallocating Departments & GL Accounts	Page 5
	5. Declining Orders	Page 5
	6. Edit Quantity, Department or GL Before Approving	Page 5
Workflows	1. How are they Determined & Who to contact	Page 5
User Settings	1. Notification Set-Up	Page 6
Training & Support	1. Training Available	Page 6
	2. Who to Contact for Access to BSS	Page 6
	3. 3 way match	Page 6

Topic – Benefits:

1. What are the benefits to using BirchStreet?

A) Avendra: BirchStreet is Avendra’s preferred procurement service provider. As such, BirchStreet has built relationships with Avendra’s suppliers.

B) Integrated Suppliers: All Avendra suppliers are in BirchStreet. These suppliers are responsible for maintaining their products and pricing. They are called Punch-Out or Adopted Suppliers.

C) Declining Cheque Book: Prior to submitting a purchase order, or during the approval phase, buyers and/or approvers have the ability to view their budget for that month and how the Purchase Orders will impact it.

D) Customer Service & Support: Users are able to contact BirchStreet’s customer service directly if they have questions or experiencing any difficulty with the system. Corporate Office champions are also available for questions when necessary.

Topic - Avendra:

1. What relationship does BirchStreet have with Avendra?

Avendra is the purchasing program that provides reduced costs, supply chain assurance, customer support and innovative solutions. BirchStreet is Avendra’s preferred procurement service provider.

Topic - Vendors:

1. What are the different types of suppliers? (punch-out, adopted, supplier on the fly)

A) Punch-out: Supplier has own website where pricing/cart is maintained. Buyers access the supplier’s site through a link in BirchStreet. Once shopping is completed, the Purchase Order is brought back into BirchStreet for processing.

B) Adopted: Supplier’s items are searchable in the BirchStreet catalog. The supplier maintains the products and pricing directly in BirchStreet.

C) Supplier on the Fly (SOTF):A local vendor that the buyer chooses to add to the system. The buyer maintains the items and pricing of supplier in an order guide. Typically a supplier that offers a small range of products and/or the Hotel does not order often from.

2. Can I add new suppliers after the system has been set up?

Yes, suppliers on the fly can be added via the supplier request form within BirchStreet, or adopted suppliers can be requested through your hotel admin, whom in turn will contact BirchStreet.

3. Will the vendors update their pricing in BirchStreet?
Yes, catalog suppliers will login to BirchStreet to maintain their pricing. Many of your catalog suppliers already use BirchStreet and know when and how to maintain their pricing. Should there be any issue with an Avendra supplier, BirchStreet and Avendra will ensure the pricing is up-to-date. For non-catalog suppliers (suppliers on the fly), the Hotel will be responsible for updating their own items.

4. How do suppliers update their pricing?  Who advises them when pricing is about to expire?

Suppliers login to BirchStreet to import their pricing through a template or manually update single line items. They set “price expiration dates” in their template to remind them when pricing needs to be updated.

5. If I need to change the delivery date for an order, will the vendor be contacted automatically?

The supplier will not be contacted automatically since the order has already been transmitted. The buyer will have to contact the vendor by phone or email.

6.  If a vendor is unable to make a delivery date, are they able to adjust the delivery date within the system?

A vendor is unable to make adjustments to your purchase order; however, they can use BirchStreet to contact you directly.

7. Is there a way to receive notifications when vendor maintenance is required (example; when W9 forms/ insurance certificates are about to expire)

The notification will not be sent in email; however, you can add a note or attach necessary forms to the supplier on the fly record.

Topic - Budget Impact:

1. Under the budget impact button you can view pending orders.  Can you search for these pending purchase orders?

Yes, in the PO tab you can search purchase orders by department and/or subject.

2. Can we setup pre-paid expenses without creating purchase orders, but have the expenses impact the budget for items such as newspapers, elevator maintenance, service contracts, etc.

Yes, using the budget adjustment entry screen the pre-paid expenses can be setup to impact the budget. This can be setup over multiple periods.

3. Declining check book – can you move from one month to the next?

Yes, if a Purchase Order has not been received in the expected period, you can adjust the budget period that the Purchase Order is hitting.

4. Am I able to easily review the budget impact before approving an order?

Yes, using the budget impact button, it will show you the budget impact for that purchase order.

5. Can I see where the current budget stands for the departments?
Yes, this information is a click away using the budget impact button. This feature allows you to see the current budget for the current period, including budget, consumed and remaining amounts. In addition to this, a report that can be run to show the entire list of Purchase Order’s charged to the budget periods, down to the item level.

Topic - Reports

1. Is there a report available to list un-received orders by line item?

Yes, there are multiple reports that can provide this data.

2. Is there a report to items received but not yet invoiced?

Yes, the reconciliation rollup report will provide this data.

3. I cannot access Excel, is there another way to receive a report?

Yes, in the output selection tab of the report screen you can select the HTML or CSV format option.

4. Is there a way to see the purchase orders that have been sent to the supplier, but not received in the system?
Yes, using the reporting function of BirchStreet you can run a Purchase Order to show this information. The reporting function of BirchStreet is very powerful. BirchStreet provides you the ability to set the report values for virtually anything.

Topic - Purchase Order(PURCHASE ORDER) Creation & Maintenance:

1. I placed an order without using BirchStreet but need to account for it in the system. How do I complete this?
It can be done two ways, either via a confirming Purchase Order (after the fact PO’s) or a budget adjustment entry. To create a confirming PO, create a Purchase Order like you normally do, however, check the confirming PO checkbox. This means the Purchase Order will not be sent to the supplier, and accounted for in the budget in BirchStreet.

2. The user wants to create a confirming PO for a Purchase Order that had been completed back in October. The user wants to make sure the budget will be impacted during that month but the user isn’t sure how to do this…
They can create a confirming PO but the required delivery must be this month. They can use the Receiving screen and enter the received date in October and this will reverse out the budget of November and apply it to October. Or a budget adjustment can be created to account for the PO in a past (or future) month.

3. Can buyers see both the primary and secondary unit of measure prices for items that have a willing to break case flag set to yes?

Not on the Catalog tab. The catalog tab will show only the price of the primary unit of measure. If the buyer wants to change to the secondary unit of measure or see the price for the secondary unit of measure, they can do this on the line edit on the Print/View/Edit screen, Cart or Order Guide tab.

4. I create Purchase Orders for multiple departments; can I have access to more than one? Can I charge multi GL accounts on one PO?

Yes, position rights will allow this and multiple GL accounts can be charged on a purchase order.

5. Can I select items from multi-vendors at one time and create a Purchase Orderfor both vendors at the same time?
Yes, if you have items selected from two (or more) different vendors the system will automatically create separate purchase orders for the different vendors.

6. Can you create a PO with a past purchase date?

No, however, you can use the budget adjustment to account for past purchase orders. Or, create a confirming purchase order.

7. Am I able to copy past purchase orders?

Yes, the Copy PO button will let you copy past purchase orders.

Topic - Order Guides

1. Can I assign a default department and GL account to items in the order guide so it is always assigned the information when the PO is created?
Yes, the default department and GL account can be assigned to items in the order guide. A default can also be set at the person level to default users to a certain GL account.

2. Can I import a list of items for a vendor so I don’t have to manually enter all the items in my order guide?
Yes, using the system’s export/importfunction it will allow you, or the supplier, to Populate an excel spreadsheet and import it into BirchStreet to create an order guide.

Topic Approving:

1. Can I approve multi Purchase Orders at one time?

No, each Purchase Orderis approved separately.

2. Do I need to log in differently if I want to create a Purchase Orderand approve another Purchase Order?

No, all the BirchStreet functions will be performed with one login.

3. Can I create or approve orders from home or while traveling?

Yes, you are able to approve orders from home if you have company laptop and access to VPN. To access the system, you will always need to login though the Fairmont Procurement Portal.

4. Reallocating Departments and GL Accounts

An approver can reallocate a Purchase Orderif they are coded to the wrong department and/or GL account.

5. If I decline an order, can the buyer make changes and re-submit?

Yes, the buyer can use the Copy PURCHASE ORDER button to re-create the order, make changes and resubmit it. However, a different Purchase Ordernumber will be created. (Except for Punch-Out PURCHASE ORDER’s).

6. As an approver, can I edit the quantity or department and GL account for a single line on multi-line purchase order?
Yes, both can be edited at the line level by the approver.

7. If an approver makes a change to my Purchase Orderwill I get notified?
You can receive a notification that it was approved with changes. Once you receive the notification you can login to the system to view the changes. Also, the approver can create a note on the PURCHASE ORDER indicating what was changed and why.

Topic Workflows:

1. How are workflows determined? Are Hotels able to create their own?

The workflows are determined during the initial set up phase of BirchStreet by the Controller and Hotel Admin. The Hotel Admin has the ability to make adjustments as necessary to workflows.

Topic - User Settings:

1. Am I able to set up my notifications?

Yes, in the My Settings screen you can setup how/when you are notified.

Topic Training & Support:

1. What types of training are available / what support will we get?

Training videos are available at any time via the Help link in BirchStreet. The BirchStreet support line can also be reached via phone or email for system assistance.

2. Who do I contact to be granted access to BirchStreet?

Contact your Hotel Admin for access to BirchStreet.

3. 3 way match - Receiving & AP

Refer to the Receiving and AP process on myfairmont.com, under the Procurement Department’s.

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