Airlines cruises, tours, cars, hotels, or other trip services being sold are Suppliers. In this article learn the basics of searching across your supplier list, how to add a new supplier, the difference between a billing and service provider, and setting supplier payment rules.
Quick Links:
- Search Suppliers
- Add a Supplier
- Supplier Attachments/Links
- Supplier People
- Supplier Activities
- Supplier Payments
Search Suppliers
Search for suppliers using the default search bubbles for supplier name, preferred, or status. Click + Add Filter if you wish to search by more fields. Results are sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the arrow buttons to the right of any column headers.
Further define search results by utilizing cross area filters and operators. Cross area filters allow users to select filters from another folder in Tres. Currently users are able to add filters from the Trips folder. Operators are available in certain filters, and allow users to narrow search data. Current operators include: Equal, Not Equal, Blank, Not Blank, Starting With, and Contains.
Delete multiple supplier records by checking the box next to the records you wish to delete and then clicking the Delete button. Learn more about deleting multiple records.
Customize your columns by clicking the Manage Columns button. Learn more about managing columns.
Email, export to pdf, or print a physical copy your search results by clicking the appropriate buttons.
Add a Supplier
To add a new supplier, click + Add Supplier. Select Type (Billing and Service Provider, Billing Provider, or Service Provider); Supplier Name, Status (Active or Inactive), Airline Number (if applicable), Default Commission Rate, and Travel Category. If a supplier is preferred, check the Preferred box.
Note: A billing provider is a supplier that receives payments and pays out commission, such as a tour operator or cruise line. A service provider physically provides the service, such as a cruise ship or an individual hotel. Suppliers can be both a billing and a service provider. (Example: If you booked the Hyatt Maui directly then Hyatt Maui is Billing and Service Provider. If you booked Hyatt Maui through Pleasant Holidays. Pleasant is the Billing Provider and Hyatt Maui is the Service Provider.)
Tags: Tags are a way to identify something and use that identification to search in the future.
Examples: Cruise; Tour; Signature preferred; High commission, etc.
Supplier Payment Rules and Supplier Statement:
The Supplier Payment Rules enable agency owners to set a commission due date trigger (start date, end date, booking date) and the days after the trigger. By default, each supplier's payment rule is set to the trigger of reservation “Start Date”, and “Days After” set to 30. This section is only available for Billing Providers and Billing and Service Provider type suppliers.
Utilizing the Supplier Payment Rules is essential to fully utilize the “Projected Commission To Be Received” chart on the Sales and Commission Dashboard. It is important to note that the Supplier Payment Rules are an estimate based on travel type and do not guarantee payment according to the selected trigger.
Example: Carnival Cruise Lines pays your agency commission 15 days after the reservation end date. You would select End Date from the commission trigger date dropdown and enter 15 in the days after field.
Clicking the Supplier Statement link will open a new window showing a statement listing all outstanding commissions from that supplier based on the current date. The Supplier and Commission due Date Range filters can be modified to generate a different set of data if desired. The reservations listed are generated according to the supplier payment rules. The statement can be exported as a pdf, emailed, or printed to send to a supplier directly by clicking the appropriate button.
Communications: Add unlimited communications associated with the supplier. Enter Type (Phone, Email, Social Media, Web); Sub Type (free flow), Value (phone number, email address, or url), and Description. If the entry is a primary source of communication, check the Primary box. Example: Phone - Accounting Office - 505-555-9056 - Extension 123
Email and Phone communications will have an additional dropdown field for Contact where users can designate if the entry is Supplier Billing or Customer Service. Emails entered as Supplier Billing will be used as default for Supplier Statements.
Interface IDs: An Interface ID is a unique identifier assigned to the supplier profile to identify this supplier for use with another application. You can have multiple Interface IDs for each Advisor.
Addresses: If the supplier has a different mailing address, check the Include Mailing Address box to open up more address fields.
Remarks:
- Supplier Profile Remarks are internal remarks for your agency and are not client facing.
- Trip Statement Remarks are client facing remarks that will show on a trip statement including a reservation from the supplier.
- Link is a client facing hyperlink that will show on a trip statement including a reservation from the supplier. It's very useful to hyperlink a specific supplier's terms and conditions.
Click Save All at the top right corner of the screen.
Supplier Attachments/Links
Add any attachment by clicking + Add Attachment/Link. This will open up a pop up. To add attachments, simply drag and drop or browse for the file on your computer.
To add a link, enter the url and a description in the appropriate fields and then click Submit. Links to content are preferred as they are dynamic and take up less space in your system. Once the content is changed, the dynamic link in the client record is automatically updated.
Note: We recommend including the upload date when naming attachments and links. (Example: 5/1/22 Viking Summer Flyer).
Supplier People
People are your supplier contacts. This could be a Sales Rep or support team contact. To link a person to a supplier, open the People subfolder and click Link People. This generates a search menu below.
Enter data into your filters and then click Search to pull up a list of available people in your system. People will only show in your search results if you have already added them to your system. To link a person to a supplier, you must first create them as a Traveler.
Check the boxes next to each person you wish to link with this supplier .
Click Link Selected People.
Repeat this process to associate additional people.
Click Save All at the top right corner of the screen.
Once people have been associated with a supplier, designate a primary contact by toggling the Primary button next to their name. This is optional.
Assign roles, Roles are free form fields used to identify the role of each person associated with a supplier. (Examples: sales rep, accounting, customer support).
Unlink a person by checking off the box next to their name and clicking Unlink Selected People.
Supplier Activities
All activities associated with a supplier are found here. Results are sorted in ascending or descending order by any column by clicking the arrow button to the right of the column title. New activities are created directly from this screen by clicking + Add Activity and entering information in the pop up. Learn more about Activities.
Supplier Payments
See all payments paid by or paid to this supplier. Results are sorted in ascending or descending order by any column by clicking the arrow button to the right of the column title. Click on any individual payment to view full payment details in a new tab. Learn more about Payments.