Setting Up And Using The Multi-company feature

Introduction

Channergy has the ability to manage multiple companies in one database.  The following documentation describes how to set them up and use them.

Creating Multiple Company Identities

There are several locations that you can set up the company identities in either the Operator ID or the Product (Inventory) screens.  The functionality and process are the same so for this example we will set it up in the Operator screen.

Go to the Settings screen

Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 09.44 AM

 

Select the Operator IDs link.

Screen Shot 03-22-16 at 09.31 AM

Add or Edit an Operator and click on the Setup… button next to the Company combo box this will open up the Company Setup screen

Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 09.47 AM

Add your company names here.

 

Using the Multiple Company Feature

Assigning Operators to Companies

If you want to assign a particular Operators to a specific company you can do so from the Company combo box in the Access Settings screen in the Operators.

Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 09.49 AM

 

What this does is assigns the Company name field in the orders table based on the setting for the operator.

Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 09.53 AM

In the example above, operator ID 9999 is logged and assigned to the Clothing R Us company.  So every time this user creates a new order the company Combo box in the order screen will have the Clothing R Us company.

Assigning Products to Companies

You can also assign company ID’s to all of your products.  You can do that in the Stock Levels tab in the Products screen.

Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 10.11 AM

Notice that there is also a Setup… button here as well.  Clicking on this button will open up the Company Setup screen as shown above.

Using the Multiple Company Feature with Reports

Most of the standard reports can be altered to support the multiple company feature.  Note this section assumes that you have some basic knowledge on how to use the report writer.

The general process is as follows

  1. Add the Company table to the Define Search tab
  2. Link the CompanyNo in the Company table to the OverrideCompanyNo field in either the Products table or the Orders table (depending on the report)
  3. Add the Company field to the Layout page.

Below is an example of how to edit a report to support the feature.  In this example we will use R4190 Inventory Counts by Product.  However the process will be the same for any of the reports.

  1. Add the Company table to the Define Search tab-Open the report and click on the Define Search tab, the screen will look like this. Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.22 AM
    1. Click on the Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.23 AM to add the Company table to the screen.                                                                                    Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.24 AM
    2. Select the Company table and Click on the Add Table button.
    3. The Company table will now be on the upper part of the Define Search screen (Note you can click on the boxes to move the tables around) Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.30 AM
  2. Link the CompanyNo in the Company table to the OverrideCompanyNo field                                                           Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.32 AM
    1.  Add the CompanyName to the query grid by clicking on the CompanyName field and dragging it down to the query grid. Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.34 AM
  3. Add the Company field to the Layout page.
    1.  Click on the Layout Page tab, it will look like this Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.36 AM
    2. Click on the Page Designer button ( Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.38 AMthis will open the Page Designer screen.  In most cases you will probably want to group your report by company name.  We will do that in the Arrange tab.                                                                                                                Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.38 AM 001
    3. Click on the Add button                                                                                                                      Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.41 AM
    4. Select the Group Header and Group Footer options                                                                  Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.43 AM
    5. Click on the Next> button                                                                                                                 Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.43 AM 001
    6. Click on the CompanyName field and then the >                                                                        Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.44 AM
    7. Click On Next> and then Finish.  You will now see new bands in the Layout screen called GH: CompanyName and GF: CompanyName  Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.47 AM
    8. Now we can add the CompanyName field to the layout, click on the Place tab in the Page Designer.                           Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.49 AM
    9. Click and Drag the CompanyName field to the new GH: CompanyName band on the report.                   Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 11.53 AM
    10. At this stage you can click on the Preview Report tab and look at the layout.  What usually works best when you add a Group Header like is done here is to move the column headers underneath the group header.  After some layout changes like mentioned above, your report layout can look something like this. Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 12.02 PM
      1. Note that the Totals field has been copied into the GF band, this will enable the report to sum the totals based on each company name.
    11. After clicking on the preview report, you can see the final product. Screen Shot 02-26-16 at 12.07 PM