Purchasing - Features and Configuration

If you have the Service Desk edition, you can use iSupport’s Purchasing functionality to track products and services, submit purchase requests, and associate orders with Incident, Problem, Change, and Asset records. A purchase request becomes a purchase order after it has been saved or approved (if applicable).

Basic Configuration

Ensure that Asset functionality is enabled and then enable Purchasing functionality and set basic Purchasing options via Feature Basics.

Product records are grouped according to asset types; configure asset types via the Asset Management tab in Feature Basics.

Product records must be associated with a product vendor. You can:

Designate customers and companies as vendors via the Vendor checkbox in the Customer or Company Profile screen (accessed via the iSupport Desktop). Once this checkbox is selected, the Vendor Products section appears at the bottom of the screen for associating Product records later. (You can associate a vendor in the Product screen as well.)
Designate support representatives as vendors via the Support Representative Profile screen. Note that if you plan to use the Charge/Deduct Time Worked feature, the support representative entering work history must be designated as a vendor.
Import vendor product data from a Comma Separated Value .csv or Microsoft Excel .xlsx file.

If applicable, use the Purchase Tax and Fee screen (accessed via the Desktop Create menu) to create Tax and Fee records for use in Product records, and ultimately, in purchase requests. You can set the charge type as a rate percentage, a per line item charge, or a per order charge (same fee charged regardless of the quantity specified for a line item).

Use the Product screen to create Product records using predefined asset types and vendors, and enable a product to be available via the mySupport portal.

Creating Purchase Requests

You can manually create purchase requests via the Purchase Request screen, as well as the Incident, Problem, Change, and Asset screens.

Customers can submit purchase requests via a mySupport portal.

Customizing iSupport Defaults

iSupport includes a default Purchase screen layout with a comprehensive set of fields for tracking Purchase data, but you can redesign it to include fields and tabs that are specific to your company. You can create different layouts to assign to support representative groups, customer groups, categories, incident templates, and hierarchy templates.

You can create custom status labels for the Purchase status levels of Open and Closed.

If there are fields you need that are not included in iSupport by default, you can create custom fields.

You can include a field for entering or automatically generating a custom number.

You can enable your customers to submit and view Purchase Request records on mySupport portals, and you can customize the submission and display screen layouts.

Sending Notifications

You can use Purchasing rules to send Desktop and email notifications when specified conditions based on Purchase record fields or events are met; for example, you can configure a rule to send a notification when the status of a Purchase record is modified.

You can use or copy and modify iSupport's default notifications, or you can create new custom notifications. You can include data from work items and designate any applicable recipients.

You can send correspondence email from the Purchase Request screen. Correspondence can include data from Incident records; correspondence templates can be utilized, and an Others to Notify list can be used for keeping those not directly involved in the loop.

Using Workflow Features

You can create purchase templates for frequent requests with similar content. iSupport’s Service Catalog functionality enables customer requests of services, products, policies/procedures, etc. utilizing configured purchase request templates. iSupport Templates

You can require a Purchase Request record to be approved before most functions can be performed. Approval cycles are initiated via Purchasing rules.

You can set up cost centers and job functions for use in reporting.

You can automatically change field values on Purchase Order records via Purchasing rules.

You can enable automatic creation of Asset records if all of the expected quantity for a line item on a purchase order is received.

When entering work history in the Incident, Problem, and Change screens, you can add or deduct a charge on an associated purchase order. Note that the support representative entering work history must be designated as a vendor in the Support Representative Profile screen.

You can configure webhooks to post Purchasing data to a web application via Purchasing rules.

Managing Purchase Records

You can use the Action menu in the View component on the Desktop to perform actions such as opening and routing multiple items.

You can archive Purchase records.

You can configure roles/permissions for support reps and rep groups using Purchasing functionality via the Support Representatives screen.