7. Groups and extras: head offices, features, resources and notices

Who this is for: owners, admins and managers, once the basics (lessons 2 to 6) are in place. Everything here is optional.

Groups: head offices and stores

A group is a head office with stores under it, such as a parts chain, or a franchisee who owns several sites.

• Logins at the head office see every order, invoice and return below it, and can order for any of its stores.
• A store's logins see only that store. A store never sees another store's orders.
• Prices follow the account the person signed in to. A head-office login ordering for a store gets head office's prices.

Step by step

1. Dealer Portal › Groups › New group.
2. Pick the Head office (a dealer account you've already added), then tick the Stores to put under it.
3. Tick Invoice these to the head office if head office pays for its stores' orders.
4. Press Add (it shows how many, such as Add 3).

Or open any dealer and set Account group › Part of on its Details tab, and choose where Invoices for this account's orders go to: the account itself, or the account above. When head office is invoiced, its on-account switch, hold and credit limit apply to the store's orders.

Each group shows its Orders, Spend, Owing and Overdue, with Open and Add stores. Expand it to see every store.

Changing many at once. Tick accounts in a group, choose what to Set (Pricing tier, Status, Invoiced to, Can order on account, Can drop ship or Dealer type) and press Apply to N.

Dealer type is a label you make up, such as "Corporate store" or "Authorised dealer". Filter by it here, give each type a colour under Type colours, and change a whole type at once. Only your team sees it.

Features

Setup › Features › Portal sections turns sections on or off for every dealer:

AI Quote Assistant (same screen): an AI Quote tab where dealers describe a job and get a trade quote from your catalogue. Each quote is billed to your business as AI usage: tick I understand each AI quote is billed to my business as AI usage, then Show the AI Quote tab to dealers, and set the quotes per dealer per day. See AI Quote Assistant→.

Delivery date changes: when the expected date of a product changes, choose who is told (dealers with a back-in-stock alert, and dealers with it on order), which changes send an email (later, earlier, or a date set where there was none), and Only when it moves by at least so many days (smaller moves add up).

Stock display: Exact quantities (such as "14 available", best when dealers sync stock into their own website) or Status only (In stock, Low stock, On order or Out of stock, with the next due date). This applies to the portal, CSV, API and feeds.

Order now when out of stock: a lead time per category. When a product in it has nothing available and nothing on order, dealers see Order now with the lead time instead of Out of stock. A product's own lead time beats it.

Press Save.

Support form

1. Setup › Support form: tick Support form on.
2. Write the Page text, set up the Request types (such as Technical support, Warranty claim) and any extra Questions.
3. Under New requests, choose the Priority, who it's Assign to, who hears about it, the Warranty (months) check and Files per request. Press Save.
4. Tick Support in Features too. See The Support tab→.

Resources

1. Setup › Resources › New resource.
2. Choose the Type: a YouTube or Vimeo video, a PDF or file, a web link, or an article.
3. Give it a Title, a Category and a Summary.
4. Visible to: all dealers, or only some tiers.
5. Show on product pages: attach it to products, product groups or brands, and it appears on those product pages under "Guides & downloads".
6. Tick Featured to show it first on the dealer's Resources page, tick Published and press Save. The list shows whether each is Featured and Published, and how many Views it has.

Categories (such as Installation, Spec sheets, Warranty) let dealers filter. Resources only show once Resources is on in Features.

Price notices

1. Setup › Price notices › New notice.
2. Fill in the Title, Effective date and Message.
3. Affected products (optional): SKUs, Brands and/or Product groups.
4. Who sees it: All dealers, or pick tiers.
5. Press Save draft, or Save & publish. Publishing shows a banner on their dashboard and emails them. They can download the affected products at their current price.

Later: Send again, Unpublish, edit or delete it.

A notice doesn't change any price. It's an announcement. Change the prices yourself on the effective date.

Data access for one dealer

Open the dealer, Data tab, and tick Data access (API & feeds). Their owner login can then make keys and a feed URL on the portal's Data page, or connect their own BuildTrack Pro. Untick it to stop every key straight away. Data (API & feeds) must be on in Features as well.

Returns

Dealer Portal › Returns (also Invoices › Dealer Returns) lists return and warranty requests. Each moves through Submitted, Under review, Approved, Awaiting goods and Goods received, and ends Credited, Replaced or Closed (or Rejected). The dealer sees each step.

Usage

Setup › Usage shows the last 30 days per dealer: Active keys, API/feed requests, Product rows served, Last API use, Resources opened and Last opened.

Where it ends

Head offices and stores are grouped and invoiced the right way, and the extras you want are on.