Vendor collaboration: Maintain vendor certification in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (D365)

This topic describes the steps that your vendors can use to maintain their certifications using the Vendor collaboration workspace. More information can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/public-sector/manage-vendor-certification

Examples of certifications might include a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) or a Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) company. Vendors will need to enter certification information in the Vendor information workspace. From there, vendors will select More details, and then select Certifications.

In 2012, vendors from the Vendor Portal could Add/Edit certifications related to their company.   There was no Workflow or validation around this functionality.  The functionality before this feature allowed vendors to view the certificates associated with their record. With new feature released the system has parity to the 2012 functionality, allowing Collaboration vendors to manage their certifications history.    

Turn on the vendor certification feature

Before you can use this feature, it must be turned on in your system. Administrators can use the Feature management page to check the feature status and enable it if needed. In the Feature management workspace, the feature is listed in the following way:

• Module - Accounts payable

• Feature name - Enable vendor collaboration certification management

Once feature is activated, the first step is to create a certification type. See below.

Add a certification type

1. Go to Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Vendors > Certification type
2. Select New button and fill in required fields

After certification type creation, you can now create certificates. 

There are two places from where you can manage certificates. It depends who will be managing the certificates. 

• If Vendor is managing his own certificates by himself, she/he will use the following page: Vendor collaboration module > Vendor information link in the Workspaces section > More details > Certifications 
• If you company/customer (the D365 company issuing the PO or RFQ is a customer, then it states “Customer”) is managing certificates on behalf of the vendor, you will be using Accounts payable > Vendors > All vendors > Vendor tab > Set up section > Certifications

Adding a new certification by vendor

This page is used by vendor to manage their certificates

Go to Vendor collaboration module > Vendor information link in the Workspaces section > More details > Certifications 

To add a new certification, select the Add button that is located above the Certification grid in the Vendor information workspace. 

Enter the following information:

• Certification number
• Certification type
• Certifying organization
• Certification date
• Liability amount, if applicable
• Effective date
• Expiration date
• Comments, optional

If there are documents related to the specific certification, you can attach them by selecting the Document button. By default, Restriction field is set to External.

Once the document is attached, the document field will be updated to reflect it.

Certifications that are entered by your vendors on this page will be assigned a Source of Vendor.

After certification information has been added by a vendor, certification needs to be reviewed.

Vendor certification inquiry

After certification information has been added by a vendor, the information will be visible on the Vendor certification inquiry page. 

Go to Accounts payable > Inquiries and reports > Vendor reports > Vendor certification inquiry

By default, all new or modified certification records are visible on this page. 

An Accounts payable clerk can view the changes and validate the information through their confirmation process to validate. When the information has been confirmed, the certification record listed on the page can be selected and marked as reviewed. Marking the record as reviewed will remove it from the default list.

All certification changes are visible on the Vendor collaboration generated certifications page. If a change isn't displayed on the page, you can view it by adjusting the filters for the vendor account, effective date range, or choosing whether to include information for certification changes that have been reviewed.

Once certification is reviewed and marked as reviewed, Reviewed field will be updated accordingly. To update the Reviewed field back, Mark as reviewed button needs to be selected again. 

Adding a new certification on behalf of vendor

This page is used by the company to manage vendor's certificates. The page is not accessible by the Collaboration Vendors. 

Go to Accounts payable > Vendors > All vendors > Vendor tab > Set up section > Certifications

There are several differences between this page and vendor collaboration certifications page:

• If the certificate is entered from the vendor card, Source field will be set to Customer 
• If the certificate is entered from the vendor card, Reviewed will be set to YES automatically and no need to review it again.