Sales Reporting and Reconciliation Statewide Contract Reporting System Contractor (Vendor) Frequently Asked Questions UPDATED: August 7, 2010 1
Table of Contents Frequently Asked Questions... 3 How can I access the Statewide Contract Reporting System?... 3 When I attempt to upload an Offline Sales Report I keep receiving error messages?... 3 Do I have to upload an Offline Sales Report even I do not have sales?... 3 Once I am done working in the Statewide Contract Reporting System how can I return to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts webpage?... 3 May I upload more than one sales report for a reporting timeframe?... 4 How do I report a Purchase Order that has been cancelled?... 4 How do I report a Modified Purchase Order?... 4 Where can I find my Vendor ID?... 4 How do I use the Contractor Sales Report Template?... 4 Template Errors... 7 If I have all eligible POs on my report, will the new system account for duplicates? in other words, will it over-write the info already captured by the SmartBuy system?... 8 I am a TXMAS vendor and need to understand how the total PO dollar amount and TXMAS incidental amounts should be reported. How do I report these two different amounts for a purchase order?... 8 Did you not find the answer to your question?... 9 2
Frequently Asked Questions How can I access the Statewide Contract Reporting System? There are two ways to access the Statewide Contract Reporting System: 1) You may login into CMBL and select the Statewide Contract Reporting System Link. 2) You may also enter the URL (TBD) to visit the Statewide Contract Reporting System. Note: If you access the Statewide Contract Reporting System without logging in through CMBL, you will not have the ability to report offline sales. When I attempt to upload an Offline Sales Report I keep receiving error messages? If an error is found in a report that you have attempted to upload, the system will identify the first five errors found in the sales report. The error message will include location information for the errors found: Field Name (column), Row Number, and the type of error found (ex: format, missing information, etc). Using the error location information you can return to your sales report in Excel and correct errors found. If there are more than five errors, look for common errors and correct those throughout the file. If you are unclear why you received the error you can reference Tab1 Template Instructions of the Contractor Sales Report Template. To confirm that all errors were corrected it is important to re-run the error checking tool located in the Offline Sales Report Template (in Microsoft Excel). You should continue to run the Error- Checking tool until the error checking tool confirms that there are no errors found in the report. Once no more errors found, you can re-upload the report. Note: See the How do I use the Contractor Sales Report Template? section in this document. There is also an instructions tab in the Contractor Sales Report Template that includes detailed instructions. Do I have to upload an Offline Sales Report even I do not have sales? No, you do not need to upload an Offline Sales Report; however, you MUST submit that you did not have sales on an individual contract or all your contracts for the reporting month using the Submit No Sales link from the Statewide Contract Reporting dashboard. Note: It is important that all contracts be accounted for when reporting offline sales. When submitting No Sales it is important that you select the Select All Contracts option only when there are No Sales for all your contracts. Once I am done working in the Statewide Contract Reporting System how can I return to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts webpage? To return to Texas CPA webpage, click the Window on State Government link located in the top left hand corner of the page to be directed. Note: To return to CMBL select the Return to CMBL link on the bottom right hand corner. 3
May I upload more than one sales report for a reporting timeframe? Statewide Contract Reporting System FAQs Yes, you may upload as many reports as necessary during a reporting timeframe as long as you are reporting sales information for the reporting period. As a reminder, contractor sales reports are due by the 10 th calendar day of each month. How do I report a Purchase Order that has been cancelled? Cancelled Purchase Orders should be reported using the Contractor Sales Report Template. The Purchase Order should be entered as all other Purchase Orders are entered but with a 0.00 dollar value in the Purchase Order Amount field. The Sales Report should then be uploaded to the Statewide Contract Reporting System. Note: It is important that the following information is not modified from when the Purchase Order was originally created: Purchase Order Number and Order Date and Customer (Ordering Entity) Number (This information is what makes a Purchase Order unique). If a user uploads a file that has this same information, this replaces the previously reported POs. How do I report a Modified Purchase Order? Modified Purchase Orders should be reported the same way as a cancelled Purchase Order with the modified information included (Purchase Order Amount, etc). Note: It is important that the following information is not modified from when the Purchase Order was originally created: Purchase Order Number and Order Date and Customer (Ordering Entity) Number (This information is what makes a Purchase Order unique). Where can I find my Vendor ID? The Vendor Id is your FEIN with a 1 placed in front of it and a check digit placed on the end of it by the Comptroller s office. This is your vendor ID that is listed in the CMBL Search. (13 digits) How do I use the Contractor Sales Report Template? Below outlines the Contractor Sales Report Template and how the template should be completed. When the template is downloaded and opened, the contractor will see two tabs in the Excel Workbook. Tab 1 - Template Instructions The first section of the Template Instructions tab in the template workbook outlines the step by step instructions for completing the Contractor Sales Report Template. The second section of the Template Instructions tab is the descriptions of the possible errors that the Error Checking tool may find (Describe in the Tab 2 section later in this document). The last section in the Template Instruction tab is the formatting criteria for each field in the table. When errors occur when the contractor uses the Error Checking tool the fields and descriptions table should be referenced to make sure that all data enter meets the requirements shown below. 4
Tab 2 Contract Sales Report Template The second tab in the Contract Sales Report Template is the template itself. This is the tab where all offline sales information should be entered. Data can either be manually entered or copied and pasted in the cells. It is important that if you are copying and pasting in data that the data be in the correct format (in the correct columns, etc) as in the template. 1. Enter Data in the corresponding fields following the field descriptions provided in Tab 1 under Fields and Descriptions 2. Cells may be highlighted if data entered is not formatted correctly or if a required cell is left blank. a. Cells highlighted in Yellow If a cell is highlighted in Yellow this means a field was left blank that is required. i. Example: b. Cells highlighted in Red If a cell is highlighted in Red this means that the cell contains a formatting error. There are several possible formatting errors that can occur. The Fields and Descriptions section of the Template Instructions tab should be referenced for further clarification. i. Example: 3. Once all data is entered into the template the file should be saved using the naming convention describe in the template instructions tab ( Contract Name-Contractor ID- Month-Year.xlsx or.xls ex: Acme Sales-1234567890123-07-2008.xlsx) 4. Once the file is saved, the Error-Checking tool should be run. This tool is located under the Add-ins tab at the top in the menu bar. 5
5. Select the Add-Ins tab and on the left hand side there will be a menu command called Error-Checking. This link should be selected to initiate the tool. 6. Once the tool is run there are two error messages that could display. a. The Data Validation Successful message means that the error-checking tool did not find any errors. This means that the Sales Report is in the correct format to upload and submit. b. The Errors Found message means that there were errors found in the file. Cells that contain errors will be highlighted either red or yellow depending on the error type. (Reference the Common Template Errors section for further clarification) 7. Once errors are corrected the Error-Checking tool should be re-run until there are no errors found in the sales report. 6
Template Errors There are several errors that could occur before and after running the Error-Checking tool located in the Sales Report Template. Yellow Cell Errors A cell is highlighted yellow in the case that required data is missing. To determine what data is required or optional the Fields and Descriptions table in the Template Instructions tab should be referenced. Required fields must be included to meet the requirements to submit the report to the Statewide Contract Reporting System. Red Cell Errors A cell is highlighted red in the case that there are formatting issues. There are several possible formatting errors that could occur. It is important that the Fields and Descriptions table is reference in the template instructions tab. Common Errors: Special Characters Special Characters are not allowed in fields except for those denoted to allow special character is the Fields and Descriptions table. The following special characters are not allowed in any cell: >, <, or. Contract Number- Contract Numbers must meet the formatting requirements allowed in the Fields and Descriptions table dependent on the Contract Type. Field Length- Data entered in the fields cannot exceed the maximum field length as outlined in the Fields and Descriptions table. Order Date- All order dates entered must be greater than or equal to July 1 st, 2010. Red Cell Error with Comment A cell is highlighted red with the comment and the message: Duplicate Purchase Order when the Error Checking Tool finds a duplicate Purchase Order. A Purchase Order is considered a duplicate when the following Purchase Order data is the same as another Purchase Order: Purchase Order Number and Order Date and Customer (Ordering Entity) Number Once an Offline Sales Report has been completed and the Error-Checking tool has been used in the Sales Report template with no errors found the report is ready to submit. If there are 2 lines (totaling $100) in a given month, and later another line ($30) needs to be added, what happens to the report for January? 7
As long as the Purchase Order Number (Column A) and the Order Date (Column C) are exactly the same, the new PO will be added to the system. In this case, a new PO for $130 would need to be added. Remember to ALWAYS update a PO for the TOTAL correct amount, not a net a adjustment. When reporting No Sales, is it necessary to select the correct type of contract? Yes. Please select the type of contract, such as Term or TXMAS. What causes duplicate transactions to appear? The system will error check within a given file to ensure there are no duplicates. However, if the user enters a PO and changes the date or customer number, the system treats that as two separate POs, which creates a duplicate. If there is a duplicate, remember than a PO can be cancelled by uploading a zero dollar value. If a PO is added in February, and 5 months later it is added again, what happens to February? The net difference would be calculated and invoiced accordingly. If the exact same amount is reported for the same PO, the net difference would be zero, so the contractor would not be billed an additional amount. I submitted a report in July, with orders for June; does that mean my July reporting requirement is met? If the spreadsheet you imported did not contain Order Dates in July, then July s report was not addressed. Therefore, if you did not report No Sales for July, July s report still needs to be submitted. If I have all eligible POs on my report, will the new system account for duplicates (will the system over-write the info already captured by TxSmartBuy)? No. Contractors (term or TXMAS) should NOT report any online sales (directly from TxSmartBuy). The new system will show them their online sales, plus the offline sales that they report, but the system does not reconcile the two. For example, if a contractor only has two separate POs in a month; one directly from TxSmartBuy, and the other issued directly from a coop. The contractor should only report back the PO that they received directly from the co-op. I am a TXMAS vendor and need to understand how the total PO dollar amount and TXMAS incidental amounts should be reported. How do I report these two different amounts for a purchase order? TXMAS contractors with incidental fees (which are not assessed the TXMAS rebate, but are assessed the TxSmartBuy administrative fee) can report those amounts in a separate column from the PO. The total PO dollar amount should include the incidental amount. For example, say a PO is for a $100 shelf, plus $15 of installation (TXMAS incidental), for a total PO amount of $115. In that case, $115 goes in purchase order amount, and $15 goes in TXMAS incidental amount. 8
Did you not find the answer to your question? If you did not find the answer to your questions in this FAQ document please refer to the Statewide Contract Reporting System Contractor Guide for detailed instructions on using the Statewide Contract Reporting System. 9