Adding a manufacturer is the second step in building an asset model; the relevant category must be in place before a manufacturer can be associated with it, and adding a Model Number completes the Asset Model that applies to your asset.

Manufacturer may seem related to another set of information that you enter as "company," but Tracmor defines these for the purpose of asset and inventory tracking as follows:

Manufacturers are related to asset models; that is, manufacturers produce the assets and inventory.
Companies are related to contacts and are used for shipping and receiving assets and inventory items.

This article describes:

Finding the menu options
Creating one manufacturer at a time
Importing a list of manufacturers
Creating a filtered manufacturer list using search
Archiving manufacturers
Deleting manufacturers
Exporting the manufacturer list
Editing manufacturers
Adding Custom Fields
Related articles

Finding the menu options

Options for creating and editing Manufacturers are accessed from the side menu (click on the carat symbol as shown by the red arrow):

Note: If the side menu is not visible, click on the square to the left of Global Search at the top of the screen to show/hide the side menu.

Once you click on Manufacturer>Manufacturers you will have access to the options circled in red, which allow you to:

Access all functions facilitated by the icons in the upper right, as described in detail below
Refine the Manufacturer List to only display the manufacturers of interest using the Manufacturer Search function
Access the complete Manufacturer List

Creating one manufacturer at a time

Navigate Manufacturer>Create Manufacturer (side menu), and click:

Or, click on Manufacturer>Manufacturers (side menu, option below the one shown in the previous screenshot), then click on the blue plus icon (upper right corner).

The two required fields in the Create Manufacturer dialog box are:

Category. Choose a category already created from the dropdown menu, or click on the (blue) plus icon to create a category "as-you-go" (both are circled in red below).
Manufacturer Name. Enter the manufacturer of the asset of interest. (Manufacturer Description is optional.)

Click on Save.

Another way to add one manufacturer at a time is by clicking on the plus icon any time you see a dialog box like this:

Importing a list of manufacturers

Click on Manufacturer>Manufacturers (side menu).

Click on the (green) down arrow icon (upper right corner) to initiate the import process.

From the Import Manufacturers dialog box, download a standard import file by clicking on the (tan) download icon.

Note: Clicking on the (blue) imported file list icon opens a list view of files imported previously.

Open the downloaded file, preferably in MS Excel. Note that the column headings match the fields in the Create Manufacturer dialogue box.

Note: Any custom fields that were created for manufactures will be included in the downloaded file and will list with a prefix "_cfv."

List a Manufacturer Name (required) for each row and a Category Name to be associated with this manufacturer (required). Manufacturer Descriptions are optional. Do not skip any rows.

Important: The Category Name for each new Manufacturer must have already been created so that it can be mapped to the category. In other words, you cannot create a Category with the standard import file for Manufacturers; you must use the standard import file for Categories.

Save the file with a descriptive name. Click on Choose File to navigate to the saved file and once the file name appears instead of [No file chosen], click on Upload File.

Once the file is imported, you will receive a status report via the Imported File List showing the number of manufacturers that were not successfully imported; they are indicated as “Skipped.”

Note: Clicking Undo removes the imported values. This option is only available for the most recent import.

To determine the error, download the file by clicking on the link in the skipped column. In the example above, the link is the number "1."

Creating a filtered manufacturer list using search

Note: Manufacturers are not searchable through the global search function at the top of the screen.

To search for manufacturers or create a filtered list, navigate to Manufacturer>Manufacturers (side menu).

From his view an unfiltered Manufacturer List will appear below the search function. You can refine the list using the search function to apply the following filters: Manufacturer Name, Available or Archive status, and the date (created or modified). Once the search terms are chosen, click on Apply Filter. The Manufacturer List will be filtered accordingly.

Note: Clicking on the check box at the top of the column selects all items in the list.

Archiving manufacturers

Applying the filter in the search function (described in the previous section) is a quick way of creating a list of manufacturers to archive or un-archive. Once you have created the list, you can select items by clicking the check box next to each item (or check the box at the top of the column to select all).

To archive (or unarchive) the selected items, click on the yellow icon in the upper right hand corner.

Archived information is still searchable and can be unarchived.

Deleting manufacturers

You can delete one manufacturer at a time while editing. You can also mass delete them by selecting one or more from the Manufacturer List — by clicking the check box to the left of each one to be deleted — and then clicking on the (red) trash icon.

Applying the search function to create a filtered list is a quick way of creating a list of items you want to delete. Once your list is filtered, select items by clicking the check box next to each item, or clicking the check box at the top of the column to select all items in the list.

Exporting the manufacturer list

If you need a record of manufacturers you have entered you can export a list by clicking on the export icon in the upper right hand corner. The list downloads as an MS Excel spreadsheet and includes all manufacturers.

Note: The spreadsheet is password protected and cannot be edited without the password that Tracmor sent to your account admin.

Editing manufacturers

Navigate to the Manufacturer List by clicking on Manufacturer>Manufacturers (side menu).

Scroll down to Manufacturer Name of interest (or use the search function, indicated by the red arrow on the right) and click on the name — it's a link (indicated by the red arrow on the left):

When you click on the Manufacturer Name your options are: Edit, Delete, or Cancel:

Clicking on Edit allows you to:

Change the Category by clicking on the "x" of the current Category and selecting another Category from the dropdown menu — or — adding a new Category by clicking on the (blue) plus icon.
Edit the Manufacturer Name.
Editing the Manufacturer Description.

Click on Save to upload your changes (or click on Cancel to end the edit).