General information

Software concept

The concept of the procurement is based on the need to have all important information shown on one screen. This allows that a purchaser doesn't have to switch between different views but can work within one window.

For a comfortable use of the MESPAS TSM, a screen of at least 24" is essential; recommended are two > 24" or one > 34" screen with HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels or higher.

All procurement activities are arranged in cases. A case is like a folder that contains all steps in the procurement process beginning with the purchase request from the vessel and ending with the invoice and the order tracking.

General handling

•Many actions can be taken through pressing the right mouse button

•Save data with the default windows key combination "Ctrl + S".

•A number of windows are open at the same time. If you want to refresh the windows, use the right mouse button in the "My filters" area.

•It is possible to enlarge the details view through the button "Details detached".

•Emails containing requests, orders etc. are sent in the name of MESPAS (noreply@mepas.com). The ‘reply to’ field on the email contains the email of the purchaser, who created the corresponding object.

Procurement Roles

There are eight different roles in the MESPAS TSM for the different functions and rights of your co-workers. These roles are distributed by the company administrator to the user. For a short description of all roles please see roles and usecases.

Procurement Presettings

To adapt the software to your companies specific requirements and operational procedures, it is possible to customize the software to a certain level. These settings are done by MESPAS. If you would like to change the settings, please contact your project manager at MESPAS or MESPAS Support at support@mespas.com.

•Approval function: There is the possibility of an approval function for Purchase requests, Offers, orders and/or Invoices. Each of these additional steps can be turned on or off on a company level.

•Multilevel order approval: There is a approval hierarchy based on the order limit. The filter "Approve order" only shows orders if they are already approved by the responsible subordinate users (e.g. superintendent) with a lower order limit, if there are. The tab "subordinate approval" of an order shows all users of a multilevel approval hierarchy that already have or still have to approve an order.

•Favorite suppliers restriction: orders can only be sent to suppliers that are defined as "Favorite suppliers".

•Mandatory accounting code and/or budget period: There are three possible settings. orders can always be sent, or orders can only be sent when an accounting code is entered or orders can only be sent when an accounting code and a budget period is entered.

•Order tracking: Monitoring where the ordered material is currently located and when it is supposed to arrive at its destiny. See chapter "Order tracking".

•Decline pending requests: The ticker "decline all pending requests" is set by default when an order is sent.

•Company currency: Your companies currency that is used for budgeting and comparison of offers. Prices in other currencies are converted to your company currency on a daily rate.

•Reference number configuration: See chapter “Reference numbers”.

•Company text modules: The procurement administrator of your company can enter default text modules for the whole company at "Procurement" -> "Text modules (admin)". For further information see Text modules (User-specific).

•Disable "total price": If "total price" is disabled the suppliers are forced to enter prices for each item they offer separately.

•Disable "order with different currency as requested": If this setting is active, the supplier is forced to offer in the same currency as requested. If the offer has to be entered manually into MESPAS TSM, no other currency can be entered. If the offer is imported from a 3rd party software with a different currency, the system does not allow the creation of an order. A revised offer has to be entered or requested from the supplier.

•Procurement area: This drop-down field appears when creating a new Request on the vessel. It can be made mandatory.

•Warning if remaining budget is overspent: A warning message can be shown whenever a request or order is assigned to an account that is either already overspent or that has no budget amount defined.

•Port based order tracking: By default the Ship schedule is entered on the vessel and synchronised to the office. It is used for the Job Planning Screen (Planned Maintenance) on the vessel and the Order tracking in the office. If you don't want to use the Ship schedule, you may activate the "port based order tracking" and  enter the port where ordered goods are to be delivered to the vessel and the expected time of arrival and departure to each order in the procurement section.

•Mandatory creditor number: If activated an order can only be sent, if the selected supplier has a creditor number assigned. The creditor number for each supplier can be entered in Supplier management.

•Restrict custom parts in office. The Procurement Administrator can select product types on which the vessel users can not add parts in the procurement process. With this presetting the restriction also applies for office users. They can still add custom parts in the IDM module (and these parts are available in procurement) but not in the procurement process anymore.