Quickly answer Vendor questions and process invoice payments faster, and error free, when you press F2 - Lookup and see up to the minute information on every aspect of your Vendors!

Choose the exact vendor information you want to see when you press F2 to look up a Vendor. With AEL - Expanded Vendor Lookup, you can create up to 9 different lookup formats, each displaying different vendor information. These powerful tools work in Accounts Payable and Purchase Order, any place you can press F2 to look up a Vendor!

After installing AEL - Expanded Vendor Lookup, you must run a new program; Rebuild Keys, before the new lookup will display. This process creates special auxiliary file that contain record pointers to different fields in your A/P files. Rebuild Keys will sort the record pointers by selected fields if you have additional lookup enhancements.

To run Rebuild Keys, select Maintain A/P Options from the Maintenance program for Accounts Payable, then select L - Set Lookup Options:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|+==================================================================+|
||APMAINT             Maintain A/P Options         COMPANY ID: SP   ||
||07/10/96         Software Professionals Inc.     GENERATION #: 62 ||
|+==================================================================+|
|           +=========== Program Options ===========+                |
|           |  O - Set Module Options               |                |
|           |  P - Set Printer Assignments          |                |
|           |  L - Set Lookup Options               |                |
|           +=======================================+                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

After selecting L - Set Lookup Options, the following screen will display:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|+==================================================================+|
||APMAINT              Set Lookup Options          COMPANY ID: SP   ||
||07/10/96         Software Professionals Inc.     GENERATION #: 62 ||
|+==================================================================+|
|                                                                    |
|                 +======== Lookup Options ==========+               |
|                 |  R - Rebuild Keys                |               |
|                 |  L - Set Lookup Display Formats  |               |
|                 +==================================+               |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you have enhancement ACK - Custom Payables Lookup, you will have another option, Set Key Code Formats. For more information on this program option, see the documentation for ACK - Custom Payables Lookup.

Rebuild Keys will normally only be run when first installing the enhancement. The amount of time required for this process varies depending on the size of your vendor files and your hardware/software configuration. For other cases when this option must be executed, see the documentation for ACK -Custom Payables Lookup.

After running Rebuild Keys, expanded lookups must be created with Set Lookup Display Formats. After selecting Set Lookup Display Formats from the Lookup Options Menu, the program will prompt you for a Lookup Code. Press F2 - Lookup for a list of available Lookup Codes. Select User Defined Lookup 1, and the following screen will display:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|+======================================================================+|
||APMAINT                 Maintain A/P Options         COMPANY ID: SP   ||
||07/10/96            Software Professionals, Inc.     GENERATION #: 12 ||
|+======================================================================+|
| Lookup Code.....: 1                                                    |
| Menu Hot Key....: 1                                Maximum Width:   75 |
| Menu Description: User Defined Lookup 1            Current Width:    0 |
| Menu Sequence...: 10                               Available....:   75 |
| Sort Group......: 1                                                    |
|                                                                        |
| Field  Start   Width  Decimal Places   Title                           |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
| Accept (Y/N) Y                                                         |
|                                             F8 - Undo                  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The following page will explain each option on the above screen and show how to set up an expanded lookup displaying various fields. After creating this example, you should be familiar enough with the options available, to create the expanded lookups you desire.

Menu Hot Key - This is the letter or number which will represent this lookup format whenever F2 -Lookup is used for a Vendor, and more than one lookup display format is available. The default Hot Key is the same as the Lookup Code, but can be changed to almost any letter or number. If the same letter or number is used for more than one format option, the first option on the menu will be selected. For simplicity, leave this value at the default setting.

Menu Description - This is the title that will appear in the Lookup Options menu, next to the Menu Hot Key. Edit the description to convey to the operator what will be displayed in the lookup box if this option is selected. For this example, enter a Menu Description of "Expanded Vendor Lookup".

Menu Sequence - This field is used to prioritize your lookup formats. You should enter number 1 for the lookup format which will be used most often, number 2 for second most used format, etc. If you do not want a lookup format to be displayed, enter zero for Menu Sequence to inactivate this option. For this example, enter 1 for menu sequence.

Sort Group - Specifies how to look up Vendors in A/P. Normally, this value will set to "P", which uses the Standard Peachtree sort group that looks up Vendors by Vendor ID. For this example, change the value from 1 to P.

Note: If you have additional Lookup enhancements, you may be able to use pre-defined Sort Groups. With ACK - Custom Payables Lookup, you can create custom sort groups to look up Vendors by any alphanumeric field in A/P. If you enter an invalid Sort Group, an error message box will display valid options.

For more details on Sort Groups, see documentation for ACK - Custom Payables Lookup.

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Lookup Code.....: 1                                                    |
| Menu Hot Key....: 1                                Maximum Width:   75 |
| Menu Description: Expanded Vendor Lookup           Current Width:    0 |
| Menu Sequence...: 01                               Available....:   75 |
| Sort Group......: P                                                    |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Field - Up to 12 different fields may be selected for each lookup format. The lookup is limited to a maximum width of 75 characters. In the upper right corner of the screen, the Maximum Width is displayed, along with the Current Width of the fields selected, and the number of spaces still available. After each field is selected, the Current Width and Available is updated.

F2 - Lookup will list the fields available, plus the default field size, number of decimals (if numeric) and field title. Select the fields by highlighting the desired field and pressing return, or by typing in the 2 digit code.

Start - Normally this value should be 001. You can enter a value greater than 1 if you do not want to display the first characters of a field. This option only applies to alphanumeric fields, the amount of spaces shown for numeric fields are controlled by Width and Decimal.

Width - This value will default to the maximum width for the selected field. If you change the Start value, this field will reflect the number of spaces left to display. If the field is a text field and the width is less than the field size, the right most characters of the field will be suppressed. If the field is numeric and the width is less than the value of a field, the lookup box will display asterisks.

Decimal - If the field is numeric, this value will default to the number of decimal places this field allows. You can change this value to less than the default to suppress decimal places not used. If a field uses decimals that exceed the number set here, asterisks will display in the lookup box.

Title - This title appears at the top of the lookup box above the fields selected. The maximum width of the title is the same as the Width set for this field. If you enter a title that is longer than the Width, it will be truncated.

To save the Expanded Vendor Lookup just created, press F10 - Done and answer Y to the Accept prompt. After accepting the screen, the program will compile the lookup display created. Press F10 -Done to return to the Lookup Options menu, then press F10 again to return to the Program Options screen for Maintain A/P Options, or Shift F10 to return to the Main Menu in Peachtree.

After creating an Expanded Vendor Lookup, whenever F2 - Lookup is pressed at the Department or Dept/Item Number field, the following menu option will appear:

+=====   LOOKUP Vendor BY   ======+
|  1 - Expanded Vendor Lookup     |
|  P - Peachtree Standard Lookup  |
+=================================+

Type "1" to select Expanded Vendor Lookup, or press enter with the option highlighted. If you have created other expanded lookup displays, or have additional Lookup Enhancements, they will also appear on this menu. If Expanded Vendor Lookup is selected, you will be prompted for a Starting Key.

Press F2 to start the Lookup at the beginning of the file or enter a.....starting key of XXX, the lookup will begin with the first item to match your starting key.