B2B-Suite - Customer account

The B2B suite is available to you as an extension from the Shopware Evolve plan.

The B2B suite offers a variety of functions for store customers who have been authorized by the store operator to map their own company structure. These include roles and contacts (sub-accounts for customer employees), budgets and quotas including the clearances process as well as order lists and own order numbers.

This documentation describes the functions that the B2B suite provides for store customers and is therefore written from the store customer's perspective.

In order to use these functions it is necessary that the store operator has set up a central customer account for your company or has authorized it accordingly.
If you now log in to the store with this account, you can carry out the further configuration. For easier administration the functions are divided into different areas.

• B2B-Dashboard (1): The dashboard is the central overview of the B2B functions.
• Company (2): In the Company section, the roles and contacts including authorizations, addresses, budgets and quotas are managed.
• Statistics (3): In the statistics you will find filterable evaluations of the orders placed.
• Orders (4): Here you find overviews of the placed orders as well as the still open orders waiting for clearance.
• Order lists (5): Order lists allow easy planning of future or regular orders.
• Fast order (6): With the fast order function you can add many products to your shopping cart with a few clicks.
• Offers (7): Contains an overview of the requested offers and offers the possibility to edit them.
• Order numbers (8): Enable you to create and manage your own order numbers for the store's products.
• My Account (9): Provides an overview of personal data and allows you to change your own password.

If you can't see certain areas, please check if the account you are logged in with has the necessary permissions. If necessary, ask persons who have access to the debtor account of your company.

B2B-Dashboard

The overview in the dashboard shows all functions that are available to the logged-in user.
The customer has full access to all functions. The available functions for the other contacts (sub-accounts of a debtor) depend on the assigned rights.

Company

Here, the debtor or an appropriately authorized contact can carry out the administration of their own company organization. This page is divided into several areas and tabs.

On the left side is the role management (1), this serves to structure your company organization. Since a role (2) must be selected for the management of the other functions within the Company area, the role management is also permanently visible.

Using the tab list (3) on the right you can access the functions Contacts, billing addresses, Shipping addresses, Budgets and Contingents.

In the individual functions you can then use the filter (4) to determine which entries should be displayed.

• Inheritance filter: Will show the entries of the selected role as well as all entries of subordinate roles.
• Assignment filter: Shows all entries assigned to the selected role.

Please note that it is necessary to assign contacts, billing addresses, shipping addresses, budgets and contingents to a role. Therefore the creation or editing is only possible if a role is selected in the role management.

Role management

If Easy Mode is activated for the customer account, the Role management are not available.

Roles are used to simplify the configuration, especially when a large number of contacts are involved.
For this purpose you can assign permissions, addresses, budgets and quotas to the roles and then assign the individual contacts to a role. The contact then inherits the settings of the role.
It is therefore not necessary to make the entire configuration for each contact individually.

To create a new role, click on the Create role button. In the window that opens, give the role a unique name and click on the Save button. Afterwards the window for the configuration of the role opens.

Assignments

Master data
In the master data you can change the name of the role.

Permission management
Here you specify the permissions for the role.

Using the checkboxes below the check mark (1) in the column All you can assign all available rights to the role to perform the actions for the respective component. The checkboxes below the arrow (2) set the right that this role may inherit the rights to further contacts. Inheritance can only be set if the role also has the right to execute the action.

If certain roles should only receive individual rights for a component, this can be done using the checkboxes in the respective column.

• List (3): The List permission allows to call the corresponding component and display its contents
• Detail (4): Allows to call the detail page of individual elements within the component
• Edit (5): With this right the existing contents of the component can be edited
• Create(6): Allows the creation of new content within the component
• Delete (7): The function to delete content in the component is available
• Assign (8): Roles/contacts with this right can assign the content of the component to other visible roles/contacts

Please note that some components have dependencies among themselves. For example, all components within the Company tab (Contacts, Addresses, Budgets and Contingents) must have at least the right to list the company and roles. In addition to the permissions, additional visibility is sometimes required.

Contingent management
In the contingent management you get an overview of all available contingents for the role. Please note that the contingents are inherited from subordinate roles upwards and are also listed. With this it is possible to assign one or more contingents to the role.

Order list management
The order list management shows all already created order lists and you can assign them to the role.

Budget management
Assign one or more budgets to the role here. The selected budgets can then be used for orders placed by contacts in this role.

Visibility

Role visibility
Role visibility is needed to select the role for managing the functions in the Company section

• Role details view
   
  
  
  The left checkbox makes the role visible, the right checkbox allows the visibility to be passed on to other roles or contacts.
• Role management view
   
  
  
  non visible role (1): grayed out and cannot be selected
  visible role (2): can be selected and thus the functions can be displayed on the right side

Contact visibility
With the contact visibility you define which contacts are visible for members of the role.

Billing addresses
Use this to define which billing addresses are available to members of the role. When ordering, you can then choose from the available addresses.

Shipping addresses
As with the billing address, the available shipping addresses for the roll are defined here.

Contacts

Contacts are (usually) people within your company structure and get their own store account, where e.g. orders can be placed. The contact receives the basic rights through the assigned role(s). Additionally, further rights can be set in the contact's settings. Please note that only additional rights can be set in the settings of the contact, a restriction of the rights inherited from the role is not possible.

The Contacts tab (1) shows you an overview of the created contacts, depending on the role (2) and filter (3) selected on the left side. 

With the button create contact (4) you open the mask to create another account. If the button is not displayed, please check if you have selected a role on the left side.

The button with the pencil (5) opens the mask for editing an existing contact.

To delete a contact click on the trashcan button (6).

Please note that the contacts are subordinate to the debtor and can only be used in this context. If the debtor account is deleted, the contacts cannot be used anymore.

Create contact
When you create a new contact, the information of title, first name, last name and e-mail address is required. Optionally, you can also specify a department.

With password activation, the contact receives an email with a link that can be used to set the password for the account. If password activation is not active, a password must be entered to create the contact.

With the checkbox active you can decide if the account should be active immediately.

If you check the box create another contact before saving the new contact, the window for creating a contact will be opened after saving.

The rights management of an account is then done in the window for editing a contact. More details are found in the next section.

Edit contact
To edit an existing contact, you can click on the pencil icon in the overview list.

Editing a contact works similar to editing a role. For more information see the section Role management.

Billing addresses

In this tab (1) you can store the billing addresses that can be assigned to roles and/or contacts.
However, it is not necessary to create every desired address for a role. You can also assign addresses from other roles to the role by using the visibility of billing addresses.

The content in the overview on the right side depends on the selected role (2) and the used filter (3).

To create a new address click on the button create address (4), a new modal will open.

To adjust an existing address, click on the pencil button (5). With the trashcan button (6) you can delete an address.

Create address
To create a new address, fill out the mandatory fields marked with *. In addition, you can enter optional information such as the VAT ID and a department name.

The created address is initially only assigned to the role selected at creation. In the role or contact details you can define the visibility of the address for other roles/contacts.

Shipping addresses

As with billing addresses, it is also possible to create different data sets for shipping addresses in order to be able to select these in the ordering process.

The functions are identical to the billing addresses and are therefore not explained here.

Budgets

If Easy Mode is activated for the customer account, the budgets are not available.

Budgets can be used to define how much money certain contacts and/or roles may spend in a definable period of time before the order has to be approved by a higher instance.

Should there not be a sufficient budget for the order, the order cannot be completed by the customer. In this case a clearance by a higher instance can be requested. For this purpose, the customer is also informed by e-mail that an order clearance has been requested.

Depending on the selected role (2) and the filter (3) the corresponding budgets are listed.

You can create a new budget with the button Create budget (4).

Use the pencil icon (5) to open the window for editing an existing budget. You can delete a budget with the trashcan symbol (6).

Create budget
To create a new budget, some information is required.

For identifiers and names, select a meaningful designation to enable easy identification even if there are several available budgets.

Enter the desired value to be used for this budget. In combination with the area of validity and the start of the fiscal year, you define in which period of time and for which amount purchase orders can be made before a clearance (e.g. by the customer) is required. The validity range "None" means that the budget can be used once. With the other selection options, the budget is reset at the calculated point in time based on the start of the fiscal year (e.g. start of the fiscal year 01.01.2020, validity range quarterly; in this case, the reset occurs on 01.04., 01.07., etc.)
In addition, a responsible contact can be stored, who optionally receives an e-mail if a certain portion of the budget is used up.

With the checkbox active you define if the budget can be selected and used in the order process.

Contingents

If Easy Mode is activated for the customer account, the Contingents are not available.

Contingents allow restrictions to be placed on orders. For example, the number of products that can be ordered per order can be specified or certain categories can be excluded.

To create a new contingent click on the button create contingent group

After entering the basic data, you can proceed with the detailed configuration.

In the tab master data the names and descriptions stored in the first step are displayed. The configuration is done in the tabs Quota rules and restrictions.

Using the contingent rules you can limit the order amount, the number of products ordered and the number of orders (incorrectly translated as number of products). For example, it is possible that the roles or contacts to which the quota is assigned, only a certain number of products 
Additionally you can define after which period the quota should be reset. Please note that the calculation of the period starts with the 01.01. So a quarter runs from 01.01. - 31.03., 01.04. - 30.06. etc.

• Order total: Define a maximum amount for which an order can be placed in the specified period before approval is required.
• Number of ordered products: Define how many products can be ordered within the period. Products are defined here as the positions within an order. This means that if the same product is ordered 3 times in one order, only one product will be counted.
• Number of products (wrong translation) / number of orders: Allows you to limit the number of orders that can be processed in the given period.

The contingent restrictions allow the limitation to certain products or categories. The following types are available for this purpose:

• Product price (exclusion): Set the maximum product price. All products that are more expensive cannot be ordered directly
• Product number (exclusion): The product number stored here cannot be ordered directly. To exclude multiple product numbers, set several restrictions of type 
• product number (exclusion) on.
• Product numbers (clearance):
• Category (Exclusion): Exclude products from the direct order that are assigned to the corresponding category.

Please note that a contingent must always contain at least one contingent rule, otherwise only an order clearance request is possible.

Statistics

The statistics offer various options for evaluating the placed orders.

The diagram provides a graphical representation of the orders. For more details you can hover over the diagram with your mouse, a popup (1) will appear.

In order to view the statistics, you need to have the List right for the orders.

Filter

The filters affect the diagram, the overview list and the export

With the dateselection (1) you can define for which time frame the data should be evaluated (diagram and overview list).
With the check boxes below statistics (2) you define which data will be displayed in the diagram.
With the selection at Group by (3) you can decide whether the diagram is displayed weekly, monthly or yearly.
The filters (4) allow you to restrict the data that should be considered for the statistics. For example, you can specify that only orders from individual contacts or orders with a certain status are displayed.
In the selection filters only data is shown for which there is an authorization or visibility and for which there is at least one order.

Additionally the orders are listed in an overview.

Orders

In tab Orders you see an overview of the existing orders as well as orders that are waiting for clearance.

Completed orders

In the first overview the already placed orders are listed. The content of the overview depends on the permissions of the account you are logged in with.

For sorting (1) there are several options available. Furthermore it is even possible to search for orders (2).
In the overview (3) you can immediately see the relevant information about the orders.
You can access the order details by clicking on the pencil symbol (4), where you can see the invoice and delivery details as well as the ordered products.
You can also use the list symbol (5) to create an order list from your order, so that you can add it to your shopping cart more quickly in the future. You can find more information in the section Order lists.

Order details
The order details are divided into several sections for a better overview.

Master data
The master data shows the general information as well as the details of the delivery and invoice.

Positions
Here you can see the products that are included in the order.

History
Changes to the order are documented here. These are status changes and you have the option to add additional information.
For already completed orders you have the option to add comments in the master data.

Order clearances

Orders that cannot be completed by the contact (e.g. due to lack of budget or restrictions due to contingents) require approval from a higher instance with appropriate authorization. For a better handling of these approvals, they are also listed in a separate list in addition to the normal overview.

Here you can also use the functions for sorting (1) and searching (2).In the list (3) you can see the most important information at a glance.
For more information about a single order please click on the pencil icon (4) to see the details.
With the check symbol (5) you release the order, with the X symbol (6) the release is rejected. Another window will open where you can add an optional comment to the rejection and confirm the rejection by clicking the button Reject Order.
Rejected orders will remain visible in the order overview with the status release rejected.
If you want to remove the order completely, you can delete the order by clicking on the trashcan symbol (7) instead of the rejection.

Order details
With a click on the pencil symbol you open the details of an order. This window is divided into several sections.

Master data
The Master Data section brings together basic information such as delivery and invoice information.

Products
The products to be ordered are listed here. If an order has not yet been released, it is possible to adjust the individual items of the order or to add further products.

To add another product, click on the add product button (1). A window will open where you can search and add the desired product by its product number.
You can edit existing positions by clicking on the pencil symbol (2) to change the number of products.
With the trash can icon (3) you can remove an item completely from your order.

Order lists

Order lists provide you with the ability to plan different orders or to easily manage frequently needed items.

To create a new order list, click on the button Create order list (1). More information about this can be found in the next paragraph Create order list.
You can sort (2) the order lists for a better overview (4) or search (3) for specific order lists.
To edit an orderlist open the details by clicking on the pencil symbol (5). You can find more information in the section Edit order list.
With the shopping cart icon (6) you can add products from the order list directly to the shopping cart.
To duplicate an order list, click on the plus symbol (7).
Order lists containing products can be exported as a CSV file by clicking the cloud symbol (8). As separator "," (comma) is used. The file contains information about product number and quantity. This format is also used for fast orders.
Order lists that are no longer needed can be deleted by clicking on the trashcan symbol (9).

Create order list

If are creating a new order list, a window will appear where you need to enter a name for the order list and optionally assign a budget.

After you have saved the basic details, the order list will be created and can be accessed from the overview with the pencil symbol for further editing. This is also where you can add the desired products to the order list.

You can also create order lists directly on a product detail page. How this works in detail, you can read in the section order lists on the product detail page

Edit order list

You can access the edit mask of an order list from the overview by clicking on the pencil symbol. Here you have the ability to add products to the order list.

In the products section you will find an overview of all products assigned to the order list.
With a click on the button add product (1) the view changes and you can add another item to the order list.

An existing position can be edited using the pencil symbol (2). Here you can change the quantity and add an optional internal comment.
You can remove an item from the order list with the trashcan symbol (3).
With the two arrow symbols (4) you can change the position within the order list.

Fast orders

The fast order function allows you to add products to the shopping cart or an order list with only the relevant data, such as product number and quantity.
This can be done either directly using a simple input mask or by importing a file.

In the input mask (1) simply enter the product number (2) and the desired quantity (3).
After you added a product, a new line will be displayed to enter another product..

If at least one product is available in the list, the functions for adding to an order list (4) or to the shopping cart (5) are available.

File upload

To add products from a prepared file, the following file formats can be used: CSV, XLS and XLSX.

You can either drag and drop the file you wish to upload into the dotted area (1) or click once with the mouse to open the file selection window.
The default structure of the file is as follows:
Store the product numbers in the first column and the desired quantity in the second column. Use "," (comma) as separator.

If you wish to use a different file structure, you can make adjustments in the advanced settings (2).
Define in which column the product number (3) and the quantities (4) are entered and which separator (5) should be used.
You can also define an additional capsule character. This is needed for CSV files if the separator is used within a column. With the capsule character the separator is commented out to ensure the correct formatting.
If there is a heading in the first line of the file, you can mark this with the checkbox The file includes a row with headings. This line will not be imported.

After the upload is completed, the items are added to the lower list. You can then process the data as described above.

Offers

Under Offers you will find an overview of the requested offers.
You can find out how to make an offer request in the request offer section of the order confirmation.

In order to edit an offer,  accept or reject it after feedback from the shop operator, click on the pencil symbol (1). The modal with the offer details will be opened. If you want to remove an offer completely, you can do so by clicking on the trashcan symbol (2).

Accept offer

If the shop operator agrees to your request for a quote, you can place an order from within the offer.
To do this, call up the offer details (pencil symbol in the overview).

It is then necessary to conclusively accept the offer in the master data area by clicking the button Accept offer (2).

This will convert the offer into an order and you will be forwarded to the order completion. There you can now buy the products available in the offer at the negotiated conditions.

Edit offer

After accessing the offer details from the overview, you can make changes to the offer there.

The first step to be able to make changes is to decline offer (1).
By clicking the button accept offer (2) you can buy the products at the conditions confirmed by the shop operator. You will receive further information on this in the accept offer section.

In the positions section you can then change the offer.

In the top part of the modal you will be shown an overview of the original prices (2) and the offered prices (3).
You can add new products (1), as well as change the quantity and price (4) of existing products.
You can remove a position from the offer using the garbage can symbol (5).
You can also define or adjust an absolute or percentage discount (6) for the entire offer.

The comments section lists all comments made about the offer.

Information about the changes in the offer can be found in the history section.

Order numbers

In the order numbers section you have the option to store your own order numbers. You can then use your own order numbers in parallel to the default order numbers from the store. You can either maintain the order numbers manually through the list or by importing a prepared file.

Enter the store product number (1) and the desired own product number (2) into the input mask.
After adding a product number, a new line will be displayed to enter another number.
The entries will be saved automatically.

File Upload

Especially when dealing with large amounts of data, it may be easier to use the upload function rather than manually entering all the data. With the upload function you can import the numbers from a CSV or XLS(X).

The structure of the file is simple. The first column contains the standard order number, the second column contains the own order number.
To upload the file, you can drag and drop it into the dotted area (1) or click once with the mouse to open the file selection window.

Determine in which column the existing product number (3) and the own product number (4) are entered and which separator (5) should be used.
You can also define an additional capsule character (6). This is required for CSV files if the separator is used within a column. With the capsule character the separator is commented out to ensure the correct formatting.
If there is a heading in the first line of the file, you can mark this with the checkbox This file includes a row with headlines (7). This line will then not be imported.

You also have the option to export the previously stored order numbers as CSV or XLS.

CAUTION! The import exchanges all existing data. If there are own product numbers in the list, make an export and use the exported file to add the additional own product numbers. Loss of data is possible, when uploading a file without the existing data.
 

Functions in a normal shop context

The B2B-Suite provides some functions that have an impact on other store areas (product detail page, order process).

Table views

If you are logged in as a B2B account, you have the option of switching to a table view in addition to the normal listing view.

To change the view, a button (1) has been added below the filters.

In the table view you have the ability to add one or more products directly to the shopping cart.
Enter the desired quantity (2) for each product and then click on the button add to basket. You can also enter several products before clicking the button.

Order lists on the product detail page

If you are logged in with a B2B account, you can add products to an order list directly on the details page.

Open the drop-down (1) and select one of the existing lists (2) or create a new one. To do so click create order list (3), now use the input field to name the order list. After saving the name the order list will be created and the product will be added.

Budgets and order lists in order completion

For B2B accounts it is necessary to select a budget when ordering. If there is no (sufficient) budget available, the order cannot be completed by the customer and a request for order release is required.
In addition, before completing the order, the shopping cart items can be added to an order list so that they can be reordered later.

A separate section (1) is added to the overview for the budget. If there are different budgets for them, you can select the appropriate budget here (2). On top of it you can see the identifier and name (3) as well as the available amount and spend percentage (4) of the selected budget.

Beneath the products in the shopping cart you have the opportunity to add the shopping cart to an order list (5).

Offer request in the order confirmation

A debtor or B2B contact has the option of requesting an offer for the items in the shopping basket on the order completion page. For this purpose, the button request offer (1) can be found underneath the button submit order for authorized contacts..

A modal will then open, in which you can enter the desired information for the offer. From this moment on, the offer is also available in your account in the section offers.

First you have an overview of the original price of the shopping basket (1). On the right side the price requested through the offer is shown (2). This is calculated from the requested discount (3) (absolute or percentage) as well as the product prices that may have been adjusted..

You have the option of adding more products (4) as well as adjusting the quantity and the desired price of the existing products (5). If you want to remove a product from the request for quotation, you can do so by clicking on the trashcan symbol (6).

Before you send the request for quotation (8), you may optionally add a comment (7) in order to provide the shop operator with relevant information about the offer.

Further handling of the offer takes place in the offers section of the shop account.

Performance increase in the shopping cart as of Shopware 6.4.11.0

As of Shopware 6.4.11.0, you have the option to increase the performance in the shopping cart by activating Redis. This is recommended if there is a large amount of data (several hundreds of products) in the shopping cart. You can find instructions on how to do this in the developer documentation.