Fresh Produce Quoting and PO Guide

23 Apr 2021

This Guide is for Fresh Produce Suppliers that are using the following approaches

• B2B via Integrated approach /Coles fresh produce Axis Portal

• Non B2B Supplier

• Fresh Produce Suppliers enter and review quotes via the Supplier Quotes Portal. This document gives you an overview of the quoting process.

Please remember, for any technical issues using the Supplier Quote Portal please contact the Coles IT Helpdesk on 1300 669 665.

The current version of this guide is always available on the Coles Supplier Portal at

http://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au

A GUIDE FOR FRESH PRODUCE SUPPLIERS (NON B2B ENABLED )

Fresh Produce Quoting and PO management

1. Introduction to the Quote Process

2. Requirements

3. Timelines

4. Promotional Quote

5. The Quotes Portal

i. Logging into the quote portal

ii. Navigating the quote page

iii. Saving

iv. Confirmation, Downloading and Printing

6. Receiving Purchase Orders-B2B & E-Commerce

7. Non B2B Purchase Orders

i. NON B2B Purchase Order Transmission

ii. NON B2B Purchase Order Updates

8. B2B Portal /Coles Axis /Integrated -Purchase Order Transmission

i. Order Transmission via B2B Integration

9. E orders/ EPO

10. Delivery Documentation

11. Claims Process

12. Supply Chain Standards

13. Frequently Asked Questions

Contents

• Quotes are entered by 5pm Monday for supply the following week commencing Thursday.

• Suppliers will be unable to enter quotes more than 2 weeks out from the visible period on the portal.

• Suppliers will only be able to submit a quote on the 2 weeks visible in the portal, these are updated weekly.

• Promotional quotes may run for different time frames, and need to be quoted for those timeframes.

• Your best price should always be quoted through the quotes portal. Faster price discovery means less time on the phone, helping you get your product to customers quickly and efficiently.

• Using the portal, you can view and print approved quotes, as well as enter and review quotes not yet approved.

• Quote prices are based upon the into DC date.

• Entering a quote does not guarantee a purchase from Coles.

• If a quote has not been accepted in the system by Coles before the applicable date then this quote is to be considered closed and Coles will not be placing a purchase order based on that quote.

• If you are prompted to enter volumes, this should reflect the total available (in spec) at the quoted price.

• If a product is not listed, call your category team to discuss activation.

• Approval of a quote does not guarantee a purchase from Coles.

• You should quote for any product for which you have a supply agreement (commitment) from your category team. If you cannot supply a product during a commitment period, this should be promptly brought to the attention of your category team.

The Supplier Quotes Portal allows for suppliers to enter and maintain quotes, which are then visible for category teams to review and approve.

AN OVERVIEW

1. Introduction to the quotes process

• Internet Explorer version 11 or greater

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/internet-explorer.aspx

• Mozilla Firefox version 42 or greater

https://www.mozilla.org/

Apple Safari version 10 or greater

https://support.apple.com/downloads/safari

• IOS 10.2 or greater (for ipad tablets)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204204

• Chrome version 50 or greater

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html

The Supplier Quotes Portal functions best with the latest browsers and should be accessed on a laptop or desktop PC, but can be used with tablets with sufficient screen resolution.

SOFTWARE REQUIRED TO QUOTE

2. Requirements

Activity When Who

Supplier enters initial quotes By Monday 5pm week 1, to supply from Thursday of week 2

Supplier

Category team review quotes By COB Tuesday week 1 Category

Supplier and category agree price Both

Category team approves quote Category

Buying team program orders The bulk of produce POs go out Thursday PM, visible to suppliers on Thursday PM

State

Suppliers receive purchase orders for the following week at the agreed price.

From Thursday of week 1 for Thursday week 2 onward

Supplier

Final delivery arrives in DC at the agreed price Wednesday week 3, 15 days after the initial quote was entered

The quote lifecycle runs over a 10 to 15 day period, from initial quote approval to the last delivery against the quote arrivingin DC. Standard quotes are entered by 5pm Monday for the 7 day period commencing on the following Thursday. If wishing to submit quotes early, quotes can only be submitted for dates up to 27 days in the future.

WHEN DO QUOTES NEED TO BE SUBMITTED?

3. Timelines

Activity When Who

Supplier enters promotional quotes By Monday 5pm week 1, to supply for the standard period (example, for into DC Thursday week 2)

Supplier

Supplier and category agree pricing & promotional pricing period

Ideally as part of commitment discussions, but ultimately by COB Tuesday week 1

Both

Final stock into DC at agreed price At the end of the agreed quote period Both

Super Special promotional quotes run on an into DC Thursday – Wednesday cycle, however we do run different promotional mechanics and these must be quoted separately and agreed with your category team.

• Catalogue promotions run from Wednesday to the following Tuesday (into DC from Tuesday).

• The promotional pricing period for these and other promotions will vary from the on sale dates depending upon how much earlier stock will be required in DC to support the stock build for the promotion. Where promotional stock is required to be purchased, delivered, issued from DC and stocked in store in time for a promotional start date, the promotional pricing period will generally align with the into DC dates.

• Different stock builds will require different timing, so ensure that pricing periods are discussed and agreed with your category team.

WHAT ABOUT PROMOTIONS?

4. Promotional Quotes

Use the following link to the Coles Supplier Portal

https://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au

Click the “login” button on the top left.

This will take you to the login screen below.

MAIN COLES SUPPLIER PORTAL

5.i The Quotes Portal

Due to IT security policies, regular password updates are required. These will need to be a mix of upper and lower case letters, and numbers. If it has been a while since your last login (> 90 days) you will likely need to reset your password using the link on the page.

New suppliers click here Forgotten

password click here

Once you are logged in, select “Fresh Produce Suppliers” from the menu on the left.

Then, click the “Launch Fresh Produce Supplier Quotes” link on the right.

LOGGING IN TO THE FP QUOTES PORTAL

5.i The Quotes Portal (continued)

Handy Tip: Depending upon your internal settings, you may be able to link directly to the quotes portal by following this link:https://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au/lqm

MOVING AROUND

5.ii Navigating the quotes page

Upon logging in, the Quotes Portal will open for your products with default dates for the next Thursday – Wednesday quote week, similar to the below example.

12345Fred Blogs Fruit

Default quote period

Week navigation buttons

“Copy Last Week” pre-

loads costs with the previous

week’s values

Costs are entered

here

Dates can be overridden at

item level

If required, click here to enter quantities by

day

Approved quotes will

show a tick here

Exceptions i.e., sub-period promo quotes can be

entered using the “New” button

The DC/item combinations visible for you to quote on are controlled by your category team. To request a change to what you can quote for, contact your category team directly.

ENSURING YOUR QUOTES ARE SAVED

5.iii. Saving

Once quotes are updated with price (and quantity information, if required), the “Save” button will be highlighted. Ensure you save your changes before navigating away from the screen.

The “New” function allows you to break up a longer quote to insert shorter periods within it at different price points. This may be used to enter short-term promotional pricing (along with the editable date fields) within a long term quote.This includes the ability to modify periods within a quote that has already been approved – which will require re-approval from your category team.

If there is a problem with the save you will see an error message appear, like the below

Scroll down until you find the error, indicated with a red “x”. Click the “x” to expand the error message.

With the error corrected the quotes will save, and you can navigate away from the page.

REVIEWING APPROVED QUOTES

5.iv. Confirmation

Once a quote has been approved by your category team, its status in the portal will change to indicate this. Approved quotes can be exported and printed.

Any changes made to your costs by your category team will be visible in the portal. If these changes are not in line with your agreement please raise this with the category team prior to supply. Please note that the portal will not pick up last minute or exceptional price changes which have been made directly in the Purchase Order by the buyer. Records of such discussions are required to be confirmed in writing (e.g. via email) to resolve any pricing discrepancies that may cause potential future, and must be communicated to your category team.

In the example above the $50 Fuji Apple quote for Melbourne DC has been approved.

To print or export your quotes, click on the appropriate buttons to export to an excel format, or to generate a printer friendly view for printing.

E-COMMERCE CONSIDERATIONS

6. Receiving Purchase Orders (B2B & Non B2B)

Once a quote price has been approved, it will generally flow automatically to any purchase orders created for the quote period.

• Purchase Orders created by the buyer flow through the Coles E-Commerce gateway to suppliers. This happens towards the end of each day on a regular cycle.

• In addition to this, Buyers can “force” POs out to Suppliers on an ad-hoc basis, for example where an order has missed the automatic sweep of POs in the system.

For POs to reach suppliers, the correct email address must be registered with our E-Commerce team.

Queries can be directed via your category team, or directly to the E-Commerce group at

Coles.Ecommerce@coles.com.au

Note that only one email address may be registered per supplier. A group email address or generic account are useful in this context.

It is expected that deliveries to DCs will match the order item counts and quantities on the purchase order. • NON B2B Suppliers- Please ensure you advise your Buyer of any changes to what is being delivered vs the PO with sufficient time for the Buyer to modify the PO prior to DC receival

• B2B Suppliers-Please ensure you advise your Buyer via POA process on any changes to what is being delivered Vs the initial PO submitted from Coles

• Misalignment of POs at DCs creates delays in receiving and generates unnecessary claims.

• If you receive an E-Order number for a modified delivery, please quote both this and the original PO number on all correspondence relating to these orders.

7.i NON B2B Purchase Order Transmission

Purchase Order Transmission Non B2B managing PO emails

Purchase Orders will arrive as an attachment via email in .csv format. This raw format can be opened and viewed in excel or notepad.

The attached .csv file will have a filename and email subject header in the format

{PO Number}-{Vendor Number}-{Delivery DC}

e.g.,

5219145-123456-9415FV

5219145 = PO number

123455 = Vendor number

9415FV = Delivery DC (in this case the Brisbane produce DC)

Updated POs will have the same code as the original PO but will include an updated version number in the PO detail. It is important to check emailed POs carefully to ensure you are working off the latest version of the PO.

Supplier details

End of first PO

Start of second PO

Purchase Order Format

Navigating the POPurchase Order files follow a standard format, and can include multiple POs listed on the one file. The file (and email subject) will only refer to the first PO on the list.The example PO on the right would have filename 5219145-123456-9314FV as PO 5219145 is the first PO listed.Note a second purchase order (5219146) is included in this example file. Multiple POs may be listed on your regular weekly programmed orders.

You can tell you have reached the bottom of the POs when you reach this message:

Delivery Site

Start of first PO

Order Version #. This is the first PO.

Products, quantities

and purchase prices on this PO are listed

here

KEEPING TRACK OF CHANGES

7.ii NON B2B Purchase Order Updates

When a purchase order is updated, you will receive a new copy of the PO. The detail will indicate what has changed.

The purchase order will be reproduced in full, including items not changed.

Modified items will be indicated by a status code of N (new), D (deleted), or U (updated).

Order Version #. This is the 6th

version of this PO.

PO update code indicates PO line items that have been modified.

Here we can see the Navel 18kg item has been updated.

PO update codes

“Updated Order” Status

• Suppliers that have opted to use the Fresh Produce Axis Portal to enable B2B will receive an E-mail notification if there is a new PO for them to view.

• B2B Purchase Orders will now include a systemic marker indicating whether the supplier is B2B or Non B2B so they are directed to the supplier via the correct routing and in the correct format

8.i Order Transmission via the Coles Fresh Produce Axis B2B Portal

Purchase Order List Screen • Purchase Orders will be managed between the Supplier and the State

Buyer

PO Details screen• Suppliers will select and manage Purchase orders • Any supplier B2B messages must reference the latest version of the PO. If

not they will be rejected.

POA screen• Provided your POA is accepted by Coles systems, and complies with the

business rules listed below, it will cause the stock on order figure in Coles ordering system to change to match the figure in the POA.

Purchase Order List Screen

PO Details screen

POA Screen

Purchase order review

Click for Item drill down

Screen shots from Coles fresh produce Axis B2B portal

• B2B Purchase Orders will now include a systemic marker indicating whether the supplier is B2B or Non B2B so they are directed to the supplier via the correct routing and in the correct format.

• PO’s will arrive into supplier systems aligned to each Suppliers specific solution design.

• Any changes to POs will result in a new PO version being issues.

• Any changes submitted via POA must be against the latest version of the PO.

• Any instances where POs can’t be supplied in full should notified to Coles ASAP via the POA process.

• If substitute products are to be supplied the Coles buyer must be notified and their agreement sort. If in agreement the buyer will update the PO and a new version will be issued,

8.ii Order Transmission via B2B Integration

For information on B2B process requirements please refer to the Coles eCommerce information linked to above

https://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au/csp/wps/portal/web/ElectronicTrading/ImplementingB2B

LATE ORDER CHANGES

9 v E orders/ EPO

In Exceptional Circumstances a purchase order may need to be modified at the point of receipt.

An EPO can be used to create a purchase order to allow for the receipt of

• Additional quantities of stock above the original PO and subsequent ASN quantity

• Additional items delivered that were not on the PO or subsequent ASNs

• The need to create an ePO is a breach of the process standards either at the supplier end or at Coles and shouldn’t be undertaken without good reason.

• An e-order will generate a new PO, which should also contain the original PO number. The two PO numbers should be included on all correspondence related to either PO, as e-orders often generate claims due to item level mis-matches between the original and e-order invoices.

The original PO number this e-order has been

created with respect to.

The new e-order number.

10 Delivery Documentation

Non B2B Supplier

Deliveries into DC need to be accompanied by two copies of a delivery docket listing all items and quantities on the delivery but not the costs. A stamped delivery docket should be retained by your transport provider upon delivery.

• Delivery dockets additionally stamped “subject to check” reflect instances where the delivery vehicle has unloaded and departed the DC prior to completion of load receival (for example, before a QC check has been completed).

• A copy of the stamped delivery docket should be sent along with your invoice to

freshpayables@coles.com.au

• Invoices should clearly include the PO number, along with any relevant e-order number.

• There may be multiple deliveries required to fulfil a single PO. Each delivery must be accompanied by its own Delivery Docket referencing the PO number.

• If there are multiple POs being delivered on a single vehicle, we require a separate delivery docket for each PO being delivered.

• All delivery dockets and invoices must reference a single PO, except where a linked e-order must also referenced.

B2B Supplier B2B Compliant Suppliers are required to provide Two (2) copies of the Delivery Docket (also known as a consignment note) and Two (2) copies of the Pallet Docket (with applicable Coles DC listed as the Receiver).

• The ASN must have been transmitted to Coles systems before the goods arrive at the Coles DC in order for it to be validated (and amended if necessary).

• The quantity in the ASN cannot exceed the quantity advised in the latest PO version.

• An ASN cannot be split over multiple trucks• There may be multiple deliveries required to fulfil a single PO. Each delivery must

be accompanied by its own Delivery Docket referencing the ASN number.• If there are multiple POs being delivered on a single vehicle, we require a

separate delivery docket for each ASN being delivered.• Delivery Docket should clearly include the ASN number (PO number is Optional )

along with any relevant e-order number.• Do not send a paper copy of the eInvoice with the delivery• Goods are scan received once they arrive at the Coles Owned receiving locations.

3PL DCs will use a similar approach )• Receiving staff will validate that all SSCCs, as noted in the ASN, are physically

received by scanning each SCM Logistics label at the receiving dock. If you supply ‘Use-By’ driven products, ensure that the 'Expiry Date' (UBD) or 'Best Before Date' (BBD) appears in the ASN & on the SCM Logistics label. This information is required in the human readable format on the top half of the SCM Logistics label & in barcode format within the concatenated bar code.

• When all SSCCs are accounted for, this will trigger the internal processing to update the Coles stock and PO records and provides information to Coles payment systems.

Note • Delivery dockets additionally stamped “subject to check” reflect instances where the

delivery vehicle has unloaded and departed the DC prior to completion of load receival (for example, before a QC check has been completed). Each ASN(Shipment) will require a unique E-Invoice.

• Only one E-Invoice must be sent for each ASN(Shipment) unless a corrective invoice is required

• The ASN provided in the E-Invoice must be associated to the correct Purchase Order Number.

PAYMENT DISCREPANCIES

11. Claims Process

Occasionally discrepancies arise between what has been paid by Coles and what was expected.

Payment queries should be followed up in the first instance with

Accounts.Investigation@coles.com.au

Queries relating to an open invoice / claim dispute / claim copy / settlement discount:

– include in the subject line:

Vendor number, Company name

Summary of query – i.e. Invoice Query, Claim Dispute or Claim Copy

– Include in the e-mail body text:

vendor number, open invoice number, query claim number

invoice date, $ amount, PO number

IFS booking code (for GHPL and DC vendors only)

PO number

ASN /SSCC details (B2B suppliers )

You can contact the Coles Accounts Investigation team via phone +61 3 9804 1621 from 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday. Please note that you may be requested to submit details via email to allow the team to log and track your call efficiently

PRODUCT SPECS, LABELLING, PALLET WRAP, ETC

12. Supply Chain Standards

Information can be found by logging into the supplier portal

Audit requirements & product specs: https://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au/csp/wps/portal/web/Quality/AllSuppliers/Produce

Supply Chain Standards:

https://www.supplierportal.coles.com.au/csp/wps/portal/web/SupplyChain

Frequently Asked QuestionsI can’t log into the portal or the quotes portal is not working for me.

Contact the help desk 1300 669 665

My product is not listed

Speak with your category team

My quote has not been changed to approved, what does this mean?

If a quote has not been accepted in the system by Coles before the applicable date then this quote is to be considered closed and Coles will not be placing a purchase order based on that quote.

Should I be submitting my quotes multiple weeks in advance?

Suppliers will be unable to enter quotes more than 2 weeks out from the visible period on the portal.

I can’t change an approved cost

Approved costs can only be changed by your category team. Call them to discuss.

How do I insert a short-term promotion within a long term quote

The “New” function on the quotes portal allows for the creation of a short-term quote within a larger quote

Why do I need to quote volumes

Discuss whether this is necessary with your category team

When will I receive my POs

Weekly program POs are generally received by COB Thursday. Ad-hoc POs and updates can be received at any time, but generally all POs are sent out late afternoon.

B2B Suppliers using Coles Fresh Produce Axis Portal you will receive an E-mail notification if there is a new PO to view

B2B Suppliers using selected Integrated system- you will receive an notification if there is a new PO to view via your Portal.

I need to change my PO. Who do I contact?

Contact your state buyer to arrange changes to POs

B2B -Using your Coles Fresh Produce Axis B2B Portal /Integrated Portal –select Items for change and submit back to Coles for review

My PO prices don’t match my quotes

Contact your category team to discuss PO price discrepancies.

B2B Using your Coles Fresh Produce Axis B2B Portal /Integrated Portal select Items for change and submit back to Coles to be review

B2B-Can I increase the Volume above the Purchase Order

No - The quantity in the ASN cannot exceed the quantity advised in the latest PO version

B2B My PO version differs from the POA I sent off to Coles

Check the Published Version number to ensure you are working of the right version