Creating Customer Records

Use the Customer Maintenance screen to create and maintain records for customers that identify customer-specific details such as freight, credit specifications, and detailed pricing information. If the customer has different billing and shipment addresses, create a separate record for each, and you must create the bill-to record first.

You can restrict access to fields and hot keys on the Customer Maintenance screen by setting the following control maintenance records and authorization key:

Customer Maintenance Authorization Levels Lists each field and hot key in the customer record, and you assign security levels to each item.

Customer Maintenance Authorization Levels For New Customers BT/ST Restricts editing access to the Bill To and Job or Ship To fields on the Customer Maintenance screen when creating new customers.

The system uses the level assigned in these records with the level assigned in a user's CUSTOMER.MAINT.LEVEL authorization key to determine whether the user can edit these fields.

To create a customer record:

From the Files menu, select Customer to display the Customer Maintenance screen.

Complete the following fields, as needed:

Field

Description

Customer/New

Enter new.

The system assigns a customer number, which displays in the upper right corner of the screen.

Note: To edit an existing customer record, enter that customer's name in the Customer/New field.

Name

Enter the customer's name as you want it to appear on documents. If this is the customer's bill-to record, use the customer's legal name.

Address

Do one of the following:

If this is a bill-to customer, enter the address to which to send correspondence.
If this is a ship-to only customer, enter the address to which to send product shipments.

Note: If you need additional lines to complete the address, use the Add'l Info hot key, and then use the Addl Address hot key to enter the remainder of the customer's address.

City

Enter the name of the city that corresponds to the address entered above.

The system displays a selection list. Select the state and zip code from the list and press Enter to populate the ZIP, ST, and Country fields.

Sort By

Enter up to 15 alphanumeric characters of the most significant word in the customer name, or any combination of numbers or letters for the system to refer to when sorting customers in alphabetic order.

Bill

If this is a ship-to customer, enter the customer's bill-to record name. The bill-to customer record must already exist.

Index

Enter additional words for the search index to use when searching for this customer. This field is required.

The system uses the words in this field and the other fields on this screen as tokens in the search index. You can add any information in this field that might be useful for a search. For example, if you know your customers by their customer number on your old system, enter that number in this field; or if the customer name is long, enter an abbreviation for the name.

Contacts Phones

Enter the customer's primary phone and fax numbers, as well as the names, phone and fax numbers of any of the customer's employees with whom you do business. Follow the guidelines:

If you do not enter the fax code, faxed invoices, statements, and memos go to the main fax number.

Note: Use the Contact field as a quick-reference list. This information is not directly connected to the information entered through the Contacts hot key, where you can add detailed contact information. However, by activating the Validate Name In 'Ordered By' Field Against Customer Contact control maintenance record, the system can use this list to check user authorization for taking credit card orders.

Move the cursor to the upper right of the Customer Maintenance screen, and enter an asterisk (*) for any of the options that apply to this customer record.

Move the cursor to the lower right of the Customer Maintenance screen, and complete the following fields as needed:

Field

Descriptions

Bal Fwd/Open Item

Select one of the following to define which type of statement to print for this customer:

B (balance forward) – Includes unpaid invoices from previous billing cycles.
O (open item) – Includes invoices from the current billing cycle only. This is the default.

B/O Status

Do one of the following to enter a Sales Order Entry default statuses for backordered items for this customer:

L - (Call When Available) The order is displayed in the Call When Complete Queue when any item on that generation is available, even a partial quantity of that line item.
A - (Ship When Available) The system ships items on the generation of an order as they become available even if the total quantity of that line item is not available.
C - (Call When Complete) The order is displayed in the Call When Complete Queue when the entire generation of the order is available.
H - (Ship When Complete) The system ships the entire generation of the order when it is complete.
M - (Ship Item Complete) The System ships total line item quantities on the generation of an order as they become available. It does not ship partial quantities of line items.
B - (Bid) Bid status is assigned to the item, which does not commit inventory.
X - (Cancel) No backorders will be placed for this customer.
Leave the field blank to decide the status at the time of purchase, or the system refers to the Percent Of Order To Fill Before Automatically Shipping control maintenance record.

Dflt Out Salesperson

Press F10 and select the user ID of the default outside salesperson for this customer.

If split commissions are in effect for this customer, and you enter a salesperson who is not included in the split commission percentage, the Salesperson Split Commission Percentage screen displays. You can then update the split commissions settings to reflect your change.

Dflt In Salesperson

Press F10 and select the user ID of the default inside salesperson for this customer.

Dflt Ship Via

Press F10 and select the default method of shipment for this customer.

Frt In Exempt (Y/N)

To exempt the customer from incoming freight charges, enter Y, otherwise leave N in the field.

If you enter Y, when you enter a freight charge on the Order Entry Total screen or on the OE Freight Distribution screen, a message displays confirming that this customer is exempt.

Frt Out Exempt (Y/N)

To exempt the customer from outgoing freight charges, enter Y, otherwise leave N in the field.

If you enter Y, when you enter a freight charge on the Order Entry Total screen or on the OE Freight Distribution screen, a message displays confirming that this customer is exempt.

Use the following hot keys as needed:

Press Esc to save the record and exit the screen.

Flag this option...	if...
Bill To	this customer's name and address is the one used for billing purposes. You can flag the customer as both a bill-to and a ship-to. See Assigning a Customer Status for more information.
Job or Ship To	this customer's name and address is the one to which you ship product. You can flag the customer as both a bill-to and a ship-to. If the customer is a ship-to but not a bill-to, enter the bill-to customer associated with this ship-to in the Bill field. Note: You can set a ship-to only customer's price class to null on the Customer Pricing/Printing screen, so that the ship-to inherits the bill to's price class.
Branch	if the entity is a branch of your company, so the branch activities can be tracked and you can use the branch for transfer orders. If this is a non-stocking branch and you will never order from this branch, activate No Order Entry in customer credit control parameters.
Branch Cash Acct	you do not want A/R to accumulate in this account. When you flag this option, also flag the Bill-To and Job or Ship-To fields. Use this type of customer to: Enter cash sales for people who are not regular customers Create a generic customer record for cash sales.
Prospect	this is a prospective customer. See Assigning a Customer Status for more information.
PO/Release#	a purchase number or a release number is required. Select from the following options: None – Neither a purchase order number nor a release number is required. P/O – A purchase order number is required. Release# – A release number is required. Both – purchase order number and release number are required. Note: The system prompts for these numbers in order entry if you select any option except None.
Auto-Delete	you want this customer deleted from the system AFTER all associated history, open bids/orders and closed invoices are purged. You can delete a customer only if there are no ledger, PSUB, or A/R records associated with it. Note: To keep the unused customer from displaying on reports, set the home branch to a dummy branch, and do not include that branch on the report.

Hot Key	Use to...
Add'l Info	Display additional hot keys for customer-specific information.
Credit	Set up credit information for this customer.
Pricing	Set up printing options and contract pricing for this customer.
Tax #	Assign this customer's sales tax status.
Tax Groups	Add a tax-exception group to this customer record.
Rebate	Set up this customer to receive vendor rebates.
Part #	Enter customer-specific part numbers.
Del	Delete the customer record. Enter delete at the prompt. A warning displays if the customer has open orders or invoices.
Log	Display all the changes made to this customer record.
Contacts	Enter the customer's employees with whom you do business.
Copy	Create a new customer record from the displayed record.
OE Msg	Enter a message to display in Sales Order Entry each time this customer places an order.
Branch	Assign branch access to this customer.
OE Instr	Create a message that appears when this customer is displayed in Sales Order Entry.
Delivery	Add a customer to a ship via delivery list, or edit a ship via delivery list.
Lines	Create a price line list for generating customer reports.
Notes	Write notes about this customer.
Remote	Set up parameters for users on Remote Order Entry (ROE).
EDI	Set up an EDI trading partner profile for this customer.
UET	Set the number of days before and after the due date that a shipment can arrive from a vendor without creating an unquality event.
Access	Restrict user access to a customer, vendor, or contact record.
Classify	Display the User Defined Data screen for this customer.
WWW	Enter the customer's internet address and e-mail address.