Enter Edit Customers

Table of Contents

Overview

When you need to enter a new customer or edit an existing one you will go to the Enter/Edit Customer screen.  It is here that customer data is entered and modified and information such as name, address, phone number as well as default terms, shipping methods and contact information are entered.  Additionally, the sales tax authority, options to create and print statements, email distribution setup for invoices and Statements, and finance charges are set on this screen.

AR > Customers >Enter Edit Customers

Header

Main Tab

Above is an example of a customer that has already been set up.  For the remainder of this section we will outline the functions of each setup box and how it affects TRX Enterprise™.

  • Customer Template - Once you click "Add Customer", this field appears. Customer templates can be setup in the AR Special functions menu and they allow you to create different default sets for different types of customers. By pressing F9, you can chose between the templates that you have already set up.  Use of templates is optional. If you choose not to use them, you only have to tab through to start creating the customer.

  • Customer Number - If you aren't creating a new customer, this field is used to search for an existing customer. If this is a new customer, it is either manually entered or auto-populated based on your AR Setup.

  • Active - Check this box to make this an active customer.  Transactions may not be entered for inactive customers.

  • First Name - If the customer is an actual person, enter their first name

  • Last Name - If the customer is an actual person, enter their last name

  • Customer Type - Customer Type allows you to set defaults for FOB and AR Account, and you can use them to comprehensively track your sales. It is common to break out customers by wholesale vs. retail vs. employees, etc…

  • Company - If the customer is a company, enter the company name

Note: A customer must have at least one name or a company name, but it is not mandatory for all three to be filled out.

  • EIN/SSN - This is the taxpayer identification number of the customer

  • Credit Limit - This is the limit of credit extended to the customer.  If the customer cannot have any credit, enter zero.  Leave this blank for unlimited credit.  If there is a default credit limit declared in AR Setup, it will automatically populate in.

  • Price Level - Price levels are used with our Price Rules to create pricing based on a Tiered system.

  • Customer Start Date - The date the Customer started working with you. Entering through defaults to today's date.

  • Terms - These are the default terms to use on all orders and A/R documents (invoices, credit and debit memos). The terms on orders can be locked on the Order Entry setup to prevent Order Entry users from changing the terms to something other than what is entered here.

  • Taxable - First there is a checkbox to denote if the customer is charged sales tax.  Enter a sales tax authority or Press F9 for list of options.  For more information, see the section on sales tax

  • Tax Exempt Number - If the customer is exempt from sales tax, enter the tax exemption number here.  Uncheck the taxable checkbox.

  • Exempt Date - The Date they qualify as Exempt

  • AR Account - This is the default A/R GL account to use for all A/R documents (invoices, credit and debit memos).

  • Default Ship to - This is the number of the contact to use as the default contact for all shipping. You need to enter the contacts before entering this field.

  • Default Bill to - This is the contact to use as the default for all billing.  Enter the contacts before entering this field.

  • POS Disc % - The default discount given for the Customer at POS.

Default Set Up tab

  • Territory - This is the sales territory where the customer should be assigned.  Sales reports can be printed by territory to determine the territories with most or least sales.

  • Source - This is the source or the way in which first contact with the customer was made.  By tracking the source of customers, sales reports can be printed to determine which methods of customer attraction work best.

  • Salesperson – If this customer has a default sales person attached to it you can declare it here.

  • Preferred Shipping - This is a Ship Via code and is the customer has preferred method of shipping items from sales orders.  It is used as a default value on all sales orders for the customer.

  • FOB - This is an FOB code and is used as a default value for all sales orders for this customer.

  • Warehouse - This is a warehouse from the Inventory module.  It indicates the default warehouse for items on sales orders for this customer.

  • Order Priority - This is the default priority level to assign to all sales orders for this customer.  Options are High, Medium, and Low.

  • Accept POS Checks - Check this box to allow the acceptance of checks from this customer on the POS Sales screen. Uncheck this box to prevent check acceptance on the POS screen. (This does not prevent accepting checks as part of the cash receipts process in A/R)

  • Special Tax Exemption - This is part of setting up our special tax function. It marks this customer as being eligible for exemption and only works in conjunction with our special tax feature.

  • Print AR Statements - Check this box to allow the creation of statements for this customer’s account (some customers may not wish to receive statements).

  • Suppress Invoices - Checking this box will prevent invoices for this customer from being included in order invoice printing.

  • Allow Over shipping - Checking this box allows items from sales orders to be shipped in excess of the quantity ordered.

  • Allow Partial Invoice on Order - This is the default value for sales orders entered for a customer.  Normally, orders are invoiced as they are shipped.  Restrict the invoicing process to provide only one invoice after shipping the entire order by unchecking this box.

  • Print Price On Packing Slip – Some customers use the packing slip as a kind of Proforma invoice by having the prices print on the slip.

  • EDI Invoice - Checking this will allow this Customer to be used with our EDI function.

Finance Tab

  • Finance Charge - Check this box to calculate finance charges on statements for the customer.  Enter the percentage to be charged in the percent box this is a monthly charge so 1.5% = 18% a year.

  • Finance Percent – The percent used when calculating Finance Charges.

  • Last Finance Charge Date – This is the last date that a finance charge was calculated.

  • Credit limit - This is the dollar value that the Customer could not exceed before their orders go on hold.

  • AR Hold Days - This is the amount of days an invoice can be overdue before the Customer's account is put on hold.

User Defined tab

The Misc. tab contains any user defined flex fields that may have been defined on the Order Entry Setup screen as well as Salespersons, Layers, and Invoice Terms & Conditions.  It also contains a customer specific field for terms and conditions on invoices.

  • Salesperson - The salesperson you want partial credit for

  • Comm % - The Commission percentage you want this Salesperson to have. The total of all salespersons can not equal over 100%.

  • Flex Fields - Up to 5 flex fields can be defined.  The value entered in each field is determined by how the user wants the fields used or defined.

  • Customer Layering - If you are using the Customer Layering feature, you can use these fields to set which Chain, Franchise, Region, Area, etc. (Customer Layers are all user defined)

  • Invoice T & C - There is fine print at the bottom of invoices.  A default value for this fine print is set up on Order Entry Setup.  A default value can be overridden for a specific customer by entering up to 500 characters in this field.  This value will print only on invoices for that customer.

It is possible to have multiple salespersons assigned to a customer. This feature must be turned on using the Order Entry setup screen. Each of the salespersons will then receive commission for sales orders to this customer. For each salesperson you indicate the percentage of the commission to be paid to the individual salesperson. This should not be confused with commission percent, which is used to calculate the commission on a sales order. In the above example, Ron Fox will receive 20% of the commissions on sales orders to this customer.  (Not a 20% commission) The actual percentage used to calculate commissions on orders is set on the Salesperson Entry/Query screen.

Alerts tab

Customer alerts pop up when a customer number is entered on one of several screens. Alerts are a great way to remind users of specific issues regarding a customer.  For example an alert might let users know a customer only receives shipments on certain days of the week. An alert can be created to display a message indicating checks should not be accepted from the customer in POS. This can be used in addition on the Accept Checks on POS checkbox to help remind POS users that checks are not accepted from a customer.

  • Display Sequence - This field will set the order the alerts are displayed in. It is a numeric field, so you would just put in 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. to set the order.

  • Order Entry - When this is checked, the alert will show up when entering an Order under the ORD module.

  • A/R Invoicing - When this is checked, the alert will show up when creating an Invoice.

  • Cash Receipts - When this is checked, the alert will show up when entering Cash Receipts.

  • POS - When this is checked, the alert will show up when entering POS Orders.

  • Start and End Dates - Alerts can also be set to display only during a particular time frame. If the start and end dates are left blank, the alert is displayed at all times. 

  • Color - The Color selection drop down allows you to change the background of the alert message.  More important alerts can be colored red

  • Alert Message - This field is where you enter your Alert Message

Create as many alerts per customer as necessary. If more than one alert is to be displayed on a specific screen, the display sequence controls which alert is displayed first. Alerts will be displayed from lowest to highest display sequence.

Alerts can be up to 500 characters. Double-click on the Alert Message field to edit the entire message.

 

Notes tab

The Notes tab on the Customer enter/query screen is where you can place notes that will travel with this customer. You will be able to see when they were created and from which department they originated. You can check the public box so that all may see them. However, if the notes are only for you, they will only show up when it is your user ID or the Enterprise user that is accessing the record. Certain reports will report the notes that are public.

Detail

Customer Contacts

All customers will need at least one contact. That contact can double as the ship to and bill to addresses. A customer can have as many different contacts as you would like, but once one is created and used, it cannot be deleted. It can however be removed from all F9 lists of values by unchecking the Contact, Ship to, and Bill to check boxes. To query a contact you only need to scroll down to the contact you would like to view and highlight it.

  • Contact # - The default numbering for TRX will start at one and increment by one, but this can be changed if needed

  • Contact Type - The Contact type has replaced a series of check boxes that allow the user to define how the contact is used. Simply set up your contact types with the various checkboxes in the Customer Contact Types setup screen under A/R>A/R Special Functions>AR Definitions, then choose your type from this drop-down.

  • Store # - This field is for storing the contact's store number. This field can be searched in Customer lookup.

  • Company - This field is for the company the contact is representing.

  • Fax – Fax Number

  • Phone – Phone Number

  • First/Last Name – Contact's First Name and Last Name

  • Cell – Cell Phone Number

  • Address 1 – The Contact's Address

  • Email – Contacts Email Address, certain functions in TRX can call an email for auto mailing, this is where the contacts email would get entered

  • Title – The title the contact has at their company. E.G. President, CEO, Warehouse Manager, IT

  • Address 2 - Contact's extended address i.e. room number

  • Route - The delivery route this contact's address is on. Delivery routes are part of our Order setup on the "Delivery Routes" tab on our Order Definitions under ORD>ORD Special Functions>ORD Definitions.

  • Tax Auth– This would be the tax authority for the contact. This is important if the contact is the ship to address as it is this authority the order will be billed at.

  • Phone – Phone Number

  • Ext - The contact's extension at their company.

  • City – Contact's city

  • State – Contact's State

  • Zip – Contact's Zip

  • Country – Contact's Country

  • Distribute Invoice - If our Email Distribution function is turned on, checking this box will use this contact's email address when distributing Invoices. You can have as many contacts checked as you like. If there is no email address and you have a Fax Unifier set up, it will try to use the Fax number, or it will send you an email informing you it did not send.

  • Distribute Statement - If our Email Distribution function is turned on, checking this box will use this contact's email address when distributing Statements. You can have as many contacts checked as you like. If there is no email address and you have a Fax Unifier set up, it will try to use the Fax number, or it will send you an email informing you it did not send.

  • Time Zone – Time Zone that the Contact is located in

  • Ishop Password – This is where the Ishop password is stored (If you asking what I shop is then you probably do not have it. - It is a web site add on)

  • Delivery Route – Delivery routes can be assigned to orders, if the contact is a “ship to” this would define what delivery route the order was on.

  • Contact check box – Check if this contact is a main contact.  There can be more than one

  • Ship to Check Box – If checked this is a ship to contact for this customer.

  • Bill To Check Box – If checked this contact will be billable

  • Company On address – If checked this Contacts Company will show on various templates

  • Customer Look up – If checked this contact will show on the customer lookup when you F9 and go to the find customer screen.

  • Address Lookup – If checked this contact will show when you query customer addresses.