General customer information may be changed at any time after the new customer has been entered. Additional information may be entered into this window such as miscellaneous notes. The customer window is also very useful in viewing history such as invoices and sales orders, as well as payments received from the customer. Review the Customer History section for more details.
Open the customer information window by going to Sales > Customers. If you wish to create a new customer, follow the steps listed in the Adding a New Customer section. Select the customer to edit, which will open the following window:
Right click on the Customer field with your mouse to open the context menu and change the customer’s identification code. Select Change ID, which will start a lengthy process of changing this customer’s code throughout the system. It is possible to load a different customer by clicking on the lookup button to the right of the Customer entry field and selecting a new customer.
Clicking on the down arrow button to the right of the current folder name and selecting a new folder can change the customer’s Folder. If you place the customer into the inactive folder the customer will not be listed on a number of reports.
General Tab
The Name, Address and Contact Information may be changed at any time and will affect all future transactions for this customer. Changes will not be reflected on existing invoices and sales orders. To create a miscellaneous customer, blank all the name and address entry fields. A miscellaneous Id must be made, however, such as MISC or MISCCUS. When entering the miscellaneous code into a sales order or invoice, the system will prompt for the customer’s name and address. Review the Miscellaneous Customer Overview section for more details.
Select the inventory Price Level category for each customer by clicking on the down arrow and selecting from the available options. These price levels are created in the Inventory > Options > Price levels window. The price level that is selected will be used on any new sales invoices, reflecting the price level that will be used for any inventory item listed on the invoice. Multiple prices can be entered for each inventory item. Go to Inventory > Inventory Items > Pricing tab to enter prices for each price level.
You can enter an optional customer Type for each customer, which will allow you to print out reports or query customers in specified groups. Example: If you want to keep track of all the customers within a delivery route – you could enter the route in the type field then query all the customers for a specific route. If a customer is part of multiple groups, list all the routes in the Type field and separate them with a space or comma. Grouping customers only by using folders is limited since a customer can only appear in one folder. By entering a group of keywords or group names within the type field separated by a comma or space, the user can then query the customer by any type or combination of types.
EXAMPLE John Doe’s type field may contain – South Route, Deliver, Local which allows the user to include John Doe on the Delivery list as well as the Southern Route list and the Local customer list. This is accomplished by using the query option on the customer list report.
You can use the Note field to enter miscellaneous comments pertaining to a specific customer. The length of this entry field is not limited but will scroll if more information is entered than what can be displayed on a single page.
Terms Tab
Click on the Terms tab of the customer window. The following window will appear:
Set the Discount field to list the standard discount, if any, allowed for this customer, by performing the following two steps:
1. Set the proper discount template by clicking on the right arrow button to the right of the discount field. A drop down list will display all the discount options. If no discounts are offered for this customer, set the entry field to "(None)" and ignore the second step.
2. Enter the discount detail after the discount template is set. For example, if the "__ % paid in __ days" option is set, the discount percentage and the number of days in which the customer is allowed to take the discount must be entered.
Set the Due terms for this customer. To set this customer as cash select Cash as the Due setting. Otherwise set the Due terms, which requires two steps:
1. Set the template entry by clicking on the right arrow and selecting one of the options. If this field is set to "(None)" the customer will be allowed unlimited terms. The most common term template is "Net __ days". A "Collect on Delivery" and "Due on Receipt" term setting will cause the sales invoice to be processed as a charge invoice, but will set the due date as immediate.
2. Most templates require term details such as a date or number of days. For example, if the "Net __ days" template is selected the exact number of days must be entered to complete due date terms.
Set the Monthly Finance Charge Rate that will be charged for any overdue customer invoices. Many companies charge an overdue finance charge rate of 1% to 2% per month. This computes to a total of 12% to 24% annual rates. Review the Printing Customer Statements section for more details on processing finance charges.
The Minimum Finance Charge amount is the minimum charge per invoice. If the calculated finance charge for any overdue invoice is less than the Minimum Finance Charge the finance charge amount will equal the Minimum Charge. Zero this field if there is no minimum charge amount.
Set the Tax table setting to the local sales tax table. See Tax Table section to create new tax rate tables. If the customer is tax exempt enter the customer’s Tax ID number, and the Expiration Date. The Tax Id and Expiration Date can be ignored if customer is not sales tax exempt. See Sales Tax section for more details on entering sales tax rates.
The Shipping Information section is used to processing shipping charges on sales invoices.
The Ship To customer Id is copied to the invoice and is printed on the ship to section of the invoice if the merchandise is being shipped. EBMS determines if the merchandise on a specific invoice is being shipped by comparing the Default Shipping Method (FOB) setting with the Ship Via field on the invoice. FOB assumes that the items are being picked up.
Enter the standard freight charge, if any, in the Freight Charge field. If no freight is charged for invoices over a certain dollar amount, enter a Minimum Free Freight amount. If the items are being shipped, enter UPS or the shipping company in the Ship Via field on that specific invoice. If a customer always has items shipped, it is most efficient to enter another method in the Shipping Information section in the Sales>Customer>Terms tab (in the Default Shipping Method field). Then, this information will be copied on each sales order or invoice created for this customer.
If the invoice’s Ship Via field does not match the Default Shipping Method (FOB) field (the merchandise is being delivered by UPS or some other shipping company) and the invoice total is less than the Minimum Free Freight amount, the Freight Charge amount is copied into the invoice’s Freight field. If the customer is picking up the items (the Standard Shipping Method (FOB) field = the Invoice>Ship Via field), no freight charges will be applied to the invoice automatically. A manual freight charge can be entered on the invoice at any time. See the Calculating Freight Charges on Invoices section for more details.
Enter the customer’s Credit Limit. A warning message will be displayed within an invoice if the total receivable plus the invoice total is more than the credit limit. If the customer has unlimited credit enter zero into the credit limit field. To not allow any credit, set Due terms to Cash.
Advanced Tab
Click on the Advanced tab and the following page will appear:
This is where the customer’s general ledger account defaults are set up and modified. These accounts are universally set in most situations. To universally set up the advanced tab settings go to Sales Menu > Options > Customer Folders tab > Edit Defaults button > Advanced tab. Review the Setting Customer Defaults section for details in globally changing the advanced tab general ledger accounts.
Set the Freight general ledger account to the expense account used to record shipping income. All Freight charges entered on the sales invoice footer will be posted to this account.
Set the remaining general ledger accounts to the appropriate accounts. It is recommended that these accounts be set as defaults in Sales > Options > Customer Folders tab > Edit Defaults > Advanced tab. See the Setting Customer Defaults section for more details.
The Include in Mailing List option is useful when compiling a mail list. Turn option OFF to remove customer from mailing list. Note that this option should be turned ON in default settings.
Other Tabs and Buttons
This tab should be used to record the directions to a customer location. This is an option memo entry that is useful when directions to the customer’s location are needed.
Invoices Tab
The information in the Invoices tab and each year tab is updated as customer invoices are processed. Proceed with the Customer History section for more details on these tabs.
Messages Tab
For details on inserting and editing messages, review the Customer Messages section.
The buttons at the bottom of the customer information windows work in the following manner:
· OK will save changes and return to the main window.
· Cancel will not save changes before returning to the main window.
· New will bring up the window to start entering a new customer. Review the Adding a New Customer section for details on new wizard.
· Delete will delete the selected customer. Note that a customer cannot be deleted if transactions exist in any year tabs. Instead of deleting a customer, they should be moved to an inactive status. For further information on making a customer inactive, review the Making a Customer Inactive section.
· Print has a drop down list of reports linked to this window or a report can be added by selecting add a report at this time. Review the Print Button section for more details.