Adding a Customer Account
- Click on Sales > Customers > New Customer
- Add the customer details and click on Save to Create the Customer. Clicking on Close will take you back to the Customer Listing Grid.
Mandatory & Recommended Fields
In the Account Details Tab, fill in the following mandatory and recommended fields (mandatory items are shown by *):
- Account Code - This is a unique code that identifies a customer. A combination of letters and numbers should be used. If you leave this field blank, the system will automatically create the code from the Customer Name, taking the 1st 3 letters of the name you enter
- Name* - Add the customer name, this must be unique
- Currency code* - All customer transactions will be created in this currency. Note - If you need to create transactions in more than one currency for a particular customer, then set up a customer for each currency
- Bank GL Account* - This should be the account into which payments from this customer will be received (this can be changed on entry if required)
- Email Address - This field can hold up to 3 email addresses, separated by semi colons and will be used for emailing invoices and statements
In the Account Settings Tab
- General Ledger account* - This will be the default value for all invoices and credit notes for this customer but can be updated if necessary as you enter data
- Control GL Code* - Select the correct Debtors control account from the list
- BI Code - Like the General Ledger account, this is a default code that can be set for all invoices and credit notes raised against this customer
In the Finance Settings Tab
- Credit terms - Again this will be the default for all invoices and is used to calculate the due date for reporting
- Tax code - This defines the default tax code used for any invoices or orders created. The item default tax code will take priority over the customer default tax code.
- Tick the ‘Use Tax Code’ checkbox if you would rather use the customer default tax code instead. This will then overwrite any invoice or order with the tax code specified in the Default Tax code field
Additional Data Fields
You may find it useful to add some of the following to your customer records to help manage your accounts and for reporting:
In the Account Details Tab
- Account on Hold - Select whether this account is currently on hold or not. For example, if there is a long-standing overdue payment against this account, you can decide to flag it as On-hold for new Orders and/or Deliveries whereupon appropriate warnings will be produced by the system should you decide to enter such new Orders or Deliveries.
- Business Address Fields - Enter the fields as required for the Business address of the Customer
- Business Contacts - Enter the fields as required for the Business contacts of the Customer
- Delivery Address - If the customer has a different Delivery address to their Business Address you can enter it here. If it's the same as their Business Address clicking copy from Business Address will copy the details from the Business Address fields to the Delivery Address field.
In the Account Settings Tab
- Delivery Route - Setup & assign delivery routes
- Ship Via - Setup & assign transport providers
- Priority - Setup & assign an importance levels
- Sales Rep - Enter the Sales Rep that is assigned to this Customer from the Drop Down. The Sales system has a sub-system which enables Sales Rep’s Commissions to be calculated based on invoiced sales for associated customers For full details on this feature, please see How does the Sales Reps & Commission Management Feature Work?
- Area - Select from a list or setup new Sales Areas. This is useful to classify your customer according to the Sales Area for Sales Analysis reporting purposes
- Region - Select from a list or setup new Sales Regions. This is useful to classify your customer according to the Sales Region for Sales Analysis reporting purposes
- Referral - This allows you to record, for marketing purposes, the source by which you acquired this Customer
- Account Group - Select from a list of possible Account Groups. You may wish to associate this customer within a common grouping for classification and reporting purposes.
- Head Office Account - Tick this box to indicate that this Customer record is in respect of a Head Office Account. It is possible to link this Head Office account with subsidiary or branch accounts.
- Invoice Head Office - Use this flag to denote whether the Head Office Account associated with this account should be invoiced instead of this Customer Account. This is used when centralized billing is in place where sales to branches should be invoiced centrally to the Head office account. If this flag is ticked, you should also specify the Head Office Account Code for Invoice purposes in the Drop Down beside it. For further details refer to the Article How does Head Office Accounting Work?
In the Finance Settings Tab
- Bank Details - fields- enter the Bank details of the Customer. These fields will subsequently be used in new functionality currently under development regarding the use of Customer Direct Debits and Credit Cards. It is also used by some clients to extract a report and import information into alternative DD generating systems.
- Credit Limit - is the maximum amount of Credit being allowed to the Customer. During Order entry or Invoice entry, warnings will be produced if this limit, or the Credit Terms limit, is being exceeded.
- Payment Method - This is the normal Payment Method normally used by this Customer to remit funds.
- EDI ID - Each customer must be identified by a unique EDI number which can be recorded in this field.
- EDI File Type - Select the EDI File type you need from the dropdown list - Note - The system allows you to generate Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files for the purposes of billing customers where this form of file transfer is supported. The file generated will contain a list of outstanding invoices due for payment and the individual customers will be identified using the ID number.
- Price Category - Price Categories allow you to classify Customers into different Groups for individual pricing purposes.
- Price Lists - Price Lists allow you to set up and use special price lists for promotions and such like. Price Category and Price Lists are covered in more detail in Chapter 4. and Chapter 5. of the Article How do I Maintain Products and Services Type Items (Sales)?.
- Discount - is the amount of Discount you are extending to this Customer on his Invoices. It’s a straight forward Discount percentage un-related to Payment Terms. Its format is such that 15% should be coded as 0.15.
- Franchise - This flag indicates whether this customer should be treated as a 'Franchisee' in the context of a Franchise implementation of the system. For more information on this topic please read the article How do I, as a Franchisor, Interact with my Franchisee Companies?
- VAT (Tax) No - Enter the Customer Tax Number here
- VAT (Tax Exempt Ref) - Enter the Customer's Tax Exempt Number here
In the Contacts tab
- Click on New Contact to set up a new contact. Once saved you can set a contact as the Primary Contact by selecting it from the dropdown list.
- The Primary Contact’s email address will be used for any automatically sent invoices or statements. This contact’s email will take precedent over the Email Address field in the Business Contacts tab.
In the Notes Tab
- On the Notes Tab you can add a series of Notes relevant to this customer, these are only visible to system users, not to customers
- To add a new Note click on Add New Note, type in the Note, followed by Save.
You can find more detailed information regarding this particular facility in the article How Do I Add Notes and Images to a Document?
In the Custom Fields tab
- If there are other items of information that you would wish to hold against each Customer, then you can avail of this facility to add these .
- Custom Fields can be added to the customer and invoice listing screen and used to sort or filter data. The topic of Custom fields and how to use and deploy them is detailed in the Article How do I Create additional User Defined Fields on Master Records?
Once you have entered all the customer details, click on Save to create the customer and Close to return to the Customer Listing Screen.
As well as Notes and Custom fields, you can attach one or more Document Images and other Objects (Terms & Conditions, References, Letters of Credit, Voice Mails, etc.) to the Customer’s Master record. Click on the Paper Clip symbol displayed next to the Attach Document in the top right hand corner of the window
Editing a Customer Account
You can view a full list of all customer accounts by clicking on Sales tab > Customers.
To edit a customer account, find the account in the listing screen and click on the code.
- Certain fields cannot be updated once transactions have been posted for the Customer, for example Customer Code, Currency Code and Control General Ledger Code. Also, the delete button will no longer appear
- Most other fields can be updated, clicking on save once updates have been made.
- Customers that are not needed any more, can be deactivated by un-ticking the Active box in Account Details tab.
- Click on Actions within a customer record, or from the customer grid to create customer transactions or to view print or email documents
Related Help Articles
How do I Create additional User Defined Fields on Master Records?
How do I, as a Franchisor, Interact with my Franchisee Companies?
How does the Sales Reps & Commission Management Feature Work?
How do I Maintain Products and Services Type Items (Sales)?
FAQ's
How can I set up a customer with more than one currency - If you need to create transactions in more than one currency for a particular customer, then set up a customer for each currency
Can I change the control account for a customer / group of customers - Only it is a new Customer account with no transactions recorded / saved against it. If there are transactions recorded against it you cannot change the Control account
Can I setup a new Control account to record sales transactions against - Yes you can setup a new type C Control account as a new Debtors Control account to
Can I delete a customer - Only if no transactions including Saved Sales orders or Sales Item invoices are not recorded against the customer in question