Tutorial: Customer Maintenance

Maintaining the customer database for the Portal is a straight forward process of creating new customers, editing the details of existing ones, and occasionally removing customers from the database. In this tutorial we will discuss the management of your customer database and in a subsequent tutorial we will look at the reports that can help in the task of customer maintenance.

This tutorial discusses the Maintenance section of the Customer Menu in detail. The Customer Menu can be opened by selecting Menus followed by Customer from the Navigation Menu. The first link in the Maintenance section of the Customer Menu opens the Company Options screen.

The New Customer link in the Maintenance section of the Customers Menu opens the blank Customer Maintenance screen. When creating a new customer, fill in the customer's contact details in the Customer Details tab of the Customer Maintenance screen. Enter the customer's First Name and Last Name and a Customer ID number. Supply the customer's Phone and Alt Phone numbers as well as their Mobile and Fax numbers. An Email address can also be recorded in addition to the customer's Shipping Address and Billing Address. There is also a field to record miscellaneous Comments for the customer. Press the Save button to save the customer's details in the Portal.

The other tabs in the Customer Maintenance screen allow you to view the customer's history in the Portal. These tabs are much more useful when editing an existing customer than when creating a new one. Select the Edit Customer link from the Maintenance section of the Customers Menu to open the Find Customer screen. This screen allows you to search for the customer that you wish to edit. The Custom tab allows you to search by Name, Customer Number, Customer ID  or Card Number. You can also use a tab with a letter to view all customers whose surname starts with that letter.

Once you have selected a customer, the Customer Maintenance screen opens with their details loaded. We have already discussed the Customer Details tab above. The other tabs in the Customer Maintenance screen allow you to view the history of the customer in the Portal:

• Orders, lists all customer orders that the customer has made in the Portal. The Order Number, Status, Site, Date Ordered, Due Date, Total Amount, Deposit and Balance Outstanding are displayed for each order. Click on the Order Number of an order with a Status of Open to load the order in the Customer Orders screen, allowing you to edit the details of the order.

• Quotes, lists each customer quote in the Portal for the customer. Details include the Quote Number, Status, Site, Date Quoted, Expiry Date and Total for each quote in the system. Clicking on the Quote Number of a Pending quote allows you to edit the details of the quote in the Customer Quote screen.

• Home Delivery, lists each of the customer's Home Deliveries in the Portal. The Delivery Number, Delivered Status, Site, Delivery Date and Delivery Fee are displayed for each delivery. Click on a Delivery Number of a non-delivered Home Delivery to open the Customer Home Deliveries screen, allowing you to edit the details of the Home Delivery.

• Lay-bys, lists details of each of the customer's Lay-bys. The Lay-by Number, Collected Status, Site, Lay-by Date, Due Date, Lay-by Fee and Balance Outstanding are displayed for each lay-by. Click on a Lay-by Number to open the Customer Lay-by screen, allowing you to edit or print the details of the selected lay-by.

• Appointments, lists each of the customer's scheduled appointments. The screen lists the Site, Date, Time, Schedule and Comment for each appointment for the customer. Select the Date of an appointment to open the Scheduler Report, allowing you to view details of the schedule for the selected date.

• Loans, displays the details of the Micro Loans that the customer has in the Portal. Information displayed includes the Loan Number, Status, Site, Date of the Loan, Expiry Date and Principle of each loan. Select a Loan Number to open the Customer Loans screen to edit the details of the loan.

• Purchases, lists the details of Micro Purchases made by the Company involving the customer. Details include the Purchase Number, Status, Site, Date of Purchase and Total Amount for each purchase the customer has made. Select a Purchase Number to open the Customer Purchase Maintenance screen to allow you to view and edit the details of the selected purchase.

There are also some additional buttons that allow you to perform the following functions:

• New Customer, allows you to create a new customer from the Customer Maintenance screen by clearing the loaded customer's details from the screen. This is the same process as selecting the New Customer link from the Maintenance section of the Customers Menu.

• Orders, opens the Customer Orders screen for the selected customer, allowing you to create a new customer order for them.

• Quotes, opens the Customer Quotes screen for the selected customer, allowing you to create a new quote for the customer.

• Create Account, creates a Debtor Account in the database for the customer. The Debtor File Maintenance screen is opened with the details of the customer, allowing you to edit the debtor details for the customer.

• Create Loyalty, creates a member record for the customer in the Loyalty database. The Member Maintenance screen is opened with the details of the customer, allowing you to edit the Loyalty details for the customer.

In this tutorial we have discussed the maintenance of customers in the Portal. We have investigated how to create new customers and edit existing customers by looking at the Customer Maintenance screen in detail.