Working with the Customer Maintenance tab

The Customer Maintenance tab contains all of the screens and fields that are used for setting up and maintaining data relevant to your customers. Before you can enter any order information for a customer on the Customer Service tab, the customer information must have been set up already in Customer Maintenance.

Customer Maintenance is one of the more important tabs because many of your system's applications depend on its complete and accurate information so that they can function properly. The Customer Maintenance tab affects every application that has anything to do with handling orders and collecting payments from customers.

For example, the Customer Service tab and the End-of-Month and End-of-Year processing jobstreams use the information that you enter about your customers on the Customer Maintenance tab. The Verification Routine also uses this information. And the End-of-Day jobstream accesses Customer Maintenance before changing status codes, performing bulk verification, calculating allocations, printing invoices, and updating Sales files. The Accounts Receivable and Sales Analysis programs also use the information stored on the Customer Maintenance tab.

Because all of these programs use Customer Maintenance information, it is very important that you make sure all of the indicators are set correctly.

Following are descriptions of the screens available on the Customer Maintenance tab.

Screen name	Purpose
Search	This screen helps you quickly: Search for a customer if you are unsure of the customer's number. View contact information, buying trends, general account activity, pricing information for the customer, and other customer profile information. Note: To access the Search screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Master	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following customer information: Bill To address, phone number, and fax number Status information (e.g., whether the customer is an active customer or a prospect) Classification information (e.g., valid companies, tax jurisdiction, customer type, and CRM profile for this customer) The names of the Sales and Customer Service Representatives assigned to this customer Handling information (e.g., default ship to location, whether or not cash on delivery (COD) is required for this customer's orders, and credit card information) Note: To access the Master screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Accounting	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following accounting information for the customer: Business specifications (e.g., master A/R number, tax exempt number, SIC code) Credit information (e.g., whether the customer is on credit hold, whether a service charge should be applied to the customer's orders, the credit limit, and commission chargeback information) Statements (whether statements should be printed, plus details about the credit card statement information) Summary invoicing details (e.g., invoice frequency and invoice schedule date) Note: To access the Accounting screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Pricing	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following pricing information for the customer: Costing methods Price override limits Substitutions (whether they should be allowed, and if so, which products should never be substituted) Discount pricing types Regular and sale contracts that are associated with this customer Note: To access the Pricing screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Preferences	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following preferences for the customer: Order processing requirements (e.g., whether the customer accepts partial shipments and backorders) PO requirements (whether the customer needs his or her own PO number associated with each order) Printing documents (e.g., discount message on the invoice, whether the customer needs backorder and order acknowledgments) Monthly reports Note: To access the Preferences screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Ship To Main	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following information for each ship to location for this customer: Ship to name, address, phone and fax numbers, and sales reps Status for this ship to (whether this ship to location is active) Shipping defaults (e.g., company number, warehouse number, map location) The Ship To address is useful because it enables the system to assign the correct shipping routes, special instructions, and tax information, without a lot of extra typing by the customer service representatives. Since taxes are governed by the location to which goods are sent, the Ship To addresses take on a great significance. Note that the Ship To address is referenced on Customer Maintenance tab. The information from the ship to fields on the Customer Service tab print on the order's pick ticket and invoice. Note: To access the Ship To Main screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Ship To Pricing	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following pricing information for each ship to location for this customer: Costing methods Price override limits Substitutions (whether they should be allowed, and if so, which products should never be substituted) Discount pricing types Regular and sale contracts that are associated with this ship to location Note: To access the Ship To Pricing screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Ship To Preferences	This screen is where you set up and maintain the following preferences for each ship to location for this customer: Order processing requirements (e.g., billing code match pattern, credit card information) Taxing setting PO requirements (whether the customer needs his or her own PO number associated with each order) Printing documents (e.g., number of delivery tickets and extra invoices, whether the ship to location needs backorder and order acknowledgments) Note: To access the Ship To Preferences screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Billing Codes	This screen is where you set up and maintain the billing code information for the customer. You also can select specific credit card information for each billing code on this screen. Note: To access the Billing Codes screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Billing Code Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.
Contacts	This screen is where you set up and maintain the primary contact and A/R contact information for the customer. Note: To access the Contacts screen on the Customer Maintenance tab, you must have the proper security privileges. The Customer Maintenance job function needs to be assigned to one of your roles. Roles are assigned to users in the User Maintenance on the Security Maintenance screen of the Vision Configuration tab. For more information, refer to About roles and job functions.