Customer Maintenance This is a set-up module that must be completed prior to going “live” on the BMS System. Thereafter, this module will be used to edit the system customer database and to add any customers that are not added through the Quotation or Order Entry modules. All customers with a balance due at the time you go “Live” on the BMS System must be added in this module. This is necessary so that Beginning Receivable Balances can be entered in the system through the Customer Account Maintenance module. Once this process is complete, all new customers will mostly be added from the Quotation or Order Entry modules as quotes and jobs are being entered in the system (see Quotation/Proposal Maintenance and Order Entry/Maintenance in the Sales Processing Documentation for further details).
When you enter the Customer Maintenance module, the system will first prompt a Customer Selection box as follows:
All existing customers will appear in the Customer Selection box in alphanumeric order. The functionality in this screen will allow you to sort by any of the column headings as you are conducting a search, such as by Phone number, rather than only by the first couple of letters of the ID. As you click on any of the column headings, you will note that the Search Criteria (1) box at the top of the screen will switch to that heading. For example, if you click the Email column heading, the “Customer ID” search (2) field will now display “Email” and you can begin typing the first couple of letters of an email address to start sorting the data in the screen below by those characters. You can also scroll through the list by using the up and down arrow slides along the right side, or you can still type the first couple of letters of the Customer ID to perform an alpha lookup by last name. The Wild Card (3) button offers an additional search method. You will first select a column heading to search by and then type a couple of characters in the search field prior to clicking the Wild Card button. Once you have located the applicable customer, click on that line to highlight. The system will then populate the Address 1, Address 2, City/St, and Zip fields for that customer in the top right of the Customer Selection screen. Click the Select (4) button at the top of the screen to access that Customer ID.
An option to search by Property Managers (5) appears at the top left of the Customer Selection box. When you click on that option, the system will prompt a Customer Property Manager Selection box as follows:
Highlight the applicable Property Manager in the screen above and click the Select button to continue.
You can also add a new Customer from this screen by typing a new ID in the Customer ID field (1) and then clicking the Add button. Please Note: if a User is not allowed to add Customers to the system, the Add button field will not display. To Add or create a new Customer ID, you can use up to eight characters. BMS recommends using the first four letters of the customer’s last name followed by the last four digits of the customer’s phone number when creating a new ID. For example: John Smith at 615-777-4107 would have an ID as follows: SMIT4107. It is best not to use symbols or spaces in the ID. For a business, use the first four letters of the business name followed by the last four digits of the telephone number, i.e. Broderick Builders with phone number 615-791-0204 should appear as follows: BROD0204. This method is beneficial for the following reasons: it keeps the ID format the same for all customers whether retail, commercial, or builder; it forces the salesperson to always ask the customer for their phone number; it is easier for the A/R department to locate customers because the phone number is most always on the check; and the setup is extremely beneficial for commercial dealers, whose customers may be large with many different branches or departments that have many different billing addresses. For example: the University of New Mexico has departments and annexes all over the state. The phone number is the only way to identify each particular billing department since the name is the same for all departments.
When creating a new ID, begin typing the first four letters in the Customer ID field. As you type, the system will begin sorting the data in the Customer Selection box, prompting any matching names. This will allow you to check to make sure the ID does not already exist. If the system does not find a match, continue typing the last four digits of the phone number. Once the 8-character ID is entered and there is no match in the selection box, click on the Add button to the right of the Customer ID field to continue. The system will prompt the following:
To add, click the Yes button. The system will then prompt a Customer Maintenance screen as follows:
To add, click the Yes button. The system will then prompt a Customer Maintenance screen as follows:
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