Summary

The Customer Maintenance window is the central location of all customer records and customer accounts.

The Customer Maintenance window is used to create, maintain and view customer records. A customer record is a group of general customer information such as the customer's name and mailing address. When a customer account is created in a specific module (AR, UB, etc.), a customer record is attached to the account. This links all the customer's accounts to their customer record so that changes to the customer record will update all of the customer's accounts. For example, if you would like to change the billing address of all of the UB module accounts attached to a customer record, change the mailing address of the customer record. New billing statements will be sent to the new address on the customer record. This will not work if there is an alternative address attached to the UB customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> People tab> Alt Address tab) because the alternative address will override the mailing address on the customer record.

The Customer Maintenance window is also used to open the customer accounts attached to a customer record. For example, if you would like to view all of the Utility Billing accounts attached to a customer record, enter the customer number into the Customer window. The Customer window will display the customer accounts created in any module along with the customer record. You can open the customer account, or open the customer record.

Step by Step

1     View the existing customer records.

• Open the Customer Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Customer).
• Enter information into the search area and click the Search button or press ENTER to display the records that match the criteria in the window.
• The SEARCH OPTIONS button is used to hide or display the search criteria fields in order to provide more room for the search results data grid.
• The data grid displays all of the customers that have been created in the application. This includes customers attached to Utility Billing accounts and customers used in other modules.
• Highlight a customer record and click Edit in the data grid header or press ENTER to open the selected customer record. This will open the Customer Maintenance window.
  • When a customer record is selected, the primary data grid will automatically contract and the secondary Accounts and Contact Management data grid below will expand.
    • The Accounts tab in the secondary data grid will display all the accounts associated with the selected customer. Double-click a UB Account Number to open the UB Account Maintenance screen for the selected customer.
    • The Contact Management tab in the secondary data grid will display all the Code and Contact Management module issues the customer account is associated with.
• Highlight a customer and click Delete in the data grid header or press DELETE to delete the selected customer record. You cannot delete a customer record that is attached to a customer account, or has been used in a Cash Receipts module receipt.
• Click the ADD NEW button to create a new customer record. This will open a blank Customer Maintenance window.

2     Create a new customer record in the Customer Maintenance window.

• Enter information into any of the fields in the Customer Maintenance window and click the Save button   or press ENTER to save.
• The Customer Number field will display the customer number. This field will not be enabled.
  • The Customer Number field will display 000000 if you are creating a new customer record. The customer record will be assigned the next available customer number when the customer record is saved.
  • When a UB module customer account is created, the UB customer account will be assigned a sequence number based on the customer record number. For example, if a UB module customer account is created for customer number 000001, the UB customer account will be numbered 000001-001.
• If the customer record is attached to a UB module account, the mailing address fields will be used as the mailing address of the billing statements generated on the UB customer account.
  • If the UB module billing statements should be sent to a different address, you can set up an alternative billing address on the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> People tab> Alternative Address sub-tab). The UB module billing statements for that account will be sent to the alternative address.
• You can add security to the Social Security field using the DB Security feature (SS> Maintenance> DB Security).
  • Security can be set up on the Social Security field at the user or user group level by setting security on the SSN field in the Customer table.
• The Description field can be used for general notes or information.
  • The Description field will display on the People tab of the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> People tab).
• Complete the Contact Information section with the customer contact data.
• The Confidential toggle is used to flag the customer record as confidential. This allows you to incorporate the confidential tag in custom QBE and local reports.
• The Customer Misc tab is used to enter miscellaneous information on a customer record for reporting purposes.
• Click the Save button or press ENTER when complete to save the new customer record.
• Click the Google Customer button to open a Google search tab with the customer's first and last name populated in the search.
  • This icon is accessible from any tab on the Customer Maintenance window.
• Click the Attachments button to add an attachment to the customer record or to view any attachments previously added to the customer record.
• Click the Audit Trail button to open the Audit Trail window. This window is used to track any changes made to the customer record.
  • Use the search criteria section at the top of the page to sort the displayed audit trail.
  • The Audit Trail will provide details about any changes made to the customer window including the date of the change, type of change made, user that made the change, and data table that was edited.
  • This button will only be enabled after the customer has been created and saved.