Accounts Receivable: Customers Accounts Receivable: Customers
Customers include any companies or individuals that purchase goods or services from the company. The Customers program is used to enter, edit, or delete Customer information.
There are three ways to access the Customer Entry screen:
1. Select Customers from the Accounts Receivable Main Menu.
2. Press the lookup button by the Customer # (or name) on the many Account Receivable screens.
3. Select Customers from the Lookup Table.
The following Customer Entry screen will come into view. Click on any column header to sort the listed customers.
List of Customers
Enter the desired customer number in this field and the system will automatically search for the matching record. Press the lookup button to search for specific keywords. The following screen will come into view when the lookup button is pressed.
Enter one or more keywords in the blank field and press the Go button. The accounting system will return all customers whose customer name or address contains the entered keywords. Select the desired customer and press the OK button.
Print Envelope/Label (button)
Click this button to immediately print an envelope or a mailing label for this address. See the Printing Envelopes and Labels help topic for more information.
Send an Email Message (button) 
If an Email address has been entered for the highlighted customer, clicking this button will allow the user to immediately send an email.
Recalculate Balances (button)
Click this button to recalculate the figure in the Balance column of the list box for all customers. This will be the additive total of the remaining balance of all unpaid billings.
Add or Change (button)
To modify the information in the customer file, press the Add button. Highlight the desired customer name and press the Change button. For more information, see Add or Change a Customer.
This button selects the highlighted entry (if this screen is accessed through Customer Entry, this button will not be available).
Press the Delete button and the following screen comes into view. Press the Yes button and the highlighted report will be deleted. If the No button is pressed, the program returns to the previous screen.
This button closes the screen and returns to the previous screen.
Help (button)
see How to use help
To add a customer, press the Add button and the system will automatically assign the next available customer number. If the number of a deleted customer is entered, the program will Add the new customer in the deleted customer's space. The following screen will come into view.
To edit an existing customer, highlight the desired record and press the Change button. The following screen will come into view.
View Map of Address (button) 
Clicking this button will allow the user to display a map of the address or driving directions from the company address to this address.
Customer Number
Each customer is assigned a number. To enter a new customer, enter the desired number or the next available number will be automatically assigned by the system. The accounting system will allow up to 99999 customer numbers.
External ID
If invoices are being imported from an external source, that external source may have a different numbering system for the customers. If this is the case, enter this customer's external identification number in this field. When importing invoices from the external source, the External ID will be used to link the imported invoice with the correct vendor.
Copy From (button)
This button only appears when a customer is being Added. Press the Copy From button and the following screen will come into view.
This screen allows the user to select a record source from which name and address information will be copied. Choose from Vendors, Contacts, or Employees.
Name
Enter the customer’s name. Customers are sorted in alphabetical order according to the first character of the name entered here. If customers are to be referenced by last name, enter the last name first.
Address line 1
Two lines are allowed for the address. Each line will allow up to 22 characters. Two lines may come in handy if:
1) The street address is especially long.
2) A street address and a P.O. Box are desired.
3) An individual within the company is desired.
4) A particular department within the company is desired.
Address line 2
This is the second of the two address lines mentioned above. See description for Address line 1.
City, State,Zip
Enter the city, state and zip code.
Print Envelope/Label (button)
Click this button to immediately print an envelope or a mailing label for this address. See the Printing Envelopes and Labels help topic for more information.
Phone / Ext
This is the telephone number of the vendor. The accounting system will automatically insert the formatting characters. The second field is for any required extensions. Enter up to five characters.
Fax
This is the fax number of the customer. The accounting system will automatically insert the formatting characters.
Web Address
This is the Web Address of the customer.
Main Contact
This is the name of the contact person.
This is the Email address of the main contact.
Send an Email Message (button)
If an Email address has been entered, clicking this button will allow the user to immediately send an email.
Email Statements to Main Contact (check box)
Check this box and when statements are printed a PDF version of the statement will be emailed to the main contact.
This table lists the additional telephone numbers and types.
Type
This is the type of number, i.e. phone, fax, modem, cell, home, etc.
Number and Extension
These are additional telephone numbers and extensions of the customer. The program will automatically insert the formatting characters.
Add or Change (button)
To modify the information, press the Add or Change button and the following screen comes into view. Enter the appropriate information and press the OK button.
The table lists the additional telephone numbers and types.
Full Name and Phone number
The full name and phone number of additional contacts are listed here.
Add or Change a Contact
see Adding or Changing a Contact
Press the Miscellaneous tab and the following screen comes into view.
Customer is Active (check box)
Check this box if this Customer is currently active.
Credit Hold (check box)
Check this box to put this Customer on Credit Hold.
Print Statements (check box)
Check this box to allow printing of Customer Statements.
Mailing List (check box)
Check this box to include the Customer on the Customer Mailing List. This list can then be used to limit the number of Customers in the Customer Listing Report.
Customer is Tax Exempt (check box)
If this box is checked, then invoices created for this customer will be tax exempt invoices by default.
Permit #
Enter the permit number.
Expires
Enter the expiration date for this permit or press the lookup button and select the expiration date from the calendar.
During invoice entry, warn if permit is expired (checkbox)
This setting applies to the AR Invoice Entry windows. If the box is checked, then if the customer selected during invoice entry has an expired permit, a warning window will be displayed.
During invoice entry, warn if permit expires in next 30 days (checkbox)
This setting also applies to the AR Invoice Entry windows. If the box is checked, then if the customer selected during invoice entry has a permit that will expire in the next 30 days, a warning window will be displayed.
Check the radio button to specify whether this customer's payments are reconciled on an Open Item or Balance Forward basis.
Open item
Payments that are reconciled on an Open Item basis are reconciled against specific invoices. For example: when a check is received for Invoice 10165, the payment is applied to Invoice 10165. If part is unpaid, it shows as unpaid, and can be dealt with individually. This is by far the most common method of reconciling invoices, but there are those that prefer the Balance Forward Method.
Balance Forward
Payments that are reconciled on a Balance Forward basis are not reconciled against particular invoices, but are applied to the oldest invoice owed by the customer. The total owed by the customer is the total amount billed less the total amount received from the customer. There is no tracking of which invoice was not paid, etc. This makes dispute resolution somewhat more difficult.
Miscellaneous
Enter the rate at which sales tax will be calculated on invoices for this customer. If the customer has more than one tax rate (with projects subject to different taxing authorities, in different states and localities), DO NOT enter a number in this field. Instead, assign the Sales Tax Code which is more likely to be used in most billings. At invoice entry, the correct rate and taxing authority may be selected for the sales tax that will be payable to a different taxing authority, .
Sales Tax Code
This is where State and Local Tax tables are setup for customers that are subject to multiple taxing authorities. A complete explanation of how these are set up is found in State Tax Code Setup.
Annual Finance Charge Rate
This field contains the rate that will be used to calculate this customer’s finance charge billings.
Credit Limit
Enter the maximum amount of credit extended to this customer.
Date of Last Payment
This date is automatically altered by the system each time a receipt is entered.
Amount of Last Payment
This field is automatically updated each time a payment is received and entered into the system.
Current Balance
This is the additive total of the remaining balance of all unpaid invoices. The figure is automatically updated each time invoices or receipts are posted.
Recalculate Balance (button) 
Click this button to recalculate the Current Balance figure for this customer.
This field is used when entering Invoices, Price Quotes, Sales Orders, and Cash Register Sales. As line items are looked up from the Item Price File, the sales level is used to determine which one of the prices the customer will be charged.
Default Income Account
If the income account for this customer's billings is to be different from the default system income account, enter that account number here.
Press the Terms tab and the following screen comes into view.
Default values for the following fields are set up through Setup Accounts Receivable. Any field may be altered for each customer.
Term Description
This is the description of the customer’s terms. It may be up to 12 characters long. The default for this field is specified in system setup. For example: net 30 days.
Choose either the Day of Month or the Number of Days from Invoice Date radio buttons.
Day of Month (radio button)
The invoice is due on a certain day of the following month. This field signifies the day of the month on which the invoice will fall due.
Number of Days from Invoice Date (radio button)
The invoice is due a certain number of days from the invoice date. This field signifies the number of days after the due date until the invoice will fall due.
Choose either the Day of Month or the Number of Days from Invoice Date radio button.
Term Description
This is the description of the discount terms. It may be up to 12 characters.
Day of month (radio button)
Use this option if the discount expires on a certain day of the following month. The day of the month on which the discount expires.
Number of Days from Invoice Date (radio button)
This field signifies that the discount expires a certain number of days from the invoice date. This field signifies the number of days in which the discount expires.
Discount Rate
Discounts are generally a percentage of the invoice amount. Enter the percentage rate at which the discount is to be calculated.
Press the User Defined tab and the following screen comes into view.
These fields are for information only. They may be used for any additional customer information. There is no limit to the number of entries.
Date
The date the note was entered.
Subject
The subject of the note is displayed. This is user defined.
Add or Change (button)
see Adding or Changing a Note.
Print (button)
See Printing Notes.
The drop-down fields to the right of each Prompt are to save whatever information is to be recorded for this customer. These fields are defined by the user.
Check the Edit Prompts box and the Prompt column is changed to allow information to be added or edited. Uncheck the Edit Prompts box and the "Prompts" are saved. Note: The Prompts are not unique to each customer. They are the same for all customers. The data in the right hand column is unique to each customer. This can be any information. For example: The Prompt could be Annual Volume and the value in the dropdown list box could be 5,000.000.
Press the History tab and the following screen comes into view. This screen is for informational purposes only. It lists all the customer's Invoices, Receipts Sales Orders, Price Quotes and Lien Releases.
The tabs are for selecting Open Invoices, All Invoices, Receipts, Sales Orders, Price Quotes, Lien Releases or Cash Register Sales . The difference between the first two tabs is that the Open Invoice tab lists all unpaid invoices and the All Invoices tab lists all invoices, both open and paid. In the case of Invoices, Receipts, Sales Orders, Price Quotes, Cash Register Sales, and Items Purchased, the items are read-only.
Hide Voids (check box)
If this box is checked, the listed invoices will exclude invoices that have been voided.
View Highlighted Invoice (button)
Clicking this button will display the AR Invoice Overview window also accessible through the Overview procedures.
Print Statement (button)
Clicking this button will open this dialog box.
If the Continue button is pressed, a customer statement will be printed for the current customer.
Reprint Invoices (button)
Clicking this button will open this dialog box.
This window allows the user to print a selected range of the current customer’s invoices.
When this tab is selected, the user can create, print, and track lien release forms for this customer.
The list box displays all lien releases that have been entered for this customer. The Lien Status column reflects whether the lien release has been sent and whether it has been received back from the customer. To add or change a lien release, click either the Add or Change button. The following window will appear:
Enter the appropriate information for printing a lien release form in the top section. To gather information for this lien release from one of this customer's invoices, click the Retrieve Information from Billing button. Select the desired invoice from the pick list and the information will be filled into the fields on this window.
Use the checkboxes and button in the Lien Release Form Printing section to print out lien release forms containing the information in the top section. The lien release forms are the same forms used for printing Accounts Payable Lien Waivers. Refer to the help topic on Accounts Payable Setup for information about selecting a set of lien release formats or creating them using FormMaker.
Include Notary (check box)
If this box is checked, the printed Lien Waiver will include a section at the bottom for a Notary Public to verify the signature.
Check one or more boxes and click the Print button. The system will print the appropriate forms.
View Highlighted Record (button)
Press the View Highlighted Record button to open the appropriate Overview screen.
Print Statement (button)
Press the Print Statement button and the following screen will come into view.
Select the desired date or press the lookup button to select the date from the Calendar. Fore more information, see Accounts Receivable Customer Statements.
Reprint Invoices (button)
Press the Reprint Invoices button and the following screen will come into view.
Use these limits to reprint any of this customer's invoices.
Press the Ship To tab and the following screen will come into view. This screen displays alternate Ship To addresses for this Customer. This screen is useful if a customer has multiple shipping addresses.
Adding a Ship To Address
When a customer's Billing Address and Ship to Address are not the same, a Ship To Address may be added.
View Map of Address (button)
Clicking this button will allow the user to display a map of the address or driving directions from the company address to this address.
Press the Attach tabs and the following screen comes into view. This tab allows the user to attach outside files to the customer record. For example: a scanned copy of a letter from this customer can be attached.
See the Attachments topic for a full description of how attachments work.
Customers displayed in the list box on the main Customer Browse window can be filtered by the customer Active flag. There may be a time when the operator desires to mark multiple customers as Inactive based on the date of the last business transacted with the customer. Click this button and the following window will appear:
Enter the desired cutoff date in the date field. The list will be filtered to include only customers who have had no activity (no invoices or payments) posted since the cutoff date. Those customers can now be tagged or untagged. When the Deactivate Tagged Customers button is pressed. The Active flag on all the tagged customers will be set to "Inactive."
