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SMARTSystem Management Training Series

Training Session #3A – SMARTSystem Customer Maintenance

Purpose:  To introduce and provide orientation for Customer information.

Keywords:  The following is a list of key terms used in the SMARTSystem that you should be familiar with and understand.

• Ship Via – transportation code/description: your routes, carriers, etc. In-bound and Out-bound transportation. Used to identify the method of shipping.
• Supervisor Password – your defined Supervisor Password in System Control. The default is “creditmanager”.
• Sales Password – the defined Sales Manager’s Password in System Control. The default is “salesmanager”.
• DPC – Discount Price Code and is setup using the Management Menu.
• Drayage – is the transportation of goods over a short distance via ground freight and often part of a longer length haul to delivery product.

Customers Maintenance

Introduction

Current customer information is vital for successful operations and considered valuable. 

To protect your customer list, the SMARTSystem has an option to require a password before printing it.  This option is a checkbox in the System Control under General Options:

In addition, usually only a few key staff are allowed to add new or change existing customer information.  For example, your accounts receivable person would be responsible for setting up new accounts, establish credit limits and insure accurate information.  Therefore, looking back at setting up your staff permissions you can specify who can set or remove customer surcharges:

The Sales Menu provides the option, Customer Lookup to access customer information using the Customer Lookupview as an inquiry only with limited information: 

Pre-requisites

There are certain pre-requisites required to create a customer and for the customer maintenance to function smoothly.  These pre-requisites include:

• Salesperson,
• Customer type,
• Customer terms,
• Ship via,
• Optional: Contacts Job Title
• Optional: Customer Groups, and
• Optional: Carrier Locations

Please refer to the specific menus for additional information.

Customer Entry

The Customer Table Maintenance program has up to 13 tabs as illustrated below, which include:

• Contact Info
• Sales Info
• Contacts
• Ship To
• Sold To
• Carrier Info
• Auth Info
• Misc
• Web Login
• System Settings
• Credit Cards (only visible if Terms is identified as a credit card)
• Contract Pricing (only visible if checked)

Sample Screen:

The Credit Cards tab only shows when a customer has Credit Card marked in the Terms record. 

Contract pricing only appears when the customer is set for it on the Sales Info screen:

Contact Info Tab:

The customer number can be 1 to 9 characters.  There is an option in the SMARTSystem to automatically assign the next customer number which is usually establish during the initial configuration in System Control > Trans Nums tab:

Member Pass # is optional and is normally used to identify the customer id number for a floral market.

Expires is a date used to flag a customer when the Member Pass # is due for renewal.

Stop # is optional and used to sequence the customer on the Route Report.

Customer name and address information is entered on this screen. Address Line 1 requires an entry other than blank.Address Line 2 is optional.  

Customer names must be unique to prevent conflicts in the accounting program with duplicate customer names.

On the Invoice and Price List E-mail address lines you can enter multiple e-mail addresses by using a semi-colon (;) to separate them. Do not end an email address with a semi-colon (;) because it is only used to separate email addresses.

There is an option to specify Payment on Account and the Amount of payment information on this screen that will print on the Standard Customer Invoice.

Its purpose is to assist collections when doing customer deliveries.   

This feature is turned on in System Control > Sales Options > Invoice and click the checkbox to implement this feature for the Standard Invoice format only.

There are two buttons on this screen used to improve communications with your Sales Reps: Customer Memos and Administrative Hold. 

The Customer Memos button would normally be a blue color but can be set RED to “ALERT” your sales staff or anyone accessing this Customer screen that a new message exists:

The Administrative Hold button would normally be set ON by the accounting department and the reason for the Administrative Hold can be entered using the Customer Memos to inform your sales staff.

When the Administrative Hold is set ON, it will restrict sales by not allowing the creation of a Sales Order for the customer.

Last Accounting Update information shows the last date that Customer balances were imported from your accounting system.  Normal procedures are to:

• run the SMARTSystem End-of-Day process
• import transactions to the accounting program
• post customer payments
• export customer balances
• update SMARTSystem with customer balances

Current customer balance information is available for sales staff and if the feature is turned on used for credit limit checking.

Sales Info Tab:

The Sales Info Tab contains information used by the Sales Order Entry and other programs.  This screen contains sales related information.

  

Typically, Salesperson1 represents Fresh Cut sales and Salesperson 2 represents Supplies, but this is optional. An Alternate Sales Rep can be entered into the Sales Order Entry program as needed.

Customer Type is user defined by selecting menu Customers > Customer Types.

Customer Terms is user defined by selecting menu Customers > Customer Terms.

When Credit Card term is selected the Credit Card Tab is displayed in this program:

On the Terms screen below, the “Credit Card” button for “Credit Card” identifies this Terms type which will display of the Credit Card Tab in customer maintenance:

The Market Day checkbox is a promotional feature and explained in a separate document.

Discount % is a set discount percentage that will be applied to all customer orders with the option of removing it on the sales screen.

Customer Credit Limit is a whole dollar amount.  To change this amount you need to click Change Credit Limit button:

Credit Limit changes require a Supervisor Override Password:

Dump Customer is a checkbox that identifies this customer record and transactions to be ignored on certain reports.

Unlock Surcharge (click the blue buttons as shown on the screen below) you will need the Supervisor Password:

When permissions are set for staff to change the “Apply Surcharge” flag the password is not required:

Several of the Sales Tax related fields on this tab are self-explanatory:

• Sales Tax Number
• Sales Tax Exp. Date
• Certificate On File
• Charge Sales Tax

To handle Sales Taxes by county create entries in the tax code table and select the county using the drop down selection:

The Sales Tax Table is selected by going to menu: Control Info > Tax Code Maintenance.  Establishing Tax Code Maintenance is explained in a separate document.  Here is an example of the Tax Code table:

Sales Price Level establishes the prices for this customer.  There are 5 price levels, in addition to a Retail Price and a Website override price.

DPC (Discount Price Code) is established by selecting menu: Management > Discount Price Code Maintenance.  Its use is explained in a separate document.

Do Not Export to Accounting flag is set to prevent a customer’s transactions from being exported to accounting.  Normally, this flag is only used for a “Dump” customer.

When you click on the Contract Pricing checkbox it will display the Contract Pricing Tab to enter that information:

Default Ship Via (Destination) is the default shipping method for this customer.

Originating Carrier (Drayage) is normally used by growers to identify the method of getting product to a carrier.

Show declared value on BOL is a check box that will print the declared value on the Bill of Lading. Otherwise, the value will not print.

Invoice Delivery Method is optional and can be left blank.  It is an information field. Setting “E” or “F” will show these settings on the Warehouse Order Management Screen.

Use XREF SKU with DPC on Invoice to print your customer’s SKU on the invoice normally used for larger, mass market customers:

Print Pick Tickets when checked forces the printing of pick tickets and removes the Sales Reps option to print them.

Print Labels when checked forces the printing of delivery/shipping labels and removes the Sales Reps option to print them.

Information only fields include:

• Credit Appl. On File
• Individual Guarantee

PO Required when set requires a purchase order reference code for this customer on each sales order.

Customer Info 1 is used on the Route Report to print a message recurring message for the driver.

Customer Info 2 is used for internal information that only appears on this screen.

Sales persons Call List information is stored here and can be changed by the Sales Rep from their Call List:

• Days to call
• Preferred Calling Time
• Call List Remarks

Contacts Tab:

You can have an unlimited number of Customer Contacts. The Contacts entered on this screen are also available in the Sales Order Entry program for viewing and updating:

The Job Title classifications are defined by you in the Contact’s Job Title program on the Customer Menu:

Ship To Tab:

This ShipTo Tab is used for customers that have a standard, repetitive alternate location. This is a default Ship To location.

For multiple Drop Ship/Ship To addresses it is recommend to use the following menu item:

Its use is explained in a separate document.

Sold To Tab:

Sold To information entered here will override the Contact Name and Address and will display on the Sales Order in the Sold To information fields.

Carrier Info Tab:

Carrier Information can be used to override the Default Ship Via on the Sales Info Tab for a specific day of the week:

Using this Carrier Info tab will provide the Sales Order Entry program the correct route for delivery that is based on the day of the week, as indicated below:

Auth Info Tab:

 Authorized Information is optional and used to provide additional security to verify your customer’s authorized staff to pick-up merchandise for them.

Misc (Miscellaneous)

There are several options available on this screen.

The Quick Books Parent Customer Description allows pre-pending of a Branch code or name to your general ledger accounts when you have one or more branches using a common set of G/L Accounts for each branch.

The Other, Persistent Reference provides for a standard customer purchase order reference code for all sales orders.

Using Customer Associations you can identify group(s) your customer belongs to.  Create a list of Customer Groups with standardized descriptions of Associations for customer membership. This table is located under the Customers Menu, sub-menu Customer Groups.

Customer Associations that you want to establish are created on the Customer Groups menu:

Web Login Tab:

 You can define the User Name and Password that will allow your customer to login to your e-commerce website to place orders.

 

Initially, the User Name and Password is set as the Customer Number.

System Settings:

This tab is provided to override SMARTSystem settings for Invoice Customer Discount Settings, Box Label and UPC Label.  The Box Label and UPC Label settings are associated with the Custom Label Designer program located

          Reports > Labels > Custom Label Designer

Credit Cards Tab:

Selecting “Show Credit Cards” will display the Supervisor Password to access Customer Credit Card information.

Credit Cards used for Point-of-Sale, depending on the SMARTSystem Control setting, can update this list or you can add and maintain card information using this screen.  Credit Card numbers are heavily encrypted, but they do not have to be saved.

Contract Pricing Tab:

Customer Contract Pricing always overrides sales prices on a sales order, unless a special promotion, such as “Market Day” promotion is used. If a promotion price is less than the Contract Price, it will automatically be used.

Contract Pricing can be turned OFF for Holiday’s or as needed. This option to turn off Contract Pricing is at the bottom of the Management Menu:

 

Practice Drill

The purpose of Practice Drill is to get you more familiar with the SMARTSystem and comfortable using it. 

1. Login into SMARTSystem
2. Go to the CUSTOMERS Menu and select CUSTOMER VIEW.
3. Select a customer you are familiar with and double click on that customer.The customer information will be displayed.
4. Click through the tabs and verify the information to be correct.If you make a change click MODIFY before exiting to save your change(s).
5. Add a new customer.

Questions and Answers

If you have any questions or need support, please contact us at Support@Floralcomputer.com or call 727-483-5306for assistance.