Customers

Customer Email Accounts

Use this tool to organize bulk mail groups.While the customer file (Receivables > Entry Forms > Sold-to/Ship-to) accommodates a single email address per customer, this feature accommodates multiple email addresses, physical addresses, and fax numbers per client for sales reps who interact with a number of representatives at a single company.

To Create a Bulk Mail Group:

1. Go to Entry Forms > Customer Email Accounts and click "Insert."
2. Select a ship-to or sold-to customer from the drop down menu. The information saved in the customer file copies to the view-only fields on this page.
3. Enter a name.
4. Enter a fill-in email address, physical address, and/or fax number.
5. Associate this contact with a "Group." The Group ID should correspond with the content or purpose of the mailing, for example: product availability, newsletter, holiday promotion, etc.
   • To generate accurate reports, the Group ID should be consistent across contacts belonging to the same group. Do not use variations (i.e. "holiday promo" v. "holiday sale"), and double-check your spelling.
   • A single customer may belong to multiple groups.
6. Under Bulk Mode (Destination), select the delivery destination for the email/post mail.
7. (Optional) Note the customer's preference for email formatting.
8. If you are using CompuPlants 7.0, you may execute a mass email at this time. If not, transition to your marketing email program of choice. Additionally, you may export the Contact Grid to Excel to view/print a report.
9. (Optional) Manually update the "Last Sent" date after a mailing. Use the quick-change grid to update many records at once.

Prospects

Sales reps can use this feature to save prospect information. "Type" refers to customer type. Enter a sales rep, the prospect name, along with any other desired information.

Customer Calls

Keep detailed records of when you speak with or attempt to speak with a customer regarding any number of reasons: follow up a customer inquiry, shipment notification, credit/collections calls, and more. The "Calendar View" tab presents your call history in a convenient, easily readable format.

Sales Calls

A sales-specific call log, you may use this to record interactions with existing customers as well as prospective customers. The Contacts quick-change grid communicates with the Customer Email Accounts. Information you add and/or delete here will be reflected there. If relevant, check "Add to Mailing List" for future reference.

Preliminary Orders

Preliminary orders, also known as "quotes" or "soft orders," are entered just like shipping orders; however, they do not count against product availability, master order quantities, or allocations. Nor do they ever ship.

Enter & Move to Shipping

1. Follow the same procedure for entering a shipping order not tied to a master or a shipping order tied to a master.
   • You may wish to enter only the most important information (customer, want date, sales rep/type, want products and quantities) for the purposes of the preliminary order.
2. When you are ready to release the order, or convert it to a shipping order, check the box labeled "Released" on the Dates panel on the order header form.
3. "Lock" the released order to prevent reps from making changes while the order is being processed.
   
   a. Go to Move Preliminary Orders > Lock Released Order.
   b. Enter the order number and click "Find."
   c. Check "Lock Released Order."
4. Finalize the conversion by going to Move Preliminary Order to Shipping Order.
   
   a. Click "Find." The app displays a list of preliminary orders that have been released.
   b. (Optional) Check "Move as Master Order" to convert the preliminary order to a master order.
   c. Highlight the applicable order(s) and click "Validate." Only locked orders may be moved. If you haven't locked the order, the system will not validate.
   d. After validating the move, click "Process." This removes the order from the open prelim orders grid, though it is stored in the system to allow duplication, and sends it to Orders > Entry Forms > Shipping Orders.
5. Complete the remaining order processing steps in the Orders module.

Admin Options: Preliminary Orders

• prelimoptions: Set to "1" to enable Master Orders, Sold-To, and Date Wanted.
• prelimnolocations: Set to "1" to restrict products that display based on the currentbegin or futurebegin and order ship date (used with "prelimstopcatprc").
• prelimstopcatprc: If "prelimnolocations" is set to "1", specify a date here, which determines whether current or future price is shown.

Print a Preliminary Order

This form replicates the form in Orders > Orders 5.6, and is available here for convenience. Check "Preliminary" before clicking "Find."

Cancel a Preliminary Order

You may cancel a preliminary order if it has not been released. Simply go to Processes > Cancel Preliminary Order, enter the order number and click "Execute."

Duplicate a Preliminary Order

1. Go to Processes > Duplicate Preliminary Order.
2. Enter the order number and the customer.
3. Click "Execute." The application returns the new preliminary order number.
4. Go to Preliminary Orders to edit the order and/or release the order for processing.

Reports

Restrictions by User

The following reports are restricted by user:

• Orders > Open Order Detail by Sales Rep
• Sales Summary Reports > Customer Summary
• Credit & Collections > Aged Receivable Summary by Sales Rep
• Credit & Collections > Aged Receivable Detail by Sales Rep

If the user logged in is an admin or has full rep access, then he/she may obtain reports for all sales reps. If the user is an authorized rep, he may obtain reports for all reps assigned to him. Regular sales reps may access reports only for their customers. Learn more about user types and permissions here.