The upper part of the CRM Data Entry window is for the entry of Prospect or Customer information at Company level and will be colour coded for Customers or Prospects according to the selections you have made on the General tab of the CRM Options window.

Code - You should work out in advance the best scheme for identifying your Customers and Prospects. Meaningful codes will be much easier for your staff to remember. A simple scheme, such as the first 3 characters of the Customer's name followed by 3 digits, has advantages when searching for records as the characters can be entered as search criteria to list all the records starting with those characters. Automatic code numbers can be created, as for Customers. This option is found in the System Options for the Sales Ledger.

Assigned To - This field is used to record the code of the Customer within your system that has been assigned to handle transactions with this Prospect or Customer. This field will be useful if you run a partnership network whereby you have a team that find and qualify prospective customers but then pass these leads to other companies to follow up. These companies will also be Customers within your accounts and they will support the Prospect as they become a Customer. Your Prospects and Customers will be assigned to another of your Customers, by selecting their account code from the drop-down list. The drop-down list will be populated with the account codes of those Customers that qualify to have Prospects and Customers assigned to them. If you have not entered qualifying criteria in System Control, this list will be empty.

The adjacent drill button opens a window displaying details from their record. This window holds the contact details from the Customer record. These are for information only but there are also some fields on the window that can be used to store information about the progress made with the prospect by the assigned partner.

Name

If the Sales Ledger system option Account name in capitals is ticked, then the Name you enter will be capitalised.

Address and Contact details

The address fields are in the order shown on the label: Address, Town, County, Postcode, Country.

Use the Tab key to move through the fields.

Continuing to Tab will take you through the contact detail fields for the Company: Phone, Fax, Internet and Email.

Sort keys

Sort keys can be used to produce selective reports by using them in the Simple Search and Sort Order and Subtotalling windows.

There are 4 sort keys available and they should be populated using the Popup List Configuration window.

The fields can be re-labelled using the User Definable Language functionality from the Info menu.

VAT status menu

Clicking on this menu displays a list of the available options:

Home Country Tax e.g. GB VAT

EU State

Non-EU State

When inserting a new Customer or Prospect record, it is important to select the correct VAT status as it determines which VAT Codes are available for transactions.

Clicking on the VAT status menu and selecting an option will open the VAT window to enable you to enter VAT Registration information.

Currency

On new records, the Currency will default to your home currency. Enter the symbol of the currency in which this Customer/Prospect is to trade or click on the search button alongside the field to open the currency list and double click the required currency.

Customer records only

The Turnover Summary can be opened from T/o Ytd button and the On Stop tick box will be available.

The details tab is provided for you to enter characteristics about the Prospect or Customer. Most of the fields are drop-down lists but there are also fields in which you can store dates and numbers if appropriate.

Before attempting to select or enter any values on the Details tab card you should configure the lists ready for use.

This is done in the Popup List Configuration window opened from the function on the toolbar.

When your lists have been configured, the details can just be selected from the drop-down lists.

Keywords can be entered to help you to locate records quickly. These can be used in conjunction with the pre-configured lists on the Details tab or they can be used in preference to these.

Just enter the keywords that define the Company.

Enter one keyword on each line.

To search for records that include a keyword, you will need to add the Keyword search field to whichever search tab you are using on the CRM Control window. If you plan to use keyword searches, then you should consider adding the search field to all the tab cards.

Search fields are added to the search tabs using the Options window opened from the CRM Control toolbar.

The search is a single word search but will return keywords that start with the characters entered. Searching for WH would return keywords such as WHOLESALE and WHISKY.

This tab enables you to set up a checklist that can be used by your staff to ensure standard questions are asked when your staff contact the Company.

This might include items that you regularly check to ensure that your records are up-to-date, such as Number of Employees, Postcode, permission to send correspondence by Email.

The checklist is set up in the same way as the Popup Lists, via the Popup List Configuration window opened from the function on the toolbar.

The Checklist option is the last in the list. Enter the required content for each item and tick the boxes to ensure that the items are included in the checklist.

In combination with the checklist, you might wish to use one on the Prospect date fields on the Details tab to record the date that the checklist was last updated, or you could set up your Custom tab to record this information.

A total of 8 fields can be added to the Custom tab and these can be used to record any additional information you need. You might wish to use it to record information about specific processing that you undertake when contacting the company such as running through the checklist.

Points to consider

Prospect and Customer records can have different custom fields set up.

The Custom tab also exists on a Customer record and changes made on the Customer record window will be reflected in the Custom tab in the CRM window when viewing a Customer record.

The Custom tab for Prospect records can be set up to have different fields to those present on a Customer record.

Remember, we hope that Prospect records will eventually be converted to Customer records. When this happens, you may find that there is a mismatch of field values even if the Custom fields appear to match before conversion.

You should take into consideration whether the fields added to the custom tab for a Prospect will be required when the record is converted to a Customer record and that after conversion some checking will be necessary.

Customise Custom Tab

There are 6 character fields, 3 date fields, 3 number fields and 3 boolean flags (tick boxes)

Click the Customise Custom Tab function to open the User Fields window.

Select the fields you wish to use from the left hand list and use the arrow buttons to move them into the right hand list.

A double click on a field in either list will move it into the other list.

Click OK to save the list.

The custom tab should now be refreshed to display the fields you have selected.

The fields will be given simple "User Field 1" type names when they appear on the Custom tab.

You should use the Description/Language option on the Info menu to load the current window and amend the labels so that it is clear what the fields are to be used for and the type of content that is expected (you can't enter dates in to a numeric field). See Load Current Window.

Info.

The Info window holds reference information about the record.

It contains a number of fields that are updated automatically by the system when changes are made to the record.

Next Contact

You can enter a reminder date for the Next Contact for this Customer or Prospect.

Language

If more than one language table exists, this menu will be active so that you can select the language to be associated with the record.

Level

This is the security indicator for the record and determines who has access rights to this record.

No entry or a level of 0 indicates that levels are not being used. Level 1 is the most secure, level 9999 is the lowest level. The Level will be assigned automatically as the Enter/Amend level held in the Security Profile of the User who entered the record.

See Security Profiles and Levels.

Stock Allocation Priority

Each Customer or Prospect can be given a priority level to determine how important they are in the Stock Allocation process.

Enter a number from 1 (highest priority) to 99 (lowest priority). If no priority level is entered, a priority of 99 (lowest priority) will be assumed.

Inactive

You can mark the currently selected record as Inactive so that it will no longer be included in the record lists or on record reports.

Terms

This window is used to record the trading terms granted to the Customer or Prospect record. It includes discounts, credit limit, delivery charge and minimum order value.

VAT

The VAT registration number should be entered on this window if it is known. You should also select the VAT rate that should be applied to transactions for the selected Customer/Prospect if you know it to be different to the default.

The system default Sales analysis and Bank analysis codes will be used for transactions for this Customer/Prospect. Alternatives can be entered here.

Assign Account

This option can be used to assign the appropriate "Partner" account if:

a) A postcode matrix has been set up.

b) A postcode has been entered in the company details of the Customer or Prospect record.

c) A matching postcode entry exists in the postcode matrix.

Please refer to the Postcode Management topic.