Accounting - Customer Search

The customer lookup window provides the option to search for and select from the existing customer records already stored in your company's customer file, from the accounting and reporting programs.
This is a useful and necessary tool for the operator when he does not know the correct customer number.

If the Customer# or the Alternate Account number for the customer is known, either can be entered in the customer number field to select or assign the customer record without utilizing the search.

Note: The Document Customer Search search option is a separate search utility that is available in document entry when a customer number needs to be entered.

Accounting & Reporting Customer Search filters:

The lookup option first prompts for:

DIVISION

This field defaults to the value specified for "Customer Search" for the operator currently signed into Texada SRM as defined in Operators.

This division search value can always be changed as required in the search window.
The division selection choices include:

• Accept the operator default search value for customers, as defined in Operators.
• Type ALL to include customers from all divisions in the customer selection list.
• Enter a single division to limit the lookup to include only customers assigned to this specific division, or select the preferred division from the drop-down list.
• Type SEL to select multiple divisions to include in the report, or divisions by customer region as outlined in Division Select By Region.

ACCOUNT TYPE

Select one of the following customer account types if relevant to help narrow the search:

• Cash to list only customers flagged as Cash only in the search results.
• On Account to list only customers flagged as charge On Account.
• Both to include all customers.

Search Filters:

Select one of the following filter options to build the customer selection list as follows:

• ALPHA CODE:
  Enter the first few characters of the Alpha Key for the starting customer in the range to generate a search list.

  The Alpha Key field is a field in the Customer Information that is used to alphabetically sort customer records.
  For example, if the customer's name was 'Arrow Construction Company', the alpha key would be entered as ARROW.
  If the customer's name was 'Joe Hardwicke', the alpha key would be entered as HARDWICKE.

  Note: To search for a customer using a few characters within the name, preface the characters with the wildcard character % and include at least 2 standard characters to narrow the response.
  e.g. %TO would find JOHN HAMILTON, SANDSTONE CRANE, PLUTO SALES, STOFMAN LUMBER

  If a list of all customers is required, use the Keyword Search option with no filters.
  This could take a few minutes to return the output because of the quantity if records to be sorted.

• TELEPHONE#:
  To use the telephone number search, skip the Alpha Code field and enter the first few numbers of the starting telephone number.
  This phone number search checks all the customers' alternate phone numbers as well as main telephone number in Customer Information.

  Note: To search for a customer using a few numbers within the phone number, preface the numbers with % and include at least 2 numbers to narrow the response.

• GOVERNMENT ID / AUS BUSINESS #
  The identification value is an optional code that can be assigned to each customer and stored in the Additional Information window of Customer Information. For companies defined as Australian by the currency code in the Company Information this field label throughout the software displays as the 'Australian Business Number' (ABN) and for all other countries as the 'Government ID'.
  This code can be used to search for a customer and generally these are unique ID codes however duplicates are allowed. If a duplicate code is entered a list of customers from the selected division that match this code is generated in the Government ID Search window.

  Note: For security and confidentiality purposes, the complete and accurate ID number must be entered to find a match in this search utility.

• INVOICE#
  This field can be used to search for the associated customer by entering an invoice number.
  The complete invoice number must be entered and the invoice must already be posted to history.

• FOB
  The FOB identifiers are optional codes that can be assigned to individual staff for a customer in the Name Check List.
  This code can be used to search for a customer by the staff FOB ID, immediately returning the associated customer number.

  A customer can also be selected on a rental document by scanning or manually entering this code in the Customer # field on the document header.

• KEYWORD SEARCH:
  This advanced keyword search mechanism provides the ability to search on Name, Alpha Key, Trading As, Phone#, Fax#, Address, City, Province/State, and Postal/Zip Code, as defined in the Customer Information.

  

  An added advantage of the keyword search method is that it does not just try to match against the starting characters in the field. It searches the entire field.
  This can be useful if the street name is known but not the complete address for a customer.

  Example: If 'WILLOW' is entered in the address field and the customer's address is 121 WILLOW AVENUE, it will find this customer.

  Another scenario would be if the exchange number of the telephone number was known but not the area code for a customer, or if the area code had been entered incorrectly into the system.
  By searching for a customer by Phone# using the traditional 'Telephone#' method with 208 as the key, the search list will only include those customers whose phone number start with 208.
  By using the Keyword Search method, any customers with the string of numbers '208' anywhere in the phone number will be listed.

  Note: For efficiency reasons, the phone number search within the Keyword Search only queries on the main customer phone number. It does not read all the customer's alternate phone numbers.

  To minimize the list of customers displayed, multiple search criteria can be specified.
  Example: Entering 'WILLOW' in the address field and ON in the Province/State field will only return customers with the string 'WILLOW' in the address and ON in the Province/State.

  The Division field can be used to limit the search to only those customers assigned to a specific division or region.

Search Results:

If an FOB code was used to select the customer, the customer record is immediately selected without providing a selection list.

For any other filter search, the matching customer records are listed with the numbers, names, phone numbers, On Account status, Credit Rating, Contact, Address, Fax number, Account Balance, Alpha Key, Customer Comment, Terms, and Salesman code.
Customers that are displayed are limited to the Divisional Restricted Views assigned to the operator.

The customer list can be resorted by any column in ascending or descending order, by clicking on the column heading.
Columns can also be dragged and dropped to reposition them as required.

• Click the CHECK LIST button at the bottom of the screen to view the Name Check List for the customer record in focus, with comments as setup in Customer Information.
• Click the ALT PHONE button at the bottom of the screen to view additional phone numbers with extensions and descriptions, for the customer record currently in focus.

To select a customer, double click on the customer record, or highlight the record and click the SELECT button.