Creating Customer Records

You can manage your customers through an easily accessible database that tracks names, addresses, and user-defined customer information.

Customer records are created in Service Management using the Customer Maintenance window. When the information in the Customer Maintenance window is saved, Service Management's Customer and Location windows are updated. There are also Microsoft Dynamics GP versions of these windows, and many fields are shared between the Service Management and Microsoft Dynamics GP windows. Changing information on the Service Management Customer or Location windows changes the corresponding fields on the Microsoft Dynamics GP windows, and vice versa.

To create a customer record in Service Management, you must have security access to the alternate Customer Maintenance, Customer Address Maintenance, and Customer Class Setup windows.

1. Choose Cards > Service Management > Service Manager.
2. Choose Additional > Customer.
3. Complete the following fields, as necessary.

   • Customer ID
     If you chose to automatically generate customer IDs, this field will populate automatically. 

     

     Microsoft Dynamics GP does not support the use of an apostrophe (') in the customer ID.

   • Hold
     If you place a customer on hold, you can still create service calls and invoices, but you will receive a reminder message before the Service Call and Service Invoice windows open. You are still able to receive payments from a customer on hold, and contracts for that customer are still included in maintenance invoicing and revenue recognition. The Stop-and-Go Light indicator will be red.
   • Inactive
     Marking a customer as inactive will not affect the customer's file; it is only a visual cue of the customer's activity level. The Stop-and-Go Light for the customer record will be red.
   • Temporary
     This checkbox is marked if you chose the Use Temporary Customers option in the Service Options window.
   • Name
     The Name defaults into the Short Name and Statement Name fields, which you can edit. See descriptions for those fields below.
   • Short Name
     The short name is used when the Name is too long. Short names may appear on reports and may be used as a sorting option for reports.
   • Corporate Customer ID
     This field is enabled only if you marked the Use Corporate Customer ID checkbox in the Service Options window.
   • Parent Customer ID
     For use if the customer belongs to a national account.
   • Statement Name
     The statement name prints on statements.
   • Class ID
     When you assign the customer to a class, several default entries appear in the Customer Maintenance Options and Customer Account Maintenance windows. If a service class was assigned to the customer class, default service information also appears. If you are using global filtering and have access to multiple branches, the Branch Setup window opens when you tab off this field. In this window, assign the customer to a branch. See Using global filtering. If you marked the Use Postal Code Assignment checkbox in the Service Options window, the customer will be automatically assigned to a branch based on the postal code.
   • Salesperson ID, Territory ID
     Enter a salesperson and territory for the customer.
   • User-Defined 1, User-Defined 2
     User-defined information is used in Microsoft Dynamics GP. It is not shared with Service Management.
   • UPS Zone, Shipping Method, Tax Schedule ID
     The shipping method is used for tax calculations. The customer's tax schedule is used to calculate taxes for a Delivery; the tax schedule assigned to your company (Company Setup) is used if the shipping method is Pickup.
   • Comment 1, Comment 2
     Comments appear on the Customer Setup List and in the Customer Inquiry window.
   • Trade Discount, Payment Terms
     Enter a percentage for the customer's trade discount and select the terms of payment.
   • Discount Grace Period, Due Date Grace Period
     Enter the length of the grace period for the trade discount and payment due date.
   • Price Level
     Choose a price level for the customer.
   • Priority
     Enter a single alphanumeric character as the priority for the customer. 1 is the highest priority; None, the lowest. You can allocate sales items by priority.
   • Contact Person, Phone, Fax
     Enter contact information and numbers for the customer's primary location. If you chose not to show contact fields in the Location window during setup, the Contact Person 2 field will be disabled.
   • Address ID, Location Name, Address fields
     Enter an address ID and name for the primary location, then fill in the address fields.This address ID appears as the default entry in the Ship To, Bill To, and Statement To fields.
   • Ship To, Bill To, Statement To
     Choose address IDs for sending this customer's shipments, bills, and statements.
   • Service Area
     Enter the service area in which the location is found. The first and second technician IDs that have been assigned to the area (Service Area Setup window) default into the Primary Technician and Secondary Technician fields.
   • Primary Technician, Secondary Technician
     The primary technician for the primary location will be the default entry in the Service Call window's Technician ID field. The Primary Technician expansion button opens the Location Technicians window, where you can assign a technician to each skill level at this location. This function is used with the tasking feature in the Maintenance Contract module.
   • Labor Rate Group
     The labor rate establishes the billing amount for your technician's work at the location.
   • Price Matrix
     Pricing matrices are used to calculate the billing amount for inventory, equipment, materials, and all other costs except labor. The Price Matrix field shows the markup charged for the customer location.

   • Division, Service Call Priority
     Enter a division and priority for all service calls at this location. 1 is the highest priority; None, the lowest. These will be the default values in the Service Call window. 

     

     If MobileTech is registered, the division is required and must be assigned at the customer location level. See Creating location records for information on entering customer locations.

   • Purchase Order Required
     Mark this checkbox if a P.O. number is required for service calls at this location. If this checkbox is marked, the Customer P.O. Number field in the Service Call window becomes a required field for calls of types other than MC or MCC.
   • Service Level ID
     If you are using service level agreements, select a service level ID for all calls at this location. The guaranteed times for each service call, except MCC calls, will be calculated. This default service level will be used to calculate guaranteed response times for calls that do not have a service level agreement assigned to them through a maintenance contract.
   • Time Zone
     This field is enabled if the Enable Time Zone Views checkbox is marked in Service Options. Choose a time zone, and the description defaults.
   • Ship Complete Documents
     Mark this checkbox if the customer does not accept partial shipments of Sales Order Processing documents.
4. Choose Save on the Customer Maintenance window.
5. If you are using the Contact Management feature, complete the steps in Creating a Contact before creating location records.

You can use the Customer button to open the Customer window, where you can add Service Management customer user-defined information.

You can use the Location button to open the Location window, where you can create multiple location records for the customer, as well as add location user-defined information. For more information, see Creating location records.

If you create a location record by zooming on the Address ID field on the Customer Maintenance window, the location record will be incomplete in Service Management. You should create Service Management location records using the Add button in the Location window.

You can use the Accounts button to view or edit the posting accounts assigned to this customer. You can use the Options button to view or enter additional credit, payment, and history options for this customer.

Using global filters

Most companies, large and small, have branch offices throughout the world. Service Management tracks all customers no matter where they're located. Users, however, at times may not want to see all the company's customers. They may only be concerned with a subset of the total customers. Using global filtering, users can be set up to view a subset of the company's customers.

For instance, a dispatcher may want to see only customers in the state of Washington, whereas a sales manager may need to see the entire west coast. Or maybe each of your branches has its own dispatcher during the day, but at night, you want to direct all service calls through one central or night dispatcher.

Setting up global filtering

Mark the Use Global Records Identification Filters checkbox in the Service Options window (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Service Management > Module Setup > Service Options) to activate global filtering. See Choosing Service Options.

Assign the user to a branch (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Service Management > System Administration > User Profile). Use the lookup button to select a branch name in the User Profile window. The selected user will now only see customers assigned to the selected branch name. In a hierarchical fashion, global filtering uses affiliates, regions, and branch names to group customers. For instance, the branch Milwaukee, Wisconsin, could belong to the affiliate "USA," the region "Central" and the branch name "MKE." See Setting Up Security for additional User Profile window setup procedures.

Using global filtering

Once users are set up to use global filtering, you must assign customers and locations to branches.

1. When you add a customer, you are prompted to assign the customer to a branch. Zoom on the Branch indicator to do this. When assigning a customer to a branch, you can make the customer global by marking the Global Customer checkbox. Though assigned to a branch, global customers are seen across all branches. You can assign temporary customers to branches. To assign a location to a branch, zoom on the Branch indicator in the Location window.
2. Use the drop-down list to filter branches. You can filter branches in the Service Manager, Location, Maintenance Tasking, and Maintenance Invoicing windows. The drop-down list always contains User Profile as a global filter. User Profile represents the branch preferences chosen in the User Profile window for each user. For example, if a user was limited to the North and East branches as part of her user profile, then only three branches appear in the drop-down list: User Profile, North, and East. If no global filters were chosen as part of the user profile, then all branches and User Profile are available in the drop-down list.
3. If you marked the Use Global Record Identification Filters checkbox in the Service Options window, you can mark the Use Postal Code Assignment checkbox in the same window. If you're using the postal code assignment feature, new customers will automatically be assigned to a branch based on the customer's postal code. In the Postal Codes Setup window (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Service Management > Lookup Setup > General > Postal Codes), enter a postal code in the Postal Code field. Choose Yes to add a new postal code. Then complete the Branch field. If you add a new customer with this postal code, the customer is automatically assigned to the appropriate branch.