Use the Payment Methods function (see page 11-9) to establish codes for the methods of payment you honor. The codes serve as a shorthand method of specifying how the customer is to pay the invoice.
Use the payment types to set up payment methods. The payment types you can use (cash, check, credit card, write-offs, and other) are provided by the system.
You must enter payment method codes and assign payment types to them.
For example, you can set up one code for personal checks and another code for corporate checks. You can assign the check payment type to each code but assign different information to each code. You might also set up codes for three credit cards. You can assign the credit card payment type to each code but assign different information to each code.
The system treats the amounts for payment types cash and check the same.
However, when you use a code that is assigned the payment type check, you must also enter a check number.
When you use the payment type credit card, set up the credit card company as a customer, because you ultimately get the money from the credit card company.
To identify the credit card company, enter C in the Group Code field on the Customers General Information screen.
Setup Functions Setup • CHAPTER 3
Customers
Use the Customers function (see page 10-3) to build the ARCUxxx file. You must build the file before you begin processing Accounts Receivable transactions.
General Information
Enter each customer’s name, address, attention line, phone and fax numbers, contact, and class. Many reports can be sorted by ID, so the way you enter IDs is important.
Then enter the sales reps who sell to the customer, the territory the customer is located in, and the codes for the customer’s usual payment terms. You can enter two sales rep IDs.
The group code for a customer that is a credit card company (such as VISA or MasterCard) is C. No history is saved for credit card companies; the history of the transactions involved is assigned to the customer who used the credit card.
You can set up recurring entries for regular customers with a group code from 0 through 9. When you copy these recurring entries, an invoice is created for each customer with that group code.
The Stmt Code field determines whether the customer should receive only statements, only invoices, both statements and invoices, or neither statements nor invoices.
Customers that do not receive invoices are skipped when you print invoices.
Customers that do not receive statements are skipped when you print statements.
(If you elected to print invoices on-demand in the Resource Manager Options and Interfaces function, you can still print an invoice on-demand for a customer that does not receive invoices.)
You set up customers as open invoice or balance forward accounts. For open invoice accounts, you keep detailed information about the invoices in the ARINxxx (Open Invoice) file and apply payments to individual invoices. For balance forward accounts, you keep summary information about the invoices in the ARINxxx file and apply payments to the total balance due. If you have both open invoice and balance forward accounts, the customer’s account type determines which information you enter for the customer.
The distribution code you enter determines the general ledger accounts that are used to post accounts receivable, freight, and miscellaneous charges to the general ledger.
If the customer does not accept partial shipments, clear the check box (or enter N in text mode) for the Partial Ship field. A message appears if you enter
backorder quantities for a customer that does not accept partial shipments.
You can enter a default tax group (which is used to calculate sales tax on transactions) for the customer. Next, designate transactions for the customer as taxable or nontaxable. If the customer is nontaxable, enter the customer’s tax exemption ID.
You can also enter the customer’s e-mail and web site addresses.
Credit and Balance Information
You can enter a default method of payment for the customer.
If you assess finance charges for a customer, check the box (or enter Y in text mode) in the Fin Charge field and enter the applicable Finance Charge Code.
When you run the Calculate Finance Charges function, the New Fin Chg field is updated if the customer has an overdue invoice. The finance charge is based on the information in the ARFCxxx (Finance Charge Codes) file.
When you run the Periodic Maintenance function, the amount in the New Fin Chg field is added to the amount in the Unpaid Fin Chg field. Then the New Fin Chg field is cleared.
Setup Functions Setup • CHAPTER 3
You can enter a credit limit for the customer, and you can put customers on credit hold. Then when you enter invoices, a warning message appears if the amount the customer is putting on credit is greater than the customer’s credit limit or if the customer is on credit hold. (You cannot enter an invoice for a customer that is on credit hold.)
Balance Information
You can assign three types of balance information to a customer: finance charge information, money owed, and unapplied credits. Enter finance charge
information, money due in the aging buckets presented, and unapplied credits you want subtracted from the overall balance. You must enter unapplied credits as negative numbers so that balances are correct when you use the Build Open Invoice File function.
This information is updated when you enter and post accounts receivable transactions.
Credit Card Information
The ARCMxxx file can store multiple credit card numbers, cardholder names, and expiration dates for each customer. You can elect to verify credit cards entered in transaction and cash receipts entry against the list, or to maintain the list as a reference only.
Historical Information
The ARCUxxx file stores sales and payment information for the current period, the current quarter, and the current and previous year. It also stores the date, amount, and invoice number of the last sale to the customer and the date, amount, and check number of the customer’s last payment.
Customer payment history for the last 12 periods is tracked in the Credit Status field. The field is 12 characters long, and each character corresponds to one of the 12 periods—the first position is the current period, and the twelfth position is the oldest period.
The numbers 0 through 4 are used:
• The number 0 means that all invoices were paid within 30 days or no activity took place.
• The number 1 means that an invoice was 31 to 60 days overdue.
• The number 2 means that an invoice was 61 to 90 days overdue.
• The number 3 means that an invoice was 91 to 120 days overdue.
• The number 4 means that an invoice was over 120 days overdue.
The Credit Status field updates when you do periodic maintenance.
Ship-To Addresses
You can enter multiple ship to addresses for the customer on the Ship-To Addresses screen. When you enter accounts receivable transactions, you can use the Inquiry command to access a list of ship to addresses for that customer.
Ship to addresses are stored in the ARSAxxx file.
For more information about entering customer records, refer to the Customers function (see page 10-3).
Customer Comments
You can enter comments about customers on the Customer Comments screen.
When you enter accounts receivable transactions, you can use the Information menu (or the Shift+F2 command in text mode) to access a customer’s comments.
Comments are stored in the ARCCxxx (Customer Comments) file, not in the ARCUxxx file.
For more information about entering customer records, refer to the Customers function (see page 10-3).
Setup Functions Setup • CHAPTER 3
User-Defined Fields
You can assign up to 16 user-defined fields, which can be numeric, dates, or check boxes. You can view this information using the Customers and Open Invoices Inquiry screens, the Master File List, and Customer Detail List.
User-defined field values are stored in the ARCUxxx.UF file.
For more information about entering customer records, refer to the Customers function (see page 10-3).
Documents
You can attach multiple documents to customer records. However, you must set up file types in Resource Manager before you can attach documents. See the Resource Manager User’s Guide for more information.
You can attach 999 documents per customer. The filenames are stored in the ARCUxxx.UD file, but the documents remain as separate files.
For more information about entering customer records, refer to the Customers function (see page 10-3).