Basic Order Management ConfigurationLesson 3

Creating Customers

Back to D300: Order Management Basics

Lesson 3: Creating Customers

Part 1: Basic Order Management Configuration

The topics of this lesson explain how to create a customer account in Acumatica ERP. Customers: General Information

In Acumatica ERP, each customer account stores all customer-related information you need to conduct business with your company’s customers. This information includes addresses, locations, contacts, and payment methods, as well as financial, billing, delivery, and mailing settings. Acumatica ERP provides you with different tools that ease the process of entering customer data and help you to organize this data on reports.

Learning Objectives

In this lesson, you will do the following:

  • Create a new customer based on the default customer class
  • Review the default settings that the system has inserted from the customer class

Applicable Scenarios

You add customer accounts in the following cases:

  • When you initially configure Acumatica ERP and enter the customer base into the system
  • When you need to create an account for a new customer of the company

Entities Needed for Customer Account Setup

Before you start setting up customer accounts in Acumatica ERP, you need to configure the entities that will ease the processes of customer account creation and maintenance. The needed entities in Acumatica ERP may include the following:

  • Customer classes (required): You should ensure that at least one customer class has been set up on the Customer Classes (AR201000) form. Customer classes provide default values for individual customer accounts, so users can create customer accounts more easily. Besides the class ID and description, which are the required settings of a customer class, it can contain additional elements, such as general settings, delivery elements, credit verification settings, financial settings, print and email details, general ledger accounts, and mailings. For details, see Accounts Receivable: Customer Classes.
  • Customer identifiers (optional): You should make sure that the segmented key used as a template for identifiers of customer accounts suits your needs, and adjust the BIZACCT segmented key (or the CUSTOMER key) on the Segmented Keys (CS202000) form if needed.
  • General ledger accounts (required): On the Chart of Accounts (GL202500) form, you need to create the general ledger accounts to be used to record sales and cash discounts, unless you plan to use the accounts that already exist. You will need to select these already-defined accounts when you create customer accounts. For details, see To Add an Account to the Chart of Accounts.
  • Statement cycle (required): You need to ensure that at least one statement cycle has been set up on the Statement Cycles (AR202800) form, which will be assigned to a customer class (and therefore to all customers that are assigned to this class). For details, see Customers: Implementation Activity.
  • Payment methods (required): You need to ensure that at least one payment method to be used for customer payments has been defined on the Payment Methods (CA204000) form. For details, see Managing Payment Methods.
  • Credit terms: You should ensure that each needed set of credit terms that will define the due dates of documents has been set up on the Credit Terms (CS206500) form. When you set up customer classes, you can assign the appropriate credit terms to classes, which in turn will cause the credit terms to be assigned by default to all new customers of this class. For details, see Setup of Credit Terms.
  • Overdue charges (optional): You can set up overdue charges on the Overdue Charges (AR204500) form, which define additional charges that customers will incur for open documents that are past due and assign the charges to a customer class (which causes them to be assigned by default to all new customers of this class). For details, see Overdue Charges: General Information.
  • Mailings (optional): You can set up multiple mailings to notify customers about their balances, invoices, sales orders, and other information you want to send to customers on a regular basis. For details, see Mailings for Customers: General Information.

Customers: Implementation Activity

In the following activity, you will create a new customer.

Story

Suppose that the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company wants to create a customer account for a local cafe, Prime Cafe, to make it possible to record sales for the SweetLife services to this customer. Acting as a SweetLife implementation manager, you need to create the needed customer account in the system.

Process Overview

In this activity, you will create a new customer on the Customers (AR303000) form. On the tabs of this form, you will specify the customer's address and contact information. You will then review the default settings that the system inserted on this form and then review the credit terms for the customer.

Step 1: Creating a Customer Account To create a customer account, do the following:

  1. On the Customers (AR303000) form, add a new record.
  2. In the Summary area, specify the following settings:
  • Customer ID: PRIME
  • Customer Status: Active (selected automatically)
  • Customer Class: DEFAULT (selected automatically)
  1. In the Account Info section on the General tab, specify Prime Cafe in the Account Name box.
  2. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 2: Specifying Contact Information and Address To specify contact information and address for the customer, do the following:

  1. On the General tab, specify the following settings in the Primary Contact section:
  • Name: Scott L Kennedy
  • Job Title: General manager
  • Business 1: 973-345-7083
  1. In the Account Address section of the General tab, specify the following settings:
  • Address Line 1: 2720 Jadewood Farms
  • City: Paterson
  • State: NJ - New Jersey
  • Postal Code: 07501
  1. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 3: Reviewing the Statement Cycle Settings To review the customer's statement cycle settings, do the following:

  1. In the Financial Settings section on the Financial tab, in the Terms box, make sure that 30D is selected.
  2. In the Statement Cycle ID box, make sure that EOM (End of Month) is selected.
  3. In the Credit Verification box (Credit Verification Rules section), select Disabled.
  4. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 4: Reviewing the Default Customer Settings To review the default customer settings, do the following:

  1. On the Billing tab, review the customer's bill-to address. Because the Override check box is cleared for the bill-to address, the system has inserted the information from the Account Address section on the General tab.
  2. On the Payment Methods tab, review the customer's payment methods and notice that the CHECK payment method is the default one for the customer (the check box in the Is Default column is selected).
  3. On the GL Accounts tab, review the GL accounts to be used for settlements with this customer.