HOW TO MAINTAIN THE CUSTOMERS/PROSPECTS?

After maintaining the charts of accounts and knowing how to enter the beginning balances in the software, now we are going to learn how to maintain the customers / prospects. This information will help us to identify the customers to whom we want to sell our products.

The 1^st step is to click on the menu bar and the drop down list occurs then selects the first option named as “Customers Report”

By clicking the 1^st option this window will be appears.

Now such windows are displayed is same as the “Maintain charts of accounts” the difference is that in the Customers Accounts there are different tabs available  where you give the customer’s detail.

The upper portion is known as “Header Field”

There are 2 blank columns Customer ID and Name. You will fill these both columns with the information that is related to your customer.

If you are giving the “Customer ID” and “Name” of the customer and not giving the other information the software gives you a warning.

This warning shows you that you have not entered the General ledger account. You have to do is click on the second tab named as “Sales Default” now here you have to enter the General Ledger Accounts that you already maintain for your company. Enter the Account ID and then press “Alt+S” then it would be saved.

The Lower portion of this window is “Tabs”.

The Explanation regarding to this tabs are given below.

1.                  General:

The 1^st tab is of the General tab and 1^st column is of the Contact it is used to enter the name of the customer to whom you can contact anytime for the receiving and providing the information. Next you will see the drop down list showing you the “Bill to Address” this means the address of the customer place where the invoice will be sent.

When you click on the button the following options will appear:

Select the option and move to the next column that was of Address write the address of the customer and then move to the next column now you have to write the City of the customer and Postal Code of the city and then the next column is of the Country column you have to write the country of the customer and at the last the Sales Tax column left. Write the Sales Tax rate according to the Government assigned to the different Goods. Some of the rates are fixed by the government and some are not so write the Tax rate according to the requirement of the Government.

After the Sales tax write the Customer type and then his or her phone number and fax number of the company E-mail address of the customer and Web Site of the company.

The 2^nd tab is of the Sales defaults. In “Sales Default” tab, we enter the address of the place where we are shipping and also information about the shipment.

And in the pricing level you have to select the Price Level of your customer because you sell your Goods to the different customers with the different prices so select the price of that customer.

The 3^rd tab is of the Payment Defaults. In “Payment Defaults” we enter the detail of the person who will receive the shipments and invoice. And we also mention the payment in this tab. We write the Name and address of the person and city, country of the person we can also write the credit card number for the payments.

In the 4th Tab is of the Custom Fields we enter the other information about the customer and we can change these custom fields.

The last tab is of the “History” tab we enter the previous history and transactions of the customer.

We can also change the “Custom Fields” by Click on the “Maintain” option after that click on “Default Information” and then select the Sub-option “Customer”.

A window will open by the name “Customer Defaults” with “Payment Terms” tab opened. In this tab, we select and enter the discount according to credit term according to the option selected.

Ø  C.O.D: It means Cash on Delivery. When we deliver the goods or Services to the customer the customers gives the payment at that time.

Ø  Prepaid: In prepaid the customer done the payment before we have deliver the goods to him. In the prepaid we give the discount to our customer for the early payment.

Ø  Due in number of days: In this option we actually have to mention the days the payment is due within and we also need to write the credit term and discount.

Ø  Due on day of next month: In this we select any day of the next month to receive the payments.

Ø  Due at the end of month: In this case, the payment is due at the end day of the month goods are sold and invoice is issued.

 GL sales account we mention the account in which we are giving discount. And this should from the accounts we are maintaining.

  

In the “Account aging” tab, we select the limit for the payment.

Ø  Invoice Date: The due date starts from the date on which the invoice is issued.

Ø  Due Date: The date of payment becomes due date and starts very after the due date passes.

The date should be between the Aging categories and this software doesn’t allow more than these days and categories.

The next tab is of the “Custom Field” here you can change the custom field labels that are already provide and you have to just enable the 5^th option and then click OK to save it.

The next tab is of the “Finance Charges”

There is an option of the Charge Finance Charges this option is to charge some amount or fine to the person who haven’t paid you on time. In “Days overdue” we mention the amount that should be charged. In “Annual Interest rate” we type the amount in percentage that should be charged with the product. In “Finance Charge GL account” If we enter the account the software will set it as a default GL account but you can change it over there.

The last tab is “Pay Methods” we enter the method of payment here. We can use the already entered methods or we can enter new one. And then click on “OK” to save all the settings.