Create Databases -> Customer -> Convert

Determining Whether to Convert an Existing Database or Create It Manually

You can create your customer database manually or by converting an existing customer database.

No matter which way you choose, you manually add new customers as you add new accounts. You need to make some basic policy decisions while setting up your database, so the customers you add are consistent and easy to look up.

On this page, we describe the pros and cons for each method of creating your database, and describe the basic policy decisions you need to make:

• Converting an existing database
• Manually entering customers in the database
• Planning: what you need to consider
  • Deciding how to enter customer names
  • Assigning customer account numbers
  • Handling multiple shipping addresses, attention lines, and departments
  • Assigning salespersons to customer accounts
  • Setting customer status codes

Converting an Existing Database

Most dealers choose to convert their existing customer database so they can use it withDDMS. When you convert a database, you change its file structure, so that it can be read byDDMS. If your current database is accurate, it's usually faster and more economical to convert it than to enter it manually.

Typically, converting your customer database lets you transfer the following information: customer name, account number, billing address, and shipping address. This provides a workable database, but you may still want to add information manually to these customers.

O/PUS is one of DDMS' sister companies. They can convert customer databases and other databases so they can be read by your DDMS system. You can contact them at 800-359-6787, or send e-mail to opus@DDMS.com

To convert your customer database, your system administrator must take the following steps:

1. Use your current system to create a file containing the information you want to convert.
2. Define the file layout. When programmers create a database file, they define the location of each piece of information within the file. A file layout is a map of these locations.
3. Convert your file to an industry-standard format: either Excel, Access, ASCII, or DBF.
4. Send the converted file to O/PUS.
5. Import the file you receive from O/PUS, and verify its accuracy.

Manually Entering Customers in the Database

Creating customers manually offers an important advantage: you can make your current information more accurate, correcting errors and updating customer data.

If you have a relatively small customer database (300 – 500 customers), manual entry may also prove more economical than file conversion.

Planning: What You Need to Consider

Before you begin adding customers to your database, you need to make some policy decisions, so all of your customer records are created in a consistent manner. You need to plan the following:

• Deciding how to enter customer names
• Assigning customer account numbers
• Handling multiple shipping addresses, attention lines, and departments
• Assigning salespersons to customer accounts
• Setting customer status codes

Deciding How to Enter Customer Names

You usually select customers by name. If you enter names consistently, it is much easier to quickly select the correct customer.

Suppose you enter doctor's names in any of the following ways:

• DR. JOHN DOE
• JOHN DOE MD
• JOHN DOE, DR
• DOE, DR. JOHN

When you want to select Dr. Doe's record, you won't know what to type first.

DDMS recommends typing the last name first, followed by a comma, like this: DOE, DR. JOHN.

If you do this, you need to type only a few characters to select the name, and you can also take advantage of the swap name feature. This feature reverses names on statements and other customer documents. It uses the comma to determine where the last name ends, so DOE, DR. JOHN prints on a statement as DR. JOHN DOE.

If you use the swap name feature, enter company names that begin with the word the like this: ABC COMPANY, THE. It prints on statements as THE ABC COMPANY.

We turn the swap name feature on before we ship your system. If you want to turn this feature off, you must set the Swap Name field in the (LA) Customer and A/R Parameters screen to N. To learn how to change a parameter like Swap Name, click here.

Assigning Customer Account Numbers

Each customer account must have a unique account number. You can assign these yourself, or let the system assign them.

DDMS recommends that you let the system assign them; it's faster, and gives you one less thing to be concerned with.

You cannot assign the same number to two accounts. The account number is the key field, which means it is used to identify each customer.

By default,DDMSis set to assign customer account numbers automatically, beginning with the number 10,000. If you want to assign them manually, you need to delete the starting number in the Next Customer # field in the (LA) Customer and A/R Parameters screen. To learn how to change a parameter, click here.

Don't use single-digit account numbers. They are reserved for special accounts.

Handling Multiple Shipping Addresses, Attention Lines, and Departments

Many accounts have several individuals or groups that work for the same company, and purchase from you using a single account.

There are two methods for handling these accounts:

• Set up attention lines for each individual or department that purchases for this account. Each attention line can be linked to a shipping address and a credit card record. Here, several attention lines and shipping addresses have been created:

Notice that the accounting department has both an attention line and a shipping address. The Shipto ID box on the lower left links the shipping address to the attention line.

You can also set up multiple shipping addresses without linking them to attention lines. In order entry, you'll be able to select the correct shipping address from a list.

• Set up department accounts. When you do this, you first create a master account, which has an account number but no department, as shown here:

Then, to create department accounts, you specify the master account number, and add a department number. Here, we created a department account for the sales department. Notice that it has the same account number as the master account:

Because a department account is, in fact, a seperate account, you can track its sales seperately. (For billing and accounts receivable, though, all department accounts are combined with their master account.)

Attention lines are easy to set up and offer great flexibility; DDMS recommends that you use them unless you need to track sales for individual departments.

To learn more, see the following help topics:
About Attentions
About Departments
About Shipping Addresses

Assigning Salespersons to Customer Accounts

You can assign a salesperson to each customer account. When you create an order for the customer, the assigned salesperson is the default salesperson for the sale.

Later in the Let's Get Started program, you create the salesperson database, which has information for each salesperson. You can save time now, though, by assigning salespersons as you build the customer database.

To do this, make a list of salespersons, and assign each one a number. Use the following guidelines when assigning numbers:

• Salesperson numbers may have 2, 3, or 4 digits.
  
  
• A salesperson number with only two digits prevents that person from using order entry; only salespersons with 3 or 4 digit salesperson numbers may use order entry.
  
  
• You need in-house salesperson accounts to use for customers who are not assigned to a particular salesperson. Each general ledger location you set up must have an in-house salesperson account. These accounts are three or four digits long; the first two digits are for the general ledger location, and the last two are always 00. So location 1's in-house account is 100, location 2's is 200, location 15's is 1500, and so forth. Never begin a salesperson number with 0; you cannot have number 0100, for example.
  
  
• Your sales reports work best if you do the following:
  
  
  • use the general ledger location as the first two digits for everyone who can use order entry.
    
    
  • For the second two digits, reserve 01–50 for retail, and 51–99 for commercial.
    
    For example, number 201 is a retail salesperson for location 2, and number 359 is a commercial salesperson for location 3.

The Sales Analysis Recap Report and the Items Sold Restock Report differentiate between retail and commercial sales, and they use this system (50 and below are retail) to separate the two kinds of sales.

A typical list of salesperson numbers might look like this:

Salesperson #	Name	Comments
10	Bob Smith	Cannot use order entry, since his number has 2 digits
102	Sally Wentworth	retail clerk for location 1
152	Jane Brandt	commercial salesperson for location 1
201	George Grant	retail clerk for location 2
100	in-house sales	for location 1
200	in-house sales	for location 2

Setting Customer Status Codes

You assign every customer a status code. These codes have two basic purposes:

• They identify which customers can charge
• They let you group customers for a wide variety of purposes. Examples include identifying which customers need monthly usage reports, and which customers are exempt from finance charges.

A status code from 1–9 or from A–F indicates that a customer can only purchase with cash or C.O.D. A status code from G–Z indicates that a customer can charge. Other than this, the designation of status codes is up to you.

A typical set of codes that many dealers use when they're starting out looks like this:

Customer status code	Definition
1	Cash sales
C	C.O.D. sales
G	charge (remember "G for good")
M	monthly usage reports (can charge)

You specify a customer's status code in the Status box of the Customer Master tab, as shown here:

For a chart showing all the places you can use customer status codes inDDMS, click here.