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You can create your customer database in two ways: manually, or by converting an existing customer database.
No matter which way you choose, you'll manually add new customers to the database as you add new accounts. You need to make some basic policy decisions while setting up your database, so that 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:
Most dealers choose to convert their existing customer database so they can use it with eNsite. When you convert a database, you change its file structure so it can be read by eNsite. 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'll still want to add information manually to these customers.
O/PUS is one of Silver Plus' sister companies. They can convert customer databases and other databases so they can be read by eNsite. 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:
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.
Before you begin adding customers to your database, you need to make some policy decisions, so all of your customers are created in a consistent manner. You need to plan the following:
You usually retrieve customers by name. If you enter names consistently, it is much easier to quickly retrieve the correct customer.
Suppose you enter doctor's names in any of the following ways:
When you want to retrieve Dr. Doe, you don't know what to type first.
Silver Plus recommends typing the last name first, followed by a comma, like this: DOE, DR. JOHN.
If you do this, you are able to type only a few characters to retrieve the name, and you are also able to 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.
Each customer account must have a unique account number. You can assign these yourself, or let eNsite assign them.
Silver Plus recommends that you let eNsite assign them; it's faster, and gives you one less thing to be concerned with.
eNsite
does not let you assign the same number to two accounts. The account number
is the key field, which means the system uses it to identify each customer.
By default, eNsite is set to assign customer account numbers automatically, beginning with the number 10,000. If you want to assign them manually, contact your Silver Plus representative.
Many accounts have several individuals or groups that work for the same company, and purchase from you using a single account.
You can 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:
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.)
To
learn more, see the following help topics:
About Departments
About Shipping Addresses
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
contains information about 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:
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 |
| 152 | Jane Brandt | commercial salesperson |
| 100 | in-house sales |
You assign every customer a status code. These codes have two basic purposes:
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 in eNsite,
see page 4-9 in "Chapter 4: Completing the Fields in the (A) Screen"
in Book I: Customers, Vendors, and Salespersons.
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