Customer Name & Number: Same Spelling & Making Changes

How important is the spelling of the customer's name? Generally, you'll want to keep the spelling the same for good record keeping. That being said, it's not absolutely essential. If you don't send out billing statements, then spelling is not particularly important. And if you do send out billing statements, it's also not particularly important as long as the customer has a customer number (which is assigned in the Customer Database).

For customers with a number (in other words those customers that have been entered in the Customer Database), as long as you have the number entered on the Main Invoice Screen, you're fine. AnyOrder uses the customer number to group invoices together for the purposes of creating billing statements. (Actually, AnyOrder uses the Billing Group Number when creating billing statements. There's a discussion of this here. )

If the customer does not have a number, and if you might be sending those customer a billing statement, then spelling is important. When the customer doesn't have a customer number, make sure that their name is always entered exactly the same way each time you do an invoice for them. "Exactly the same" means that spelling, spacing, and punctuation matches on each invoice. This is actually easy to do since AnyOrder has built in functions help to copy names and addresses from invoice to invoice.

For customers without numbers, click on the "L" button beside the "BILL-TO" blank to bring up a pop-up list of past customers. (For more information, see Pop-up list for Past Customers.) After selecting the desired customer from the list, the program will automatically enter the name and address. It saves time and assures that the name will be same.

If you will be sending billing statements to customers WITHOUT numbers (in other words, they are not in the Customer Database), then make sure you use the Pop-up List of Past Customers to enter their name on the Main Invoice Screen. This assures that their name is always spelled the same.

The reason that names (of customers without numbers) must be the exactly the same is for billing purposes. Whenever you have the program put together billing statements, it groups all invoices with the same billing name or number together. If a customer's name is spelled differently on invoices, then that customer's account activity will separated into two or more billing statements when it should be all in one.

The following are several situations - and solutions - related to customer names that you may encounter from time to time while using the program. (Note that you want to try to catch problems as described as soon as possible. If it goes on for several billing cycles, it becomes a bit more difficult to correct. It can be corrected, of course, but catching it early is best.)

In this case you have customers (without numbers) with different name spellings when you do the billing portion of the program. Separate statements will be prepared for the different spellings. Once again you don't have to worry about this if you don't run billing statements for this customer. But if you do run statements and you have two or more statements because of different name spellings, here's how to correct things:

If the customer does not have a customer number, do the following if you find that they have different billing statements with different spellings of the name:

1) Before doing anything, run billing statements, and print out copies of the customer's billing statements. If they have two statements, print out both statements. If they have three statements, print all three. You'll use the statements below.

2) Return to the Main Invoice Screen, select GO TO >> FIND AND REPLACE from the Menu Bar.

3) In the "Find" blank on top of the Find and Replace dialog box, enter a partial word (or words) from the customer's name that will appear in all past invoices issued to the customer. For instance, let's say you're looking for "Main Street Books." On past invoices, it appears as "Main St. Books" or "Main Street Books & Office Supplies." By doing a partial word search for "Main St," you'll turn up all of the invoices.

6) Place a checkmark in the "Extra" box, located just after: "Extra. You may also replace the following..."

7) Type in the name of the customer in its correct format in the "Bill To" blank.

8) Under "Find Conditions," click on "Partial Word" search. Make sure "Any Case" is selected.

9) Click on "Find." A message will come up saying that nothing is entered in the "Replace With" blank. That's exactly what you want. In this case, you don't want to replace part of the customer's name, you want to replace the entire customer's name. (A partial replacement is normally what happens when "Partial Word" search is used.) Disregard the message and click on "Yes." Find and Replace will begin finding all customers with the partial word match. If it's finding the right customer, click on "Replace" then click on "Find Next."

10) To be safe, use a combination of the "Find" and "Replace" buttons or the "Find and Replace" button. Don't use "Replace All." (Since you're doing a partial word search, "Replace All" might make replacements in invoices that you don't want to change.) When you're finished, all invoices should have the same billing name.

1) Look at the customer's printed statements. Do any of customer's billing statements have a "Starting Balance"? If the answer is no, you're finished. If the answer if yes, continue below.

2) If only one of the customer's billing statements has a "Starting Balance," first check to see if the name on the statement is the same as the corrected name. If it is, no adjustment is necessary. You're done. If not, you'll need to make a correction to the Balance File. (The Balance File holds the starting balances.) There are a couple of ways of making the change.

(a) One way is to select GO TO >> FIND AND REPLACE from the Main Invoice Screen. Look for "Make Replacements in Balance Files." Click on the "Balance Files" button. In the "Old Name" field, type in the old customer name. You can get that from the statement that has "Starting Balance" on it. Be sure to type it in exactly as it appears on the statement. Then, in the "Name Name" field, type in the correct customer name. Since this is a customer without a number, leave the "Customer Number" and "Group Number" blank. Click on "Make Replacements" and the program will make the correction in the Balance File for you.

(b) The other way to make the change is to select MAIN TASKS >> BILLING STATEMENTS & BALANCE FILES from the Main Invoice Screen. First, find out the name of the current Balance File. Do that by clicking on the "More Billing Options" button. Then click on "Balance File Information." This will give you the name of the current Balance File. It will be something like BAL15END.DBF. Remember the name. Then close and return to the Billing Options screen.

Next, click on the "Manually Update Balances" button. From the list that appears, select the current Balance File (the one you have remembered). Select GO TO >> SEARCH and search for the name found on statement. Once you find the name change it to the corrected name. You're finished.

3) If more than one of the customer's billing statements have a "Starting Balance," you'll need to figure out the total amount that the customer owed you at the beginning of the billing period. You can do that by adding the Starting Balances. With the customer's starting balance, you're ready to make changes to the balance file. Do the following:

(a) Select MAIN TASKS >> BILLING STATEMENTS & BALANCE FILES from the Main Invoice Screen. First, find out the name of the current Balance File. Do that by clicking on the "More Billing Options" button. Then click on "Balance File Information." This will give you the name of the current Balance File. It will be something like BAL15END.DBF. Remember the name. Close and return to the Billing Options screen.

(b) Next, click on the "Manually Update Balances" button. From the list that appears, select the current Balance File. Select GO TO >> SEARCH and search for a name found on one of the statements. Change the name to the corrected name. Then in the "Balance" field, type in the customer's balance. (If you had to add Starting Balances together, then you want enter the total here.) Enter the same number in the "Under 30 days" field. This first customer record will be the one that AnyOrder uses from here on out.

(c) Now you need to get rid of any other records for that customer in the Balance File. Search for the next name found on that customer's statements. Then delete the entry by selecting EDIT >> DELETE THIS CUSTOMER. Do this for any other spellings of the name on the statements. You should end up with just the first customer record (above).

Let's say you've issued invoices to a customer without a customer number, then at a later time, you give the assign a number to the customer (in other words, you have invoices with and without a customer number). If this is a customer for which you run billing statements, then you'll need to make some adjustments to accommodate the change.

2) If you have run the billing statement portion of the program and you have that there is one or more entries for the customer. You can do that by clicking on the "Look-up" button found in billing statements. If, on the Look-up list, you find repeating customer names (which occurs when you have invoices for the customer with and without a customer number), then do the following.

(a) Run billing statements by selecting MAIN TASKS >> BILLING STATEMENTS AND BALANCE FILES >> "Normal Process." Then when the Billing Statement screen comes up, click on the "All Activity" button. Then click on the "Look-up" button.

(c) If you only have a couple of repeating names, do the following: Exit billing statements and go back to the Main Invoice Screen. Go into the Customer Database (MAIN TASKS >> CUSTOMER NUMBERS & ADDRESSES). Look up the customers with repeating names. Write down their customer number and billing group number. Then go to # 3 below.

(d) If you have lots of repeating names do the following. Exit billing statements and go back to the Main Invoice Screen. Go into the Customer Database (MAIN TASKS >> CUSTOMER NUMBERS & ADDRESSES). Select FILE >> FORMAT & PRINT FROM SPREADSHEET. All you really need is the name of the customer, the customer number, and the billing group number. Delete the rest of the columns from the spreadsheet.

(e) Look at your list of repeating billing names. From the spreadsheet, delete all other names. Just keep the repeating billing names on the spreadsheet. Then print the spreadsheet. If you have a couple of customer numbers associated with one billing group number, then make sure you include all members of the group number.

4). Let's say that we need to make corrections for Main Street Sporting Goods. If you created a spreadsheet, begin by copying Main Street Sporting Goods from the spreadsheet. You want to copy the name so that it's spelled exactly the same when you do the replacement. If didn't create the spreadsheet, look at the printed statement (the one that you printed in step 2b above). You want to enter the name exactly as spelled on the statement.

5) Continuing with the Main Street Sporting Good example, let's say we have assigned them a Customer Number of 24 and a Billing Group Number of 24. Using that example, type the following in the Find & Replace dialog box:

5. At this point, you'll notice that the "Extra" fields will lighten up. In the Customer Number blank, type in 24. In the Group Number, type in 24.

7. You'll be taken to the most recent Main Street Sporting Goods invoice. Click on the "Replace" button. The replacement will be made. You won't see a lot, but the replacement has been made. Now click on "Find Next."

8. You'll be taken to the next older invoice. Click on the "Replace" button. The replacements will be made. Click on "Find Next" and "Replace." The replacements will be made.

9. After doing this a couple more times, you'll see that the "Replace All" button is now available. Click on this button and all Main Street Sporting Goods' invoices will be replaced.

10. If you have another spelling, then you'll need to repeat the above process for the next spelling.

11. Once you take care of one customer, then repeat the steps above for the next customer, until all customers have been changed.

When you change from a customer from no number to a number (in other words, you add them to the customer database, you'll need to make an adjustment the Balance File.

1) Start at the Main Invoice Screen and select GO TO >> FIND AND REPLACE. Look for "Make Replacements in Balance Files." Click on the "Balance Files" button.

2) In the "Old Name" field, type in the customer name's as it appears on the statement. Be sure to type it in exactly as it appears on the statement. (If you create the spreadsheet, you can do that easily by copying it from the spreadsheet and pasting it in place.) If you are changing the name in any way, you can type in the new customer name in the "New Name" field. If the name is staying the same, just enter the same name again in the "New Name" field.

5) Click on "Make Replacements" and the program will make the correction in all Balance Files automatically.

6) For most users, this will take care of things, but, if after doing this, and after running billing statements, you you still have two or more statements for the same customer, you'll need to make one more adjustment in the Balance File. Here's what to do:

(a) Most likely the customer will have two records in the Balance File: one with a billing number and one without. You can correct that by selecting MAIN TASKS >> BILLING STATEMENTS & BALANCE FILES from the Main Invoice Screen.

(b) First, you'll need to find out the name of the current Balance File. Do that by clicking on the "More Billing Options" button. Then click on "Balance File Information." This will give you the name of the current Balance File. It will be something like BAL15END.DBF. Remember the name. Close and return to the Billing Options screen.

(c) Next, click on the "Manually Update Balances" button. From the list that appears, select the current Balance File. Select GO TO >> SEARCH and search for a name found on one of the statements. If the record that comes up has a Billing Group Number, then repeat the search and find the one that doesn't have a number.

(d) Once you find the customer's record which doesn't have a Billing Group Number, delete it by selecting EDIT >> DELETE THIS CUSTOMER. After doing this, re-run the billing statements and the extra statement should now be gone.

Finally, one last situation you may run into is a regular customer who has a number and who changes their name or billing address. If this happens, you are in luck. It's only necessary to change the name and/or address in the customer database. AnyOrder will continue to properly group their invoices together for billing purposes, and will use the newest billing address from the customer database when it comes to sending out the billing statement.