Customers & Sales

The Customer & Sales Tasks section provides a graphic representation of the flow of customer-related tasks, as well as access to those tasks. It also provides access to windows where you enter/maintain customer, job, and sales tax information.

Customer Maintenance Options

At the top of the section are three buttons that take you to maintenance options:

Customers: Click this to select from a menu of customer-maintenance options:

• New Customer: This takes you to the Maintain Customers/Prospects, where you can enter a new customer record.
• View Customer List: This takes you to the Customer List, where you can see a variety of customer-related information.
• Write Letters to Customers: This takes you to the Write Letters section of the Select a Report window. Click the Create a Letter Template button to activate a wizard that lets you can create custom letters for your customers.

Jobs: Click this to select from a menu of job-maintenance options:

• New Job: This takes you to Maintain Jobs, where you can enter a new job record.
• View and Edit Jobs: This takes you to the Job List, where you can see a variety of job-related information.
• Set Up Job Defaults: This takes you to the Job Defaults window, where you can enter custom fields for jobs and specify if you want to be warned if you save certain transactions without including a job.
• New Phases: This takes you to Maintain Phases, where you can enter a new job phase record.
• View and Edit Phases: This takes you to the Phase List, where you can see a variety of information related to job phases.
  
• New Cost Codes: This takes you to Maintain Cost Codes, where you can enter a new job cost code record.

• View and Edit Cost Codes: This takes you to the Cost Codes List, where you can see a variety of information related to job cost codes.

Tell me about using job codes and phases with my jobs.

• New Change Order: This takes you to the Change Orders window, where you can enter a new change order for a job.
• View and Edit Change Orders: This takes you to the Change Orders List, where you can select a change order to view or edit.

Tell me about using change orders.

Items and Services: Click this to select from a menu of item and service maintenance options:

• New Item: This takes you to Maintain Items, where you can enter a new item.
• New Company Service: This takes you to Maintain Items, where you can enter a new service.
• View and Edit Items and Services: This takes you to the Items List, where you can see a variety of information related to your items and services.
• Set Up Item Defaults: This takes you to the Item Defaults screen where you can set up default information regarding your items and services.

Sales Taxes: Click this to select from a menu of sales tax–maintenance options.

Customers—Task Flow

The task flow takes you from a sales quote or proposal, the beginning of a customer transaction, to Bank Deposits, where you bank the revenue from your customer sale. Separate tasks include Customer Statements and Credits and Returns. Click the appropriate button; a pop-up menu appears. For example, if you click the Sales Invoices button, a menu with the following options appears:

• New Sales Invoice
• View and Edit Sales Invoices
• Memorize Sales Invoices
• Print Sales Invoices
• Set Up Invoice Defaults
• Bill for Work in Progress
• Invoice Time and Expenses

The Customers section lists all customers entered through Maintain Customers/Prospects. There are four columns of information for each customer:

• Customer ID
• Customer Name
• Phone Number
• Balance (total balance owed by the customer to your company as of the Sage 50 system date)

You can sort the information in any of the columns.

View Detailed List: Click this button (at the top of the section) to see the Customer List, which includes detailed information for all customers.

Right-click menu: Right-click the Customers section to see a pop-up menu with the following options:

• Add New Customer: Click to go to Maintain Customers/Prospects and add a new customer.
• View Customer Detail: Click to go to Maintain Customers/Prospects and see the complete information entered for this customer.
• Delete Customer: Click to remove the customer from the Customer Summary.

The Recently Used Customer Reports section lists the five most recently opened reports relating to Sage 50 customers. If this is a new company and you are accessing the Customer & Sales Navigation Center before opening any customer reports, the following default reports will be listed:

• Aged Receivables
• Customer Sales History
• Customer Ledgers
• Invoice Register
• Sales Order Register

To see a report on the computer screen, click the View link opposite that report. To print the report, click the Print link opposite the report.

At the bottom of the section, there is View All Customer & Sales Reports link; click this to go to the Sage 50 Select a Report window with the list of Accounts Receivable reports preselected.

The Aged Receivables section shows outstanding customer bills in each the four aging categories set up in Customer Defaults. You can display aged receivables as either a graph or a table.

Graph: Click the Graph link. The percentages of receivables in all aging categories are represented in a pie graph; each category is keyed to a color.

Table: Click the Table link. The table lists total dollar amounts for all outstanding bills in each category. It also lists the percentages of outstanding bills in each category. For example, if aging Category 1 shows 50%, that means 50 percent of all outstanding customer bills fall into this category.

At the bottom of the section, there is link to the Aged Receivables report for your company.

To do this, simply click the drop-down next to the Customer ID field and select the customer. The screen will automatically show you only data for that customer.

Click the Recent Selections link below the customer ID field.

You can search for customers using their

• customer name
• customer type
• contact name

• telephone or fax number
• city
• state: enter the two-letter abbreviation.
• zip code
• sales rep
• custom field information

To do so:

1. Enter the information you do know, such as phone number or contact name, in the Find customer with field.
2. Select the type of information from the in field.
3. Click Find. Sage 50 will find the customer. If there are multiple items that fit your search criteria, Sage 50 will let you choose the correct one.

Sage 50 has a Totals section that you can add to the Customer Management tab. To add this section to the Customer Managment tab:

1. Click Customize this page in the toolbar.
2. Highlight Totals.
3. Click Add.
4. Click OK..

• Aged Receivables: This section shows you the aged receivables for the selected customer as of the Sage 50 system date. You can drill down on areas of the pie chart or click an aging period to see the Aged Receivables report filtered by this aging period.
• Contacts: This section gives you a list of all contacts for the selected customer.
• Credit Memos: These are credits you have given to your customers for returned goods or discounted services.
• Customer Information: This is general information about the customer you are looking at.
• Customer Payments: These are refunds you have sent your customers for returned goods and such. They are entered using the Payments option found in the Tasks menu.
• Customer and Sales Tasks: This section will give you a visual display of customer and sales tasks. You can click each button for a menu of options for that icon (Sales Order, Sales Invoice, and so on). When you select, for instance, to create a new quote, Sage 50 will automatically populate the Quote window with information for the currently-selected customer.
• Expense Tickets: These are records of expenses you have incurred while performing projects.
• Finance Charges: These are finance charges you have applied to your customers' accounts using Sage 50's Finance Charges routine. In Sage 50 they are sales invoices with the prefix FC. This list has all the same fields available as the Sales Invoice list.
• Find a Report: This section allows you to search for a particular report, which you can then print or display on screen. Certain reports will automatically be filtered by the selected customer. If you want to see the report for all customers, use the regular reports feature by clicking Reports & Forms from the main menubar.
• Item Sales History: This lists inventory items that have been sold to this customer.
• Jobs: These are projects that you are doing for this customer.
• Proposals:These are estimates for goods and services. (Sage 50 Premium Accounting and higher)
• Quotes: These are estimates you have sent to your customers.
• Receipts: These are payments you have received from your customers.
• Sales Invoices: These are invoices or bills you have sent to your customers for goods and services.
• Sales Orders: These are orders you have entered but have not processed (shipped goods or invoiced).
• Time Tickets: These are records of time that employees or vendors have spent working on projects.
• Top Customers: Last Twelve Months: This section shows you the top 10 customers by gross profit1 Gross Profit is equal to revenue (total transaction line item amounts) minus cost of goods sold. over the past twelve months. If the currently-selected customer is not in the top 10, Sage 50 will show you where that customer is on the list.

• Totals: Gives you a summarized total of different types of transactions. You can select which types of transactions you want to appear using the Customize Totals window.

You can:

• Change the date range for the information you want to appear. Simply select a different option in the Date Range field.
• Change the sort of the list by clicking a column header. Clicking once will make the list sort by that column in ascending order (A-Z). Clicking again will make it sort by that column in descending order (Z-A).
• Change the width of columns. Simply click and hold the cursor and drag the column line to widen or narrow the column.
• Search for a particular item of information. To do so,

1. Click Advanced search. This will open the filter controls.
2. Enter the text in the Search for field.
3. Select the field in which the information should appear (for instance, Customer Type).
4. Click Search. To clear the search information, click Clear Search.

These settings will be saved and appear the next time you view this screen. You can close the filter controls by clicking Advanced search.

The Totals section only allows you to change the Date Range.

Simply, click the Make this the default page button in the toolbar.

To do this:

1. Click the Customize link at the top right corner of the list, then choose Settings.
2. Use the Settings window to select which fields appear and the order in which they will appear. Tell me more about this window.
3. Click OK. on the Settings window. The data will automatically change.

1. Click the Customize link at the top right corner of the section.
2. Select the number of rows you want to display for that section. You can choose to display 5 rows, 10 rows, the maximum number of rows, or to have the number of rows determined automatically.

To change which lists appear:

1. Click Customize this Page.
2. Use the List Settings window to add or remove the lists you want. You can also change the order. Tell me more about this window including step-by-step instructions.
3. Click Save.

Click Customize this Page and use the Settings window. Tell me more about this window including step-by-step instructions.

There may be times where you want to have the same list of information, for instance, Sales Invoices, show on your screen at once. To set this window up in this way, click Customize this Page and use the Settings window. Tell me more about this window including step-by-step instructions.

Yes, you can do this by double-clicking the transaction or data that you want to see. Once it opens, you can edit it, and sometimes void or delete it.