• Click on the Customer button in the Nav Bar
• The Find Customer screen appears.
• Key in the appropriate search parameters
• Select the customer you want.

• At the Find Customer screen
• Click on the New button
• The Customer Properties window appears.
• This is where you enter the information for the customer you are creating.
• The Customer Properties window has an assortment of fields. The documentation below deals with the iMerchant default setting for Customer Properties.
• The description of the default fields is as follows:
  • First Name: key in the customer's first name.
    • If the customer is a business, key in the business name.
  • Last Name: Key in the customer's last name.
  • Type: Select the Customer Type for the customer.
    • Customer Types help to sort customers into groups of your choosing.
    • e.g. you may have Customer Types of B (Business), R (Regular), T (Teacher), etc.
  • AutoDiscountID: Select the Automatic Customer Discount Code for the customer, if applicable.
  • Short Name: If you leave this field blank, it will fill in automatically with the next available customer number or default customer short name (first and last name of customer merged together), making it unique to every customer in your system
    • If it is not unique for some reason, the system will prompt you.
    • To determine whether you want the system to set a customer number or a short name:
      • Set up the default in Tools > Options
        • The default is short name.
        • You can key in anything you want in this field as well, so long as it is unique.
  • Opened: The date defaults automatically to the current date.
    • This is the date the customer was created in iMerchant.
    • If you need to change the date, simply key in the desired date
    • Or click on the arrow to the right of the field and select the date you want from the calendar that appears.
  • Closed: When creating a new customer, leave this field blank.
    • This is strictly an informational field that holds the date when this customer became inactive.
    • If you fill this in for a customer, the customer will still be on your system.
    • It is just an informational tool that you can use for your benefit.
    • When filling this field in, either key in the desired date
    • Or click on the arrow to the right of the field and select the date from the calendar that appears.

The bottom half of the Customer Properties window is under the Address tab.

This is where you enter the customer's contact information. (The Address tab refers to the customer's Bill To address.)

Fields that have a red exclamation point to the right of them indicate vital information that you will want to fill in.

• Formal Name: Key in any name for the customer, if desired.
  • If you want to use this field, you most likely will re-key the customer's first and last name or business name here.
  • A sensible reason to do that would be that you want the customer's name directly above the address in Customer Properties.
• Contact: Key in the contact person's name for this customer, if different from the customer (such as a secretary) or the contact person for a business.
  • e.g. if the customer is a school, you would put a specific person's name in the Contact field if a certain contact person at the school exists.
• Address: Key in the customer's address (number and street, or P.O. Box).
• City: Key in the customer's city.
• State/Province: Key in the customer's state or province,
• or click on the arrow to the right of the field and select the state or province from the list.
• Zip/Postal: Key in the customer's zip code.
• Country/Region: Select the appropriate Country/Region code.
• Phone: Key in the customer's phone number.
  • Don't worry about dashes or parentheses, iMerchant will format the phone number.
  • Ext.: Key in the customer's extension, if applicable.
• Email: Key in the customer's email address, if applicable.
  • Notice the word "Email" above the field is a different color and underlined. It is a hyperlink and quick and handy tool.
  • Once you enter the email address, you can click on the Email link and you will be taken automatically to your email program, with the "To" field already filled in with the customer's email address, as entered in the Email field.
• Fax: Key in the customer's fax number, if applicable.
  • Don't worry about dashes or parentheses, iMerchant will format the fax number.
• Web: Key in the url to the customer's Website, if they have one.
  • As with the Email field, this is a hyperlink.
  • Once you enter the Website's url in this field, you can click on the Web link and you will be taken directly to the customer's Website.
• Mobile/Other: Key in the customer's mobile or cell phone number, if applicable.
  • Don't worry about dashes or parentheses, iMerchant will format the phone number.
  • Ext.: Key in the customer's mobile or cell phone extension, if applicable.

If you need to create another (Ship To) address for the customer, you can do that.

• Click on the Add Address button in Task Bar at the top of the screen
• Click on the Ship To tab
• The bottom half of the Customer Properties screen is blank again (the top half is still filled in).
• Fill in the fields, the same way you did for the general Address tab.

If you need to create still another address for the customer:

Go To

Edit > Add an Address again from the menu at the top of the screen.

A third tab, called Contact, appears to the right of the Ship To tab.

This is applicable if the customer (most likely a business in this case) has a contact person at an entirely different address.

Fill in the fields under the Contact tab, the same way you did for Address and Ship To.

There is a special Tax Exempt box that you can put on the Customer Properties screen as well.

To do so, go to the Screen Designer and move the TaxExempt selection from the palette into the work screen, and position it where you want it.

If you have security access to do so, you can add and maintain an A/R account for a customer.

To add an A/R account:

While in the Customer Properties program for a specific customer

• Click on the Add A/R button in the Task Bar.
• The A/R pop-up window appears.
• This is where you set up the customer's A/R account information.
  • Name: the system will simply insert the value from the customer's Short Name field.
    • You can either change this, or just leave it as is.
  • Account #: field fills in automatically.
    • While you can alter this, it makes sense just to leave it as is.
    • This field cannot be left blank.
  • Balance: field is grayed out.
    • To set up the balance, you need to click on the Adjust button in the Task Bar.
      • This calls up the A/R Adjust window.
      • Here, you can key in (or use the up/down arrows at the right of the field to set) the appropriate balance in the Balance field.
      • Or, once the customer's A/R account has been established, you can key in (or use the up/down arrows at the right of the field to set) the adjustment to the balance in the Adjust field, and the system will adjust the balance automatically.
      • In the Reason field, you must key in a reason for any A/R adjustment.
      • Once you have set the balance or made the adjustment.
      • Click on the Apply button.
      • You will be brought back to the A/R pop-up window, and the Balance field, though still grayed out, will be adjusted accordingly.
  • Opened field defaults to the current date, but you can change it if needed. The arrow at the right of the field yields a mini calendar, from which you can select a different date.
    • Active: is a check box
      • Checked = the customer is an active A/R customer.
      • Unchecked = the customer's A/R account is not active.
  • Closed/Expired: date is blank, and you would not fill that in until the customer's A/R account is terminated.
  • Scan ID: fills in automatically with the same value as the Account #.
    • You can leave this as is, unless there is a prefix number needed.
  • Account Limit: Determine the limit and key the value into this field.
  • AR Terms: field is where you can assign an A/R Terms code to the customer's A/R account.

When you are finished setting up the A/R account, close out of the A/R window.

The system will prompt you to save your changes.

You can access an existing A/R account for a customer by doing the following:

• While in the Customer Properties program for a specific customer.
• Select Edit A/R from the Task Bar
• The A/R pop-up window appears.
• If you have security access to do so, change any of the fields as needed, then close out of the window and save your changes at the prompt.
• Or simply view the information and then close out of the window without making any changes.

You can attach Customer Rewards to a customer via the Rewards button in the Task Bar

Click here for detailed information on Customer Rewards

At the top of the Customer Properties window. You can attach as many existing Rewards as you want to any customer.

When a customer meets the specifications for a Reward premium, POS will automatically notify the clerk, and the premium will be given.

Once you have clicked on the Rewards button, the Customer Rewards Find window displays.

Let's go through it. . . .

The upper portion of this window is informational. It provides you with a few basic facts about this customer. This information cannot be changed here.

To change any of it, Close out of the window and make the alterations in Customer Properties.

The lower portion of the window is where you can add (or delete) Rewards for a particular customer.

To add a Reward:

• Click on the Add to List button

• The Find Reward window will appear, from which you will select the Reward you wish to attach to this customer.
• Once the Reward is selected, you are returned to the Customer Rewards Find window, and the just-selected Reward will display in the lower portion of the window.
• The name of the Reward will display beneath the Reward column.
• You can add as many Rewards as you wish for a particular customer using this method.
• Each time you add a Reward, a new row will appear, beneath the Reward just above it.

There are several additional columns in this portion of the window. They list essential information for the Rewards, specific to this customer.

• Opened: lists the date you added the Reward to the customer. This value cannot be changed.
• Last Reward: lists the last time the customer received a Reward premium for this reward. This value cannot be changed.
• Dollars Toward Reward: lists the ongoing dollar amount that is being accumulated toward the Reward premium.
  • Once the premium is met, this figure will reset.
  • This value can be changed, if desired and if you have security access, by selecting "Adjustment" from the Edit menu.
  • However, manually updates to this field should be very rare, and are strongly discouraged.
• Quantity Toward Reward: lists the ongoing quantity (number of applicable items purchased) that is being accumulated toward the Reward premium.
  • Once the premium is met, this figure will rest.
  • This value can be changed, if desired and if you have security access, by selecting "Adjustment" from the Edit menu.
  • However, manually updates to this field should be very rare, and are strongly discouraged.

Notice the Needed for Next Reward line that appears below both the "Dollars Toward Reward" and "Quantity Toward Reward" columns.

The value listed here does what it says: it lets you know how many dollars or what quantity of titles are still needed for the reward to be met.  

• Life Dollars Spent: lists the total number of dollars this customer has spent on items that qualify for this Reward premium.
  • This value can be changed, if desired and if you have security access, by selecting Edit > Adjustment
  • However, manually updates to this field should be very rare, and are strongly discouraged.
• Life Rewards Earned: lists the total number of dollars this customer has earned via Rewards premiums for this Reward.
  • This value can be changed, if desired and if you have security access, by selecting Edit > Adjustment
  • However, manually updates to this field should be very rare, and are strongly discouraged.
• Sequence: is a column where the value can be altered without having to select Edit > Adjustment.
  • This applies if you have more than one Reward attached to a customer.
  • The first Reward you added will have a Sequence value of 0.
  • The second (i.e., the second row) will have a Sequence value of 1, and so on.
    • You can change the Sequence values if you want.
    • Why would you? Well, the Sequence numbers represent a tiering system.
    • The Sequence 0 Reward is the first Reward the system will look at when it's looking to match an item purchased against the available Rewards for a particular customer.
    • If the item doesn't match the Sequence 0 Reward, the system will then check the qualifications of the Sequence 1 Reward, and so on down the line. (If no matches are made, the item will not be applied to any of the Rewards.)
    • As soon as the system makes a match, it uses the first Sequence Reward it finds.
    • An item cannot be applied to multiple Reward premiums.
    • So, if you want a certain Reward to be checked against first, be sure you set its Sequence number to 0.
      • e.g. A Customer has three Rewards premiums attached to their customer file: Business, Fiction, and Cookbooks.
      • You have set the Sequences as follows: Business, 0; Fiction, 1; Cookbooks, 2.
      • One day, the customer purchases a cookbook, but its qualifications place it under two of the Rewards--Business and Cookbooks.
      • Since Business has the lower Sequence number (0), the book is credited toward the Business Rewards premium, not the Cookbooks premium.
• Membership Expires: lists the date, if one exists, when the Reward premium will expire for the customer. If there is no expiration date, the field will read, "Never."
• Renew: is a checkbox field, but it is not active for any Reward premium with an expiration date of Never.
  • If a premium does indeed have an expiration date attached to it, then the checkbox under Renew will be active for that premium.
  • If a premium has expired, a warning icon will display between the Membership Expires field and the Renew field for that premium.
  • Checking the Renew checkbox will update the Membership Expires field once you select Save.

To delete a Reward from the customer's file:

• At the bottom of the Find Reward window, highlight the Reward row you wish to delete
• Click on the Remove from List button, which is just to the right of the Add to List button.
• The Reward row is deleted.
• Please be aware, if you remove a Reward from a customer's file, any totals already accumulated toward the premium will be lost, and will not be applied to other Reward programs.
• However, if you have already issued a premium to the customer, that premium will still be valid, even after the Reward has been deleted from his or her customer file.
  • The premium will have been issued as a Balance Card; the customer will still be allowed to use that card.

When you are finished making the necessary changes, Close out of the window. Changes are saved automatically.

If you want to create a new customer record that is very similar to an existing record, you can use the Save As option.

To use the Save As option:

• Locate a customer in the Find Customer window.
• Once you access Customer Properties for the selected customer, change the field or fields you want, making sure you alter the Short Name field. Remember, the Short Name must be unique.
• Once you have changed the applicable fields, select File > Save As.
• The new customer record is created.
• Close the Customer Properties window.
• The new record will be highlighted at the bottom of the grid within the Find Customer window.

You can create notes for each customer you create, if you want.

• Click on the Notes button at the top of the Customer Properties window
• The Notes window opens.

iMerchant Tip: Anytime you click on any Task Bar icon at the top of the Customer Properties window, it serves as a Save, in that it saves any changes you have made. 

To cancel any saved action, immediately press the Undo icon. This will undo and save the just-made changes.

To access an existing Customer Order for a customer

• Click on the Customer Orders Task Bar button
• The Find Customer Order window will appear for that customer.
• Any Customer Orders for that customer will appear in the grid at the bottom of the Find screen.

To create a new Customer Order for this customer directly from the Customer Properties screen

• Click on the New Order button.
• The Customer Order Properties screen will appear, with the current customer selected.
• You can immediately begin to place the desired products onto the Customer Order.

You can also create authorized users for a customer.

The most likely example would be if the customer record is a business, and underneath the business umbrella, you want to add individual employees.

The individual employees would be the authorized users.

To create authorized users . . .

• Click on the Authorized Users Task Bar button.
  • This opens the Authorized Users window.
  • Notice the check box field:
    • Check this box if a name must be selected before allowing an A/R transaction at POS.
    • If unchecked, the list of authorized customers is nothing more than an informational display.
    • It will have no practical use in iMerchant.
  • Click on the Add Name button.
    • A blank row will appear underneath the heading Authorized Name.
    • Key in the authorized user's name.
    • Repeat this procedure to create as many authorized users as is necessary.

To delete an authorized user:

• Highlight the row you want deleted and then click on the Delete Name button.
• The row will be deleted.

When you're through, simply click on the Return to Main Screen button to return to Customer Properties.

Once you are finished creating the customer record, simply close out of the Customer Properties window by clicking on the Close button.

Under the History menu, you can access the following programs: POS Product Details, POS History, and Tender Accounts.

You can also delete a customer from the active customer database file.

To delete an existing customer:

• Once you have accessed the customer you want to delete, on the Customer Properties page
• Select Edit > Delete Customer from the menu at the top of the screen.
  • A prompt box asks if you want to delete the customer.
    • If no, choose "No". The customer is not deleted.
    • If yes, click "Yes". The customer is deleted. (Only users with security access to delete customers will be able to do this.)

Once a customer has been deleted, you are automatically returned to the Find Customer screen.

The just-deleted customer appears in the grid at the bottom of the screen, with a strikethrough line running through the entry.

You can reactivate the customer, if you wish.

To reactivate a deleted customer, select the customer from the grid.

• A message prompt appears, asking if you would like to restore the customer.
• If you select Cancel, nothing happens, and you are returned to the Customer Find screen, with the deleted customer still having a strikethrough line running through the entry.
• If you select Yes, you are taken to the Customer Properties page for the customer.
• When you close out of Customer Properties (assuming you don't delete it again), the customer will now be active, and will no longer have a strikethrough line running through him or her in the grid.

You can also reactivate a previously deleted customer at a later point.

• Run a search for existing customers. But before running the search, be sure that the View-Show Deleted Items selection (from the menu at the top of the screen) is checked.
• If it's not checked, deleted customers will not display after the search is run.
• If it is checked, any customers that have been deleted at a prior point will display, along with the active customers, in the grid at the bottom of the screen.
• The deleted customers will have a strikethrough line running through them.

To reactivate a deleted customer:

• Select the entry. A message prompt appears, asking if you would like to restore the customer.
• If you select Cancel, nothing happens, and you are returned to the Customer Find screen, with the deleted customer still having a strikethrough line running through him or her.
• If you select "Yes," you are taken to the Customer Properties page for the customer.
• When you close out of Customer Properties (assuming you don't delete the customer again), the customer will now be active, and will no longer have a strikethrough line running through him or her in the grid.