Customer Accounts Login

Contents

  1. Prerequisites
  2. Overview
  3. Customer Account Addresses
  4. Customer Account Product Pricing
  5. Customer Account Payment Types
  6. Account Enquiry
  7. Customer Account Contracts
  8. Customer Account Locations
  9. Customer Accounts Administration Centre Interface
  10. Dependent Configurations
  11. Recommendations

This document describes the details about customer accounts within each project on the TOTECS platform. Customer Accounts are assigned to users, and provides many controls on how users buy products, create orders, and how the accounting aspects of a business system are linked to users within a TOTECS website.

Prerequisites

Please ensure that you have read and understand the following topic links before reading on.

Overview

A customer account within a TOTECS project represents an entity, organisation, or person that purchases products off the organisation that is associated to the TOTECS project. In other business systems customer accounts can also be called "debtors", "customers", "business partners", "customer cards", or several other names. Each TOTECS project can have any number of customer accounts created within it. Customer accounts are typically imported into a TOTECS project from an organisation's business system.

The User - Customer Account Relationship

Each user in a TOTECS project must be assigned to only one customer account to allow the user to be able to see product pricing, create orders and purchase products. Many users can be assigned to the same customer account, which normally occurs on a retail content managed web site when users first register. This could also occur if many people work for one organisation who are allowed to have many users that order on behalf of the organisation. When a user creates an order, their customer account is assigned to the order. If the order is then exported to an external business system, the order will then be associated to the account in the business system, since the business system only knows about the account, and not the TOTECS user(s) associated with the order.

For sales representative users there is the ability for them to switch the customer account assigned to them using the Sales Representatives feature within the platform. This allows sales representatives to create orders for many different customer accounts. Each customer account can be assigned to a Sales Representative ID. This ID can also be assigned to a sales representative user, which in turn allows the user to switch between any of the customer accounts assigned with the same Sales Representative ID. In this scenario this allows a sales representative user to create orders for a range of customer accounts that they have control over. There are several permissions in the TOTECS platform that gives sales representative users several additional controls compared to normal users.

Customer Account Assigned Price Level

Each customer account can be assigned to one price level. This decides the price that users assigned to the customer account will see when they view products. For example if a product had 4 different prices for price levels A, B, C, D, and a user was assigned to a customer account that is associated with price level C, then the user would see the product's C price-level price. For this example if the price-levels contains the product prices A=$1, B=$2, C=$3, D=$4, then a user would see the price $3 for a product based on price-level C being assigned to their customer account.
By setting different price-levels for different customer accounts it allows certain customers to receive cheaper prices than other customers, which tends to occur in business-to-business trading, or in retail across different regions.

Account Details

Below are the fields that are set for each customer account.

Customer Account Field Description
Account Code: Unqiue identifier for the customer account. This field can sometimes be called the Account ID.
Account Key: Identifier that links the customer account to an external business system. It is highly recommended that the key be unique otherwise only one of the accounts in the project with the same key will be updated from external systems when Customer Accounts data imports run.
Is Active: If set to Yes then it allows users assigned to the customer account to login and use the account.
Company Name: Name of the organisation associated to the account.
ABN: Australian Business Number, the number assigned to the organisation by a government authority that is associated to the account.
Contact: Name of the person who is associated with the account.
Email: Emails address associated with the account.
Sales Representative ID: ID of the sales representative that is in charge of the customer account.
Product Price Level: The product price-level assigned to the account. This is used to determine the price of products that users will see when assigned to the account.
Product Price Discount: The discount percentage that will be taken off any product price-level pricing when users assigned to the account purchase products.
Payment Types: Sets the allowed payments types that users assigned to account can pay for orders with.
Last Updated: Date that the customer account was last modified via a data import.
Is On Hold: Set to either Yes or No. If it is set to Yes then the account is "on hold", meaning that there is a problem with the account. Typically this occurs because the account has exceeded its payment balance, or payment terms.
On Hold Action:

Sets the action that occurs when the account is marked as being on hold and a user assigned to the account still tries to create orders. The options for the field are:

  • No Action:
    Users assigned to the account are still allowed to create orders when it is on hold.
  • Block User From Ordering:
    Users assigned to the account are stopped when trying to checkout their basket. An error message will be displayed to the user.
  • Warn User: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is on hold when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket.
  • Warn User, Only Allow Credit Card Payments: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is on hold when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket. The user will only have the option to pay for the order with a credit card payment.
Out Of Terms Action:

Sets the action that occurs when the account is marked as being outside its agreed terms of payments and a user assigned to the account still tries to create orders. The options for the field are:

  • No Action:
    Users assigned to the account are still allowed to create orders when it is outside its terms.
  • Block User From Ordering:
    Users assigned to the account are stopped when trying to checkout their basket. An error message will be displayed to the user.
  • Warn User: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is out-of-terms when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket.
  • Warn User, Only Allow Credit Card Payments: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is out-of-terms when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket. The user will only have the option to pay for the order with a credit card payment.
Out Of Credit Action:

Sets the action that occurs when the account is marked as exceeding its allowed credit limit and a user assigned to the account still tries to create orders. The options for the field are:

  • No Action:
    Users assigned to the account are still allowed to create orders when it has exceeded its balance limit.
  • Block User From Ordering:
    Users assigned to the account are stopped when trying to checkout their basket. An error message will be displayed to the user.
  • Warn User: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is outside its credit limit when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket.
  • Warn User, Only Allow Credit Card Payments: 
    Users assigned to the account are notified that the account is outside its credit limit when trying to to create an order. A warning message will be displayed to the user when they checkout a basket. The user will only have the option to pay for the order with a credit card payment.
Balance: Monetary amount that the account has in credit. A positive number denotes that the account owes money, a negative amount denotes that account has paid more than what it bought.
Balance Limit: Monetary amount that the account is allowed to spend up to in credit.
A positive number denotes that the account can make purchases which it will owe later, a negative amount denotes that account must have paid first the given amount before it can make purchases.
Payment Terms: Sets the terms on when payments must be made for invoices assigned to the account. One of the following may be set:
  • Not Specified:
    No payment terms have been set for the customer account.
  • Given Number Of Days:
    Account invoices must be paid a set number of days after the invoice was created.
  • Day Of The Month:
    Account invoices must be paid on the same date of the month after an invoice was created.
  • Number Of Days After End Of Month:
    Account invoices must be paid a given number of days after the month ends that the invoice was created within.
  • Day Of The Month After The Month:
    Account invoices must be paid on a set day of the next month that the invoice was created from.
  • Cash On Delivery:
    Account invoices must be paid at the time that the goods are delivered.
Class: Field that stores text that defines a class that the account can be within.
Territory: Defines a location that the customer account is assigned to. The territory field is used to assign a default location to an account.
Shipping Method: Method which the account has its ordered shipped with.
User Created For Account: Set either to Yes or No. If set to Yes then a user has been automatically created and assigned to the customer account when it was imported into the TOTECS project.

 

Customer Account Addresses

For each customer account within a TOTECS project there is the ability to set any number of addresses associated to the account. From one of the addresses asssigned to the customer account there is the ability to mark it as being the "Primary" address. When a user is creating an order the primary address is tyically used to set the billing address for an order. The user also has the ability to choose from any of the other customer account addresses to set as either the billing or delivery address of the order, depending on how the ordering process is configured for the project. Customer account addresses can be imported from external business systems using the Connector data imports functionality.

Customer Account Product Pricing

Each customer account in the TOTECS project can have any number of product prices assigned to it. This allows the users assigned to the account to see pricing of products that has been set up uniquely for the account only. These prices may be discounted from the normal price-level price of the products, or they may be set to be more expensive. This kind of "account assigned" pricing tends to be called "contract pricing", "special pricing", "promotional pricing", or "customer specific pricing" in other business systems. The account product prices can be "forced" to the customer account, this means that if a product's price-level price was cheaper than the account price, then the user assigned to the account would still see the dearer account price for the product. Forced pricing can be used to lock customers into agreed upon pricing. The customer account pricing can also apply for given quantities used with quantity breaks, or volume discounts so that when a user orders larger quantities of products then the account prices can apply.

Customer Account Payment Types

When a user is proceeding through the order checkout process, at the stage where they need to enter details for the order, the payment methods that they can choose to pay for the order is dependent on the payment types that are assigned to their customer account. Any of the following payment types can be set against the account:

Payment Type Payment Type Code Description
On Account AC Sets that the order will be paid at a later date, based on the payment terms set out for the customer account.
Credit Card CC Sets that the order will be paid via a credit card payment. The credit card payment will be made before the order can be submitted and processed.
Pay Pal PP Sets that the order will be paid via a Pay Pal payment. The Pay Pal payment will be made before the order can be submitted and processed.
Direct Deposit DD Sets that the order will be paid via a bank account money transfer. After the order is submitted the details of the bank account configured in the TOTECS project will display to the user to advise them on where to send the money.
Running Quote RQ Sets that the order will not be paid for, but will be viewed as a quote. When the order is submitted into a business system it will be flagged as quoted and no goods will be dispatched.

When customer accounts are imported into a TOTECS project using either the Connector data imports, or text file data imports there is the ability to assign multiple payment methods to the accounts. This assignment can be done by setting a comma delimited list of the payment type codes against the customer account.

Account Enquiry

If a TOTECS project has been configured with the Connector software then the users in the project have the ability to retreive a range of records for their assigned customer account from the linked business system in real time. Both users assigned to a customer account, or administrator users using the Account Enquiry feature can retrieve and view records in real time from the business system. This has the effect of the user being to view records as if they were accessing the business system itself.
The kinds of records that can be retreived are:

  • Invoices
  • Transactions
  • Sales Orders
  • Back Orders
  • Payments
  • Credits

A project can be configured to allow users to pay for invoices via credit card or direct deposit payments. The Account Enquiry feature can be used to cut down the amount of phone calls, Emails, and labour by making the account data accessible online to customers. To learn more about the Account Enquiry functionality click on the link below.

Customer Account Contracts

Each customer account in a TOTECS project can be assigned to any number of "customer account contracts". Each contract contains a list of products and pricing that is applicable to the accounts assigned to the contract. Each contract can have any number of products assigned to it, as well as any number of customer accounts. The contracts also have an expiry date that determines how long the product pricing is applicable for. Contracts can be used for the following:

  • Lock in product pricing for a customer account over a period of time through the use of forced pricing.
  • Make products available for purchase that would otherwise not be available.
  • Provide a list of products that can be easily identified by users who are assigned to a customer account in a contract.

Within the My Items page of the Trade interface users are able to see the list of contracts that their customer account has been assigned to, as well as view the products assigned to each contract.

Sales representative users can have Facility Role permissions enabled that allow them to create contracts through the Trade interface.

Customer Account Locations

Within a TOTECS project it can have any number of Locations. Each location can define a physical or logical place where products and services are set, and for each location the quantity of product stock is also recorded. A customer account can be assigned to any number of locations, with one of its locations being set as the primary location. When a user creates an order the location assigned to their customer account can be used to factor in any surcharges applicable to the order, as well as the location that the order is assigned to ship products from. Users can also have facility role permissions set so that they can only see the quantities of product stock available at locations assigned to their customer account.

Customer Accounts Administration Centre Interface

Within the Administration Centre of a TOTECS project, under the Users menu there is a menu item labelled Customer Accounts that takes administrator users to the Customer Accounts interface. Within the interface administrator users can view all of the customer accounts that exist within the TOTECS project. Additionally administrator users can search for one or more customer accounts, as well as view the details of an account, the addresses assigned to an account, the account pricing, and go to the Account Enquiry interface to view records associated with an account.

Search For Customer Accounts

For administrator users to search for a customer account follow these steps:

  1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
  2. Click on the Users menu button.
  3. Click on the Customer Accounts menu item link.
  4. In the Search drop down select a field to search on accounts with.
  5. In the text box to the right of the search drop down enter text to match on for the selected account field.
  6. Click the Find button.

The customer accounts table will refresh and display any customer account records that matched the search term. To display all the customer accounts again clear the search text box of any text and click on the Find button again.

View Customer Account Details

For administrator users to view the details of a customer account, follow these steps:

  1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
  2. Click on the Users menu button.
  3. Click on the Customer Accounts menu item link.
  4. Locate a customer account in the table.
  5. Click on the Detail button that is displayed in the table row for the customer account.

View Customer Account Addresses

For administrator users to view the addresses assigned to a customer account, follow these steps:

  1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
  2. Click on the Users menu button.
  3. Click on the Customer Accounts menu item link.
  4. Locate a customer account in the table.
  5. Click on the Addresses button that is displayed in the table row for the customer account. The Customer Account Addresses dialog will open if there is at least one address assigned to the account.
  6. Click on the Account Addresses drop down to display the details of another address assigned to the account.

The Customer Account Address 

View Customer Account Pricing

For administrator users to view the account specific product pricing assigned to a customer account, follow these steps:

  1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
  2. Click on the Users menu button.
  3. Click on the Customer Accounts menu item link.
  4. Locate a customer account in the table.
  5. Click on the Account Pricing button that is displayed in the table row for the customer account. The Account Product Pricing dialog will open and display a table containing all the product pricing set for the account.

Dependent Configurations

  • To allow administrator users to see the Customer Accounts interface they must be assigned to the Administrator Permission Role that has the "Users" permission set to Allow.
  • Customer Accounts must have the "Is Active" field set to Yes to allow users assigned to the account to login to a TOTECS project.
  • Customer Accounts must have at least one payment type enabled for the account to allow users assigned to account to create orders.
  • A customer account must be assigned to the {GUEST} user to allow new users to navigate to a content managed website.

Recommendations

  • Create a generic customer account (such as WEB_RETAIL) and assign it to a User Registration Profile so that when new user register through a content managed website, that they are assigned to the generic customer account.
  • Set the customer account of the "{GUEST}" user to determine the prices of products that users see when they first arrive to a content managed website without logging in.
  • Create an assign different customer accounts to guest region users of a content managed website to define the pricing that is displayed to users for the different regions, based on the price level assigned to the accounts.
  • Configure and schedule the Customer Accounts data exports in the Connector software so that updates the details of accounts from a business system into the TOTECS project on a regular basis. This can be important to show up-to-date information if fields such as the account's balance limit, or on hold status are used to allow or deny users from ordering.
  • Customer account addresses, and account product pricing can both be imported from a business system and updated using Connector software, and through using the Data Imports functionality within a TOTECS project. This allows the address and pricing data to managed only within the business system.