How to Create a New Customer
A new customer is created on the customer screen itself, starting empty and headed New customer. Open Customers from the menu and select New Customer in the toolbar at the top of the list. Only the title has to be typed; ABM Service fills in the rest of what a save needs.
How do I add a new customer?
To add a customer, open Customers, select New Customer, type the customer's name in Title and select Save customer at the top right. ABM Service proposes the code and fills in the group, trading terms and currency for you.
- Open Customers from the menu.
- Select New Customer in the toolbar above the list.
- Type the customer's trading name in Title on the Overview, as it should appear on invoices.
- Press Tab or select another box, so that ABM Service proposes a Code from the title.
- Check the Group, Status and Account manager, and change them if you need to.
- Fill in anything else you already know, such as the phone number, the address on Address & location, or the notes on Notes.
- Select Save customer at the top right of the customer screen.
When the save succeeds the screen becomes the saved customer, headed by its name and code, and a short Saved message appears. Contacts, Engineers and Calls open on the rail, and Log a call appears in the header.
Customers are added one at a time on this screen: ABM Service has no import of customers from a spreadsheet or another file.
What does ABM Service fill in on a new customer for me?
A new customer on the customer screen starts with everything a save needs except the title, so you are not hunting for blanks:
- Status is Prospect, because nobody has traded with them yet.
- Account manager is you, the person signed in.
- Group is the first of your company's customer groups (the one with the lowest number).
- Trading terms are that group's own terms. If you pick a different Group, the trading terms change to the new group's terms.
- Currency is your company's own currency.
- Tax status is Taxable.
- Code is proposed from the title when you leave the Title box.
Everything else starts empty. You can change any of these before saving. Keep in mind that Currency can only be chosen now: once the customer is saved it is shown locked, with "Currency is set when the customer is created".
How is the customer code proposed?
The customer code is proposed when you finish typing the Title and move out of the box, not while you type. ABM Service takes the start of the title in capitals, leaving out spaces and digits, and adds the next free number for that start, padded with zeros to your company's code length. It is the same numbering ABM has always used, so codes stay in one pattern wherever the customer was created.
Two cases give a code outside that pattern, so check the proposed Code before saving. Punctuation in the title is not left out of the start, but an apostrophe is removed from the finished code, so a title with an apostrophe near its start is proposed a code one character shorter than usual. And when the next number no longer fits in your company's code length, you are offered the start of the title alone, with no number, to finish yourself.
While the suggestion is on its way, the Code box is held and says suggesting…; a moment later the code appears and the hint beside it says next number. The header shows it too: "Code will be" the proposed code, "a prefix you can change until the first save".
- To use your own code, type it in Code. A code you have typed is never replaced by a suggestion.
- If you change the title afterwards, a proposal that no longer matches the title is not applied; empty the Code box and leave the Title box again to be offered a new one.
- If no suggestion arrives, the box is released and you simply type a code yourself.
A code holds at most 16 characters and a title at most 50.
Why won't my new customer save?
A new customer will not save while a required field is empty, and the customer screen tells you which one in a red box above the fields, then takes you to the section where that field is. The required fields are marked with an asterisk:
- Title: "A customer title is required."
- Code: "A customer code is required."
- Group: "A customer group is required."
- Trading terms on Credit & terms: "A trading term is required."
- Currency: "A currency is required."
- Bank account name on Bank & direct debit, only when Take by direct debit is set: "A bank account name is required once the customer is taken by direct debit."
The message disappears as soon as you fill the field in; select Save customer again.
If the code is already taken, the message says so and names a free code, for example "Customer code … already exists. … is free.", with a button beside it that reads Use followed by the free code. Select that button to put the free code in the Code box, then save again.
Other refusals come back in the same red box with the reason, for example when a box holds more characters than the database allows (a new customer's Phone or Fax can hold 20 characters, although the box lets you type 25: "Phone is at most 20 characters"), or when a bank or invoice-to detail clashes with another customer.
Why can't I see my new customer in the Customers list?
A new customer is saved as a Prospect, and the Customers list opens on Active accounts, so a customer you have just added is not in the list until you widen it. In the Which accounts choice at the side of the Customers list, select All or Prospect and the new customer is there.
When the customer really starts trading with you, open it, change Status on the Overview from Prospect to Active, and select Save; from then on it is in the list's default view like every other active account. You can also set Status to Active before the first save if you already trade with them.
Why can't I add contacts or log a call before the customer is saved?
Contacts, calls and engineer visits must belong to a customer that already exists in the database, so on a new customer the rail shows Contacts, Engineers and Calls greyed out with "once the customer is saved", and the header has no Log a call. The rail's foot says "This customer has not been saved yet — contacts, calls, contracts and tags open once it is."
Save the customer first with Save customer; the three sections open straight away, and you can add the contacts on Contacts and log the first call with Log a call.
You can still fill in the Overview, Address & location, Notes, Credit & terms, Bank & direct debit, Defaults & holds and Docket & e-mail before the first save, and all of it is saved together.
Tip: If you leave a half-typed new customer to look at something else, ABM Service keeps it: a reminder reading "New customer —" and the title you typed, marked unsaved, sits in the bottom-left corner of every screen. Select it to go back to your typing. Selecting New Customer on the Customers list again starts a fresh, empty customer instead. If the save finishes while you are on another screen, the reminder is marked saved rather than your work being lost.