How to Use a Customer's Notes
Every customer has four notes, each for a different reader: engineers, the office, and accounts. You find all four on Notes, the fourth item on the customer screen's sections rail, and as tabs on the Notes card of the Overview. Notes are saved with the rest of the customer, using Save.
What are the four customer notes for?
The customer screen keeps four separate notes so that each person reads only what is meant for them. On Notes each has its own card and a line saying what it is for:
- Service notes: "Read by every engineer before a visit — and shown on the call." This is the place for what an engineer should know before arriving, such as how to get on site.
- General notes: "Anything about the account that is not service or billing."
- Billing notes: "Rates, PO rules, what to send with the invoice." PO means purchase order.
- Last call notes: "Written by the last call that closed; read-only here."
An empty note says "Nothing noted". For a single short line that everybody opening the customer should see, use Remarks in the header instead: it sits under the customer's name on every section.
How do I write a customer note?
To write a customer note, open the customer, select Notes on the sections rail, type in the note you want, and select Save at the top right of the customer screen.
- Open the customer from Customers.
- Select Notes on the sections rail, or Notes page on the Overview's Notes card.
- Type in Service notes, General notes or Billing notes.
- Select Save at the top right of the customer screen, or press Ctrl and S together (Ctrl+S).
The notes are not saved as you type: the Unsaved changes bar at the bottom counts each note you changed, and Discard in that bar puts them back. A note can hold several lines and paragraphs.
You can also type straight into the note on the Overview's Notes card; it is the same note, and the same Save saves it.
Why can't I type in the Last call notes?
Last call notes on the customer screen are read-only because they are not typed on the customer: as the screen says, they are "Written by the last call that closed", and the customer screen only shows them. The box says "Written by the last call that closed" when there is nothing in it, and the Last call tab on the Overview's Notes card shows the same note.
Saving the customer never changes them, whatever else you edit.
If you need a note about the customer that every engineer reads, use Service notes instead.
How do the note tabs on the customer Overview work?
The Notes card on the customer Overview shows one note at a time, with a tab for each: Service, General, Billing and Last call. Select a tab to switch notes. A dot beside a tab's name means that note has something in it, so you can see at a glance whether there are, say, billing notes without opening the tab.
The card remembers which tab you had open when you go to another screen and come back with Back. Notes page at the top right of the card opens the Notes section, where all four notes are side by side and have more room.