Customer Maintenance Applet

Purpose and Overview

The Customer Maintenance Applet is the foundation of your revenue operations. It is not just a digital address book; it is the Master Data Repository that feeds critical rules into the Sales, Finance, and Point of Sale (POS) modules.

How you configure a customer here dictates how the entire ERP system interacts with them. If you set a 30-day payment term here, the system will automatically block Sales Reps from issuing new orders to that customer on day 31 if they haven’t paid.

Who Benefits from This Applet?

What Problems Does This Solve?

Without Customer Maintenance Master Data:

• Sales reps sell RM 50,000 worth of goods to a customer who already owes the company RM 100,000, creating massive bad debt risk.
• Delivery drivers show up at a corporate HQ instead of the actual warehouse because the system only holds one address per company.
• Finance teams spend days manually calculating due dates for invoices.

With Customer Maintenance Applet:

• ✓ Automated Credit Control - The system hard-stops new sales orders if a customer exceeds their defined credit limit.
• ✓ Multi-Address Architecture - Store an unlimited number of specialized addresses (Billing, Shipping HQ, Drop-ship locations) under one parent company.
• ✓ Automated Payment Terms - Set terms (e.g., Net 30) once, and the system automatically calculates all future invoice due dates.

Role-Based Quick Start Guides

For Sales Admins: Onboarding a Simple B2C Customer

Your goal is to quickly add a retail walk-in customer so the cashier can issue a receipt under their name.

1. Go to Customer Maintenance and click "+" to create a new profile.
2. In the Main Details tab, select Type: Individual.
3. Fill in the Name and Phone Number.
4. Skip the complex tabs.
5. Click Create. The customer is instantly available in the POS system.

For Finance: Onboarding a Complex B2B Enterprise Client

Your goal is to onboard a new corporate client (“MegaCorp Inc.”) while protecting company cash flow.

Step 1: The Corporate Identity

1. Click "+". Select Type: Corporate.
2. Enter the Legal Company Name (MegaCorp Inc.) and their Business Registration Number (BRN) for tax compliance.

Step 2: The Credit Sandbox

1. Switch to the Credit Information tab.
2. Ensure Credit Term is set to Net 30 Days (meaning they have 30 days to pay after receiving an invoice).
3. Set the Credit Limit to RM 50,000. If they try to buy RM 50,001 worth of goods without paying their outstanding bills, the system will block the sale.

Step 3: The Multi-Address Setup

1. Switch to the Addresses tab.
2. Add Address 1: Corporate HQ (Set Address Type to Billing).
3. Add Address 2: Port Klang Warehouse (Set Address Type to Shipping).
4. Save the profile. Now, when a Sales Rep creates a Delivery Order, the system will automatically route the trucks to the warehouse, but mail the invoice to HQ.

Deep-Dive: The Profile Configuration Tabs

A B2B customer profile contains multiple tabs representing the complex structure of a modern business relationship.

1. Main Details Tab

The foundational identity.

• Customer Code: The unique system ID (e.g., CUST-1002). This is how the database links all their invoices together.
• BRN / Tax ID: Critical for E-Invoicing and statutory reporting.
• Salesperson: You can permanently link a specific Sales Rep to this customer. All future commissions for this customer will default to this rep.

2. Credit Information Tab

The financial guardrails.

• Credit Limit: The maximum allowable unpaid debt.
• Payment Terms: Dictates cash flow rules (Cash on Delivery, 7 Days, 30 Days, 60 Days).
• Credit Block Toggle: A manual override switch. If Finance discovers a customer is going bankrupt, they can flip this switch to instantly freeze all ongoing orders.

3. Addresses Tab (The Multi-Location Architecture)

A major enterprise rarely has just one door.

• You can store Infinite Addresses within a single Customer Profile.
• Address Types: You must classify each address. Is it a Retail Storefront? A Loading Dock? A Billing Office? This categorization ensures the right documents go to the right physical locations.

4. Contacts Tab (The Organizational Chart)

A company doesn’t buy things; the people inside the company buy things.

• Add specific individuals (e.g., John Doe - Procurement Manager, Jane Smith - Accounts Payable).
• Tag them with roles so your team knows who to email for sales pitches vs. who to email when a bill is late.

5. Classification / Attributes Tab

Custom metadata for marketing and reporting.

• Group customers by Industry (e.g., Healthcare, Manufacturing).
• Group by Tier (e.g., Gold, Silver, Bronze).
• Reports can later be run by these attributes (e.g., “Show me all Q3 revenue from the Healthcare sector”).

Applet Configuration (For Admins)

Navigate to Settings to customize how customer data is captured.

Application Settings

• AUTO_GENERATE_CUSTOMER_CODE: If enabled, the system automatically assigns CUS-0001, CUS-0002. If disabled, you must manually type a custom code for every new client.
• ENFORCE_UNIQUE_TAX_ID: Highly recommended to turn this ON. This prevents a Sales Rep from accidentally creating a duplicate profile for a company that already exists in the system by checking the BRN.

Field Settings (Mandatory Controls)

Data hygiene is critical for Master Data.

• You can force specific fields to be mandatory before a user can click “Save.”
• Best Practice: Make Email, Phone, and Industry Classification mandatory to ensure your marketing database remains high quality.

Classification Matrix

You define the labels your team uses.

• Instead of letting sales reps type whatever they want into the “Industry” field, you pre-define the dropdown list in the settings (e.g., Tech, Retail, F&B).

Common Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: The “Credit Hold” Intervention

The Situation: Sales Rep Ben promises rapid delivery of 100 laptops to “Startup XYZ”. When he hits ‘Confirm’, the system turns red and blocks the order. Ben calls Finance angrily. The Workflow:

1. Finance opens the Customer Maintenance applet and searches for “Startup XYZ”.
2. They check the Credit Information tab.
3. The Limit is RM 20,000.
4. The system calculates they currently have RM 15,000 in unpaid invoices from last month. Ben’s new laptop order is RM 10,000.
5. 15,000 + 10,000 = 25,000. This exceeds the limit.
6. Finance tells Ben: “Tell the customer they must pay last month’s bill before we ship these new laptops.” The system protected the company from bad debt.

Scenario 2: The Multi-Branch Retail Chain

The Situation: You just signed a deal to supply coffee beans to a café chain that has 1 HQ and 4 separate coffee shop locations. The Workflow:

1. You create ONE Customer Profile for the parent company.
2. In the Addresses tab, you add 5 entries.
3. Address 1: HQ (Type: Billing).
4. Address 2-5: The 4 specific cafes (Type: Shipping).
5. When your reps take coffee orders, they select the Parent Company, but the system prompts them to pick which specific cafe the delivery truck needs to go to.

Scenario 3: Bulk E-Invoice Updates

The Situation: The government rolls out new E-Invoicing requirements, mandating that every existing corporate customer must now have their Tax ID recorded. Your legacy data is missing this field. The Workflow:

1. Go to Customer Maintenance Listing.
2. Click Export to download the database into Excel.
3. Finance manually updates the Excel sheet with all the missing Tax IDs.
4. Go to Import Customers.
5. Upload the Excel sheet. The system updates all 5,000 profiles simultaneously without creating duplicates.

FAQs

Q: If I delete a customer, do their past sales orders disappear? A: Due to accounting integrity rules, you cannot delete a customer who has transactional history (invoices, sales orders) tied to their profile. Instead, you change their Status to Inactive. This preserves the historical financial data but hides them from active dropdown menus.

Q: Can a customer have multiple currencies? A: A customer profile is usually tied to a single base currency for accounting ledger purposes. Consult your specific finance setup if you deal with cross-border subsidiaries.

Q: How do I merge duplicate customer profiles? A: If “MegaCorp” and “Mega Corp Inc” were accidentally created as two separate profiles, you cannot merge them if both have transactional history. The standard operational procedure is to mark one as Inactive and use the other moving forward. (This is why the ENFORCE_UNIQUE_TAX_ID setting is so important).