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      How to Upload Customers & Staff

      This article will teach you how to upload customers and staff information using the Customer Importer template.

      Our customers can import their contacts (companies and their staff members) to keep making business with by using the Customer Importer Template. For more information, visit Customer Staff

      How to download the template

      1. To download the template, go to the main dashboard, and at the top, click LSP.

      2. Click Implementation Guide

      3. Under Imported, click the Customers & Staff option.

      4. Click the Template button at the bottom of the modal

      Special Instructions

      The template is going to provide you with special instructions as: 

      • For Country, ensure you add USA or Canada in that exact format. For other Countries, make sure to spell the name correctly. Avoid abbreviations in both cases because that will cause the upload to fail.

      • Make sure zip codes are entered as text with leading 0s when necessary. "07761" instead of "7761" (consider that Excel will remove leading 0s if you do not format the cell as text).

        • Remember that the system will allow you to have zip codes with no less than five characters but a maximum of 6.

      • Dimensions Required(Column P) value should be "True" or "False".
      • All Emails must be entered in a valid format or left blank. Invalid emails in any of the following fields will cause a failure to import. (Customers Tab - column Y: Invoice Email, Staff Tab - column O: Email)
      • Margin Modes = "LTL", "Truckload" or "Any".
      • Margin Calculation Types = "Markup %" or "Margin %".
      • Commission Calculation Types = "Flat" or "Percentage of Margin".

      Once you import, if there is something wrong, the system will let you know and specify the line where the issue is happening; you need to go back and remove the error and try to import once more.

      Customer Tab

      • Parent ID: This option allows you to create customers under sub-orgs/offices. The system will place the customer under the parent organization if left blank.
      • Dimensions Required: Value should be "True" or "False."
      • NMFC Required: Value should be "True" or "False."
      • Default Freight Class: NMFTA Scale
      • Margin Modes: "Any".
      • Margin Calculation Types: "Markup %" or "Margin %".
      • Commission Calculation Types: "Flat" or "Percentage of Margin".
      • CommissionStaffID: Make sure to add the LSP Staff ID of the person you want to set up as a sales rep under the customer, along with the CommissionRate.

      Customer Accounting Profile

      • Credit Limit: If left blank, the credit limit will be 0.
      • Payment Terms: You can add any number to this field; if left blank, it will default to 30 days.
      • Payment Preference: Options are Cash, Credit approved, One Order at a Time, Continual Credit Card, Credit Hold, or Collections. If left blank, it will default to Cash.
      • Preferred Invoicing Method: Options are Email, Prepaid, Do not send, Print, Digital, and Factoring. If left blank, it will default to Email.

      • Preferred Invoicing Acceptable Values

        • Email / 0

        • Prepaid / 1

        • Do Not Send / DoNotSend / 2

        • Print / 4

        • EDI / Digital / 5

        • Factoring / 6

      • Invoicing Automation Method: Options are Manually Invoice, Auto Invoice at Billing, Auto Invoice at Delivery and Auto Invoice at Booking. If left blank it will default to Manually Invoice.

        Invoicing Automation Acceptable Values

        • Manually Invoice / ManuallyInvoice / 0

        • Auto Invoice at Billing / AutoInvoiceBilling / 1

        • Auto Invoice at Delivery / AutoInvoiceDelivery / 2

        • Auto Invoice at Booking / PayAsYouGo / 3

      • Statement Delivery Frequency and Collection Notice DeliveryFrequency: If left blank, it will default to Never. Options are: 

        Delivery Frequency Acceptable Values

        • Never / 0

        • 1st / First / 1

        • 7th / Seventh / 7

        • 15th / Fifteenth / 15

        • 21st / Twentyfirst / 21

        • 1st, 15th / FirstAndFifteenth / 22

        • Every Monday / EveryMonday / 40

        • Every Tuesday / EveryTuesday / 41

        • Every Wednesday / EveryWednesday / 42

        • Every Thursday / EveryThursday / 43

        • Every Friday / EveryFriday / 44

        • Every Saturday / EverySaturday / 45

        • Every Sunday / EverySunday / 46

      • Allow Zero-Margin Invoice Automation: Value should be True or False. It allows automation to function even though the shipment has a 0 margin.
      • BOL Required With Invoice: Value should be True or False.
      • Enable Past Due Notification: Value should be True or False.
      • Include Shipment Owner On Invoice: Value should be True or False.
      • Invoice Delivery Instructions: Customers can add any notes they require for their customers. These notes will be available on the invoice delivery screen by hovering over the blue information icon.
      • POD Required With Invoice: Value should be True or False.
      • Tax Number: Customers can add a Tax number per customer if required.
      Staff Tab
      • Customer ID: You can use this option to update existing customer staff in bulk by adding the customer's ID. Please leave this field blank if you attempt to add new customer staff.
      • Company name: Make sure to add the exact name of the customer so the system adds the staff to the correct one.
      • Logins: They must be unique for each staff. The system will not duplicate a login and will consider Tai's entire list of customer logins.
      Notifications
      • Invoice payments: The system will include the staff’s email in the invoice notification. Value should be "True" or "False."
      • Send Email Status: The system will send updates to the staff’s email every time the shipment status changes. Value should be "True" or "False."

      Staff Settings

      • Columns from S to X are the shipment types you want your customer staff to see in the customer portal. Values should be "True" or "False."
      Permissions
      • Reports: This allows the customer staff to access reports in the customer portal. Value should

        be "True" or "False."

      Tariff Settings

      • Columns from Z to AD are the Tariff settings you can enable for customer staff to see in the customer portal. Values should be "True" or "False."

      For more information verify the customer staff edit screen by checking for information icons.

      Uploading the Template

      1. To upload the final document to the system, go to the main dashboard, and at the top, click LSP.

      2. Click Implementation Guide

      3. On the modal, click Next

      4. Choose the file and click Upload (the email address field should be populated automatically)


      Additional notes:

      When creating a shipment, it is mandatory to assign a Customer and a main POC. If the staff member information is not available, you can use the CONCATENATE function that excel provides, to create a guest staff in the second tap from the template. 

      Steps:

      1. Customer ID must always be 0 in the column A.
      2. Copy and paste the list of companies in column B.
      3. The contact name for column D will be the word "Guest" and the name of the company in case this is information is not provided/available. 
      4. For Contact name column D, we are going to use the word "Guest", and use the CONCAT function as shown =CONCAT("Guest"&B2) and the name of the company.

      5. For Login column E, we are going to use the information we already have in column D. We just need to use the find and replace option by pressing Ctrl + F and replace the spaces for dots.

      Troubleshooting Import Errors 

      The most common errors on this import are related to the zip codes, the email address, or the special characters. If this happens, ensure the email is in a valid format. If multiple emails exist, separate them with a comma and a space and not a semi-colon. 

      For the zip codes, ensure they have the leading 0s if needed, and there are no more than five digits on them.