Introduction to Customers

Introduction

This article will walk you through creating and managing your customers in the TMS. Without a customer, you are unable to create a shipment. The customer profile is also where credit information and staff information is stored.

Quick Reference Video Summary

• A customer and a customer staff member is required in order to create a shipment
• You will not be able to create a shipment without any customers and customer staff in your system
• Customer Profile is where credit and staff information is stored for the customer
• The Customers menu drop down will allow you to create new Customer Companies, review your Customer Company list, and view / manage Customer Staff members

Customer Company Search Page

In order to access the Customer Company Search Page, click on Customers on the top menu and click Company. This page will display all of the existing customers in the TMS. 

You can filter the customers by the following:

• Office
• Name
• Status.

If you press Advanced on the right, you can filter by the following:

• Reference number
• ID
• Tax Number
• Phone Number
• Zip Code
• Credit Limit

On the search results page, you will see the following:

• ID: If clicked, will take you to the customer profile
• Name
• Reference Number
• Phone
• Fax
• Office
• Alerts: Red Dollar Sign(Over the credit limit), Yellow Dollar Sign(No credit limit set), No Dollar Sign(There is a credit limit set, but the customer is not over the limit)
• Status
• Action: Can edit or view customer details

In order to access the Customer Company Search Page, click on Customers on the top menu and click Company. This page will display all of the existing customers in the TMS. 

Customer Staff Search Page

In order to access the Customer Staff Search Page, click on Customers on the top menu and click Staff. This page will display all of the existing staff members in the TMS. 

You can filter the staff by the following:

• Login
• Contact Name

If you press Advanced on the right, you can filter by the following:

• Company Name
• Organization Name
• Email
• Status
• Zip Code

On the search results page, you will see the following:

• ID: If clicked, will take you to the staff profile
• Full Name
• Login
• Company Name
• Phone
• Email
• Office
• Status
• Action: Can edit or view staff details

Company Profile

In order to access the Company Profile, click on Customers on the top menu and click Company.  Click on one of the Company's ID numbers, and you will be directed to the Company Profile.

On the Company Profile, you will see the following:

• Modes
• Shipments/Revenue
• Recent Activity
• Accounting Information
• Commissions
• Margins
• General Information
• Customer Notes
• Staff List

On the top of the Company Profile, you will find the following tools:

• Create Shipment
• Edit Record
• Edit Accounting Profile
• Customer Tools

***Note: When you create a shipment from the Create Shipment option on the Company Profile the system will default the customer staff assigned to that shipment to be the first customer staff on the list***

Create New Company

In order to create a New Customer Company, click on Customers on the top menu and click Create New Company.  

To Create a New Company, you will need to fill out the following sections:

• General Information
  • LSP Alert Email: An internal email at your location. When a customer books an order in the customer portal, the email listed under LSP Alert Email is going to receive an alert. 
• Physical Address: The location where the customer is located at
• Contact Information
  • Invoice Email: The email at your customer's location.  If your customer chooses to get their invoices emailed to them, the Invoice Email will receive the invoices.  
• Bill to Info: The location where you are mailing the customer's invoices to 
• Accounting Settings
  • Tax and Reference Number: Fields for you to store the information in the database
  • Invoice Method: Your customer's invoice preference
  • Credit Status: Creditworthiness of the customer
  • Statement Delivery Frequency: How frequently a statement will be delivered to the customer
  • Invoicing Automation Method: (If there is a negative margin on the shipment, the invoice will not send automatically)
    • Manually Invoice: Once the shipment is delivered, the customer's invoice will be available to be approved on the create invoice screen
    • Auto Invoice at Billing: When your Accounts Payable person approves the carrier bill, the customer's invoice is automatically created and sent
    • Auto Invoice at Delivery: As soon as the freight is delivered, the customer's invoice is automatically created and sent
  • POD/BOL Required with Invoice: Please check off if required
• Credit
  • Credit Limit: If credit limit is exceeded, it will send a warning to Back Office Users.
  • Payment Terms: This will impact the customer's invoices. The number listed in payment terms will indicate how many days the customer has in order to pay their invoice.
• Customer Portal Settings
  • Status
    • Active: Customer is active in the system and can book orders and quote shipments. Back Officers users can book shipments for this customer.
    • Inactive: Customer will not show in the customer search when booking orders. Customer will not have access to the system
  • Dimensions Required: Check this off if you want dimensions to be a requirement for your customer when booking an order
  • Auto Calculate Class: Check this off if you want the system to automatically calculate the Freight Class. The user will no longer be able to manually select the class
  • Notes: These are notes for your users in the Back Office

There will be two options to save:

• Save and Add Staff
• Save and View Details

Create Customer Staff

In order to create a New Staff Member, click on Customers on the top menu and click Staff.  On the top right, there should be a green button allowing you to Add New Staff. Another way to add a new staff member is by going on the Company Search Page, then going to the specified Company Profile, then clicking the green Add New Staff button on the bottom of the page. The option to create Staff Members will also show on the right as soon as you Create a New Company.

• Log In: Recommended to put customer email
• Email: If a customer has Send Email Status checked, the email listed in this row will be where the updates will be sent to

Create Markup

From the customer profile, go to Customer Tools, then Margin Create. Alternately, click on Rates on the top menu and click Margin
You will Need to fill in the following:

• Type
• Mode
• Customer
• Status
• Effective Date
• Expiration Date
• Detail Type
  • CWT
  • Flat
  • Pieces
  • Markup%: The system will markup the Freight by selected Markup %
  • Margin%: The system will markup the Freight by ___ amount in order to achieve the selected Margin % 
• Fee Type (Internal purposes only)
  • Service Fee
  • Processing Fee
  • Technology Fee
  • Other
• Amount
• Min
• Max
• Cost Criteria
• Weight Criteria
• Handling Unit Criteria
• Average Class Criteria

Customer Importer

To access Customer Importer, click on LSP and then Organizations. Once you locate your primary organization, click on the corresponding ID Number and then it will lead you to the Customer Profile. Click Broker Tools on the right-hand side and select Implementation Guide. Then, on the left side, you will see an Imported Data section. There will be an Icon in the fourth column indicating Upload Customers and Staff. Click on the Icon, and the Customer Importer Modal will show. Read the directions shown before proceeding. After Downloading the Template, please note that if you are replacing an Existing Customer or Staff, make sure that the name in the Excel matches exactly to the name within the TMS. If you have multiple staff members for a customer, make sure to list them separately on each line. Going back to the Customer Importer Modal, click Next to Upload the Template, and the Importer will start Uploading the Updated File and will send an Email of the results to the listed Email.