This article reviews the basic functionalities of the Manage Customers page. Keep in mind that the more information you enter for each customer, the more 3PL Warehouse Manager can help you manage your warehouse more effectively.

Please note that some subscription plan types may incur additional monthly subscription fees for creating customers beyond a designated threshold. Your Customer Success Manager can assist you in determining if this is the case.

To create and edit customers, you must have the following permissions assigned to your user role: Customer Module > Manage Customers > Create Customer and Edit Customer.

Skip Ahead: Use the following links to skip to the relevant guidelines below.

• Create a new customer
  • Using an existing customer's configuration
  • Using a clean slate
    • Customer Basics
    • Receipts
    • Orders
    • System
• Modify an existing customer

Guidelines

Navigate to Customers > Manage Customers in 3PL Warehouse Manager.

The grid in the left pane populates all existing customers. Continue reading below to learn more about your options on this page.

Create a new customer

Before you can begin receiving from a customer, they must first be set up in the system. There are two options to create a customer: build off of an existing customer's configuration or start from scratch.

Using an existing customer's configuration

If you have customers that share similar settings, you can "clone" an existing customer's configuration to create a new customer.

Please note that values that are customer-specific, such as names, contact information, and account numbers, are purposely excluded from this cloning process.

To get started, select the existing customer you wish to clone, then click Create > Clone Selected Customer.

Fill in the customer-specific information, ensure all the cloned settings are appropriate for the customer, then click Save.

Using a clean slate

To create a new customer, click Create > Create New Customer. Each section is explained in detail below.

If one or more of the below fields are not available options in your database, an administrative user must enable the setting under Admin > Settings.

Customer Basics

The first section for customer configuration is labeled Customer Basics, which consists of basic contact and warehouse information.

Under the 'Customer Information' and 'Primary Contact' headers, enter the general contact information for this customer in the appropriate fields. Though 'Company Name' is the only required field, we recommend filling out all relevant information.

Under the 'Warehouse Access' header, specify each facility that stores this customer's inventory. Click the field to select each warehouse individually, or click Select All to grant the customer access to all of your warehouses.

Receipts

The second configuration section is for Receipts and allows you to enable default settings for this customer in the receiving process. While none of these fields are required, we do recommend you review each option and decide what makes sense for your operations.

Each field under the 'General Settings' header is detailed below.

• Location Options: Options to disable, allow, or require the use of locations
• Movable Unit Options: Options to disable, allow, or require the use of movable units (must have Movable Units enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Fuel surcharge Percentage: Fuel expense added to freight charges on a percentage basis
• Supplier Options: Options to disable, allow, or require specifying who supplied the SKU on a receipt line item
• When confirming a receipt, default to Auto-allocate to Complete orders: When checked, automatically toggles the option to allocate inventory to Complete orders upon receipt confirmation
• When adding receipt line items, default to Split Movable Unit: When checked, automatically toggles the option to split receipt line items among multiple movable units (based on the quantity per MU defined in an item's setup)
• Enable Suggested Putaway: When checked, activates the Suggested Putaway feature, which provides a list of locations when receiving items so that you can easily consolidate like SKUs (must have Suggested Putaway enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)

Each field under the 'Mobile Receiving (SmartScan)' header is detailed below.

• Receive Against ASN: When checked, allows you to receive against an ASN with SmartScan (must have Receive Against ASN enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Use Blind Receipts: When checked, allows you to receive items that are not attached to an existing receipt and confirm the receipt within the mobile scanner—if this is disabled for Classic Mobile users, you must confirm the receipt in 3PL Warehouse Manager (not currently supported in SmartScan)
• Default Quantity = 1: When checked, sets the default quantity to 1 when receiving items with SmartScan

Orders

The third configuration section is for Orders and allows you to enable default settings for this customer in the shipping process. While none of these fields are required, we do recommend you review each option and decide what makes sense for your operations.

Each field under the 'General Settings' header is detailed below.

• Close order when a file import updates tracking information: When checked automatically closes an order once tracking information is imported into the system via flat file (must have Close Orders Upon Tracking Update enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Order Queue – Allocate orders manually: When checked, ignores system allocation logic and requires a user to manually allocate inventory for all orders (must have Order Queue enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• SmartPack – Automatically populate track-by information: When checked, enables SmartPack to automatically import an item’s track-by information to an order
  
• Small Parcel Shipment – Close order when a connection updates tracking information: When checked, automatically closes a small parcel shipment once an API/EDI connection updates tracking information (only applies to ODBC and flat file orders; must have Close Orders Upon Tracking Update enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
  
• Scanner Application – Reallocate at pick time: When checked, allows you to pick items that were not originally allocated to an order—i.e., the same SKU with different track-by's
• Require tracking number to close order: When checked, requires that a tracking number is present on an order before it can be closed
• Allocate Full Movable Units: When checked, automatically rounds up a partial MU quantity to the full pallet quantity (used if you're shipping pallets that cannot be broken down)
• Fulfillment invoicing: Options to disable or allow the use of fulfillment invoices when using third-party billing (must have Fulfillment Invoicing enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)

Each field under the 'Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) Settings' header is detailed below.

• Require a SCAC: When checked, requires that a Standard Carrier Alpha Code is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Require a carrier: When checked, requires that a carrier is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Require a load number: When checked, requires that a load number is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Require a Bill of Lading number: When checked, requires that a Bill of Lading number is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Require a purchase order number: When checked, requires that a purchase order number is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Package count cannot equal '0': When checked, requires that at least one package is specified on an order to successfully send an ASN
• Require the order to be Closed: When checked, requires that an order is closed to successfully send an ASN
• Require at least one attached file: When checked, requires that at least one file is attached to an  order to successfully send an ASN (must have Attach Files enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Total volume and individual package volume must be greater than '0': When checked, requires that each package on an order has a volume greater than 0 to successfully send an ASN
• Total weight and individual package weight must be greater than '0': When checked, requires that each package on an order has a weight greater than 0 to successfully send an ASN
• Required order-level custom fields: Allows you to enter or select order-level custom fields that are required on an order to successfully send an ASN (must have Custom Fields enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Required line-item-level custom fields: Allows you to enter or select line-item-level custom fields that are required on an order to successfully send an ASN (must have Custom Fields enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)

To learn more about ASNs, please see Sending an ASN and Troubleshooting ASN Errors.

System

The fourth configuration section is labeled System and allows you to enable default settings for this customer throughout the system.

Each field under the 'General Settings' header is detailed below.

• When using the Location Identifier report, default to exclude locations with zero inventory: When checked, automatically enables the option to exclude locations that contain no inventory when generating the Location Identifier Report
• Enable custom fields: When checked allows utilization of custom fields or saved elements (must have Custom Fields enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Allow purchase orders: When checked, allows you to create and receive against purchase orders for this customer (must have Purchase Orders enabled for your database under Admin > Settings)
• Enable dashboard: When checked, allows customer to have a customizable dashboard enabled on the homepage (not currently supported)

Each field under the 'QuickBooks Invoice Terms' header is detailed below.

• Payment Terms: Option to define the customer's QuickBooks Online payment terms (must match record in QuickBooks exactly)

Each field under the 'Carrier Account' header is detailed below.

• UPS Account Number: Default account number when billing third-party OR prepaid for orders shipped via UPS
• FedEx Account Number: Default account number when billing third-party OR prepaid for orders shipped via FedEx
• Carrier Postal Code: Postal code associated with the above carrier accounts; required when billing third-party and by some carriers for generating shipping labels
• Add Carrier Info to Orders: Option to auto-populate Account Number and Postal Code defined above on orders with the specified method of billing

Each field under the 'Per Transaction Options' header is detailed below.

• Create Invoice Defaults: Option to automatically toggle the checkbox that allows you to automatically generate invoices when closing a transaction—this sends the invoice directly to the QuickBooks Invoice Queue and removes the need to export from the Manage Invoices page
• Accounting Name: Customer's name on QuickBooks account (must match record in QuickBooks exactly and contain only alphanumeric characters)
• Default invoice confirmation date to the transaction confirmation date: When checked, automatically populates the date a transaction was closed as the invoice confirmation date

Each field under the 'EDI X12 940–945' header is detailed below.

• Customer Interchange ID: Unique identifier for a customer in the EDI exchange process
• Customer ID Qualifier: Code that further specifies the data and structure used in the Customer Interchange ID for the respective customer
• 3PL Interchange ID: Unique identifier for a 3PL in the EDI exchange process
• 3PL ID Qualifier: Code that further specifies the data and structure used in the 3PL Interchange ID for the 3PL

Each field under the 'Pre-Wired Connections' header is detailed below.

• SPS Trading Partner ID: Unique identifier specifying the Trading Partner ID that SPS Commerce has assigned to the customer

Each field under the 'Document Settings' header is detailed below.

• Next VICS Bill of Lading ID: Option to set the prefix number to use for the BOL number
• Manufacturing ID: Allows you to set a 6-digit number to become part of Carton IDs for UCC-128 labels
• Use Transaction-based bill of lading number format rather than VICS standard: When checked, formats BOL as transaction-based instead of VICS standard
• Display the Vendor ID instead of the Retailer ID on bills of lading: When checked, displays the Vendor ID on BOL instead of the Retailer ID (this setting is not currently supported—to make this change, please do so under Customers > Classic BOL Templates; see Generating Order Documents for further guidance)

Once you've completed each configuration section, click Save. The customer record populates in the grid on the left. Repeat these steps for any additional customers you wish to create.

Modify an existing customer

There are three options for modifying an existing customer: edit, activate and deactivate. Optional: If you need to refine the results that display in the grid, enter the relevant Search Criteria, then click Search.

• To edit a customer, select a customer from the grid, then click Edit to open the customer record. Make your changes, then click Save. A confirmation message appears.
  
• To activate or deactivate a customer, select the customer from the grid, hover over Manage, then make your selection. A confirmation message appears.
  

 

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