Entering Customer Addresses
The system lets you enter, add, change, or deactivate customer address information. You can enter multiple addresses for each of your customers and specify one or more business purposes for each address (such as Ship-To, Bill-To, or Statements). You can also enter various levels of information for your customer addresses. For example, you can enter telephone numbers for a specific address or for a specific customer contact.
You can validate your addresses using flexible address formats or the address validation system option. If your tax method is Sales Tax, the system uses validated customer address information to determine tax liability on your customer's transactions.
In a sales tax based system, Receivables calculates tax based on the address components of your sales tax structure (for example, State.County.City). Since tax rates can change over time, modifying one of these components for a customer's address could cause the tax for transactions previously assigned to this address to be invalid, and be in violation of US sales tax audit requirements. This restriction also applies to the Country and Postal Code address components and if your tax method is 'VAT'.
The system will not let you update the components of an address if the following are true:
- The system option Allow Change to Printed Invoices is No.
- At least one printed, posted, or applied transaction exists for this bill-to or ship-to site in Receivables and that transaction has associated tax lines.
You can modify the Address field (street address) at any time, regardless of the restrictions mentioned above.
Addresses assigned to Bill-To business purposes are used for all transactions. Addresses assigned to Ship-To business purposes are used for all transactions except commitments, since commitments do not need a Ship-To address.
When you create an address, its status is Active by default. You can make a customer address inactive by unchecking the Active check box in the Customer Addresses window. When you make an address inactive, you can no longer create new transactions for this address, but you can process existing transactions that use this address. AutoInvoice does not import transactions that have inactive addresses.
Values that you assign to a customer site (address) take precedence over values that you enter at the customer, profile class, or system options level.
Prerequisites
To view all addresses for a customer:
1. Navigate to the Customers or the Customer Summary window.
2. Query the customer whose addresses you want to view.
3. If you are in the Customers window, open the Addresses alternative region.
If you are using the Customer Summary window, choose Addresses.
4. Choose Open to view details for a specific address.
To enter a new address for a customer:
1. Navigate to the Customers or the Customer Summary window.
2. Query the customer whose address you want to enter.
3. If you are using the Customers window, open the Addresses alternative region.
If you are using the Customer Summary window, choose Addresses.
5. Enter the Country for this address. The default is the value of the Default Country field in the System Options window, but you can change it.
Attention: If this country has a flexible address style assigned to it, a pop-up window will display the associated address format. For more information, see: Flexible Addresses.
6. In the Address field(s), enter the street address for this customer.
Use country and state to determine the Remit-To address for your printed documents.
7. Enter an Alternate Name for this address (optional). You can only enter information in this field if the profile option AR: Customers - Enter Alternate Fields is set to Yes. See: Overview of Receivables Profile Options.
8. Enter additional address information for this customer, such as City, State, Postal Code, and County.
If you are using Address Validation and are not using a flexible address format, the system tries to default elements of your address based on locations you have already entered or imported using the Sales Tax Rate Interface. See: Using Sales Tax Rate Interface.
For example, if you enter a unique city name, the system populates the County and State fields. If that city has only one postal code, the system also populates the Postal Code field (otherwise you must enter a Postal Code). Alternatively, if you first enter a unique Postal Code, the system populates the City, State, and County fields. If you enter only part of the City name, the system displays a list of choices from which you can select the correct city.
Attention: Some of your address components may be required if you are using sales tax and/or address validation. Additionally, you must enter a postal code if you entered values in the Postal Code range field in the System Options window during Receivables setup. See: Defining Receivables System Options.
9. If you are using a flexible address format, choose OK in the address pop-up window after you enter the address.
10. Enter a Reference for this address (optional). If you do not enter a value in this field, the default is the unique identification number of this address. If you import customers using Customer Interface, the system displays the original system address reference for the address in this field. You cannot change this value after you save your work.
11. Enter your Language of operations from the list of installed languages at your site and enter a Category for this address (optional). You define your Address Categories in the Receivables QuickCodes window. See: Defining Receivables QuickCodes.
See Also
Addresses Field Reference
Assigning Customer Banks
Assigning Payment Methods to Customers
Entering Customer and Contact Telephones
Creating Customer Relationships
Address Validation
Define Flexible Address Styles (optional)