#76 | NetSuite Easily Create a Customer Record

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” Customers are important in any business and when a business carries their information, it has to be handled with so much care. Creating customer records in NetSuite can be a tedious task.

Before you try to do it on your own, use this guide to familiarize yourself with the different entry fields and tabs, so you can complete any customer record correctly and efficiently.

This guide will cover the following sections:

• Customer Record Overview
• New Customer Record Creation
• Entry Fields
• Tabs and Subtabs

I suggest you watch the video. It’s easier to understand if you are a visual/audio learner. The content below is the same as the video. It’s for those who learn by reading.

Customer Record Overview

Customer records allow you to track the following types of information for your customers in one place, depending on the following features you have enabled:

• Contacts
• Events, Tasks and Calls, and Messages
• Transaction History
• Items Purchased
• Cases
• File Cabinet Documents
• Campaigns
• Projects and Sub-customers
• Last Sales Activity

New Customer Record Creation

Here are the steps to follow when creating a new record:

• Step 1: Log into

• Step 2: Navigate to the Customers List – New
  • Navigate to the Lists Overview tab, click
  • Select Customers, and then select New.

Entry Fields

From the customer page, set the Custom Form to the desired form. The example below is set to Standard Customer Form.

This is how the form looks with the following fields:

• The Customer ID – This will automatically fill with the information you enter on this record. You can clear the Auto checkbox to override this ID.
• Type Options – It may be set to either Company if a company name is entered or too Individual if the first and the last name of the company owner are entered. This selection determines which fields and subtabs are used on this record.
• Company Name or Name Field – If this customer is a company, enter the name of the company field. If this customer is an individual, enter the name of the customer in the Name field.
• Status Dropdown – Select “Customer-Closed Won” if the company is indeed a customer already, not a lead, for example.

You may also add contact details to the Customer record under the Email | Phone | Address section.

• Email Addresses
• Phone and Fax Numbers
• Address – This automatically fills with the default billing address you enter on the Address subtab.

Remember to save the customer billing or shipping address because it will be used in the calculation of tax in some scenarios.

Under Classification, you will find the following fields:

• Subsidiary – Select the subsidiary to associate with this customer. You cannot enter transactions for this customer unless a subsidiary is assigned.Note that this field only shows in NetSuite OneWorld accounts. If you select this customer on a transaction, the transaction is associated with this subsidiary. The customer is able to access only information associated with this subsidiary.

As soon as a transaction has posted for the customer, you will not able to change the subsidiary selected on the customer record.

Tabs and Subtabs

You will find the series of tabs after the Classification section.

• Relationships Tab In the Contact area, enter the following:
  • Name of the customer contact
  • His or her job title
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Subsidiary
  • Role

• Address Tab

Below are the steps for entering a customer address:

1. Click the Address
2. Default Shipping – Clear this box if it’s not the address packages are usually sent to.
3. Default Billing – Clear this box if it’s not the address bills are usually sent to. Default billing and shipping addresses are selected when you enter a transaction for this record.
4. Residential Address – Clear this box if this address is not a business. This information helps ensure accurate shipping rates from UPS and FedEx.
5. Label Field – Enter a name for this location. You will select this label to use the address on transactions.
6. Edit Pencil Icon – Click to launch a pop-up window from where you can edit the address fields below.
7. Attention Field – Enter the name of the person who receives mail at this location.
8. Addressee Field – Enter a name for the company or individual to appear on the shipping label.
9. Phone Field – Enter a number where the person receiving this mail can be reached.
10. Address 1 & 2, City, State/Province, Zip, and Country Fields – Enter the details of the location. The information from these fields is displayed in the Address field.
11. Override Box – Check this if you need to edit the contents of the Address field manually.
12. Click OK. Repeat these steps for each address location for this record. Click Add to create a new address row.

Note that you can enter an unlimited number of customer addresses. Entering a large number of addresses for a customer, especially more than 100 addresses, may result in a performance impact for operations on that record. The suggested limit is 1,000 addresses.

• Financial Tab – Account InformationThe different default functionalities available are Currency, Shipping Item, Item Price/s, and others.
  

  

  • Select the A/R account you want selected by default on receivables transactions. If you want to use the default A/R account defined in the Default Receivables Account preference at Default Receivables at Setup go to > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences > Item/Transactions, select Use System Preference.
  • Price Level
  • Terms Field – Select the default payment terms for this customer’s account. You can create new terms at Setup > Accounting > Setup Tasks > Accounting Lists > New. Click Term.
  • Currency – If you use the Multiple Currencies feature, select the currency for this customer. If you use the Multi-Currency Customers feature, this is the primary currency.
  • Credit Limit
  • CC Processor –Select the profile you want to use when this customer enters an order. When this customer chooses this credit card in an order placed in your website, this credit card processor is used to process the order.

• Financial Tab – Tax Information
  

  

  • Select the tax code you want to apply to purchases made by this customer. This tax code overrides the tax code determined by the tax code lookup.
  • If you do not collect sales tax from this customer because your merchandise will be resold, enter your customer’s valid tax license number in the Resale Number field. Make sure that you also set the Not Taxable tax code for this customer.
  • For US accounts without the Advanced Taxes feature: If this customer is taxable, check the Taxable box. When creating a Canadian customer under a U.S. subsidiary, the customer form shows the Taxable box.
  • After you save the customer record, the Taxable box changes to PST Exempt box, if the U.S. subsidiary has a Canadian Nexus. This is because the customer is assigned to a Nexus based on the customer’s address.

The tax lookup determines that a customer is not taxable only if Taxable is false (Taxable box is not checked) and the Tax Item field is empty.

• Financial Tab – Balance Information
  

  

  • Enter the Opening Balance of this customer’s account.
  • Enter or pick the date of the balance entered in the Opening Balance field.
  • Select the account for this customer’s opening balance.

If there is only one Accounts Receivable, then the field will reflect the account. It will no longer show a dropdown menu.

• Financial Tab – Currencies Subtab

If you use the Multiple Currencies and Customers features, on this tab, select the transaction currencies for this customer.

• Financial Tab – Credit Cards Subtab
  

  

  Fill in the customer’s credit card information and preferences by entering the following:

  • Credit Card Number
  • Expiration Date
  • Cardholder’s Name
  • Credit Card Type
  • Memo Field – Enter a memo to differentiate between them. For example, you can label one credit card Personal and label another Corporate to make it is easier to select the correct card when you process a sale.
  • Default Credit Card box – Check this if the card you want to automatically appear for this customer in the Web store.

Once done, click Add. Repeat these steps for each credit card you want to add to this record.

• Financial Tab – Electronic Funds Transfer Subtab

 

If you have the Electronic Funds Transfer feature enabled, the customer’s bank account information can be entered to automatically draft payments for this tab.

• Financial Tab – Item Pricing Subtab
  

  

  Here, you can set a price level or absolute price for items.

  • In the Item column, select the item you want to price.
  • In the Price Level column, set one of the following:
    • Choose a price level to be assigned to this customer.
    • For details about using price levels, read Using Multiple Pricing.
    • Select Custom in the Price Level field to set an absolute price.
  • In the Unit Price field, enter the price you want to always charge this customer for this item.
  • Absolute prices you set here override all other prices and price levels.

Once done, click Add. Repeat these steps for each item you want to price for this customer.

• Preferences Tab
  

  

  This tab reflects different default functionalities such as email, print, and fax for different transactions, especially sales invoices.

  • Email Preference Field – Choose a different method of emailing forms to this customer. You can see the default email setting at Home, Set Preferences.
  • Print On Check As Field – Enter the legal name of this company or person as it should be printed on checks.
  • For Send Transactions Via, check the appropriate boxes:
    • Email: Check this box to check the To Be Emailed box by default on transactions when this customer is selected.
    • Print: Check this box to check the To Be Printed box by default on transactions when this customer is selected.
    • Fax: Check this box to check the To Be Faxed box by default on transactions when this customer is selected.
  • Ship Complete Box – Check this if you want to ship orders to this customer only when fully fulfilled.
  • Shipping Carrier Field – Select the customer’s preferred shipping company. (E.g. UPS or FedEx)
  • Shipping Method Field – Select the default shipping method. (E.g. UPS Ground or UPS Next Day Air)

• System Information Tab
  

  

  Go to this tab if you want to give a customer an access to your NetSuite Account.

  • Give Access Box – Check this to give the Customer access to the Customer Center.
  • Email Field – This must be filled in on the General subtab of the customer record to give access.
  • Role field – Select the Customer Center role you want to assign. Customers can only be assigned the Customer Center role.
  • Send Notification Email Box – Check this to send customer email notification of his or her log in access. This email message does not include the customer’s password.
  • Password & Confirm Password Fields – Enter the preferred password here.

Click Save when you finish entering the information on the record.

Summary

• Customer Record Overview
• New Customer Record Creation
• Entry Fields
• Tabs and Subtabs