Phoenix - User Help

1.Click the button on Toolbar and choose Accounts.

2.Select the Customer & Supplier Tab.

3.Click the  button.

4.Type in a name for this account. e.g. Customers.

5.Set the Type to Customer

6.A selection box for GST tracking is displayed if GST has already been enabled.  Select the appropriate method for tracking GST.  If GST has not yet been enabled this selection box will not be visible and the method of tracking can be selected when enabling the GST tracking.  See Setup GST Tracking for details.  Please note that if GST tracking has been enabled, the default setting will be “Full Tracking”.  You may find that this option is initially greyed out for the first account you create when going into “Set up Accounts”.  Once you save this new account, the option to change will be available.  You can then make and save the change.

7.Set the default Credit Limit to be applied to sub-accounts.

8.Set the Aged Balances period.  The period selected here determines how the statements will be printed.

9.Define invoice defaults for this account.
 
See Customer Document Numbers for information on Book Number.  The default stationary types and payment terms for invoices can be selected. The Stationery is the invoice layout to use for this Customer account and will be the default for all sub-accounts, although it is possible to change individual sub-accounts.  See also Setup Invoice and Statement Layouts and Setting up Card File.

10.Define the statement defaults for this account.
 
Print Statement gives the option for this account to be automatically included in the batch statement printouts.  If this is unselected it can still be manually selected on the fly to be included in the batch.
 
When Print Overdue Message is selected, Phoenix will print a message on the statement for the customer if the statement includes an overdue balance.  The message that is printed is defined in Customer messaging and depends on whether the account is 1, 2 or 3 periods overdue.
 
The default stationary for the statements can be selected. See also Setup Invoice and Statement Layouts and Setting up Card File
 
The Remittance Notes will be printed on the remittance advice.

11.Click the Sub-accounts button to set up the sub-accounts. This will launch the Card File Setup window. Sub-accounts are the individuals or businesses who are your Customers.

Once you have created a Customer Account you can now set the individual sub-accounts. Sub-accounts are the individuals or businesses who are your Customer.
 
If you click the Sub-accounts button from the Account Setup window the Card File Setup window will open with the view filtered to just Customers.

1.Click to create a new entry.  The cursor automatically moves to the Name field on the right-hand side of the window.

2.Type in the Name details (which includes Phone and Email).

3.When setting up a customer, check the appropriate box at the bottom of the screen.

4.Click the Address tab to complete the address details. The postal, street or home address can be entered here.  There is an extra tab at the bottom of the page if more than one address needs to be entered.  Whatever location is selected, the tab will be re-named to show the address location.

5.If desired, you can then click the Other tab and add bank account details, GST Registration (ABN) number and some notes. You must enter the bank account details if you wish to send payments to this client electronically. For more information, see EFT Payments.

6.Click the Save button to add the new entry to the left hand list in alphabetical order.

7.An extra tab appears which lists the default terms for the entire Customer account.  If this Customer has different trading terms to other customers then changing the terms here sets different terms for this customer only.  
 
It is on this tabs where you can nominate the Invoice &/or Statement Layouts, Aged Balances and Credit Limit for that particular Customer sub-account. The layout nominated for the Customer account will be the default layout.  See also Setup Invoice and Statement Layouts

8.Before any transactions can be entered for any customers, the account needs to be opened. On the Name tab, click the button to the right of where it says Not In Use.  
 

 
When you open your very first Customer you will be asked to Set the First Period for the Account. Important: Whatever period you nominate here will be the earliest you will be able to open any future Customer sub-accounts.
 
Once you have opened the Customer you will be automatically shown the Account Opening Balance window.  It is here you can enter any outstanding amounts the Customer might have.  For more detail see Set Customer and Supplier Opening Balances.

9.Repeat this process for any new Customers you wish to create.

NOTE: If the person or organisation you wish to set as a Customer already exists in your Card File, change the Entry Types View to All Card File Entries.  You can then select the Customer tick box to set the Card File entry as a Customer.

You can also add further Customers directly from the Card File without opening Account Setup. See Setting up Card File

When a customer makes a payment, the payment must be recorded both against the customer sub-account and the bank or other account in which the payment is deposited. That is, from a Phoenix record keeping point of view, a payment is simply a transfer between a reconciled account and the customer sub-account.

Payments would normally be recorded when entering the deposits for the day into the bank or other reconciled account. In the dissection lines of the deposit transaction, you link to each customer sub-account from which each payment was received. You can create a special Customer Payments category to automate this linking of deposits with the customer sub-accounts.

In the Category setup window, create a new income category called Customer Payments as follows:

1.Click the button on the Toolbar and select Categories .

2.Select and double click on an appropriate blank category on the displayed list.

3.Type in a name for the category. e.g. "Customer Payments".

4.Select Income as the type for this category.

5.Allocate the category to Groups if required.

6.Setup sub-category A and call it “Customer Payments” (or similar to suit your needs), and set the Link to A/c to your customer account. Leave Link Sub-a/c blank since you will choose the sub-account when making the transaction entry.
 

7.Save and close the Category Setup window.

If you use a Category that has an automatic link to a Customer account for entering payment transactions, the link to sub-account field is automatically populated based on the Customer you select in the From/Pay To field in transaction entry.

When linking a dissection to another account you are shown the balance of the destination account as well as the last entry to that account.

For further information on setting up categories, see Setting up Categories.