Create Customer and Associated Billing Accounts

Customers and all associated billing accounts for that customer can be created in the Customer Billing application’s Customers module.

When you create a customer, you also create an account for that customer. You can add more billing accounts for the customer as needed (refer to Add Additional Billing Accounts to a Customer). You can also place an order for that account (refer to Orders Module).

Complete the following steps to create a new customer and an associated billing account:

1. Select Customer Billing from the Gotransverse application menu .

   

   Customer Billing Window

2. From the Customer Billing drop-down menu, select Create Customer to open the Create New Customer window.

   The billing account you create when creating a customer becomes the default account. Once you add another billing account (refer to Add Additional Billing Accounts to a Customer) to a customer, you can select which account is the default. You can also change the default account after the account is created (refer to Change Default Billing Account).

   

   Create Customer Option

3. On the Create New Customer window, configure the customer, billing account, and account payment information.

   Depending on your configuration, there may be more or less fields than those listed. Click Configure Fields and select the additional configurable and custom fields you want to display from the drop-down list. Click outside the list window to close it. The system saves the set of selected fields per user so they display the next time you create a customer.

   

   Create New Customer Window - Customer Information Section

   Required fields are marked with an asterisk.

   A icon next to a field name indicates that information about the field is available. Hover your mouse over the icon to see the information.

   • Customer Information:

     • First Name: Enter the name of the person associated with this customer.

     • Last Name: Enter the last name of the person associated with this customer.

     • Company Name: Enter the name of the company or organization.

     • Customer Name*: Select the name of the customer from the drop-down list.

     • External Customer Number: Enter the external customer number. This must be a unique value you associate with your customer. This number may be used, for example, on invoices or reports.

     • Date of Birth: Enter the date of birth of your customer or select it from the calendar. Date of Birth can be specified for personal accounts only. To create a personal account, enter the First and Last Name, then select the personal name in the Customer Name drop-down list.

     • Tax Number (TIN): Enter the associated United States tax ID number, usually a company tax ID number or personal tax ID number, such as a Social Security number.

     • Tax ID Validated: Select the checkbox if value-added tax (VAT) applies.

     • Phone: Select the type of phone, like Mobile, and the customer’s telephone number.

     • Add Phone Number: Click to enter an additional customer telephone numbers and phone types.

     • Primary Email: Enter the customer's main email address where Gotransverse-generated emails can be sent.

     • Add Secondary Email: Click to add a secondary customer email.

     • Addresses: Enter the billing address where the customer is to receive the invoice. Select the respective checkboxes below this section to add the Service and Shipping addresses. For either of these addresses, select the Same As Billing Address checkbox to use the same address you entered for Billing Address.

   • Billing Account Information:

     This information is used to create an account for your customer.

     

     Create New Customer Window - Billing Account Information Section

     • External Account Number: Enter the external billing account number. This must be a unique value you associate with your billing account. This number may be used, for example, on invoices.

     • Bill Cycle*: Select the name of the bill cycle to which this billing account is assigned. Available bill cycles display as selections if they match the same currency as the billing account when a standard currency, such as dollars, is a part of the bill cycle configuration. All bill cycles with the Currency set to None are displayed, no matter the currency of the billing account.

     • Account Start Date*: Enter the date when the billing account was created. You can backdate when creating the account, but it cannot be created with an earlier date than the associated bill cycle.

     • Tax Exempt checkbox: Select to make the billing account non taxable. All billing accounts under a customer share the same tax ID even though each billing account can be taxable or non-taxable.

     • Responsible Account: Select the responsible account associated with the billing account if you want the billing account to be a managed account of another account for invoicing purposes. This means that when an account is a managed account, it is invoiced on the responsible account. The drop-down list includes accounts with the same bill cycle that are in Active status. This field displays when the Enable Account Hierarchy Management system setting is set to True. Refer to System Settings for more information about how to configure system settings in the Admin application.

     • Parent Account: Select the parent account associated with the billing account if you want the billing account to be a child of another account for reporting purposes and usage allocation pooling (refer to Usage Allocation Pools). The drop-down menu lists accounts with a status of Active, Suspended, or Pending Collection. This field displays when the Enable Account Hierarchy Management system setting is set to True. Refer to System Settings for more information about how to configure system settings in the Admin application.

       If the Require Same Bill Cycle for the Account Hierarchy system setting is set to True, accounts that you add as children must have the same bill cycle as the parent billing account.

     • Invoice Currency*: Select the currency used for this account. This value is used when ordering products.

     • Account Category*: Select the account category to associate with the billing account.

     • Minimum Invoice Amount: Enter the minimum invoice amount by typing the desired amount or using the up and down arrows. It serves as a minimum invoice threshold for invoices. When an invoice amount associated with the billing account is lower than this total, the invoice is suppressed.

     • Preferred Language: Select the preferred language for customer notifications from the drop-down list.

     • Invoice Type*: Select an option for sending invoices to your customer.

       The Overall Invoice Distribution Billing system setting allows you to configure which options are available in this drop-down list. The default when you enable this system setting is to display None and Email as drop-down list options. Refer to System Settings for more information about managing system settings and the Billing System Settings Knowledge Base article for information about the system settings that affect billing.

       Possible options include:

       • Email: Sends an invoice via email. Before you select this option, make sure the customer has a Primary Email address listed.

         To send invoices via email, you must enable the Distribute Invoice notification for a single account, a contact category, or all accounts. Refer to Notification Management Module for more information about the different types of notifications.

       • None: No invoice is generated or sent to the customer.

       • Paper: Generates a PDF invoice you can view, print, and mail.

       • Paper and Email: Generates a PDF invoice you can view, print, and mail. It also sends an invoice via email. Before you select this option, make sure the customer has a Primary Email address listed.

         To send invoices via email, you must enable the Distribute Invoice notification for a single account, a contact category, or all accounts.

       • Custom fields: Any custom fields created as options.

     • Calculate KPI Async: Pending charges (usage) summary KPIs can be calculated either inline with the API call or asynchronously in the background. If selected, pending charges are calculated asynchronously in the background.

     • Custom fields: If any account custom fields have been configured, enter information in these fields. Custom fields are managed in the Setup application’s Custom Fields Module.

   • Account Payment Information:

     

     Create New Customer Window - Account Payment Information Section

     • Payment Term: Select a payment term for payment from the drop-down list.

     • Authorize Auto-Payment checkbox: Select the checkbox to authorize an automatic payment method for recurring charges, typically by credit card.

     • Auto Pay Offset: Enter the number of days difference between the invoice due date and the date of auto pay. A value other than 0 schedules auto pays on a date different from the invoice due date. For example, a value of ‘-3’ means auto pay occurs three days earlier than the invoice due date. A value of ‘0’ means auto pay occurs on the invoice due date.

     • Payment Options checkbox: Select the Credit Card checkbox to associate this billing account with a credit card and configure the credit card payment method. Once selected, you are prompted to enter the information about your credit card.

     • Enable Account Dunning checkbox: Select the checkbox to enable the dunning functionality to assist with collection of account receivables. Refer to Dunning for additional information about dunning functionality.

     • Dunning Plan: Select the desired dunning plan from the drop-down list. Refer to Create Dunning Plan for information on creating plans.

4. After information is entered, select Create Customer to create the customer, or select the Create Another checkbox to create the customer and open a new Create Customer window and create another customer.

   The new customer is added to the list of customers, along with an account based on the Billing Account Information values you entered in the Create Customer window.