Import Customers

Administration -> Customer Import

The Customer Import is a very fast method to insert existing customer detail and balances into the system to allow the shop to begin utilizing the many other features of the system.

IMPORTANT - Prior to importing Customers please insure the Revenue Accounting is set properly for your store in Administration-> System Settings -> Revenue Realized and your sales tax rate is correct for your store location performing the import Administration-> Store Settings -> Tax Section Tax 1 and optionally Tax 2.

Having a single reference for customer information is preferred than requiring shop personnel to access multiple sources of reference. Experience has shown us that store users will not keep two systems in sync and will always fall back to the older system. The sooner the Users are forced to the everywhereRetail as the single reference the higher likely hood of a successful transition to the new system. So getting all the ACTIVE customer information to the everywhereRetail is imperative.

Download the provided import template by clicking the Download Template link and complete the template using any Spread Sheet program such as eXcel with the store's customer information. Once the customer information is ready, choose the file form the import form, then optionally choose a Sources (available Sources must be created prior to performing a customer import) and click Upload. Customer Imports may be accomplished with multiple imports The shop may wish to enter all customers with last name starting with A, then later B, then C .etc The import can easily accommodate this multiple upload.

Using a SOURCE when importing customers is a nice way to segment customer via reporting and marketing. For example the shop may elect to import a list of prospective customers from a trade show. The source would be the tradeshow name and year. Now marketing reports are filterable by Source and prospective customer Automation is filterable by source.

Once the IMPORT function is ran, a imported customer edit grid will appear whereby each customer row may be reviewed & corrected when needed, prior to performing the permanent import. This review is very important since the import is Permanent, so check the data to insure it as it should be.

A common error is to import the same list resulting in a duplication of customers in system, so please be careful.

Once the on screen review/edit is completed, click SAVE button to commit the import, otherwise click CANCEL and stop this import. Once SAVED is clicked the Customer list will be permanently saved to the system.

A error/alert message will display if there are any data issues encountered during the import process. Those RED data error messages must be corrected in the customer Edit grid data so the import may complete. The import data may be corrected in the Grid that displays after a file upload or in the Template then perform a re-upload of the file data.

The import obeys the System's Revenue Realized setting & locale date settings. No sales tax calculation is performed on the amounts, if any, that are imported unless Include VAT is enabled in System Settings. With VAT enabled, the VAT percentage will be added to the merchandise amount on the customer's Ticket / Receipt / Ledger when displayed.

Remember to set the country's phone dialing country code in System Setting prior to the import.

Customers with like names will always be created as separate customers. Meaning if Susie Smith is entered multiple times within the import, she will be imported as new customer or event member for each row occurrence.

Customer Balances and Tax owed (if any)

The Template provides columns for MerchBalance and TaxBalance. The Merchandise balance is what the customer owes the shop for their purchases. The Tax Balance is what the shop owes in sales tax for this customer's purchases. When taxes have been previously paid to the government for the customer's purchases, do not enter a tax balance for import. You may wish to consult with your accountant to determine how to compute the sales tax owed. Many shops wait until the customer has fully paid for the purchases before the sales tax is paid.

Merchandise Balances show on the customer's ticket as BF SALES transactions. Tax balances show as TF SALES transactions.

TF entries will appear on the Daily report separately and should be manually included with the systems computed tax receipts for calculating taxes owed to a government revenue agency.

For VAT areas with the everywhereRetail VAT Tax option enabled, do not include a TF tax balance within the customer Import. The Merchandise balance should be entered without including VAT since the everywhereRetail system will automatically add the VAT tax percentage to the merchandise amount imported.

Event Importing

On the row for each customer, Event Name, Event Type, Event Date and Event Role appears. This data is optional to include, but for customers whom are members of a Event, this information will create the event and add the customer as a member and when the customer also has Merchandise balance information on their row, their Sales ticket / receipt / ledger is created and linked to event as well.

The rules for the event creation is a Event Name, Event Type & Event Date must be present for an event to be created. When entering multiple customers belonging to the same event then enter the identical event name, event date & event type. The system on import will located the existing event and add the customer to that event using the Role included on their row.

Template Fields

FirstName ...Required

Lastname ...Required

Address1 ... optional, but nice to have in system

Address2 ... optional, but nice to have in system

City ... optional, but nice to have in system

State ... optional, but nice to have in system

Zip ... optional, but nice to have in system

PrimaryPhone ... Optional, Use the mobile phone number for primary phone.

AltPhone ... Optional, A secondary phone contact

eMail ...Optional, customers email address

MerchandiseBalance ... Optional, The total balance owed by the customer

TaxBalance ...Optional, The total tax owed by the customer if any.

EventName ... Optional, Enter the events name, for weddings it is usually: Bride Lastname / Groom Lastname. For Proms or Socials it is usually the name of the event plus the year, i.e. West High Prom 2019

EventDate ... Optional, Enter the date of the event, ie 06/15/2018 or 15/6/2018. Format is dependent on your LOCALE setting in System Settings.

EventType ... Optional, Valid Event types are: Wedding, or Social or Prom

Gender (F/M) ... Optional, Enter the gender of the member for proper measurement labels. No gender entered will default to female measurement labels.

Role ... Optional, Enter a role name that matches the event type. Valid ROLE names are as follows:

Wedding roles accepted: Bell Boy, Best man, Bridesmaid, Deb, Deb male, Father bride, Father groom, Flowergirl, Grandfather Bride, Grandfather groom, Grandmother Groom, Groom Stepfather, Groomsman, Guest Male, Guest Female, Hostess, Jr Bridesmaid, Jr Groomsman, Maid Male, Maid-of-Honor, Mother, Mother of Bride, Mother of Groom, Prom, Prom Male, Ring Bearer, Ring Bearer Girl, Usher

Prom & Social Roles accepted: Female Attendant Male Attendant

Customer Source: Customer Sources types are optional but help for later reporting and must be created prior to preforming the Import save.