Communications (customer account)

Find this screen

Open: Sales Ledger > Sales Accounts > New Customer

Open: Sales Ledger > Sales Accounts > Amend Customer

Open: Sales Ledger > Sales Enquiries > View Customer

• Use the Communications tab to record or view communications with your customers, for example when discussing payments due and disputes.

How to

Add a customer communication

Record communications with your customers, for example when discussing payments due and disputes. You can record the outcomes of your communications, and use the details of promised payments to help chase debt.

1. Select the Communications tab.

2. Select Add New.

3. Enter the Communications Details.

   1. Select the Type of communication, from Telephone, Email/Fax/Letter or Meeting.

   2. Enter the Subject description.

   3. Check the Date and Our contact details, and change if required.

   4. Choose the Contact type for the communication. The options available depend on the communication, such as Telephone, made, Letter, sent, or Meeting.

   5. You can also select the letter Style, if the Contact type is a letter.

   6. You can also select a Location, if the communication Type is a Meeting.

   Note: The Balance shows the account balance at the time you added this communication.

4. Enter the Contact Details for the person you contacted for this customer.

   Enter the contact name, and any other details you want to record.

   Note: Addresses always include the City, County and Country fields in the Web Portal, even if Use segmented addresses is not enabled in the Sage 200 desktop.

5. Enter the Communication Result.

   • Select the Outcome of this communication.

   • For most outcomes, you can enter a Follow-up date and Follow-up time.

   • If you select Payment promised, you can enter the Promised amount and the Due date.

   Tip: You can check promised payments and follow-up dates for customers by using the Chase Debt report (in the Sage 200 desktop), and also in the Customer List.

6. Enter any Notes about the communication.

Once you have finished this communication, select Mark this communication as complete. This lets people know this communication doesn't need to be followed up, and removes the promised payment and follow-up details from the Chase Debt report (in the Sage 200 desktop) and the Customer List.

Mark communications as complete

Communications are initially marked as live and display No in the Complete column, to show that you are still in discussion with the customer.

When you have finished the discussion with the customer, you can mark the communication status as Complete. This lets people know this communication doesn't need to be followed up, and removes the promised payment and follow-up details from the Chase Debt report (in the Sage 200 desktop) and the Customer List.

Tip: The customer Communications tab will indicate the number of live communications that are not complete.

There are two ways to mark a communication as complete:

• Select the Complete column for a communication.

• When you Amend a communication, select Mark this communication as complete.

View communications

Open: Sales Ledger > Sales Enquiries > View Customer

1. Select the Communications tab.

   Tip: The customer Communications tab will indicate the number of live communications that are not complete.

2. Select the communication from the list, then select View.

Report on communications

Use the Chase Debt report (in the Sage 200 desktop) to check live communications with your customers. This report displays customers with live communications, and shows if they have promised payment and the follow-up date.

Note: The Follow-up date in the report shows the earliest Follow-up date that can be found in all your live communications with this customer.

View communication details in the Customer List

You can check promised payments and follow-up dates from the Customer List.

To display the details in the Customer List:

1. Select the menu in the column header, then select the columns button.

2. In the Chase Debt group, select Follow-up or Promised Payment.

Note: The Follow-up date in the list shows the earliest Follow-up date that can be found in all your live communications with this customer.

Tip: To see which communications you need to follow-up soon, select the Follow-up column heading to sort by date.