How customers are identified
One customer, shared by every supply partner
A customer is the company an order ships to: a distributor, an OEM or an end user. Customers aren't owned by a supply partner. The same customer can buy from any supply partner's stock, so there's one record for them, not one per supply partner.
The account number
Every customer has an account number. It's their permanent identifier in ConsignTrak.
- It must be unique. No two customers share one.
- It can't be changed once the customer is saved. Choose it carefully.
- It appears on the customer's page, on orders and on releases.
Legacy account codes
Customers carried over from the warehouse's previous system keep their old code, so people who know the old codes by heart can still use them. A legacy code is built like this:
| Part | Taken from | Example |
|---|---|---|
| First 4 characters | The company name | RIVE (Riverside Mill Supply) |
| Next 3 characters | The street address | MIL (Mill Road) |
| The rest | The ZIP code | 30168 |
Put together, that's RIVEMIL30168. Search for it and you find the customer.
If your warehouse still uses this pattern for new customers, use it for the account number too. It keeps search predictable for everyone.
Other names a customer goes by
Customers are known by more than one name. There's a trading name, an old name from before a merger, the number a supply partner uses for them, the old code. ConsignTrak keeps these as aliases, listed on the customer's page under Alternate Names / Cross-References.
Customer search checks the name, the account number and every alias at once. Like part numbers, it ignores capitals and punctuation. Today aliases are added by an administrator through a bulk import.
Try part of the name, the old code, or the city. If the customer seems to exist twice, tell your administrator. Creating a third record makes it worse.
Drop-ship locations
A customer has one default address, used for orders unless you say otherwise. Many customers want some orders delivered elsewhere, such as a job site, a branch, or their own customer. Those addresses are saved on the customer as drop-ship locations.
- They're listed on the customer's page under Drop-Ship Locations, with when each was last used.
- When you enter an order, Ship to offers the default address or any saved location. + Add drop-ship location saves a new one without leaving the order.
- A location that's no longer used can be deactivated. It stays on old orders but isn't offered on new ones.
Where you'll see this
- Customers: adding customers, aliases, contacts and drop-ship locations.
- Orders: choosing the customer and the ship-to address.