Customers

Customers is where you keep the people and businesses you sell or ship products to. A customer can be used when creating orders, choosing billing details, and choosing shipping addresses.

This page is not for managing your Putaway account. It is for your end customers: the person receiving the parcel, the business buying the goods, or the delivery point used on an order.

When To Use It

Use Customers when:

• you create a manual order and need to choose the person or business for the order;
• the customer does not exist yet and must be added before the order is created;
• you need to correct an email, phone number, or address for future orders;
• the customer has several delivery points and the correct shipping address must be selected;
• you need to start protecting a customer’s personal data.

Customer List

The list shows the customers you are allowed to view.

Each row shows:

• the person or business name;
• email;
• main phone, taken from the billing or shipping address;
• customer type: Individual or Business;
• the actions available to the current user.

You can search by name, business name, email, or phone. If the list is long, use Entity type to show all customers, only individuals, or only businesses.

The available actions depend on the user’s permissions:

• View opens the customer details;
• Anonymize customer data appears only for users with this right and only when the customer is not already anonymized;
• Delete appears only for users with delete permission.

Note

If you do not see Add, Delete, or Anonymize customer data, your user does not have that permission.

Creating A Customer

To create a new customer, press Add.

First complete the billing information:

1. Enter the customer email.
2. Choose the customer type: Individual or Business.
3. For an individual, enter first name and last name.
4. For an individual in Romania, you can enter the CNP if your company procedure requires it.
5. For a business, enter business name and tax ID.
6. Choose the country.
7. Enter state or county, town or city, address, postal code if available, and phone.
8. Choose whether the shipping address is the same as the billing address.
9. If shipping is different, complete the shipping details too.
10. Press Save.

The email must be valid and must not contain spaces. The phone is entered with the country prefix and the customer’s number. For example, for Romania choose +40, then enter the rest of the phone number.

Caution

Do not create the same customer more than once. If a customer with the same email already exists, saving is refused.

Individual

For an individual, complete at least:

• email;
• first name;
• last name;
• country;
• state or county;
• town or city;
• address;
• phone.

CNP or another tax identifier is optional on the page. Enter it only if it is required for billing or by your internal procedure.

Business

For a business, complete at least:

• email;
• business name;
• tax ID;
• country;
• state or county;
• town or city;
• address;
• phone.

For Romanian businesses, when the country is Romania and a tax ID is present, Search for official data becomes available.

This action can help fill:

• business name;
• address;
• state or county;
• town or city;
• postal code;
• phone;
• whether the business is VAT registered.

If Putaway WMS finds data, it shows it in a review window. Press Use collected data only after checking that the found business is the correct one.

Note

Official company lookup is a completion aid, not a guarantee that all data is complete or current. Always check the information before saving.

Billing And Shipping Addresses

The billing address is the customer’s main address. It is used when completing billing details on an order.

The shipping address is where the products are delivered. During creation you can choose:

• Use billing address for shipping, if products are delivered to the same address;
• Use a different shipping address, if products are delivered somewhere else.

If you choose a different shipping address, complete address type, contact person or company, phone, country, town or city, and full address.

Customer Details

From the list, open a customer with View or by selecting the row.

The detail page shows:

• email;
• customer type;
• person or business name;
• tax ID or CNP, if present;
• billing address;
• shipping addresses;
• default shipping address;
• actions allowed for the current user.

If you have edit permission and the customer is not anonymized, you can change billing information directly from the detail page.

Shipping Addresses

A customer can have several shipping addresses. This is useful when the same person or business receives products in different places, such as an office, warehouse, shop, or branch.

From customer details you can:

• add a new shipping address;
• edit an existing address;
• set an address as default;
• delete a shipping address.

The default address is shown first and is used as the main choice when the customer is selected on an order.

Caution

You cannot delete the customer’s last shipping address. Each customer must have at least one shipping address.

Using A Customer On An Order

When creating a manual order, search for the customer in Customer information. Type at least two characters from the name, business name, email, or phone, then choose the correct customer from the list.

After selection, Putaway WMS fills the customer information and loads the saved addresses:

• the customer’s billing address can be selected for billing;
• shipping can use the same address as billing;
• if separate shipping addresses exist, you can choose them from the list;
• the default shipping address is proposed as the main choice when available.

If the customer is missing, use the add customer action, save the customer, then return to the order and search again.

From the order form, you can also add a new address for the selected customer. After saving, the address becomes available for that customer and can be selected immediately on the order.

Caution

If you clear the selected customer from an order, the selected addresses are cleared too. Select the customer again or complete the addresses again before saving.

Editing Data

When you edit a customer or an address, Putaway WMS checks that the data has not already been changed by another user.

If another user saved changes before you, your save is stopped. Reload the customer, check the current information, and then make the change again.

Changes made on the customer are used for future selections. Orders that already exist keep the data they were saved with, so check open orders separately.

For safe daily work:

• do not change addresses without checking orders already in progress;
• correct email and phone before creating new orders;
• do not change an individual into a business or the other way around when the record is already used in a sensitive process without internal review;
• do not edit an anonymized customer as if it were a normal active customer.

Customer Data Anonymization

Anonymization is used to protect personal data. Start it only when there is a valid reason, such as a customer request or an internal data-retention rule.

To start anonymization, the customer must have:

• email;
• at least one phone number in the billing address or shipping addresses.

After confirmation, the request enters processing. Putaway WMS finds orders in the account that use the same email and the same phone, protects the personal data on those orders, and removes the customer from the customer list after completion.

Anonymization can also be started from an order detail page when the user has the required permission and the order contains email and phone. In that case, Putaway WMS starts from the data on that order and protects orders that match the same information.

After completion, the user receives a notification. If the required data is missing or the customer was already anonymized, the action is refused.

Caution

Anonymization is irreversible. Do not use it to correct a wrongly created customer or to quickly clean the list.

Deleting A Customer

Deleting removes the customer only when Putaway WMS can safely remove it. If the record is still used by orders or other documents that must be kept, deletion can be refused.

Use this action only for records created by mistake or never used, after checking that they are no longer needed in daily work.

For personal data protection requests, use Anonymize customer data, not simple deletion.

Common Problems

• The customer does not appear when searching from an order: check the name, email, or phone you typed and make sure the record exists in the customer list.
• Saving is refused because the email already exists: search for the existing customer and update it instead of creating a new one.
• The phone is not accepted: check the country prefix and the number, without unnecessary spaces.
• You cannot delete a shipping address: each customer must keep at least one shipping address.
• Official company data is not found: enter the data manually and check the tax ID.
• Saving is stopped because the data changed: reload the customer, check the current version, and save again.
• The customer is anonymized: do not use it as an active customer. Create a new record only when there is a new and justified business relationship.

Working Rules

• Search for the customer before creating a new one.
• Check email and phone before saving.
• For businesses, check tax ID and business name.
• For addresses, check country, state or county, town or city, street, and phone.
• Do not change addresses used by orders in progress without review.
• Use anonymization only when there is a real and approved reason.