Add a Customer

1. At Home Base, click Clients & Files.
2. From the dropdown menu above the list, select Customers.
3. Click the Add button below the button bar. The Assign Client Number screen displays.
4. Select the Personal Lines or Commercial Lines radio button.
   • If you selected Personal Lines, enter the First name, middle Initial, and Last name for the customer. If applicable, select a Title and/or Suffix.
   • If you selected Commercial Lines, enter the Business Name. If applicable, select a Title and/or Suffix.
     
     Important! To allow for the proper, legal name of Applicants and Named Insureds, The Customer Name fields supports up to 100 characters, thereby eliminating the need to abbreviate your Customer name. Note that when adding a name to a Commercial Line customer during the Add workflow, 100 characters are allowed; however, when adding a Personal Lines name via the Add workflow, the entered name must comply with the limitations on the fields. Once the Personal Lines Customer is created, the Name field can then be updated on the Detail screen to take advantage of the additional character support.
5. Click Preview. TAM assigns a customer code based on the name you entered. Make any necessary changes to the code and click OK. At the Verify screen, click Yes to assign the code.
6. The New Customer Detail window displays. You may enter as much information as desired at this time.
   1. At the top of the screen, enter address and contact information for this customer. You may want to note the following:
      • For Personal Lines accounts, if needed, update the Name field with up to 100 characters.
      • The Attn field can be used for an extension of the customer's name or for an additional address line.
      • After entering the customer's address, you can click the Generate Map button to view a map of the location using Google Maps. You must have Internet access to use this feature. See Generate Map for more information.
      • The following fields are available for customer contact numbers:
      • • Res (for the primary residence number)
        • Mobile 1
        • Mobile 2
        • Fax
        • Bus 1 (for the primary business number)
        • Bus 2 (for a secondary business number)
      • After entering the customer's email address(es), you can click the email button to email the customer directly from this screen.
   2. Use the Hdg field to type the customer's name as you would like it to be pulled into correspondence (form letters, proposals, etc.). Do not include the word "Dear" or any punctuation.
   3. Double click in the Ocp field to select the customer's occupation. (If the customer's occupation does not display in the list, click Add. Enter the new occupation Code and click OK.) Select the appropriate occupation and click OK.
   4. Use the Note field to enter any additional information regarding the customer. This is a free-form field, but the data entered here can be accessed in searches and reports.
   5. Use the Web field to enter the customer's web address. After entering it, you can click the hyperlink button to launch the customer's website in your default web browser.
   6. In the frame to the right, double click in the appropriate fields to assign an Agency, Branch, CSR, Producer, Code, and Broker to the customer.
      1. The Code field contains a user-defined two-digit code used to classify clients and files in TAM. Examples include Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Benefits.
      2. To add a new code from this screen, double click the Code field and click Add. You are prompted to enter the Code as well as a Description. Click OK.
   7. In the Lang field, enter E for English or F for French. This is the language in which invoices, memos, and forms/applications for the customer will print.
   8.  Select the Statement format to use for this customer.
      • Open Item: A detailed statement format displaying each item, all applyments to each item, each item's resulting balance, and the total balance of all items.
      • Balance Forward: A simpler statement format that displays the beginning and ending balance along with a list of all transactions but doesn't display the balance for each item.
      • Simplified: More detailed than Balance Forward but simpler than Open Item, includes the balance for each transaction but doesn't show the individual applyments.
      • No Statement
   9. Use the Invoice Page Break field to determine how you would like invoices to print for this customer.
      • Customer- All items due for the same customer in the same accounting month are grouped on the same invoice.
      • Policy- All items due for the same policy in the same accounting month are grouped on the same invoice.
      • Invoice- Each item is placed on a separate invoice.
   10. Use the Srvg Chg field to determine whether service charges should be issued to this customer. Use the Budget Plan field to determine whether to apply a budget plan on invoices.
   11. In the Marketing Opt-Out frame, select Yes to exclude this customer in marketing searches, or leave the default selection, No, to include the customer.
   12. The User Fields allow you to further categorize the customer for informational or marketing search purposes. These fields are defined in Utility Manager (see Define Field Defaults). Double click the fields to make the appropriate selections.
   13. Double click the Marketing Plan field to determine the marketing plan in which to include the customer.
   14. Select the Do Not Purge checkbox to make the customer unavailable to the Customer and All Related Data purge utility.
       Note: You must have the Revise Purge security option granted under Security Manager > Program Access > Customer to select or deselect this checkbox.
7. When you have finished making changes, click OK, then click Yes to verify the revision. You may update the record at any time via the Revise Customer Detail workflow.