ShipTo Address Creation and Maintenance

ShipTo records are used to define the valid shipping addresses that can be used for each customer during order entry and invoicing.  ShipTo records are also used for calculating sales tax and for controlling where product can be shipped using the order processing system.

Each customer in the StreamV system is set up and maintained in the Company Master file.  The Company Master record for each customer stores the default billing address and other information (terms, credit limit, sales tax information, etc.) about the customer.  The information in the Customer Master record is complete and can be used to ship product to the customer, but the address information stored in the customer file is limited.

To support and control multiple shipping addresses, the system allows you to set up multiple ShipTo records for each customer record.  ShipTo records can be set up when a customer record is created, or they can be added on the fly as needed during processing.  ShipTo addresses are linked to a specific customer record using the account number field in the Company and ShipTo files.  As ShipTo addresses are created in the customer master, marketing screen and order entry programs, they are automatically assigned to the appropriate customer record

ShipTo addresses are optional and the billing information from the customer record is used by the system when no valid ShipTo record for the customer exists.  For each customer, a default ShipTo address can be defined, and this default ShipTo address is automatically loaded into the shipping information in the order defaulted during order entry. 

Though ShipTo addresses look fairly simple they are an essential part of proper processing.  ShipTo information is used for a variety of different things ranging from charging the correct freight rate to assuring that the proper amount of sales tax is collected.  The basic information stored in each ShipTo record is as follows.

1.  Company name and address information

2.  Shipping Contact information (name and phone number).

3.  Sales Tax information

ShipTo Creation:  the ShipTo address is to assure that the products being shipped go to the appropriate place.  ShipTo address information can be created, or edited, in five different places.

•    The Company Master

•    The ShipTo Master

•      The Marketing Screen - off the company information panel

•      During order entry

•      During Invoicing

Based on the security requirements of the company the creation and editing of ShipTo addresses may be restricted.  The main security reason for this to keep an order being entered and products being billed to a respectable customer, with adequate credit, and shipped to a location that is not under the control of the customer.  To control this the system administrator may turn off the ability for users to create/modify ShipTo addresses in both order entry and off the Marketing Screen.  It is also possible to turn this off in the ShipTo Master, Company Master or Invoicing Screens.

Tax Rate Determination:  The ShipTo address's zip code is used to determine the correct tax rate to charge for taxable sales to a customer based on information in the ZIPCODE and TAXCODE tables.  To do this the system automatically defaults the correct TAXCODE based on the zip code of the ShipTo address as the address is setup.  See the Tax Rate Determination application note for more information.

Will Calls:  Customer pickups are a unique situation as a ShipTo address is being shared among numerous customers with possibly different taxtypes.  The system handles this by having a special group of ShipTo addresses.  These ShipTo addresses are tied together with the account WILLCALL.  A "will call" customer record does not need to exist.  These special ShipTo addresses represent all your locations where product can be picked by the customer and are created using the ShipTo Master with the TAXCODE pointing to the appropriate tax code for the pickup point.

During order entry, if the user picks a shipvia that contains the words WILL CALL in the description the system will pop up the Will Call Selector and allow the user to select a ShipTo address from the list.  The TAXCODE for the transaction will default to the TAXCODE from the will call ShipTo address selected and the TAXTYPE will default to the default in the customer record.

More:

Address Validation