Effective communication with your customers is always a topic of discussion whenever there is talk about how to keep your customers happy. A quick and easy way to improve your communication is by personalising the information you send to your customer.
Have you have ever wanted to be able to include the invoice number in the file name and email subject line that you automatically send out? Or wanted to be able to add a customer’s account number and name to emails you send out? You can do all this and more within the ACR eDocs system by simply using the Merge fields provided.
The available Merge Fields are listed below the Email/Fax Message box in the “eDocs Document Types” screen. The merge field must include the opening and closing bracket symbols as displayed when they are used. It is also possible to include text that only prints if there is text available to populate the merge field. To do this, you surround the merge field and text you wish to appear with the merge field with square [ and ] brackets. For example, if you would like your email to start by saying:
Dear <CONTACTNME>,
But you only want display the word Dear and the comma if there is a contact name configured. You can simply surround the whole sentence with square brackets like below:
[Dear <CONTACTNME>,]
This will mean if there is no contact name configured under B2B > eDocuments button, then the whole sentence will not appear on the email at all.
Multiple Merge fields can be used together to form a complex custom email that incorporates a high degree of personalisation for your customers and suppliers. For example you may setup invoice notification emails so that when they are sent from eDocs they greet the customer, include the date the invoice was created , remind them to use their account number when making their direct debit payment, and includes their delivery tracking URL if one is available by using the below template.
[Dear <TRADENME>,
]Your invoice <TRANSNO> for company <TRADENME> dated <DATE> is attached.
When you make a Direct Debit payment for this account please include your account number as part of the description to assist with allocating your payment. Your account number with us is <ACCNO>.
[If you would like to track the delivery of this invoice please refer to your Tracking URL for further information.
Tracking URL – <PODURL>.]
By incorporating some simple merge fields you can change a simple email to provide your customers their invoices into a tool to help them interacting with your business.
An explanation of the available merge fields is below:
Fields available in eDoc Document Types:
<ACCNO> – This is the Account number for the Debtor/Creditor you are communicating with.
<TRADENME> – This is the Trade/Company name of the Debtor/Creditor you are communicating with.
<CONTACTNME> – This is the contact name entered against the document type you have created in the B2B eDocuments button of the Customer or Supplier record.
<TRANSNO> – The transaction number associated with the document being created, e.g. the invoice or adjustment note number.
Note: Statements do not technically have transaction numbers, so when sending statements, this should not be used.
<DATE> – The date that the document was created and sent, being in the format of DD-MMM-YYYY so a date of the 01 June 2014 would display as 01-JUN-2014.
<TIME> – This is the system time the document was created, it is in 24 hour format showing in the format of HH:MM:SS.
<PODURL> – The Proof of Delivery URL will allow you to send your customer their Track-n-Deliver Proof of Delivery URL on the email that their invoice is sent to them on. This allows your customer to track and review the status of their delivery without having to contact your staff.
Note: This is only used if using the Track-n-Deliver app.
Fields available in “Debtor Configuration” for use on Statements:
<USERNAME> – This will show the username configured in Customer Maintenance under the Access button.
Note: No two Customer records should have the same username.
<PASSWORD> – This will show the Password configured in Customer Maintenance under the Access button.
Fields available in Customer “B2B Config” for use with Invoicing:
<SITE> – This is your company name as configured within your ACR system.
<DATE> – The date that the document was created and sent, being in the format of DD-MMM-YYYY so a date of the 01 June 2014 would display as 01-JUN-2014.
<TIME> – This is the system time the document was created, being in 24 hour format showing as HH:MM:SS
<ORDNO> – This is your customers’ order number as entered when creating an Invoice.
<INVOICETOTAL> – This is the Total Invoice Value inclusive of GST.
<LINES> – This is the number of product lines on the Invoice.
<INVNO> – The ACR system generated Invoice Number for this Invoice.
<CONNO> – This is the Con Note Number entered into the ACR system for this Invoice.
<CARTONS> – This is the number of cartons entered against this Invoice when picking/despatching.
<CARRIERID> – This is the Identification number for the Carrier that has been set to despatch this invoice.
<CARRIERDATA1> – Information set on the carrier maintenance screen as Data Field 1
<CARRIERDATA2> – Information set on the carrier maintenance screen as Data Field 2
<CARRIERDATA3> – Information set on the carrier maintenance screen as Data Field 3
<PODURL> – The Proof of Delivery URL will allow you to send your customer their Track-n-Deliver Proof of Delivery URL on the email that their invoice is sent to them on. This allows your customer to track and review the status of their delivery without having to contact your staff.
Note: This is only used if using the Track-n-Deliver app.