The Customers module is the central repository for maintaining customer master data in GEMS ERP. It serves as the single source of truth for all customer-related information, including customer identity, contact details, addresses, financial configurations, sales and shipping preferences, related parties, and internal sales assignments.

Every customer must be created and configured before they can participate in business transactions. Customer records are referenced throughout the ERP in processes such as Sales Quotations, Sales Orders, Deliveries, Sales Invoices, and Incoming Payments, ensuring consistent and accurate customer information across all modules.

Purpose

The Customers module enables your organisation to:

• Maintain a central customer master database.
• Record customer identity and contact information.
• Configure accounting and financial settings.
• Manage customer credit limits and payment preferences.
• Define sales and shipping configurations.
• Maintain customer contacts and related parties.
• Assign internal sales representatives.
• Support all downstream sales, finance, and logistics transactions.

Navigation

Business Partner → Customers

Key Features

The Customers module provides the following capabilities:

• Customer identity management
• Customer address management
• Accounting and financial configuration
• Credit management
• Bank account management
• Tax configuration
• Sales and shipping setup
• Contact person management
• Related party management
• Internal sales representative assignment
• Customer lifecycle management

Screen Overview

The Customers module allows authorised users to create, manage, and maintain customer records.

Each customer record is organised into multiple sections that capture different aspects of the customer, ensuring complete and accurate information is available for business transactions.

These sections include:

Section	Description
Overview	Captures the customer’s general information, classification, and status.
Address	Stores registered and communication addresses.
Accounting Details	Maintains financial, taxation, payment, banking, and credit information for each Business Entity.
Sales & Shipping	Defines sales, pricing, delivery, freight, and shipping configurations.
Contacts	Maintains customer contact persons.
Related Parties	Defines relationships with other customers or organisations.
Related Persons	Assigns internal sales representatives responsible for the customer.

Data Model

The Customers module stores customer information across multiple related entities. Together, these entities maintain customer identity, financial configuration, custom fields, addresses, contacts, and business relationships.

Customer Master

The Customer Master is the primary entity that stores the core information for each customer. Every customer is assigned a unique, system-generated Customer ID and includes general, contact, classification, and address details.

Information Stored

Category	Information
Customer Identification	Customer ID, Customer Type, Status
Personal / Business Information	Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Company Registration Number
Contact Information	Email, Work Phone, Mobile Number
Classification	Partner Classification, Partner Type
Business Information	Industry, Business Segment
Address Information	House No., Floor No., Building, Street, Country, State, District, City, Postal Code
Audit Information	Created By, Created Date, Updated By, Updated Date

Customer Custom Fields

The system supports administrator-defined custom fields that allow organisations to capture additional customer information based on their business requirements.

These values are stored separately from the Customer Master while remaining linked to the customer record.

Field	Description
Customer ID	Links the custom field to a customer
Custom Field Code	Identifies the configured custom field
Field Value	Stores the value entered for the custom field

Customer Entity Configuration

Financial and accounting configurations are maintained separately for each Business Entity associated with the customer. This enables organisations with multiple legal entities to configure different accounting and payment settings for the same customer.

Information Stored

Category	Examples
Business Entity	Business Entity Code
Currency	Transaction Currency
Payment Configuration	Payment Method, Payment Terms, Invoice Method
Financial Configuration	Accounts Receivable (AR) GL Account
Tax Configuration	Tax Type and related tax settings
Credit Management	Credit Limits and Account Blocks
Banking Information	Customer Bank Details

Entity Relationship

The Customers module is organised into the following related entities:

Customer Master
│
├── Customer Custom Fields
├── Customer Entity Configuration
├── Customer Addresses
├── Customer Contacts
├── Related Parties
└── Related Persons

The Customer Master acts as the primary record, while the remaining entities store specialised information such as accounting configurations, custom fields, contacts, and business relationships. This modular structure ensures consistency, simplifies maintenance, and supports multiple Business Entities using a single customer record.

How It Works

Creating a customer generally follows these steps:

1. Enter the customer’s general information.
2. Add the customer’s address details.
3. Configure accounting and financial information.
4. Define payment methods and credit settings.
5. Configure sales and shipping preferences.
6. Add customer contact persons.
7. Configure related parties, if applicable.
8. Assign internal sales representatives.
9. Save and activate the customer record.

Once the customer is active and all mandatory information is completed, the customer becomes available for use in sales and financial transactions.

Best Practices

• Create customer records before initiating any sales transactions.
• Complete all mandatory information before saving the record.
• Configure accounting details for every applicable Business Entity.
• Keep customer contact and banking information up to date.
• Review customer credit limits and account blocks regularly.
• Use custom fields only when additional business-specific information is required.
• Inactivate obsolete customer records instead of deleting them to preserve transaction history.

Next Steps

The Customers module is divided into the following sections, each of which is covered in its own User Guide page:

1. Overview
2. Address
3. Accounting Details
4. Sales & Shipping
5. Contacts
6. Related Parties
7. Related Persons
8. Customer List
9. Create Customer
10. Edit Customer
11. View Customer

Each section explains its purpose, available fields, and the steps required to create, manage, and maintain customer information within GEMS ERP.