Customer Portal pages

Account Balance page

This page is available for only registered business-to-business customers. The page is used to look for any amounts that are past due, or to see available credit (credit limit minus current balance). Portal users can select an invoice and submit a credit card payment to pay all or part of that invoice. Users can also submit a credit card open payment of any amount toward their account balance

The page contains information similar to that on the back office A/R Posted Transactions Summary form. The account balance information for your customer includes balances for the customer’s subordinate customers, if any.

The page includes these calculated fields:

• Current Balance: This is the customer’s on-order balance plus posted balance.
• Available Credit: This is the customer’s credit limit minus the current balance.

The aging bucket text labels that are displayed over the first five fields on the page are set from the values entered on the Accounts Receivable Parameters form. These text values are not tied to a specific language and must be language-independent, as described in Setting up language-independent aging bucket labels.

Account Management page

This page shows options for users to manage this account information:

• Company Information: The fields in this section are mapped to fields on the back office Customers and Customer Ship-Tos forms.
• Billing Information: This information is taken from the Customers form.
• Shipping Information: This information is taken from the Customers and Customer Ship-Tos forms.
• Payment Information: This information is taken from the Customers form.
• User Profile Information: The portal user can edit information in this section, other than the user ID, and the changes take effect immediately. Fields are mapped in this way:
  • The user ID, name, and email address are taken from the back office Users form.
  • If the portal user selects Confirmations, the Send Email Notification option is automatically selected for this user on the Customer Users form. The system sends event notifications to the specified email address as well as to the portal Inbox page.
  • If a portal user chooses to receive emails for any other option listed, the user is automatically added to the Publication Subscribers form with the appropriate publications.
  • If the portal user is added as a subscriber to the SpecialPromotionsAnnouncements publication, then when a back office user uses the Communication Wizard form to send a communication with the Portal Users field selected, this user will receive the communication as an email.
  • If the portal user is added as a subscriber to the OrderShippingAlert publication, a process in the back office periodically checks for orders that have shipped. You can set this test interval as described in Configuring order shipping alerts. If an order has shipped for a customer whose portal user has subscribed to the OrderShippingAlert publication, then another process triggers the Alert on Order Shipping workflow event handler, which sends an email to the portal user.
• Change Password: The Password field is mapped to the Password field on the back office Users form.

Announcements page

This page shows announcements from your company. Announcements are added using the portal Administrator mode pages. See Maintaining knowledge content.

Consigned Inventory page

This page is available for only registered business-to-business customers. This page shows consigned items, starting with items that have the greatest need for replenishment. Suggested replenishment is calculated by adding the on-hand quantity and pending quantity and then subtracting that total from the minimum quantity.

If no search parameter is selected, the Consigned Inventory page shows all of the logged-in customer’s consigned items. The details grid contains this data:

• Item: The customer item number from the Customer Contracts form, or the back office item number from the Items form for the signed in customer.
• Description: The item description from the Items form.
• Facility: The customer ship-to name from the Warehouses form.
• Min Qty: The lower boundary set for managing inventory quantities at a consignment warehouse for a specific item, from the Item/Warehouse form.
• Max Qty: The upper boundary set for managing inventory quantities at a consignment warehouse for a specific item, from the Item/Warehouse form.
• On Hand Qty: Inventory on hand at a consignment warehouse for a specific item, from the Item/Warehouse form.
• Pending Qty: Quantity required minus quantity received for consignment transfer order lines for this consignment warehouse and item combination, from the Inventory Consigned To Customer form.

Contact Us page

This page shows contact information for your company. The Contact Information section gets information from the back office General Parameters form. The Salesperson Contacts section, customer ship-to addresses and salesperson contact fields, get information from the Customer Ship-Tos form. Signed in portal users see information in both sections. Users who have not signed in see information in only the Contact Information section.

If an email address is provided on the General Parameters form, portal users can click Send Questions or Comments on this page, which opens a default email client so they can send their messages.

Contract Order page

This page is provided for only registered business-to-business customers who contract with you for certain items. If no search parameter is selected, the page shows all contracted items for the signed in customer.

Information on this page is taken from the Items, Multi-Lingual Items, Customer Contracts and Customer Contract Prices forms.

Create User Account form

This form is used to create new user accounts from the portal. It is available to only portal users with the Can Create Users option selected. See Allowing users to create additional users.

Documents page

This page is used to download relevant documents from the portal. Registered business-to-business customers can also upload documents using this page.

Documents are files that are attached to customer, order, item, incident, and estimate records, to provide additional information. Documents can provide general information, such as material specifications and material safety data sheets, and be made available to all website users. Documents also can provide specific information, such as contractual requirements and shipping instructions, and be made available to individual customers.

If no search parameter is selected, the Documents page shows all customer documents uploaded by a back office customer service representative that are accessible to the logged-in portal user, and all documents uploaded by the portal user and approved by a customer service representative. To view documents related to specific back office records, portal users must click the documents icon shown with an individual record on the related portal pages.

The details grid on the Documents page contains information from the back office Documents form, and from the portal Document Upload form for documents added via the portal.

Estimates page

This page shows estimates that you have sent out, starting with the most recent estimate. Estimates with a status of Working, Quoted, or Ordered are displayed. Working means the estimate is not finalized and the quoted numbers could change. Quoted means the quoted numbers are official and ready for acceptance. Ordered means the quote has been accepted and turned into an order.

Accept-a-Quote functionality is provided on this page. When users receive your estimate, they can click the Accept Quote button, enter requested order information, and submit the order. A new order is created with the same items, quantities, and prices from the estimate.

The summary information on this page, such as estimate, quote date, status, total price, and expiration date, is mapped to fields on the back office Estimates form. The detail information for each estimate is mapped to fields on the Estimate Lines form.

Featured Products page

Featured products are displayed on this page, along with the product picture, number, and name, and any discounted price for the product.

The page shows any products that have been set up on the Items form as featured items and as active for Customer Portal.

Inbox page

This page shows any messages sent to the user, such as confirmations of changes requested on the portal. The page contains messages generated by the back office event system.

Interactions page

This page is used to enter and respond to messages related to records on the portal.

Interactions are messages sent back and forth about a selected record. Specific interactions can be accessed from certain portal pages, such as Order Status or Product Details. Also, users can search through all interactions, listed by date, on the Interactions page.

If no search parameter is selected, the Interactions page shows all interaction records for the customer. The records may have been created by a customer service representative in the back office or by the customer using the portal.

The details grid on the Interactions page contains information from the Customer Interactions form for records added in the back office, and from the Interactions page for interactions added via the portal. In multi-site implementations, the Interaction ID in the grid includes a site code to identify which site the interaction relates to.

Inventory page

This page is available for only registered business-to-business customers. This page shows contracted inventory items from all sites and warehouses. Items are taken from the back office Items form if they are set to active for the portal and have an associated customer contract.

Quantity available is calculated this way for the specified site: total quantity available = quantity on hand - quantity allocated to customer orders - quantity allocated to transfers - quantity allocated to production at the item level.

Invoices page

This page is available for only registered business-to-business customers. This page shows invoices you have sent, starting with the most recent invoice.

If no search parameters are specified, the page shows all invoices for the customer. Invoices are sorted by the due date, in descending order (latest first). The fields on the Invoices page are mapped to fields from back office reports.

A portal user can select one or more invoices by selecting the check box. After selecting invoices, the portal user may be able to click Request to request a reprint of the selected invoices to be emailed. See Allowing invoice reprint from the portal.

Knowledge content pages

The portal knowledge content pages are for reviewing your company press releases, videos, white papers, and FAQs. You add and maintain content for these pages by accessing the portal in Administrator mode. See Maintaining knowledge content.

Login page

The Login page is used to sign in to the portal after the user has a user ID and password. On this page a user can click the Forgot User ID? and Forgot Password? links, if they need help signing in.

For the user ID, a pop-up message instructs them to contact your company for assistance. The message also provides a link to the Contact Us page, which shows your company contact information.

For the password, the user is prompted to enter the account email address, so a password reset link can be sent. Your portal support email address and phone number are also displayed with this message.

Order Status page

Customer orders and order statuses are shown on this page.

On this page, portal users can quickly reorder some or all items from a prior order. To reorder multiple items, users click the Buy Items Again button at the header level of an existing order. Users can remove one or more items and/or change the quantity for one or more items. To reorder a single item, users click the Buy Again button at the line item level. Users can also check for pricing options and change the quantity to order.

Most fields on the page are mapped to fields on the Customer Orders and Customer Order Lines forms.

The order status shown on the portal is either Ordered or Shipped. There is no equivalent Shipped status in the back office; the Shipped status is displayed on the portal when the back office order status is Complete or when all order lines for the order have a status of Filled. Orders with a status of History, Stopped, or Planned are not shown on the portal.

Tracking information that can be accessed on this page is taken from the Shipment Master form. Portal users can specify either your company’s item number or their customer item number, if applicable, in the Item search box on the page. The drop-down list for items shows the item number and item description. If a description is available in the chosen portal language, the description from the Multi-Lingual Items form is displayed in the list. Otherwise, the description text is displayed in the default language of the site to which the portal is connected.

Place Order page

This page is used to submit an order for products added from other pages in the online store. Registered business-to-business customers can also add items to the order on this page using quick order fields, if the item number is known. This is how data is mapped for the sections on this page:

• Quick Order: The Item field in this section shows items in the Primary Site that are defined using the back office Items form. Only items that have a price are displayed in the Quick Order Item field.
• Order: When items are initially added to an order, an order estimate is created in the back office. When a shipping address is entered on this page, the estimate is converted to an order with a status of Planned in the back office.

  The order section of the page shows the items that have been placed on the estimate or order by the customer. The item picture, number, and name are taken from the Items form. The item price is taken from the Portal Pricing Review form. Quantity ordered is displayed in the customer's unit of measure, which is taken from the Customer Contracts form.

  If the Credit Card Interface (CCI) is installed and active in the back office, the tax amount is displayed. It is a calculated value, from the Estimates or Customer Orders form.

• Sign In/Register: For returning customers, the login user ID and password are validated against the user's information on the Users form. For new customers, their registration information is added to the Users, Customers, and Customer Users forms.
• Shipping Information: This information is taken from the Customer Ship-Tos form.
• Order Information: Order contact and phone are taken from the Customers form.

  Ship method information can come from different sources. When orders are paid on account, the ship methods are taken from the Ship Via Codes form, if on that form they have been activated for use on the portal. The ship code can be tied to a carrier coming from the Carriers form.

  When orders are paid by credit card, the ship methods are taken from the ship method group assigned to the customer on the Customers form. If no group was assigned, then the default ship method group from the Portal Parameters form is used. These forms are all involved when a ship method is created for credit card orders: Ship Method Groups, Ship Methods, Multi-Lingual Ship Methods, Freight Charge Methods, Customers, Items, and Portal Parameters.

• Finalize Order: When a customer opens the Place Order page, validation is made to see if the Credit Card Interface is being used to allow for credit card ordering. If so, for B2C users and for B2B users who pay by credit card, the Credit Card Information section is enabled and CCI parameters are taken from the Credit Card Interface Parameters form.

  For customers who have credit card information already saved in the back office, that information is taken from the Customer Credit Cards form and displayed on the portal. For customers who enter their credit card information on the portal, that information is added to the Customer Credit Cards form, and the Portal User field shows the name of the portal user who entered the data.

  If CCI is not being used, then Credit Card Information is not enabled.

  Billing Address comes from the Customers and Customer Ship-Tos forms.

  Order Total comes from the Orders form.

  The email address that a copy of the order is sent to comes from the Primary Email Address field on the Users form.

Pre-login Home page

This page is used to sign in, register, or shop as a visitor

Product Details page

This page is used to view details about an item in the online store.

The page shows the item number, description, and pictures specified on the Items form. The customer’s item number is shown, if available. If there is no associated customer item, then your standard item number is displayed. If a multi-lingual item overview exists on the Multi-Lingual Items form for the selected item, it is used. Otherwise, the standard item overview from the Items form is returned.

Pricing information comes from the Customer Contract Prices form and is displayed only if Portal Pricing Enabled and Pricing Site are set on the Items form.

Quantity available shows the quantity that exists in the item’s pricing site. It is calculated this way: total quantity available = quantity on hand - quantity allocated to customer orders - quantity allocated to transfers - quantity allocated to production at the item level.

Products page

On the Products page, users can search for items to order, filter and sort items to refine their search, add items to an order, and check for pricing options. For customers who register and sign in, discounted price and savings are displayed, if applicable.

When users open this page from the Shop menu, all products in the catalog are displayed. If users open this page by clicking a category in the browser menu or by clicking a category from a category search, all products in the selected category are displayed.

The Products page shows all items that are marked as active for the portal on the back office Items form. The page also shows the item number, description, and pictures from the Items form.

Pricing information comes from the Customer Contract Prices form and is displayed only if Portal Pricing Enabled and Pricing Site are set on the Items form.

The category hierarchy shown on the left side of the page is taken from the Item Category Workbench form. Category names and pictures are from the Item Categories form.

Register form

The Register form is opened when users select Sign In > Register Here on the pre-login Home page, or if they click Register Here in the Sign In/Register section of the Place Order page. It is used to register online for a Customer Portal account.

Returns page

The Returns page is used for these tasks:

• View existing return material authorizations (RMAs).
• Create a request for an RMA, so an item can be returned.
• Cancel a request for an existing RMA.

When a portal user submits an RMA request, a process is started in the back office. The process uses the information provided on the portal to create an RMA and RMA line with a status of Requested. The submitted request also triggers the Notify Portal RMA Request Created workflow event handler, which sends a message to the back office user specified in the Notify Users field of the workflow event handler. The back office user must open the RMAs form to approve or reject the RMA, by changing the status to Opened or Stopped. That change triggers one of these workflow event handlers: Notify Portal RMA Approved, which sends a notice to the portal user that the request was approved, or Notify Portal RMA Rejected, which sends a notice to the portal user that the request was rejected. If the portal user selects an existing RMA with a status of Requested and clicks Cancel Request, the RMA status is set to Stopped in the back office.

The fields on the Returns page map to fields on the back office RMAs and RMA Lines forms. Only RMAs with a status of Opened or Requested are displayed on the portal page.

Also, if an RMA item does not have a multi-lingual item description set up, then the description from the RMA Lines form is displayed instead. The RMA Lines description is likely to be in the default language of the site to which the Customer Portal is connected.

Service Incidents page

This page is used to review existing incidents, add notes or attach documents to an incident, and enter new incidents. Information shown on this page comes from the back office Incidents form.

Service Knowledge Base page

This page is used to find and review service information stored in the service knowledge base. Initially the page shows summary information about each record. The hit count is the number of times a Search For term occurs in the record. Information shown on this page comes from the back office Knowledge Base form.

Top Sellers page

Top selling items are displayed on this page, along with the product picture, number, and name, and the discounted price for the product.

The page shows any items that have been set up on the back office Items form as top sellers and as active for Customer Portal.

Unit Registration page

This page is used to register units under warranty. The unit, item, and description information is taken from the back office Units form. Province/state codes are taken from the Prov/States form, and country codes are taken from the Countries form.