Maintain Customer (Supplier) Accounts - Application User Facilities

The Maintain Accounts option allows you to design the main accounts maintenance screen for the ledger plus up to six extra maintenance screens.

To define the main accounts screen select any of the first six options on this menu, the actions are listed separately to reflect the actions you choose in the account maintenance procedures. On selection the current design is displayed.

To enter text on the screen, position the cursor where you want to start entering the text by clicking the mouse in the appropriate position and type in the details.

To draw a line borderaround the screen select the ‘Border’ option on the Tools menu.

To draw lines on the screen switch to line mode using the ‘Line Mode’ option on the Tools menu and use the mouse to draw a line by clicking its start position and then dragging the line to where you want it to finish (horizontal/vertical lines only). To switch back to ‘Text Mode’ call the option on the tools menu again.

To position a data item click the starting position and either right-click with the mouse or press the <F4-Select> key – the available data items are then displayed. You select a data item by pressing <Enter> against it and the field is then updated to the screen. You are then asked some supplementary questions – view-only, upper-case input, mandatory – set as required.

The screen design also allows a feature to define a lookup to another database allowing you to (say) validate the EC country code against a database or enter a salesman code against a customer. On the Tools pull-down select the option ‘Lookup’ and you will be asked for the following information.

Database Pathname

Enter the database pathname you want to validate the customer/supplier input item against.

Lookup Format

Enter the prime-index format of the lookup item – i.e. 9999 applies a four-digit number format, AAA applies a three-letter format etc.

Item for Lookup

Select the data item, <F4-Select> is available, that the lookup validation is to be performed against.

Items to List When Selecting

Next you are asked to define the data items to be listed when you press <F4-Select>. Select, up to a maximum of five, the items to be listed. The size shown defaults to the data item size but you can restrict this if required. You then select whether the details are to be listed in LIFO order. Note that the items you can select on within the <F4> procedure on this database are controlled by the indexing on the file itself.

Items to Copy from Lookup

Finally, you can define up to 10 copy items from the lookup database to the main accounts file. Restrictions on copy items apply – you should only copy between items of similar/identical type, if copying numeric items then the data items should have an equivalent number of decimal places, etc.

Once the screen design is complete select the ‘Save & Exit’ option off the File menu to update the layout for the system and then exit back to the menu.

Premier users will be asked if they wish to use a second maintenance screen on exit from the first screen – respond as required. If a second screen is configured but you do not wish to amend it press <ESC>. The second screen andthe extra maintenance screens all share the same lookup database.

Account On-Stop

Whilst the screen displayed when marking an account on stop is as per the above design. This option does ask an additional parameter on selection of this option.

Clear Stop Log When Unset (C-Clear, K-Keep, R-Replace)

The accounts database can record the user-id, date and time when an account was flagged on-stop. This option asks what happens when you release an account from being on-stop, does the system clear these log details, keep the previous log details, or replace the log details with the user who released the account.

Additional Maintenance / Enquiry Screens

This option allows you to create and maintain the six extra maintenance screens. The design process is the same as above but you are asked some pre-design parameters.

Confirm Menu Title

Enter a descriptive title for the screen. This is used primarily in the design side but can also be displayed at run-time if you call the extra maintenance screens directly from the menu rather than via the customer/supplier maintenance option.

Type of Actions for this Screen

The extra maintenance screens can allow you to Add, Update, View or Delete a customer/supplier record.Set the actions you require – i.e. UV would allow Update and View, AUVD would allow Add, Update, View and Delete

Menu Bar Title ID

Enter the option title for this option, this is displayed as the ‘button’ title when select the extra maintenance screens via the customer/supplier maintenance option.

After confirming these details the screen design is displayed for you to amend as required.Note that each extra maintenance screen is configured over one screen.