Temporary customers can be set up in Service Management without permanently adding them to the Receivables Management customer database. For example, you may wish to set up a customer for service pending credit approval. Later, when the credit is approved, the customer ID easily can become part of your permanent customer file.

You can enter service calls, equipment IDs, and contracts for temporary customers. However, you are not able to enter financial-related data, such as invoices in the Service Management or transactions in Receivables Management.

Using the Temporary Customer feature involves the following:

Back up Files

We recommend you back up all files that store a customer ID. These files are identified on the following table and will be updated with the permanent customer ID.

Mark the Temporary Customer Setup Option

Mark the Use Temporary Customers checkbox in the Service Options window (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Service Management > Module Setup > Service Options).

Enter Data for Temporary Customers

You can enter service calls for temporary customers just as you would for permanent customers. However, you won't be able to enter invoices for the service calls when you change the status to Closed and save the call. 

In addition, you won't be able to select service calls for temporary customers in any of the transaction entry windows in the Sales series, or in the Payables Transaction Entry window, the Inventory Transaction Entry window, or the Payroll Transaction Entry window.

Change Customer IDs

When you have received approval to change the status of the customer from temporary to permanent, you can do so using the Change Customer IDs window.

1. Select File > Maintenance > Service Management > Change Customer IDs. All temporary customers display in the Temporary ID column.
2. Assign permanent customer IDs by entering a new customer ID in the Permanent ID column. The permanent ID must be different than the temporary ID.
3. Select Process. The Change Customer ID Audit report prints when the process is complete. The report contains the customer IDs that were changed, the files (tables) that were affected, and the number of records (or rows) in each file that were searched and changed.