Toolbox Talk Episode 32: Customer Representatives and Emails

Head to Admin Console, Settings, Email Customizations to view and manage every email template sent to customers, listed under the Customer Emails tab.

Hover over each email for a tooltip explaining what triggers it and what it's for. For example, the Welcome Message sends when a customer creates an account or website through the ecommerce site.

To turn an email off for every customer, click the toggle next to it. A warning will confirm you're disabling it account wide, not just for one customer.

To edit an email instead of disabling it, click directly into the template. You can change the subject line and the body text however you'd like.

If you don't like a change you made, click Restore Default to revert the template back to its original version.

A common request is having a parent company receive every email that its sub companies receive.

Because QuickBooks Online uses email to sync invoices to the correct customer, you can't create two different customers with the same primary email address.

To get the same effect, add the shared address in the customer's secondary email address field instead. Type the email, hit Enter to save it, then repeat to add as many additional addresses as needed. Remember to save your changes when you're done.

You can also skip adding a primary email entirely by checking "does not have an email" when creating a customer, if you only want secondary addresses to receive notifications.

When adding a new customer, choose Company instead of User to unlock representatives. You'll be prompted to add one representative right away, and you can add more later.

If a customer was originally set up as a standard User, you can convert them at any time. Open the customer, toggle to Company, and save. This adds a new Representatives tab to their profile.

When adding a representative, you can include their name, phone number, and an optional title. The title is just for internal reference and doesn't affect email routing.

Reps that aren't assigned a role fall under a default "Others" category and will not receive any automatic emails unless they are assigned as the primary representative on a specific order.

To assign a representative to an order, click the pencil icon below the delivery address on the order and select the rep. Whoever is assigned there will receive every email set up to send for that order, regardless of their role.

Roles determine which emails a representative receives automatically, independent of whether they're tied to a specific order.

By default, every account has three roles: Accounting, Field, and Manager. Accounting is generally set up for payment related emails, Field for delivery and rental contract emails, and Manager for emails covering the general progression of an order.

To see or edit which emails belong to a role, go to Customers, Representative Roles, and click into a role. Each email will show a checkbox. Check or uncheck emails to customize what that role receives.

To create a custom role, click Add New Role from the Representative Roles page, name it, and select whichever emails you want assigned to it.

You can build a catch all role that includes every available email and assign it to any representative you want to receive everything.

Once a representative is assigned a role, they'll receive that role's emails automatically going forward, no matter which orders they are or aren't tied to. Being assigned directly to an order as the representative still overrides this and gets them every email for that order.

For cycle billing orders, you can enable automatic card payments. The system charges the card on the invoice day. For example, with a 28 day cycle length, the invoice sends on day 28, and the card is automatically charged once the payment terms (for example 30 days) have passed.

To send recurring account statements instead, go to General Settings, Options (use Ctrl+F or Cmd+F to search "bulk send" since it's further down the page), and enable Bulk Send Statements Monthly. You can choose the day of the month and the time it sends.

When a representative is assigned to an order, their name will appear on the downloaded invoice, listed directly under the customer details.

Go to Accounting, Tax Codes to create tax categories and assign them a jurisdiction and rate.

To apply a rate to a specific product, go to Inventory, Products, open the product, and use the tax categories section to assign the correct category.

Products can have separate tax categories for rental versus sale, so you can apply different rates depending on how the product is used.

Tax is calculated as a percentage of the rental rate and adjusts automatically if that rate changes, for example if a rental date change increases or decreases the order total.

Go to Service and Repair, open or create a work order, and use the Parts and Services section. Click Add, then search or scroll to find the part or service you need.

For services billed hourly, enter the hours as a decimal in the quantity field (for example, 1.5 for an hour and a half), and the cost will calculate accordingly.

Parts and services need to already exist as products in your system. You cannot create a new part or service on the fly from within a work order.