Merging Customers And Vehicles

[ricmorin]

Sounds rather daunting. I would either set some time aside each week for this task, or deal with it as you become aware of any duplicates. Personally, I like order. I would get them done now rather than waiting for the surprise. You have 3000 in there, but they're not all in the need of massaging. It might go quicker than you think.

[wolfswestside]

Alright to everyone that has posted thus far I would like to point out a prime example of why there should be a merging option.

Customer: yea the car used to be mine but I sold it to him.

Me: ahh no problem

Customer: so you can just merge it to their name

Me: hah well your asking for a miracle

so how do i fix this problem of merging a vehicle to a new customer transferring all the records of one vehicle to that person?

[ricmorin]

Alright to everyone that has posted thus far I would like to point out a prime example of why there should be a merging option.

Customer: yea the car used to be mine but I sold it to him.

Me: ahh no problem

Customer: so you can just merge it to their name

Me: hah well your asking for a miracle

so how do i fix this problem of merging a vehicle to a new customer transferring all the records of one vehicle to that person?

Real easy......

Go to Utilities> Customer Screen. Click on the Name button and locate the customer that used to own the vehicle. Double click on the vehicle that has been sold. While in that tab (vehicle tab) you'll see a button down below called Change Ownership. Click on it and select the new owner. The vehicle and the history will be transferred. You will notice that history prior to the transfer will have the previous owners name even though you may be viewing it under the current owners record. That is intentional.

I don't think I'd ever want a 'merging option'. The vehicle can only belong to one person. Merging would confuse thing even further. The best practice is not to get to that point in the first place. That can only be done with good processes in place at your business. And always start an order with Start/F6.

[crmeyers]

I heard everything everyone had to say here, but I agree with PANDA. The reason why there are duplicate entries doesn't matter. There should be a way to merge two entries so that complete history and $ spent remains intact. Other management systems that I have used allow for this. Yes, I know if we are careful, this kind of thing won't happen. But people get into automobile accidents...

[timbre4]

The short answer is it can be done and vehicle history would be preserved, which I believe is the underlying point to this discussion.

There are simply too many variables created by users to program for to ever create a magic wand.

[ricmorin]

I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn't expect the software to correct 8 years of incorrect data entry. At some point they need to have some personal responsibility. You can't change what's been done. You CAN merge histories. Dollars spent would require unposting/reposting.

[crmeyers]

Thank you Ric. Big brain fart! Didn't think about going back and un-posting the ticket, changing the name, then re-posting. Duh! That makes it a bit easier, and keeps the history and the $ spent intact. Man, I've been screwing up for years!

[ricmorin]

It's an option, but when you lots of records, it gets very time consuming. We'd all like a 'push-button' solution, but the problem can be so dynamic that it's not feasable.

Isn't it amazing that when we hash things out, collectively we find at least some resolution? Power in numbers.

[timbre4]

True that.
+1

[fortknoxx]

chris, be verwy,verwy cawful when unposting invoices from the past. make sure to click yes only to "unpost this invoice". clicking yes to anything else will have you pulling you hair (if you have any left) out. if you have changed shop supplied or hazmat rates, these will auto default to current settings. you will have to uncheck fromthe options tab, and manually enter then as a line item.

IMHO leave well enough alone. look forward to the future, and get out of the past!

one wrong click...................

[crmeyers]

Thank you Tina. I know all about that. It can be a "Price Is Right" game trying to recalculate the totals to get the invoice to post sometimes! I'll be careful!

[ksauto]

So what you really saying is it would be easier to create a time machine and go back in time and fix the problem before it happens.

[crmeyers]

Let me know if you accomplish that...there's lots of things I would like to change!!!

[timbre4]

So what you really saying is it would be easier to create a time machine and go back in time and fix the problem before it happens.

Our message is two-fold; 1) here are the preventable causes (bad habits) and 2) if your database is already afflicted, here are steps to fix.

In summary, since the cause is known and preventable, it's easier to work to prevent them from happening in the first place.

No time machine required.

[steven kiser]

my opinion here is if there were an easy way to merge, move, bend, twist, etc i would have destroyed all by now with a simple push of a button. i've double posted, reopened older work orders and ran into the price change issue and not paid attention to the pop up's asking me if i'm sure i want to do this. one of the best tricks i've learned here is when a plate within a family or group is moved to another vehicle i add a period to the end of the plate so the system will look at it as a new plate not a duplicate. if there is a period at the end of a plate entry i know that the plate has been moved. if anything can be screwed up within this system i've done it. if i were in panda's situation where i stepped into a system that was already messed up i would have just moved forward and cleaned up as i went. i still on occasion hit a snag where a mistake in posting was made. at least for me it's kind of "business as usual". i learned a long time ago that at first it was tedious but if i filled out all the information 100% correctly and didn't accept close enough all was fine. like others in the forum on occasion i'm a one man show. i have three techs and occasional office help. a busy shop and i'm on the floor 50% of the time and dealing with customers and filling out orders are a pain and i had a habit of getting basic information and filling in later. sometimes i did and others i didn't. a huge tip here is fill it out completely and correctly. name, plate #, phone # especially. on occasion i have to look up by phone # and i always have the home # listed as primary even if the customer say's that they're never there. it's just the way i learned how to do it. another option i love is f4 vehicle option. i use it when i'm working on a vehicle and i know i've run into this issue before with another car and i just can't remember the fix. don't know where this ramble came from but i guess it's steve being steve.

[crmeyers]

We all look forward to you being you, Steve!