Searching for Customers and Vehicles

To keep your data accurate, it is very important that you determine if the customer and the associated vehicle(s) are already in the system prior to creating a ticket.

You are prompted to search for a customer and vehicle whenever you

• Create a new estimate, repair order, or parts-only ticket
• Search local history
• Create an appointment

NOTE: You can do a wildcard search by typing a * in place of any unknown numbers or letters at the beginning of any field.

Searching for Customers

You can search only for customers within your own database(s).

Complete these steps:

1. Enter the customer search criteria.

Search by	Description
Name	Enter a portion of the customer’s last name in the name field. The more of the name that is entered, the smaller the search results. If the customer is a business, enter a portion of the business name. The search includes names with an apostrophe, such as " O’Neil". To do a wildcard search enter an asterisk. R.O. Writer searches for the sequence anywhere in the first or last name.
Phone	Enter the seven-digit phone number, including the dashes. R.O. Writer searches for the first two numbers entered in the customer record. If you enter a partial phone number, R.O. Writer searches for that sequence of numbers anywhere in the phone number, not just at the beginning. To search by a prefix, enter the prefix followed by a dash. To search by area code, check the Area Code box and enter the area code in the Phone field.
Zip	Enter the zip code of the customer. If this is the only criteria entered, the list contains all the customers in that zip code.
Member ID	Enter the member ID of the customer. You are able to search by Member ID only when this feature is turned on.

2. Click OK and the Customer List opens displaying all the matching customers.

If the customer is not in the system, the window displays "No Matches Found!"

3. If the customer is in the list, double-click on it to select it.
4. If the customer is not in the list, click the New Customer button and enter the information on the Edit Customer window.

Central Service Lookup

If you have Central Service, you can click the Central Service Lookup button to search for the customer in all databases you have access to.

Searching for Vehicles

Complete these steps:

1. Enter the vehicle search criteria and click the Search button.

Search by	Description
License*	Enter a full or partial license number first and then select the customer. It is highly unlikely that two vehicles in the same state have the same license number.
VIN*	Enter a full or partial vehicle identification number.
Fleet/Unit No	Enter a full or partial fleet or unit number. This number is entered in the Fleet Wizard or when editing vehicle information.
Year, Make, and Model	Select the year, make, and/or model.

*Remember that it is possible to name the license field and the VIN field something else in Vehicle Field Names.

2. The Vehicle List appears displaying the matching vehicles and the customers associated with each one.

3. If the vehicle is in the list, double-click on it to open the vehicle record.
4. If the vehicle is not in the list, click the New Vehicle button to add it.