Maintaining Clients

Overview

A client uses the services of the laboratory to analyse their samples and provide reports. A client could represent an internal or external laboratory-based entity, or a different section within the company.

A client can link to one or more contacts, projects and quotes. Multiple addresses are available at both the client and contact levels. Quotes cover the specific pricing discounts and schedules required for nominated schemes and analytes. Taxes and surcharges are defined for a client and applied at invoicing time.

Clients are linked to a parent client to create an hierarchy for client management.

Clients and projects can be cross-linked to corporate ERP details for use in corporate cost management.

Client contacts are the personnel with whom the organisation or laboratory can communicate with for a client, for any jobs submitted by that client.

Contacts define the reporting methods to be used for sending reports.

Where existing systems (such as CRM or ERP systems) manage client data, importing of client information can be facilitated using scripts and CCLAS 6 services. This typically only needs to be performed once during system implementation. Refer to the Client API. New clients acquired after this point can be added using CCLAS 6.

Clients of Commercial vs Production Laboratories

Whether the laboratory is in the commercial or production control side of business has an immediate impact on the number and scope of the clients of the laboratory. There are generally two types of clients:

Commercial laboratory clients

The clients is typically a larger list of companies and individuals who are requesting the testing and reporting of these tests. There is formal business identifications and details relating to the commercial transactions between the client and laboratory. This might be in the form of contracts, quotes, sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, or statements. Each client is competing, independent to each other, against other clients for their slice of the laboratory’s time and resources.

Some commercial clients belong to a parent client, for example, a national company may have local offices, each of which is set up as a separate client in CCLAS under the parent national company client.

A commercial client may or may not have one or more project associated with submitted samples.

The individual contact person who submits samples or expects results within the client's organisation can be identified, but typically changes from time to time.

Production control laboratory clients

Clients tend to be the operational segments of the overall operation. In the mining space this might be the exploration (long term planning), mining or grade control (short term planning), production (processing and refinery), shipping (transportation) and contract (final delivery). Each department of the overall operation has differing needs in terms of the tests and services, and the time-frame when these services need to be provided. It could be down to minutes or hours (in terms of receipt through to reporting for production samples), or days and weeks for grade control or exploration samples. Although each department is competing against the others for their slice of the services, they are all working for the overall operational goals.

Some production laboratories only set up two clients – one for production jobs and one for lab batch jobs.

A production client may user projects to represent a portion of time in the life-cycle of the production plant.

A contact who submits samples or expects results is more typically not an individual person (as staff can change from shift to shift) but rather a known role.

Production clients for a single site may or may not be grouped under a parent client. Grouping under a parent client would only be done where there are multiple parent clients, for example, site A and site B, and data is searched based upon that parent client.

Some production control laboratories might offer commercial services to customers outside of the primary operation, but this is usually with a lower priority to that of the primary operation, because the laboratory is established first and for-most for the servicing of the clients within the operation.

Process

Clients are maintained using the CCCLNT—Client application.

Maintain clients

Clients returned from a search can be exported to a report. Refer to Generating Grid Reports. Available report templates are defined in the SEARCH_REPORT_CCCLNT application preference.

Clients are created either with org-scope or lab-scope. An organisation or laboratory can contain multiple clients.

A client can be saved as another client in the same organisation or laboratory. This effectively allows a client to be used as a template to create subsequent new clients without manually entering all the configuration. The new client is created with all the properties and custom attributes from the source client.

Client Hierarchy

A client can have a Parent Client Code to place the client in a client hierarchy. A parent client could be the international or national body, with national or local client companies underneath the parent client.

Client Addresses

Addresses can be maintained for each client.

Maintain addresses for a client

Client Projects

Projects can be maintained for each client. A project is a subdivision of work from a client. For example, client projects could be created for:

  • Sample or test types that the client submits for analysis regularly
  • Samples that the client has indicated belong to an internal company project
  • Samples that the client has indicated have a specific origin
  • Samples registered for a period of analysis (for example, first quarter of the year).

Maintain projects for a client

A job is optionally linked to a Project Code during job registration.

If the MANDATORY_PROJECT application preference is checked, then it is mandatory for a job to be associated with a project.

A client project can be saved as another client project for the client. If two project share many of the same details, using save as to create a new project is faster than creating the project and entering all of the required details.

Client Contacts

Contacts can be maintained for each client.

Maintain contacts for a client

A job is optionally linked to a Contact Code during job registration to assist job search, and so that certificate reports and invoices can be raised for them.

If the MANDATORY_CONTACT application preference is enabled, then it is mandatory for a job to be associated with a contact.

A client contact can be saved as another client contact for the client.

One of the client contacts can be selected as the primary contact for the client, and one of the client contacts can be selected as the primary contact for each project, such that:

  • If the job is associated with a project and that project has a Primary Contact Code defined, then the job's Contact Code defaults to this contact.

  • Otherwise, if the job is associated with a client and that client has a Primary Contact Code defined, then the job's Contact Code defaults to this contact.

Each reporting method specified for a client contact must have Is Active selected in order to be applied for the contact. Report methods can consist of Email, Print, Fax, Phone and Other.

Job invoices must have the same Client Code, Project Code, Contact Code, Currency and Ignore Tax check box setting to be merged onto one invoice.

Addresses can be maintained for each client contact. However, regardless of the addresses set on the contact, the client's default address is used on reports for jobs linked to this contact.

Maintain addresses for a client contact

Report methods can be maintained for each client contact. These are added to a report request to configure the way in which the contact is to receive reports when they are generated.

Limiting Use in Registration

A client's Can Submit Samples flag and a client project's Can Submit Samples flag is used in registration to restrict the client and project list, respectively.

A client project has a Project Open Date and Project Close Date, such that. a job cannot be linked to the project if the job's Received Date is outside this open and close date period, unless the client project's Allow Registration Outside of Project Dates is selected.

Prioritising Work

A client's Priority and a client project's Priority is used to assist in streamlining work in the laboratory. Priority works as follows:

  • If the job is associated with a project and that project has a Priority defined, then the job's Priority defaults to this priority.

  • Otherwise, if the job is associated with a client and that client has a Priority defined, then the job's Priority defaults to this priority.

  • Otherwise, if the DEFAULT_PRIORITY application preference is defined and contains a valid xN duration, and the client nor the project for the job has a Priority defined, when you successfully create a job, then the job's Priority defaults to this priority.

  • Otherwise, if the DEFAULT_PRIORITY application preference is not defined, or it is defined but is empty, or it does not contain a valid xN duration, and the client nor the project for the job has a Priority defined, when you successfully create a job, then the job's Priority default to 5D.

Cost Centre Associations

A client's Cost Centre Code and a client project's Cost Centre Code are used in registration, as follows:

  • If the job is associated with a project and that project has a Cost Centre Code defined, then the job's Cost Centre Code defaults to this cost centre.

  • Otherwise, if the job is associated with a client and that client has a Cost Centre Code defined, then the job's Cost Centre Code defaults to this cost centre.

Note: If a job's client is updated, the job is not automatically linked to the selected client's or client project's cost centre, but remains as it is.

Report Details

A client's Report Template Code is used to configure a report template for the client. That is, a job stakeholder's Report Template Code defaults to the client's Report Template if it is defined, otherwise to the cost centre's Report Template if it is defined, otherwise to the laboratory's Report Template if it is defined, in this order.

Maintain reporting methods for a client contact

Invoicing Details

A client's Invoice To Client Code denotes which client is to be invoiced for jobs linked to the client. The Currency and Price Catalogue Group are used to determine available price books for the client.

When a job invoice is created or when the job invoice's Project Code is updated:

  • If the job invoice's Project Code is not defined or the job invoice's Project Code is defined but the project does not have a Discount, then the job invoice's Discount defaults from the client.

  • Otherwise the job invoice's Discount defaults from the project.

The discount is updatable on the job invoice. When a draft invoice is created from a single job invoice, then the invoice's Discount defaults from the job invoice.

When a draft invoice is created by merging multiple job invoices, then the invoice's Discount defaults to the primary job invoice.

When the invoice's Project Code is updated:

  • If the invoice's Project Code is not defined or the invoice's Project Code is defined but the project does not have a Discount, then the invoice's Discount defaults from the client.

  • Otherwise the invoice's Discount defaults from the project.

The Invoice Sample Details flag denotes whether sample details are included in an invoice document.

When an invoice is raised for the client, it is raised in the default Locale of the client.

Surcharges

A surcharge is a price adjustment applied to an invoice line item to add a percentage adjustment, and is configured to apply by scheme type. When linked to a client and the client is used in a job, the scheme types defined in the surcharge will look for matching schemes then apply the surcharges come invoice time. Surcharges would be applicable for cases such as rush fees, special deliveries, etc. For more information on client surcharges, see Configuring a Client for Invoicing.

Rebates

A rebate is a price adjustment applied to an invoice line item to deduct a percentage adjustment, and is configured to apply by scheme type. When linked to a client and the client is used in a job, the scheme types defined in the rebate will look for matching schemes then apply the surcharges come invoice time. The drop down options are taken from CCPRCADJ (Price Adjustment) where the Price Adjustment Type is Rebate. Rebates would be applicable for cases such as advanced payment, contracted sample agreements, etc. For more information on client surcharges, see Configuring a Client for Invoicing.

Tax

A tax is a price adjustment configured as a specified percentage of the invoiceable amount to add tax to an invoice. For more information on client surcharges, see

Note: CCLAS 6 can work as a price host or price engine for the analysis and samples and push its costing totals to an external billing system that applies taxes, surcharges and rebates for the final invoice.

Quote

A quote is a special rate either in percentage or a new price that can be applied to a scheme, analyte or sample. In the context of this topic, these are quotes to be applied to the jobs of the client. A client can have multiple quotes, such that each quote links to a base quote (the base quote contains the pricing overrides). For an overview of Client Quotes, see Maintaining Quotes for a Client. Refer to Configuring a Client for Invoicing for more information about client specific quotes and how to set them up.

Sales and Marketing Details

Sales and marketing details can be used by custom script to transmit invoice information from CCLAS 6 to the company's financial system.

A client can have a Legal Entity Code, Legal Entity Number, Legal Entity Name, ERP Site Number, ERP Site Name, ERP Client Number, ERP Client Name, ERP Affiliated Cost Centre, ERP Chart of Accounts, ERP Acc Rec Debit Account, ERP Acc Rec Credit Account, ERP VAT Number, ERP Language Code and ERP Translated Name.

A client project can have a ERP Project Number, ERP Project Name, ERP Affiliated Cost Centre, ERP Chart of Accounts, ERP Acc Rec Debit Account and ERP Acc Rec Credit Account.

Client Projects

Projects can be maintained for each client.

A client project can be saved as another client project for the client.

Where a client's Primary Project Code is defined, then, by default, that project is applied to new jobs created for the client.

Logos and Documents

A client's Logo and a client project's Logo can be placed on a report. A client's Document and a client project's Document can contain relevant details for the client and project, respectively.

Deleting Clients

Clients can only be deleted where there are no job or sample records of any type (production, laboratory batch, internal, proposal, template, schedule, draft) linked to the client.

Using Client and Projects

A job is linked to a client so that certificate reports and invoices can be raised for them.

A client must be specified at job creation. The client of a job of any type can only be updated if the CAN_UPDATE_JOB_CLIENT application preference is enabled.

When a job is linked to a client or project, then the client's Last Submission Date or client project's Last Submission Date is updated.

Job invoices must have the same Client Code, Project Code, Contact Code, Currency and Ignore Tax flag to be merged into one invoice.

Clients can be made members of various client groups to assist with searching for various entities.