ESTIMATES

[ALC]

HELLO, I HAVE 3 CUSTOMERS WITH THE SAME FIRST AND LAST NAME, IN THE CUSTOMER SETTING MY ONLY SEPARATER WOULD BE THE CUSTOMER ID BY DEFAULT & OR THE ACCOUNT NAME, *FOR EXAMPLE I GENERATED 3 CUSTOMERS, JOHN SMITH,, *IN THE "ACCOUNT NAME" ENTRY I ENTERED "SMITH - MAIN ST" AND SO ON, *I WOULD THINK THAT THIS ACCOUNT NAME WOULD BE FOR OFFICE USE REFFERENCE, AND THE "CUSTOMER NAME" AS THE CORRESPONDENCE NAME, IE CONTRACTS. WHEN I GENERATE A CONTRACT FOR CUSTOMER NAME "JOHN SMITH", HIS ACCOUNT NAME IS USED INSTEAD, IE SMITH-MAIN ST. * ALSO....WITHIN THE ESTIMATE LIST PAGE, THE COLUMN "CUSTOMER NAME" SAYS THE "ACCOUNT NAME" NOT THE CUSTOMER NAME, ALL FOR OFFICE REFFERENCE, BUT THE COLUMN SHOULD BE CALLED "ACCOUNT NAME".

SO MY QUESTIONS ARE, *1. HOW TO KEEP AN ESTIMATES CORRESPONDENCE FROM LINKING MY "ACCOUNT NAME" INTO MY "CUSTOMER NAME"? *2. HOW BEST TO SEPARATE SAME NAME ACCOUNTS?
THANK YOU. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Gopher Support]

You can differentiate the customers by editing the Account Name field in the Customer record screen, as you have already done. This value will appear on your invoice, estimate, and contract list screens under the "Customer Name" column. But your customers will not see the value of the Account Name field when you print their invoices. The only name information that they will see are the Header 1 & 2 fields on the Billing Address window. While the different field names can be confusing (i.e. it's called Account Name on the customer edit screen, Customer Name on some of the other screens), they both refer to the same exact data.