CHAPTER 3: CUSTOMER MASTER FILE
Duplicate customer records are one of the biggest problems in customer master files. Programming an automatic tax identification number lookup is one of the most reliable means of preventing redundancies, as long as the numbers are consistently entered according to a standard format guideline (e.g., with or without symbols, or leading zeroes, etc.). Other data points that can aid in preventing and eliminating duplicates are customer name and zip code. While none of these are as reliable as uniformly entered tax identification numbers, a routine sort of the customer file by one or more of these fields can help reveal possible duplicates to be further investigated. The department should also establish a list of naming convention rules. Typical guidelines might include: Enter the name exactly as it appears on Tax Documents: { Corrie Ten Boom—enter as Corrie Ten Boom { Johnny Rhodes—enter as John Luis Rhodes (as on Driver’s license) Eliminate punctuation: { Woolworth G. Department Store—enter as Woolworth G Department Store No abbreviations: { GE—enter as General Electric No initial articles (the, a, an): { The New York Times – enter as New York Times No nicknames: { Eli, liz, Beth—enter as Elizabeth (as on Passport) No titles: { Mr. Mrs. Miss. Ms. etc. (if titles are important, place them at the end) For the situation in which the field length is shorter than the name, agree on ab- breviations, such as not using punctuation at the end: { Company—enter as Co { Incorporated—enter as Inc { Limited—enter as LLC
{ Doctor—enter as Dr { Junior—enter as Jr
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THE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION PROGRAM E-TEXTBOOK
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