Unlimited contacts per customer, each flagged for the emails they should receive: invoices, order confirmations and payment method requests.
A wholesale account is never one person. The buyer places the order, accounts payable pays the invoice, the owner wants a copy of everything. AIMS360 keeps all of them on the customer record and lets you flag which documents each contact receives automatically, so the invoice lands with the person who pays it, not the person who ordered.
Every customer in AIMS360 can hold as many contacts as you need, and each contact can be flagged to automatically receive invoices, order confirmations and payment method requests, as the To, CC or BCC address. Contacts sit on the customer record next to stores, credit terms, EDI settings and notes, so the order desk, the warehouse and accounts receivable all work from the same list.
Most apparel systems store one email per account and leave the rest to somebody's memory. That is how an invoice sits in a buyer's inbox for three weeks while accounts payable has no idea the shipment went out. The fix is not a bigger CRM. It is a contact list that knows what each person is there for.
Contacts are one tab of the customer record. The rest, terms, credit and classifications, stores and ship to locations, notes and tasks, live on the same screen, which is why a phone call about a late invoice takes one lookup instead of three.
A contact is a person with a job, an address to reach them, and a say in which documents they get.
| What it is for | |
|---|---|
| Name, title, department | Buyer, AP manager, store manager, owner, EDI coordinator. Title and department are what let a new hire on your side work out who to call without asking around. |
| Email and phone | Used by the email form and by the automatic sends. A contact you flag for a document needs a valid email address on the record. |
| Document flags | Invoices, order confirmations, payment method requests. Tick the ones this person should receive automatically, and nothing else reaches them. |
| To, CC or BCC | Whether the contact is the addressee or a copy. Accounts payable goes on To for invoices; the owner who wants to see everything goes on BCC. |
| Where it lives | The contacts tab on the customer record. There is no cap on entries. The primary contact on the customer master is a contact too and carries the same flags. |
The customer master itself carries a primary email, usually the buyer or owner, and it gets the same document flags and the same To, CC or BCC choice as every entry on the contacts tab. So a small boutique with one person can be set up in ten seconds, and a department store with a dozen people takes a few minutes, on the same screen.
Three emails are automatic. Everything else is one click from the same list.
| Document | When it goes out | Who receives it | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice Automatic | The moment an invoice is created, one at a time or in a batch run. Nobody has to print it first. | Every contact on the account flagged for invoices, in the To, CC or BCC slot you gave them. | Subject carries the customer PO number, account code, invoice number and amount. A View Invoice link opens the PDF online, and a Pay Invoice button appears when you take cards through AIMS360. |
| Order confirmation Automatic | When an order is entered and saved, for customers you have switched on. Open and hold orders only. | The contacts flagged for confirmations. Sending one by hand instead? The email form defaults to the address on the order, then the customer master. | The order confirmation with your standard subject and body, so the buyer sees what was booked before it ships and catches a wrong size run early. |
| Payment method request Automatic | On demand: from the customer record, from an order, or in bulk from the orders view for accounts on card terms. | The same contacts who receive invoices. | A link to a secure page where the customer adds a card, updates an expiry date or billing address, and sets the default card AIMS360 will charge. |
| Statements, pick tickets, anything else One click | Whenever you print or email a form or report. | Whoever you pick. The email form lists every contact on the account, plus your reps, vendors and users, with sort and filter. | The document you chose. This is a pick from the list, not an automatic send. |
That split is deliberate. Invoices, confirmations and payment requests are the emails that cost money when they reach the wrong person or nobody at all. A statement or a pick ticket is something you decide to send, so the email form opens with the whole contact list and you pick.
Invoices themselves can be raised without a person too. When a pick ticket is completed, automated invoicing creates the invoice, puts the tracking number and reconciled freight on it, and the contact flags decide where it goes. Shipment to paid email with nobody typing an address.
Every automatic email goes out from the company email set in your company settings. Connect your own SendGrid account and the mail carries your domain, with feedback when something bounces or lands in spam. How the SendGrid connection works.
System settings hold an email template for invoices, one for order confirmations and one for payment requests. Dynamic keywords pull the customer name, PO number, invoice number and amount into the subject and body, and the payment request can carry your logo. The automation uses the modern invoice and order confirmation forms.
At the bottom of the customer's details are the switches: auto receive invoices, order confirmations, payment method requests. Invoices can be switched on for every account at once with a global change. Confirmations are one customer at a time.
On the customer master, decide whether the primary email gets each document and in which slot. On the contacts tab, do the same for each person. A batch screen tags contacts across many customers for invoice email in one pass, sorted and filtered however you like.
Each invoice email is written to the customer's workflow history, so you can see when it went and to whom. Need to send one again? Batch email invoices re-sends one invoice or a hundred to the same contacts.
The subject line carries the customer's own PO number and account code, then the invoice number and amount, so AP can match it before they open it. The body is your template with the customer's details filled in.
A link opens the invoice as a PDF in the browser, with download and print. The link stays valid for a year, so the recipient can come back to it at month end without asking you for a copy.
When you take cards through AIMS360 Pay, the email carries a Pay Invoice button. The customer sees the amount and their cards on file, can edit the amount, pay, and get a receipt. The payment posts to the invoice in AIMS360.
Customers on card terms also get a secure page for their payment methods: add a card, fix an expiry date or billing address, and set the default card. Say yes when it asks and open orders switch to the new card; say no and they stay as they are. Factored invoices can leave the Pay Invoice button off, since those are paid to the factor.
Print anything, choose email, and To, CC and BCC open the whole list: primary contacts on customers, reps and vendors, every contacts tab entry, and your AIMS360 users. Sort, filter, tag, select.
Sales rep and vendor records carry their own contacts tab, so the factory's production manager and the rep's assistant are one lookup away too.
The contact list is a separate permission under the Customer module. A role can see the customer but not the contacts, or read them but not edit. Role based access.
Customer contacts are exposed by customer through the AIMS360 API, gated by the API user's permission on the contact list. A CRM or email tool can pull the list instead of somebody retyping it.
Contacts also decide nothing about the B2B portal on purpose. Portal logins are set per customer on the customer record, so a buyer can place orders online without being the person who receives the invoice.
An invoice emailed to a buyer is an invoice nobody in AP has seen. Every day it sits there is a day on your receivables. Flag AP for invoices and the clock starts when the shipment leaves, not when the buyer clears their inbox.
A department store has a buyer, an assistant buyer, an AP team, an EDI coordinator and a compliance desk, and they do not forward each other's mail. Contacts with roles are how one account talks to five departments without five spreadsheets.
When the buyer leaves, you change one contact and the confirmations move with it. Invoices keep going to AP, who did not change. The alternative is finding out three months later that everything went to an address that no longer exists.
Flag a contact with no email and the automatic send for that customer fails, because the address list is invalid. If invoices for one account stop going out, check its contacts before anything else.
Automatic invoice email can be switched on for every account at once. Automatic order confirmations are switched on customer by customer, and confirmations sent by hand go out one order at a time from the email form.
A payment made from the invoice email or the payment page posts to AIMS360, but nobody on your side gets a message about it. Turn on payment notifications at your card processor so AR hears about it.
Automatic invoice and confirmation email use the modern invoice and order confirmation forms. If your company still prints an older custom form, plan the switch before you turn the automation on.
Yes. Each customer record has a contacts tab with no cap on entries. Store the buyer, accounts payable, the store manager, the owner and anyone else, each with their own title, department, phone and email.
Name, title, department, phone and email, plus the document flags: whether the contact receives invoices, order confirmations and payment method requests automatically, and whether they sit in the To, CC or BCC field of that email.
Yes, and that is the point. Flag accounts payable for invoices, the buyer for order confirmations, and put the owner on BCC for both. Each flag is set per contact, per document type.
Yes. Flag the AP contact for invoices and the buyer for order confirmations. When the invoice is created it goes to AP; when the order is saved the confirmation goes to the buyer. Neither sees the other's email unless you copy them.
Yes. Once a customer is switched on for automatic invoice email, every invoice created for that account is emailed to the flagged contacts the moment it exists, whether it was created one at a time or in a batch run. Nothing has to be printed.
Yes. Switch the customer on for automatic order confirmations and each order entered and saved for that account emails the confirmation to the flagged contacts. It applies to open and hold orders; a completed or canceled order cannot be confirmed.
An email asking the customer to add or update the card AIMS360 keeps on file for them, through a secure page. You send it from the customer record, from an order, or in bulk from the orders view for accounts on card terms. It goes to the same contacts who receive invoices.
Yes. Every flagged contact is placed in To, CC or BCC. A common setup is AP on To, the buyer on CC and the owner on BCC, so the owner sees every invoice without the customer's team seeing the owner's address.
Yes. Automatic invoice email can be switched on across all customers with a global change, and a batch screen lets you tag which contacts receive it across many accounts in one pass. Order confirmations are switched on one customer at a time.
The automatic send for that customer fails, because the address list is invalid. Every contact you flag needs a working email. If a customer's invoices stop going out, that is the first thing to check.
Yes, when you process cards through AIMS360. The email carries a Pay Invoice button; the customer sees the invoice amount and their cards on file, can edit the amount, pay, and get a receipt. The payment posts against the invoice in AIMS360.
Yes. Factored invoices are usually paid to the factor, not to you by card, so the factor setup has an option to leave the button off. Invoices for that factor then carry the View Invoice link only.
Yes. When you print a statement, or any other form or report, the email form lets you pick To, CC and BCC from the contact list. Statements are not sent automatically; you choose the recipient each time.
Yes. Sales rep and vendor records have the same contacts tab. All of those entries, plus the primary contacts on customers, reps and vendors, and your AIMS360 users, appear in one list in the email form.
Yes, through the AIMS360 API, which exposes customer contacts by customer. Access is gated by the API user's permission on the contact list, so you decide which integration sees names and emails.
The contact list is its own permission section under the Customer module, so a role can be given no access, read only or full access to it independently of the rest of the customer record.
They are sent from the company email you set in AIMS360. Connect your own SendGrid account and the mail carries your domain, with delivery feedback if a message bounces or is marked as spam.
Yes. Each automatic invoice email is written to the workflow history, so you can see when it went and to whom. If a customer says they never got it, re-send one invoice or many from the batch email screen.
It is the customer side of an ERP. Contacts, credit, terms, stores, EDI settings, notes, tasks, orders, shipments and receivables live on one record. It is not a marketing CRM with sequences and lead scoring; connect one of those if you need it, and it can read the contacts through the API.
Contacts are people. Stores are places. A department store account might have one AP contact, three buyers and two hundred ship to locations, and AIMS360 keeps them apart: contacts on the contacts tab, stores on the stores tab, with EDI store and distribution center codes on the stores.
Bring that customer to the demo. We will set up its contacts, flag the roles, and send a test invoice while you watch.
