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One customer account with a store record per ship to location: store numbers, buyers, reps, preferred warehouses, bill to, and distribution centers cross referenced for EDI and the GS1-128 label.
A department store is one customer and two hundred ship to locations. A boutique is one customer and one. In AIMS360 the account you bill is the customer record, and every place it receives goods is a store under it, with its own number, address, buyer, rep and warehouse, and for EDI retailers the distribution center it routes through and the label that proves it.
One customer record for the account you bill, and one store under it for each ship to location. Every store carries its own number, address and, when needed, its own buyer, sales rep and shipping warehouse. Orders choose the store as the ship to, so a retailer with two hundred doors is still one account with one credit limit, one set of terms and one financial history.
The rule that matters most is the one brands break before they know it exists: stores are not separate customer accounts. Set up each door as its own customer and the receivables, the history and the reporting for that retailer are split across records with no clean way back. Stores go on the stores tab of the account.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Store number | Two to eight characters, letters or numbers. For a boutique, whatever works for you, or let the system generate it. For an EDI trading partner, the exact number the retailer publishes, because it has to match the incoming purchase order. |
| Address | The ship to address for that door. For EDI retailers the address on the store record is what prints on the GS1-128 carton label, so it is set from the retailer list, not from memory. |
| Buyer or contact | A different buyer or contact for that store, when the store has one, on top of the account contacts. |
| Sales rep | A store level rep. When that store is chosen on an order, the store rep becomes the second sales rep on the order, whatever the account or division setup says. |
| Preferred warehouse | With multi warehouse, the warehouse that ships to this store, so an East coast door ships from the East coast building without anyone choosing. |
| Bill to | A billing address for this store, when it differs from the account. Set up once as a bill to record and attached to the stores it covers. |
| Distribution center | For EDI, a flag that marks this record as a DC rather than a door, and on each store the DC it routes through. |
One store makes itself the default. An account with a single store never asks; that store is the ship to on every order. Add a second and the order asks which. A store rep overrides the account. When a store with its own rep is chosen on an order, that rep becomes the second sales rep on the order whatever the account or the sales rep by division setup says, which is the point, and also the thing to remember when a commission looks unexpected.
Retailers that receive centrally publish a list of distribution centers and which stores each one serves. In AIMS360 a DC is a store record with the DC flag on, and each store is cross referenced to the DC it routes through. The purchase order names the store, the shipment goes to the DC, and the carton label carries the DC as the ship to and the store as the mark for.
Same screen as any store. Enter the retailer's DC number as the store number, the DC address, and tick the box that marks it as a distribution center.
Open each store and choose its DC from the lookup. A retailer with three DCs and four hundred doors is four hundred stores each pointing at one of three DC records.
The address details on the store and DC records are what print on the GS1-128 label. If a sample does not match the retailer's guide, fix the record, not the label.
By default every store bills to the account's primary address. When a retailer wants invoices sent to a regional office, or to the DC, the billing address is created once as a bill to record and attached to the stores it covers. Choose one of those stores on an order and the bill to updates itself.
Same screen again. The store number represents the billing location, the address is where the invoice goes.
Open each store, or the DC, that should bill there and enter the bill to store number in the bill code field, or browse for it.
From then on, choosing one of those stores as the ship to sets the bill to on the order automatically. Nothing to remember at order entry.
Nobody keys four hundred doors. Ask the retailer for its store and DC list as a spreadsheet, put it in the stores import template, and import it. Each row carries the store number, the address, the DC number the store routes through, and whether the row itself is a DC.
Download the stores template from the import screen. Stores and DCs are rows on the same sheet, with a flag that says which is which and a DC number on every store row.
Retailer store numbers are usually a fixed length with leading zeros, and spreadsheets drop them. On import, choose to pad left with zeros to the length you need, from one to eight, and the store number and the DC number are padded together.
For accounts with no retailer imposed numbers, a system setting generates store numbers in sequence. Overwrite one before saving if you want your own code.
From the ship to lookup on the order, add a new store, enter the number and address, save and select it. It goes on this order and stays on the account for the next.
The customer record: terms, price tier, ship via, credit limit, the rules every order inherits. This is the thing you bill, and there is one of it.
From the vendor portal or the routing department, as a spreadsheet, with the store numbers, addresses and the DC each store ships through.
Paste the list into the stores template, mark the DC rows, pad the numbers to the retailer's length, and import. Check the count against the retailer's list.
A regional rep on the doors that rep works. A preferred warehouse on the doors closest to a building. A bill to record attached to the stores that invoice elsewhere.
Before the first shipment, print a GS1-128 for one store and compare it to the retailer's guide. The store and DC records are where any fix goes.
If a retailer's doors were set up as individual customers, the history on each one stays where it is. Move forward on one account with stores, and accept that the old records hold the old history.
Store and DC numbers on EDI accounts have to match the retailer's documents exactly, including leading zeros. A store number that is off by a character means a purchase order that does not match a door.
The rep on a store becomes the second rep on the order regardless of the account or division setup. Use it deliberately, and do not put a rep on a store unless that rep should be paid on every order shipped there.
Store addresses come from the record. A buyer who needs one changed asks their rep, which is the right control for an address that ends up on a retailer's carton label.
One customer record for the account you bill, and one store under it for each ship to location. Every store carries its own number, address, and optionally its own buyer, sales rep and shipping warehouse. Orders pick the store as the ship to, so a department store with two hundred doors is still one account with one credit limit, one set of terms and one financial history.
No, and it is the most common setup mistake we see. Stores that belong to the same entity go on the stores tab of that customer. Set them up as separate accounts and the financial history, the receivables and the reporting for that retailer are split across records, and there is no clean way to put them back together.
Two to eight characters, letters or numbers. For an independent boutique with one door it can be anything, or the system can generate one. For an EDI trading partner the retailer decides: the number on the store record has to match what arrives on their purchase order, so it comes from their store list, not from you.
A store record flagged as a DC. Retailers that receive centrally publish a list of distribution centers and which stores each one serves. In AIMS360 you create the DC as a store, tick the flag that marks it as a DC, then on each store choose the DC it routes through. The purchase order names the store, the shipment goes to the DC, and the carton label carries both.
Directly. The address details on the store and DC records are what print on the label, along with the store number as the mark for and the DC as the ship to. If a sample label does not look the way the retailer's guide shows, the fix is on the store record, not on the label.
Yes. Download the stores template from the import screen, paste in the retailer's list with the store numbers, addresses, the DC number for each store and whether each row is a DC, and import. If the retailer's numbers need leading zeros to reach a fixed length, the import can pad them for you, on the store and the DC number together.
Yes. From the ship to lookup on the order, add a new store, enter the number and the address, save and select it. It goes on the order in front of you and is available for every future order for that account.
It becomes the default ship to for every order on that account, so you never have to pick it. Add a second and the order asks which one.
Yes. A rep set on a store becomes the second sales rep on any order shipped to that store, regardless of the rep on the account or the sales rep by division setup. It is the way to split commission on an account where one rep opened the account and another works a region of doors.
With multi warehouse, yes. Each store can carry a preferred shipping warehouse, so orders to that door are fulfilled from the building closest to it or the one holding that retailer's stock, without the order entry team choosing each time.
By default every store bills to the account's primary address. If a retailer wants invoices sent to a regional office or to the DC, create that billing address as a bill to record and attach it to the stores it covers. When one of those stores is chosen on an order, the bill to updates itself.
Yes. A buyer on the portal and a rep on the iPad both choose from the stores on the account, and addresses come from the store records rather than being typed. A buyer who needs a store corrected asks their rep, since addresses are not edited on the portal.
The store the goods are ultimately for, when the shipment itself goes to a distribution center. On the label and the ASN the ship to is the DC and the mark for is the store. In AIMS360 that is the store record and the DC it is cross referenced to.
Yes, with a system setting. New stores get the next number in a sequence, and you can overwrite it before saving if you want your own code. It is meant for non EDI accounts, where the store number is for your convenience rather than a retailer requirement.
New doors get added as stores, closed doors are left in place so history stays intact, and a store that moves to a different DC gets its cross reference changed. Retailers publish these changes in their vendor communications; the store list in AIMS360 is where they land.
No. A store is a ship to location belonging to your customer, including their distribution centers. Your own warehouses, where your stock sits, are set up separately under multi warehouse, and a store can point at one of them as its preferred shipping source.
Yes. The store record holds what the trading partner needs to match documents, starting with the store number the retailer publishes, and the DC flag and cross reference for routing. Which identifiers a given retailer requires depends on that retailer's setup, which is covered on its integration page.
As many as the retailer has doors. Department stores with hundreds of locations, and the distribution centers that serve them, are the normal case for an apparel brand, and the stores tab, the import template and the DC cross reference are built for that scale rather than for a handful of addresses.
We will load it in front of you, cross reference the DCs, print a sample label against their guide, and show you the account it all rolls up to.
