Customers and starting balances

Add a customer

1. Click Customers in the menu, then Add New Customer.
2. Enter the Customer Name. Phone Number, Email and Address are optional. An email lets you send invoices and field reports from the hosted (web) version.
3. If the farmer already has grain in your bins, enter it in Starting Balance - Corn (bushels) and Starting Balance - Soybeans (bushels), plus the box for any other grain saved in Site Config, such as wheat or milo. Otherwise leave them at 0.
4. If Ticket numbers count per customer is on in Site Config, enter a Ticket Prefix, or leave it empty to keep the site’s numbering.
5. Enable QR codes on delivery slips is ticked by default. It prints a code on this customer’s grain slips that opens their loads in the customer portal.
6. Click Save Customer.

To practice before real loads, tick Test Customer (for testing purposes only). A test customer’s loads don’t count toward site totals or the Daily Position Report.

Test customers are hidden on the Customers page. Click Show test customers under Add New Customer to list them after your real customers, and Hide test customers to put them away. Typing a name in Filter by name... still finds them, and you can still pick them on a new delivery.

The customer card

Each card shows the contact details and current bushels for each grain, then four buttons:

• Fields lists the farmer’s fields. See Farm fields.
• Reports opens the Grain Summary and the Field Report for a Crop Year. See Field report.
• Edit changes the details and starting balances.
• Delete removes the customer and their balances after you confirm. Use it only for a customer added by mistake. It’s refused while the customer still has grain, an open load, unpaid invoices, or an open contract, and the message says which. To get a test customer out of the way, leave it hidden instead.

Type in Filter by name... to find a customer.

Starting balances

A starting balance is grain a farmer already had in your storage when you began using Horizon Grain. It adds to their balance, is billed storage like any other bushels, and can be sold. It shows as Starting Balance on storage invoices and the Grain Summary.

1. On the customer’s card, click Edit.
2. Enter the bushels in Corn Balance, Soybean Balance, or the box for any other grain saved in Site Config.
3. Click Save.

Enter it once. Grain still in storage at season end carries forward on its own, so don’t re-enter balances each year.

Customer Balances

Click Customer Balances in the menu for one card per customer. Under Storage Totals are the bushels in storage for each grain, with a sell button (Sell Corn, for example) to buy that grain from the farmer. Below are their drying and storage invoices, marked Unpaid until paid.

View Details opens the customer’s page. It has Grain In/Out, Invoices and, if they have any, Contracts tabs. Grain In/Out lists deliveries under Received and, with customer haul-outs on, grain hauled out for them under Hauled out. Grain Year switches seasons.

Common problems

• The edit form shows a different number from the card. The card shows the current balance. The Corn Balance and Soybean Balance boxes in the edit form are the starting balance only.
• No starting balance box for wheat or milo. The grain isn’t saved in Site Config yet. Save it there, then add or edit the customer.