help needed

System
System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited 10:24AM in AAT student discussion
my last post seems to have gone so i will ask again, does anyone know what is in a customer file? and what order do these go in?

cheers

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    Customer details - whatever order you put them in.

    Scott.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    They have to go in date order within the file.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    Alphabetical / date
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    They don't have to. They could go in alphabetical order. Or numerical order. Or alpha-numerical order etc etc
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    customer contact details
    customer activity reports
    invoices
    credit agreement
    credit notes
    despatch notes
    letters to and from the company
    statements
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    The only answer acceptable to the AAT is that they have to be in date order. That's direct from the AAT assessor that has just visited our college.
    Gem7321 wrote:
    They don't have to. They could go in alphabetical order. Or numerical order. Or alpha-numerical order etc etc
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    Ah well I passed saying alpha-numerical :)
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    I keep my customer files in alphabetic order - then copies of invoices, receipts etc go in numerical order.

    to be honest I think that AAT assessor is talking rubbish, all that matters is that you have a system that's logical and consistent so you can find things quickly.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    Yeah I remember in a foundation sim we had to suggest 2 ways that a customer file could be ordered so it cant just be date :?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    When I remember back to my service days, all information in a file went in numbered order of receipt, regardless of date. And a numbered list of enclosures was kept inside the front cover. If it was good enough for the RAF 30+ years ago, it should still be good today, no matter what an assessor might say.
    Peter
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    when we ran our business we did it in order of how we numbered the invoices etc. I put that down as an answer and was informed it wasn't acceptable.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:help needed

    Please see a previous post I wrote concerning the structure of some filing systems.

    http://forums.aat.org.uk/forums/posts/list/13181.page

    Expanding on this if you take a major house builder like Taylor Woodrow who I imagine receive hundreds of thousands of invoices per annum, a filing system purely by date order would be completely inappropriate. If the MD asked to see how much a subcontractor charged for a roof on the corner plot of a new build in Worthing, West Sussex how on earth could anyone find the invoice just from having a rough idea of the date when the works were completed?

    Therefore, a filing system for them might be;

    By location and county e.g. South East filtered by Sussex, Surrey etc
    By site name e.g. Ropetackle, Pathfinder etc
    By plot (house) number e.g. Plot 1, plot 2 etc
    By room name e.g. dining room, bathroom etc; there could even be sub-sections within each room making for multiple combinations
    By subcontractor or supplier e.g. ABC Roofing, RH Baths Ltd etc
    Maybe only then might they file by date order or invoice number once the above criteria have been ascertained.

    Don't forget that invoices have a number for a reason since it's unique to that particular document and in most filing systems, will take precedence over date. When it comes to the AAT filing/filtering its own commodity - us! - we will almost certainly be sorted by several crtieria including membership number, alphabetical surname and location, not just by the date we renewed our subscriptions!

    Your assessors comments are ill advised and appear a classic example of someone who's never left the classroom and worked in a real life service or manufacturing industry.

    Regards,

    Robert

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