Creating multiple Account Types allows you to:

1. Assign Transactions and Activities to specific Account Types, for example, allow merchandising activities for stores only, not warehouses or vans. This means that even if a certain Transaction or Activity is positioned on the Account Dashboard layout for a user profile, it will not appear if the Account is not assigned to this Transaction/Activity by Account Type.

2. Assign certain Account types as sources of inventory (such as vans or warehouses), and others as destinations of inventory in a Transaction (such as stores). This allows you to track inventory across multiple warehouses or vans.

Note: Account Types are part of the Ultimate Plan package, if you don't have this feature activated, please contact your Pepperi sales rep or support.

For example, when creating a Sales Order Transaction where items are sold out of a van, define the source of inventory as type “Van” Account type and the destination type “Customer” Account type. Or if you are creating an Unload Van Transaction, where a rep is moving leftover inventory from their van to a warehouse, define the source of the inventory as type “Van” and the destination type “Warehouse”.

This article explains:

1. How to create Account Types and load the necessary files

2. Account Workflows 

3. Creating Account Lists to view the different Account Types

Create Account Types

To create Account types you need to load them in separate CSV files grouped by type names, or alternatively load them in one file with a header "Type" and indicate the type in this column.

Before loading the files add the initial Account Type names manually – uploading account types in a file with types that don’t exist returns an error.

For example, to create 3 Account types:

1. Customer (default)

2. Van

3. Warehouse

To create the initial type names, for each Account Type :

1. Settings -> Account Types

2. Click + Account Type

3. Enter a name and description and Save

The Forms and Workflows tabs will be added, you can reference those later. 

Upload 3 Accounts CSV files with the type in the file name (sample file attached below).

API_Account_Customer_Distributor_xxxxx.csv

API_Account_Van_Distributor_xxxxx.csv

API_Account_ Warehouse _Distributor_xxxxx.csv

File format requires only 2 fields:

ExternalID - the Account ExternalID

Type - the type the Account will be assigned to. If Type is left empty, the Account will be assigned to the default Account Type "Customer"

(Where xxxxx represents your distributor ID, as in uploading any data file to Pepperi - How to find my Organization ID number)

Detailed format and instructions for the headers in API_Account csv files can be found here: Upload data to Pepperi via FTP using csv files

You can upload just one Accounts CSV file - API_Account_Distributor_xxxxx.csv - with the header "Type". If you don't indicate a value for Type, that Account will be associated with the default type “Customer”.

Once you upload the files, all of the Account Types created will be listed under Settings -> Accounts -> Account Types, where you can then edit the layout of the form displaying the Account details for each type, as well as create a Workflow for each Account type.

Workflows for Accounts allow you to trigger actions when new Accounts are created on the mobile apps (you can also block this capability), or existing Accounts change status.

Forms

Click Edit on the Account Type you wish to configure the form layout for viewing the detailed information in the fields of the Account.

Edit the form for each user profile required. Make sure to include all the fields the user will need to view and possibly edit. Also, mark "Mandatory" fields when creating a new Account of this type. 

Workflows

Trigger Workflow actions when new Accounts are created or edited on the mobile device.

To create a Workflow, add transitions and actions. For more information on Workflows and available actions see: Workflow Designer

For example:

1. Notify regional managers by email notification when a new Account is created by a mobile user on the app

2. Add a webhook to send new Account information to your ERP, so it can be approved and assigned a unique External ID, and then imported back into Pepperi with the ID and status.

3. Notify office staff when an Account is updated with a new status, address, or any other information.

If you want users to be able to edit Accounts they have created on the mobile app, you must add a Submit -> Submit Step in the Workflow, so that the Account can be edited and re-submitted.

To block users from creating new Accounts on the mobile devices do not create (or delete) the New -> In Creation Step in the Workflow for the Account type, the user won't be able to add a new Account of this type (the + sign will not appear on the app in the top right corner of the Accounts view). 

Account Lists

Next, add the Account Types to Account Lists that will be used to view the Accounts in the mobile app and/or the web app.

For details on adding Account Types to Account Lists see: Account Lists.