System Manager

Countries

Purpose

This procedure is used to add or maintain the details of a Country. Countries are used in address input and define (in part) some of the address format details – like the wording for ‘state’ and ‘postcode’ which can vary between countries. Along with assisting to define the “rules” for data entry, having a separate and validated input for countries allows Online Advantage to filter reports and provide specific data analysis on activity on a Country by Country basis. This is something that is particularly useful in the Distribution suite for such modules as Sales Analysis.

A full list of country codes are delivered with the Online Advantage software (the list is as per ISO 3166 alpha-2 country codes). As the full list contains around 250 countries, you should select the countries of your suppliers and customers and flag those as ‘in use’. This makes choosing a country in the address input easier.

Data Input

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Step 1 – Country Code

Country Code

Enter a new, unique Country Code, that does not already exist on the system.
You may select an existing country code for editing.
For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage

A full list of country codes is provided from the ISO alpha-2 list.
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Step 2 – Details

Name

Enter the name of the country. This is a mandatory field.

For more details on descriptions, see The Role of “Names & Descriptions” in Online Advantage

State word

Enter the ‘state’ word. Whatever word is entered here e.g. State, Region, Province will be displayed when entering address information for this Country.

Postcode word

Enter the ‘postcode’ word. Whatever word is entered here e.g. Postcode, Zip Code will be displayed when entering address information for this Country.

Validate Postcode

If you are able to maintain a set of postcodes for the country, then select this option so that postcode is validated when entering address information, otherwise leave this option un-selected and postcode input will be free-form “text” input during address entry.

Postcode Finder Link

Enter the link for postcode finder. This allows you to include a URL (Uniform Resource Locator or web link) for the countries postal web site so users can easily find postcodes if they need to. As an example, for Australia, the link is: http://auspost.com.au/apps/postcode.html could be used. This is especially useful if the ‘Validate Postcode’ option is not selected as it give users a way of doing a quick lookup of a post code when required.

Postcode Finder Text

Enter the text for the Postcode Finder link. This is the text that will appear when entering addresses. It sits ‘in front of’ the finder link, so instead of seeing http://auspost.com.au/apps/postcode.html you would see some more user friendly text – like Find Postcode if you enter that term at this prompt.

Active

Select this to make a country active. Only active countries will appear in the available list of countries when entering addresses. This makes choosing a country when entering addresses more manageable.
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Step 3 – States

The state details are displayed in a list. Click the delete icon in the grid to delete the state.
To add a state detail, enter the state details and click Add.

The states entered here will be available for selection when entering addresses. This leads to more consistent data – so you won’t end up with varying inputs like: nsw, NSW, N.S.W. etc. Having these “code” based also makes the “State” a very useful reporting filter and consolidation

State Code

Enter the state code. For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage

State Name

Enter a name to be used to describe the state. For more details on descriptions, see The Role of “Names & Descriptions” in Online Advantage

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