The lookup transaction may be used to find a customer, subscription, an order, or a prospect.
First, however, you need to know that QuickFill keeps track of customers, subscriptions, orders, and prospects separately. So, you need to understand the distinctions among these four categories.
Customers are the individuals—or companies—who hold subscriptions or are prospective subscribers. No matter how many publications a customer subscribes to or is a prospect for, QuickFill keeps only one record per customer. The customer's record includes fields for name and address data; for such specialized information as tax status, sex, list-rental status, and so forth; and for demographic data.
You see the customer record when you click on "Customer Details" once you've looked up a customer (click here for information on the detailed customer display). QuickFill links each customer record to at least one subscription record or prospect record.
QuickFill keeps track of each subscription in a subscription record. A separate subscription record is maintained for each publication to which a customer subscribes. The subscription record contains the name of the publication, the total number of issues remaining in the subscription, the total amount due (or credit balance) for the subscription, and so on. You see this subscription record when you click on "Subscriptions" for a customer (click here for information on the subscription display).
QuickFill links this subscription record to the customer record of the individual or company who receives the bill for the subscription (the bill-to address) and to the customer record of each individual or company who is receiving issues (the ship-to address). Of course, for most subscriptions, the bill-to and ship-to customers are one and the same.
In addition to subscription records, QuickFill also links prospect records to customer records. Often a prospect comes from a list of names that you rented for promotional purposes, but it may also be a former subscriber whose subscription has been purged. In either case the prospect is linked to a list code that identifies the source of the name, such as 'BUSWEEK05' or '03EXPIRES'.
Each subscription, in turn, has one or more order records attached to it. QuickFill creates an order record each time a customer orders a new subscription for a publication or renews an existing subscription. In systems with the audit feature an order record is also created when a free controlled subscription is started for the customer, or when the customer requalifies for their existing subscription. In the order record, QuickFill keeps information about that particular order—the price, the term, the number of issues you'll serve, and so on. The subscription record of a long-term customer usually has attached to it a new order record (the original order), a first renewal order, a second renewal order, and one or more subsequent renewal orders. You see the order records when you select a specific subscription and click on "Orders" (click here for information on the order display).
Each order has its own status. (Click here for a detailed list of possible statuses.)
Each subscription also has a status. The possible subscription statuses are almost the same as those for orders. The status of the subscription depends on the status of the last non-future order that belongs to that subscription.
Example: Say that a subscription has been renewed twice, and the most recent renewal was an early renewal—that is, you received the order before the subscriber's current term expired. This subscription would have three orders:
1. The original order, which is "expired."
2. The first renewal order, which is "active."
3. The second renewal order, which is "future."
The status of this subscription is "active" because that is the status of the last non-future order.
The diagram below shows a customer who has a subscription to two publications and is also a prospect. The first subscription has been renewed twice and the second subscription has been renewed once.
