Q - I would like to allow my salesmen to change a customer's address and phone number as they call us. But I don't want my salesmen to be able to change a customer's terms, credit limits and other sensitive information.  I couldn't find a flag on the user security to allow that. I am aware that there is an event to report changes to the customer file's credit-related fields, but this is after the fact. Please let me know what you think.

A - There is actually a solution to this. You can allow salesmen to update a customer's address and phone number through the COP Sales Desk function. To enable this, you will need to go to Global Setup -> Cop-Ctl -> Change Customer Screen Layout, and define which fields in the customer file you would like to display and allow salesmen to change. See the sample screen below:

In this screen, you can select the fields to display and whether those fields can be changed or not.  Once this is done, you can go to COP -> Processing -> Sales Desk and after you enter the customer number, you can press F5 and choose "Change Customer Data," which is based on what you defined in the Global Setup above. See the sample screen below.

Our Sales Desk program is designed as a sales tool for salesmen to use to interact with customers. Therefore, when a customer places order, it is natural for the salesman to verify whether the customer's address is still correct. If not, then the salesman can use this option to override it. By handling the situation through the Sales Desk, you don't need to give salesmen the right to access customer file maintenance.