A sales rep is the person credited with a sale. You attach a sales rep to a sales document so you can attribute the sale, and later filter and report on who sold what. Each rep has a code, a name, and a login, plus two optional cross-references: a parent rep and a default location. The bookkeeper or accountant sets reps up once, and everyone selects from the list on the documents they enter.
A sales rep is the third of ZyncLedger's organizational dimensions, alongside Branches and Locations. Its job is to attribute activity to a person:
- Sales documents carry a sales rep. Quotations, Sales Orders, Invoices, Delivery Orders, and Invoice Credits each have a Sales Rep field on the header. In the default template the field is shown and required. You can change that per template under Administration → Templates.
- The field prefills. A new document starts with your own Default Sales Rep from Settings → Defaults. When you pick a customer that has a Default Sales Rep, that rep replaces it.
- Reports group and filter by rep. Sales reports include a Sales Rep column you can group and sort by, so you can read sales by person and measure each rep's contribution.
- Each rep gets a login. Creating a sales rep also creates a sign-in for that person. With it they can use the Sales Portal in a browser, or the Zync Rep phone app (both covered below).
Before you start
A new business starts with no sales reps. Add them as you need to attribute sales to individual people. If you only want to group sales by office or region rather than by person, use a Branch instead.
Access to sales reps is set in a permission profile under Administration → Permissions, in the Sales Reps row of List Items Access Control:
| Permission | Lets the user |
|---|---|
| List | Open the Sales Reps list. |
| Create | Add reps, and use Import and Export on the list. |
| Edit | Change an existing rep. |
| Delete | Remove a rep. |
| Approve | Tick Approved on a rep. |
See Users & permissions for how profiles are assigned.
Create a sales rep
Open the Sales Reps list
Go to Lists → Sales Reps. The list shows every rep with its Code, Name, Email, Default Location, Parent, Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending), and Created By.
Start a new rep
Select Add Sales Rep. The Create New Sales Rep panel opens from the right.
Enter the code
The Code identifies the rep, for example
SR001. If your workspace generates sales rep codes automatically, this field reads Auto-generated and fills itself on save. If it is set to manual, type a unique code (required). You set this mode under Document numbering.Enter the name and email
Type the rep's Name (required) and Email (required). The email is the rep's sign-in, so it must be unique across all users in your workspace. You cannot reuse an email that already belongs to a staff user or another sales rep.
Set a password
Type a Password for the rep's sign-in, or select the refresh icon to generate one. Use the eye icon to check what you typed, then pass the password to the rep. Create Sales Rep stays unavailable until a password is entered.
Choose a parent rep (optional)
Use Parent Sales Rep to nest this rep under a manager, for example placing a territory rep under a regional manager. Search for the parent and select it, or leave it blank for a top-level rep. A rep cannot be its own parent or sit beneath one of its own reps. The chain can be up to six levels deep, counting the top-level rep. If you pick a parent deeper than that, saving fails with Parent hierarchy exceeds maximum depth of 5.
Choose a default location (optional)
Use Default Location to set the place this rep sells from. When the rep signs in, the stock figures they see come from this location. Without one, they see stock totalled across all locations. A rep who will use the Zync Rep app needs one, because the app files their documents under it. Search for the location and select it, or leave it blank.
Set the status flags
Two checkboxes control whether the rep can be used:
Field What it does Active On by default. Clear it to retire a rep and keep their history. Approved Off by default. Ticking it needs the Approve permission. Once a rep is approved, the box is locked. A rep is offered in the Sales Rep field on documents only when it is both Active and Approved.
Save
Select Create Sales Rep. The rep and their sign-in are created, and once approved the rep appears in the Sales Rep field on sales documents.
Approval gates availability
A new rep is created as Pending until someone with the Approve permission approves it. Until then it does not appear when you tag a document with a sales rep, and the rep cannot sign in. If a rep is not showing up on a document, check that it is both Active and Approved on this screen.
How a rep signs in
The email and password on the rep are that person's sign-in. A rep must be both Active and Approved to sign in.
The Sales Portal
When a rep signs in to your workspace in a browser, ZyncLedger opens the Sales Portal, not the main app. The portal has five sections:
- Dashboard: a summary of the rep's own quotations and sales orders.
- Products: active, approved products, with stock on hand.
- Customers: the customers whose Default Sales Rep is this rep.
- Quotations and Sales Orders: the rep's own documents. The rep builds a cart, picks a customer, and raises a quotation or sales order. Each one is recorded with this rep as its Sales Rep.
The portal has no ledger, reports, or setup screens. To give a rep the right customers, set Default Sales Rep on each customer under Customers.
The Zync Rep app
Zync Rep is a phone app for reps in the field. It covers the same work as the portal: look up customers and products, build a cart, and raise quotations and sales orders. The rep enters your Workspace, then signs in with the same Email and Password.
Before a rep uses the app, give them a Default Location. The app files every document under it, and saving fails with No location is set for this rep. if the rep has none.
Reps use a seat when signed in
A signed-in sales rep counts toward your plan's concurrent user seats, like any other staff user. See Users & permissions.
Import or export reps
Select Export on the Sales Reps list to download the reps you are viewing as a CSV file.
To bring in many reps at once, select Import and upload a CSV. Map each column to a field: Code, Name, and Email are required on every row. You can also map Parent Sales Rep Code, Default Location Name, Active Status, and Approved Status. Choose whether a row whose code already exists should Skip existing sales reps or Update existing sales reps.
The import file does not carry passwords. After importing, edit each new rep and set a password before they sign in.
Reps created by a customer import
When you import customers and a row names a sales rep that does not exist yet,
ZyncLedger creates that rep, active and approved, with a placeholder email ending in
@imported.local. Before that person signs in, edit the rep and enter their real
Email and a Password.
Edit, deactivate, or delete
Select the edit icon on any row to change a rep's name, email, parent, default location, password, or flags. When editing, leave Password blank to keep the current one. To stop a rep being used without losing their history, clear the Active flag rather than deleting the rep.
Heads up
Deleting a sales rep also deletes their sign-in, and cannot be undone. ZyncLedger blocks the delete if the rep has child reps beneath it, is the Default Sales Rep on any customer, or is already used on any sales document, POS sale, or other transaction line. Deactivate the rep instead, or reassign its children and customers first.
Related
- Branches: attribute activity to a part of the business rather than a person.
- Warehouses & Locations: the stock-holding dimension you can set as a rep's default.
- Customers: set a default sales rep on a customer so it prefills on their documents and the customer appears in that rep's portal.
- Invoice: where a sales rep is stamped on the sale.
- Document numbering: choose automatic or manual sales rep codes.
