Every customer and every supplier in PharmaERP has one person who is responsible for it: its Account Owner. For customers this is usually the salesperson and for suppliers it is usually the buyer. The owner, together with the people above them in the reporting line, decides who can see the account and its orders, invoices and credit memos. Use the Owner Assignment page to change an owner, for example when someone joins, leaves or takes over a region or when an account has no owner. It is used by the system administrator, usually at the request of a sales or purchasing manager.
When a customer or supplier is added, the person who adds it becomes its owner automatically. After that, Owner Assignment is the only place where the owner can be changed. It is not available on the account's edit page.
1 Before you start
You need these rights in Roles (Role Master):
To do this | You need this right |
|---|---|
See the Owner Assignment link in the menu | SYSTEM › AdminMember (Members) - View |
Open the page, look up owners and change owners | SYSTEM › Account Owner - View |
The two rights are separate. Someone with the Members right but not the Account Owner right sees the menu link and gets Access Denied when they click it. Someone with only Account Owner does not see the link.
The Account Owner View right alone lets a person change owners. There is no separate right for changing. Give it only to people who may re-assign any account in the company.
Rights are read when you sign in. After your role changes, sign out and sign in again. See Signing in.
The person who will become the owner must already exist on the Members page. The customers and suppliers must already exist in Customer DB and Supplier DB.
Who reports to whom is set on the Members page. It decides which managers see an owner's accounts.
To open the page, sign in and choose System Settings › Members › Owner Assignment in the left menu. The page opens with your own name selected and Supplier chosen.
2 Step by step
2.1 Find your way around the page
Area | What it is for |
|---|---|
SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT | The person whose accounts you want to see or who will become the owner. |
SELECT MODULE | Customer or Supplier: which kind of account the list shows. |
Owner (n) tab | The accounts the selected person owns now. You cannot change anything here. |
Not Owner (n) tab | Every other account, owned by someone else or by nobody. Tick accounts here to give them to the selected person. |
Assign (n) button | Appears when you tick accounts. Gives them to the selected person. |
Reset button (round arrows) | Clears every filter and reloads both tabs. |
2.2 See which accounts a person owns
In SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT, choose the person. Type part of the name to find it.
In SELECT MODULE, choose Customer or Supplier.
Stay on the Owner tab. The number in brackets is how many accounts the person owns.
To narrow the list, use the boxes above the columns or the Search box.
Each row shows the account with its owner, the date that person became owner (Owner creation Date), the people it is assigned to (Assign To), who created it and its status. A person who owns nothing on that side gets an empty list.
2.3 Give an account to a new owner
Use this when an account has no owner, its owner has left or the work is moving to another person. The steps are the same when the account already has another owner. In that case the Owner column on the Not Owner tab shows the current owner's name.
In SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT, choose the new owner.
In SELECT MODULE, choose Customer or Supplier.
Open the Not Owner tab.
Find the account. Type part of its name in the Company name box above the Name column and press Enter.
Tick the box at the start of the account's row. The row is highlighted and the Assign (1) button appears next to the tabs.
Check the selected person and the ticked rows once more. The page does not ask "Are you sure?".
Click Assign (1) once. A grey "SAVING...." screen appears for a moment.
Wait for the green message Ownership assigned successfully. Both tabs reload. The account is now on the new owner's Owner tab, with today's date as Owner creation Date.
Nothing is saved until you click Assign. No e-mail or notification is sent to anyone, so tell the new owner and the previous owner yourself.
2.4 Give several accounts at once
Choose the new owner and the side (Customer or Supplier), then open the Not Owner tab.
Filter the list so it shows only the accounts you want, for example by Region or Status.
Tick each account or tick the box in the column heading to tick every row on the current page. A page shows 20 rows by default. Use records per page to show up to 100.
Check the number on the button, for example Assign (12) and click it once.
If you change a filter, the page or the sort after ticking, the ticks are cleared but the Assign button can stay on screen. Tick again just before you click Assign.
2.5 Check the result and recover from an error
Reload the page.
Choose the new owner and the side.
Open the Owner tab and look for the accounts you moved.
If you saw an error, do this check before you try again. Each ticked account is saved one at a time, so when several were ticked, some may already have moved and the rest did not. Tick only the accounts still missing from the Owner tab.
2.6 What each filter does
Field | What to enter | Rules |
|---|---|---|
SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT | The person whose accounts are listed and who becomes the owner when you click Assign. | Required. Every user is listed, including people who have left. Your own name is selected first. |
SELECT MODULE | Customer or Supplier. | Required. Supplier is selected when the page opens. |
Tick box (row) | Tick the accounts to give to the selected person. | Only on the Not Owner tab. The box in the heading ticks every row on the current page. |
Search (top right) | Text to look for as you type. | Looks in Name, Region, Currency, Owner and Created By. It does not look in Code. |
Company name (above Name) | Part of the account name. | On the Not Owner tab, press Enter. On the Owner tab, the list refreshes as you type and can lag one letter behind. |
Region box | A country or All. | Applies when changed. |
Region text box | The whole country code or the whole country name, for example BE. | Part of a code finds nothing. |
Status box | One account status or All. | Applies when changed. |
records per page | 10, 20, 50 or 100. | 20 is the default. |
The Status column shows the account's own status from Customer DB or Supplier DB. You cannot change it here. Some labels differ from the names in the Status box. Onboarding - Complete shows as "Potential Suplier", Onboarding - In Progress shows as "Supplier Onboarding" and Closed - Not relevant shows as "Dead".
3 What happens after you save
The new person is the owner from that moment. If someone else owned the account, they stop being the owner. The earlier ownership is kept as history, but no screen shows it. Ask IT if you need to know who owned an account before.
Nothing else about the account changes. Its details, status, assigned people, existing orders and invoices stay as they were.
The new owner, the people above them in the reporting line and anyone the account is assigned to, see the account in Customer DB or Supplier DB, in the customer or supplier boxes of orders and invoices and in reports. The owner and the people above the owner see all of its orders, invoices and credit memos.
Who may submit and approve the account's orders and invoices also starts from the owner and the owner's managers. An account with no owner gives Submit and Approve buttons to nobody except the main administrator account.
Each ticked account is saved one at a time. If something goes wrong half-way, the accounts already processed keep their new owner.
4 What a person sees when they are not the owner
PharmaERP shows an account to a person when they or anyone who reports to them, own it or are assigned to it. A person who is not the owner and is not in the owner's reporting line, sees the following.
Situation | What the person sees | What to do |
|---|---|---|
The account moved to someone else and the person is not assigned to it | The account is missing from Customer DB or Supplier DB, from the customer or supplier boxes of orders and invoices and from reports. Some lists show the account code instead of the name. | Decide who should keep access. To let them work on the account again, add them on User Assignment. |
The person opens the account's edit page by a saved link | Access Denied | Same as above. Ask the administrator to add them on User Assignment or to make a person in their reporting line the owner. |
The person is still assigned to the account after the move | They still see the account, but only the orders, invoices and credit memos that their own team created. They lose owner-only abilities, such as approving the account's orders. | Check on User Assignment that this is what you want. |
The person is not the owner and not in the owner's line and sees an account in a colleague's Owner tab here | Nothing special: this page lists every account for anyone with the Account Owner right, but the other pages follow the ownership rule above. | None. |
The account has no owner and no one is assigned | Ordinary users cannot see it at all and nobody except the main administrator account gets Submit and Approve buttons. | Give the account an owner on this page. |
The owner was made inactive on the Members page | The account stays with the inactive person. Only their managers and the people assigned to the account see it. | Move the account to an active person on this page. |
Warn people before you move their accounts. If they still need to work on an account, add them on the User Assignment page.
5 Messages you may see
Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Ownership assigned successfully | Green message. The accounts now belong to the selected person. | Nothing. Check the new owner's Owner tab if you wish. |
Please select at least on supplier/customer to assign | You clicked Assign with nothing ticked. Usually the list reloaded after you ticked (filter, sort or page change), which clears the ticks but leaves the button on screen. | 1. Tick the accounts again. 2. Click Assign once. |
Failed to retrieve states.[object Object] | A browser pop-up, not a PharmaERP message. The save did not go through. Typical causes: your session ended, your Account Owner right was removed, --Select-- was left in the user box or a system error. | 1. Click OK. 2. Reload the page and check the Owner tab, because some accounts may already have moved. 3. If the page opens the sign-in screen, sign in again (see Signing in). 4. If it repeats, tell IT and mention the time. They can find it on the Error Log page. |
Access Denied | Page. Your role does not have Account Owner - View, even if you can see the menu link. | Ask your administrator to tick Account Owner - View for your role in Roles. Then sign out and sign in again. See also Sign-in problems. |
Sign-in page appears instead of the page | Your session ended. | Sign in again. See Signing in. |
No data available in table | Nothing matches the person, side and filters. | 1. Check the person and the side. 2. Click the Reset button to clear the filters. |
The customer was not added: that person cannot be its owner. Pick yourself or someone in your team. | Shown on the Add Customer form (the supplier form says "supplier"), not on this page. The chosen owner is outside the adder's team or their role is not allowed to choose an owner. Nothing is saved. | Pick yourself or someone in your team. To give the account to anyone else, add it first and then use Owner Assignment. Allowed roles are set in Roles. |
Customer added successfully! Account owner: followed by a name | Shown on the Add Customer form when an owner was chosen. | The account now appears on that person's Owner tab here. |
6 Troubleshooting
6.1 If you are a user
6.1.1 I cannot see an account I used to see
Ask your manager or administrator who the account's owner is now. The administrator finds this on Owner Assignment (the Owner column on the Not Owner tab).
If you still need to work on it, ask the administrator to add you on User Assignment.
If you only need to see it, you can see it when the owner reports to you or when you are assigned to it.
6.1.2 I see the Owner Assignment link but get Access Denied
Your role has the Members right but not Account Owner.
Ask your administrator to add Account Owner - View to your role in Roles.
Sign out and sign in again, then open the page.
6.2 If you are an administrator
6.2.1 The Assign button is showing but nothing happens or I get the "Please select at least" message
Click the Reset button (round arrows) to reload both tabs.
Tick the accounts again.
Click Assign once.
6.2.2 The page shows the old person's accounts after I chose --Select--
Choose a real person in SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT. --Select-- does not clear the list.
Check the name in the box before you tick anything. Assign with --Select-- fails with the browser pop-up.
6.2.3 The list stays on "Processing..." or does not change
Your session may have ended or your right may have been removed. Reload the page.
If the sign-in page or Access Denied appears, follow Signing in or the Access Denied row above.
If the list still does not load, send the time and the person selected to IT. See Error Log.
6.2.4 An account shows two different owners or the wrong owner
This can happen when Assign was clicked twice or the page was open in two browser tabs.
Reload the page and look at the account's row on both tabs.
Choose the right person and assign the account again, clicking Assign once.
If it still shows different owners on different pages, report it to IT.
6.2.5 A user cannot approve or see documents after I moved the account
Check who owns the account now and who it is assigned to on User Assignment.
Approval buttons follow the owner and the owner's managers. Check the reporting line on the Members page.
If the account has no owner, give it one on this page.
6.2.6 A person cannot be found or accounts are stuck with someone who left
A person who has left is still offered in SELECT USER FOR OWNER ASSIGNMENT and the page accepts them. Do not choose them.
Choose the person who is taking over, open the Not Owner tab and move the accounts to them.
A person who is missing from the box must first be added on the Members page.
7 Good to know
User Assignment is a different page. It adds extra people to an account and does not change its owner. Owner Assignment changes the one owner.
Anyone who can open this page can give any account in the company to anyone, without a confirmation question. Keep the Account Owner right to a very small group.
Accounts imported from spreadsheets have no owner, so ordinary users cannot see them until you give them an owner here.
You cannot remove an owner without giving the account to someone else. There is no "no owner" action.
Clicking the Code heading does not sort by code. Clicking Assign To sorts by code and clicking Created On sorts by Owner creation Date.
An older version of this page may still open from a saved address. Its button does nothing. Always use Owner Assignment in the menu.
See also: Members, Roles, Signing in, Error Log.