Welcome to the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Today we’re looking at Customer & Sales Management.

This is the part of the system that handles everything from the moment you first hear about a potential customer, all the way through to getting paid. Think of it as the complete order-to-cash cycle — and we’ll walk through each piece of that today.

So let’s start with what’s actually included. Customer and Sales Management is made up of eleven sub-modules, and each one handles a specific part of the sales process.

The first is Customers, Prospects, and Contacts. This is your address book, essentially — it’s where you store everyone you’re dealing with, whether they’re an existing customer, someone you’re still trying to win over, or just a contact at an organisation.

Next up is Opportunities and Leads. If you’re tracking a potential deal — something that’s not confirmed yet, but you’re actively working on — this is where it lives.

Then you have Commercial Proposals. Once you’re ready to put something in writing for a client, you create a proposal here. Think quotes, tender responses, that kind of thing.

From proposals, you move into Customer Orders. When a client says yes and you need to confirm what they’ve agreed to buy, you create an order. That order then kicks off the rest of the process.

After orders come Contracts and Subscriptions. If your relationship with a client is ongoing — say, a retainer or a recurring service — you’d manage that here rather than treating every billing cycle as a brand new order.

Then there’s Interventions. This module is for logging on-site visits or field service work — any time someone from your team goes out and does something at a client’s location, you can track it here.

The Ticket System handles support and service requests. Customers raise tickets, your team responds, and everything is logged against the right customer record.

Partnership Management is for tracking referral relationships, resellers, or any third party you’re working with on a commercial basis.

Shipping Management covers the delivery side of things — tracking what’s been sent out and when.

Then you have Customer Invoices and Credit Notes. This is where the financial side lives on the customer-facing end. Once work is done or goods are delivered, you raise an invoice here. Credit notes handle corrections or refunds.

And finally, Point of Sale — for any in-person or counter-based transactions, this module handles immediate sales outside the standard order flow.

Now let’s talk about how all of these pieces connect in practice. There’s a standard flow that most sales follow, and it’s worth walking through in order. You start with a prospect — someone you think could become a customer. From there, you identify an opportunity, meaning a specific deal you’re actively pursuing. Once you’re ready to put a number on it, you create a proposal. If the client accepts, that proposal converts into an order. The order then triggers shipping, so goods or services get delivered. Once that’s done, you raise an invoice. And the cycle closes when payment comes in.

That sequence — prospect, then opportunity, then proposal, then order, then shipping, then invoice, then payment — is the backbone of how sales and delivery works in this system. Each stage flows naturally into the next, and the system is designed so you can convert one record into another with minimal rekeying. Your proposal becomes your order, and your order becomes your invoice. That keeps things consistent and saves time.

It’s also worth knowing how Customer and Sales Management connects to the rest of the platform. When you create a customer order, it can automatically reserve stock, so your inventory stays in sync with what’s already been committed to customers. You don’t have to go and update stock levels manually.

On the financial side, invoices and payments are tracked end to end. You can see what’s been invoiced, what’s been paid, and what’s still outstanding — all connected back to the original order.

And if you’re using WordPress as a customer portal, that ties in here too. Customers can potentially view their own orders, invoices, or service history through the front end, depending on how your setup is configured.

So to wrap up — Customer and Sales Management is really the heart of how NZRT manages its commercial relationships. It takes you from that very first conversation with a prospect all the way through to receiving payment, with a clear structure at every stage. Understanding which module handles which part of the cycle will help you navigate the system much more confidently.

That’s it for this episode of the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Thanks for listening.