distributor, OEM, End-user, etc. However, I noticed that when I started
entering invoices they had to be switched back to "Customer" type. How can
I fix that?
A: The System Types are more fixed than how you are trying to use them. Think of System Type as the big umbrella description of how a company fits into the financial picture -- they are a line you represent (Principal); a company that buys from one of your Principals (Customer); a potential customer (Prospect for Opportunities); etc.
There are a few Types that certainly make sense to add; entries for Companies that are not yet a Customer in particular are helpful. Some examples might be:
* End User
* Lead
* former-Customer
* former-Principal
The rest of the descriptive terms I would add as Categories, especially since in Categories we can have multiple terms for each company -- a company could be a wholesaler, in a particular industry, perhaps belonging to a specific buying group (as example). Here are some could Category ideas (we usually group them in the categories list alphabetically by prefacing them with the initials of what the category is):
* MS: power transmission
* MS: conveying
* MS: industrial [market segments]
* CU: distributor
* CU: wholesale
* CU: OEM [customer sub-types]
* BG: Afflink
* BG: NISSCO
* BG: SSS [buying groups]
You can search on combinations of Categories, and combinations of Categories and Types -- for example, give me all the End Users for conveying products in Iowa.
You can also assign categories to multiple companies (or contacts) at once using multi-select. Here are a couple of articles that give more detail:
Bulk Update Types
Bulk Update Contact Categories
Bulk Update Company's Contacts Categories
Creating an Active Customer List for Emailing
Hopefully, that gives you some more ideas about how to group up your companies. If you have any questions, let me know.