One record per customer

Each customer has a single record in your company. Autoria recognizes them by their identity document: the type, the N° de document d'identité (document number) and the Nationalité (nationality) entered on their record.

Create a customer

In Clients (customers), click Nouveau client (new customer), then choose Client particulier (individual customer) or Client professionnel (business customer). Each choice opens its own window, Nouveau client particulier (new individual customer) or Nouveau client professionnel (new business customer), with the steps of that type of customer.

An individual

The creation follows the order the customer hands you their papers:

1. Client (customer): the Photo, the Prénom (first name), the Nom (last name), the phone and the E-mail, then the Adresse (address) section. Move on with Suivant (next).
2. Pièces du conducteur (driver documents), marked Facultatif (optional): the Document d'identité (identity document) block follows the card, front then back: the Type, the N° de document d'identité (document number), the Date de naissance (date of birth), the Lieu de naissance (place of birth), the Date de délivrance (date of issue), then the Nationalité (nationality). The Permis de conduire (driving licence) block asks for the N° de permis de conduire (licence number) and its Date de délivrance (date of issue). The Photos des pièces (document photos) block takes a photo of the Carte d'identité (identity card) and of the Permis de conduire (driving licence): these photos are private, only your team sees them, on the customer record. Finish with Confirmer (confirm).

For a request taken over the phone, the Prénom (first name), the Nom (last name) and the phone are enough: the E-mail, the Adresse (address) and the whole Pièces du conducteur (driver documents) step are optional, and Confirmer (confirm) is offered from the Client (customer) step. You can book for this customer right away. Their documents will be required when the vehicle leaves: « À compléter au plus tard au départ du véhicule. » (to complete at the latest when the vehicle leaves, see Departure and return inspections).

A company

A company is created in a single step, Entreprise (company): the Raison sociale (legal name) and the Matricule fiscal (tax identifier), then the Contact section (the Prénom, the Nom, the phone and the E-mail of the person to reach), then the Adresse du siège (head office address). Finish with Confirmer (confirm).

A company has no date of birth, identity document or driving licence on its record: the person who drives is an individual customer, with their own record. The tax identifier is checked against the rules of your company's country, and both the legal name and the tax identifier are printed on its invoices.

In both cases

Fields marked with an asterisk are required. The address and the place of birth are printed on the rental contract: fill them in for a complete contract.

Documents to complete and customers without email

In the Clients (customers) list and on the record, an individual whose identity document or driving licence is not filled in yet carries the Pièces à compléter (documents to complete) tag. It disappears as soon as the record is complete. A company never carries it.

When the record has no email, Pas d'e-mail (no email) is shown instead. Autoria then sends nothing to this customer (contract, invoice, receipt, reminder): the action itself goes through normally, it is up to you to hand over their documents.

If, while completing a record, you enter an identity document already held by another record, saving is refused and the window offers Ouvrir la fiche existante (nouvel onglet) (open the existing record in a new tab): you can check the other record without losing what you were entering.

To attach a copy of the driving licence or identity document, open the Documents tab of the customer record, then its options button: Modifier le permis de conduire (update the driving licence) or Modifier la pièce d'identité (update the identity document). The tab is there even when the record has no document yet. For an individual, you can also add their photos right at creation, in the Photos des pièces (document photos) block of the Pièces du conducteur (driver documents) step.

To correct a record, Modifier (edit) opens the window of its type, Modifier le client particulier (edit the individual customer) or Modifier le client professionnel (edit the business customer); Enregistrer (save) is offered at every step, without going to the last one.

One record per identity document

A second record with the same identity document is refused, with the message "Une fiche client existe déjà avec cette pièce d'identité ou ce matricule fiscal" (a customer record with this identity document or tax identifier already exists). Look up the existing record in Clients (customers) and use it.

A company is recognized the same way by its Matricule fiscal (tax identifier): a second company with the same tax identifier is refused, with the same message, at creation as well as when you change the tax identifier of a record. The tax identifier is compared in its normalized form ("1234567 r a m 000" and "1234567/R/A/M/000" are the same); two establishments of a same company (different establishment code, "000" and "001") remain two records.

The type of a record (Particulier, individual, or Entreprise, company) is chosen at its creation and never changes afterwards.

To recognize the same document, Autoria ignores spaces, dots, dashes and slashes, as well as upper and lower case: "0123 4567" and "01234567" are the same card. Leading zeros count. A record without nationality counts as a document of your company's country. Two passports of different countries with the same number remain two people.

Records already created twice before this rule stay usable as they are. Grouping them into a single record is done by the Autoria team: the rentals, documents and notes move to the kept record, the other record is deleted, and the operation is written to your company's activity log. A document the kept record already has (a copy of the identity card, for example) stays on the former record.

Company that keeps one record per agency

A parent company and its associates can keep a separate customer base per agency. This is set up with the Autoria team; until it is, your customer records are shared by all your agencies and nothing changes.

Once it is set up:

• every new record belongs to an agency, the one of the person who creates it: their agency if they are limited to a single agency, otherwise the company's default agency. This agency never changes;
• a customer who rents from two associates has two records, one in each agency. Each agency only sees its own records and the shared records created before the setup;
• a rental takes the agency of its customer: a customer of one agency cannot be the customer, nor the second driver, of a rental of another agency. To rent to this customer in your agency, create their record in your agency;
• if a shared record already exists with the same identity document, use it rather than creating one in your agency: the new record is refused;
• a rental whose customer belongs to an agency does not change agency, neither before nor after its invoice: the new agency does not have this customer.

The documents of a record (copy of the identity card, driving licence) follow its agency.

Customer blocked in another agency

When your company keeps one record per agency, a customer blocked by an agency (Bloquer le client, block the customer) is blocked on that agency's record. When another agency of the company enters the same identity document, when creating the record or on its own record of the customer, it sees the banner "Client bloqué dans une autre agence" (customer blocked in another agency) with the date of the block. The banner does not give the name written on the other record, the reason for the block, nor the agency. It does not prevent creating the record or renting: it is information to check the situation.

Open a record of another agency

When your company keeps one record per agency, the Owner (Propriétaire) of the company sees the records of all agencies in Clients (customers). Opening a record that belongs to an agency asks them for a reason, in the Ouvrir une fiche d'une autre agence window (open a record of another agency): they enter the Motif (reason, at least 10 characters) then Ouvrir la fiche (open the record). The record stays open to them for 30 minutes, then a new reason is asked.

Every opening is recorded, with the date, the name of the person and the reason. The customer's agency finds them in the Accès motivés tab (motivated accesses) of the record. The other members of the company cannot open a record of another agency, with or without a reason.

History of a shared customer

A shared customer can rent in several agencies. On their record, a person limited to some agencies only sees the rentals and incidents of their agencies; the number of rentals and incidents shown on the record only counts those.

The Risque (risk) tab is still computed on the whole company history: Client à risque (customer at risk), late returns, at-fault incidents and overdue unpaid amounts also count those of the other agencies. Only the detail of your agencies is listed; when part of the history comes from elsewhere, the tab says so.