FF&EZ offers a variety of ways to use addresses. Address information is maintained for clients, projects and vendors. There are up to four basic types: shipping, ordering, billing and/or payment. When entering addresses, keep the following points in mind:

• The "main" address is always the default address for a client or vendor. This type of address splits the city, state or region and postal code into separate fields that can be used for sorting and querying. Since different countries use different formats for addresses, the "main" address includes both an optional "Country" field and an "ISO Code" field. You can leave the "Country" field blank, if you wish, but if you deal with clients, projects or vendors in another country, entering the ISO code for that country will allow FF&EZ to format the main address properly for most North American and European countries. ISO codes are available on the Internet; one site where this can be found is this one. Leaving the ISO code blank will default to the formatting used in the United States.
• The default address can be overridden by entering an alternate address. For instance, the default shipping address to a vendor is the main address (as described above), but you can "unselect" the default address and enter a separate shipping address on a different section of the vendor form. If you specify that a product should be shipped to another vendor instead of the project, this alternate one will be used automatically. Vendors also have alternate options for the ordering address and the payment address.

When you are editing a vendor, you can deselect the "Use main address at left" option to activate and enter an alternate address (here, the "Shipping" address).

• Alternate addresses always consist of four fields into which you can enter an address in any desired format. Keep in mind that if this type of address is used, only the information in this field will appear. In other words, when entering an alternate address, be sure to enter all the information needed for a complete address, such as the company name and contact. Note that some print formats, such as the purchase order, include other contact information like phone, fax and email.
• Projects do not have a "main" address. Although projects have a "Location" field, this is meant as descriptive information for title blocks (i.e., "Boston, Massachusetts - West"). The default shipping address for a project is the client's shipping address. This can be overridden for each project by entering an alternate shipping address for the project on the Project List screen (which is the way most people do it). Note that if you are planning to stage project FF&E at a warehouse or consolidator, you may want to use that address as the "project" address to avoid having to specify the warehouse on each specification (more below).

Note: Do not enter a full address in the Project List screen's "Location" field. This field is meant to be part of a formal project title block along with your company name and address. Since the actual project shipping address is handled as described above, having another address listed with the project title block can cause confusion with vendors as to where an item is to be shipped, especially if you have the Purchasing system or use the Design system's "Ordering Worksheet" report. Confusing vendors about shipping should be avoided.

• The shipping address for specifications is especially flexible and affects how many orders are created. Since the shipping address for a product is critical and can cause project delays if mis-entered, this address is never set automatically on the Specification screen. You can select the "project address" or change this to ship to another vendor. If you ship to another vendor, the vendor's main address will be used, unless you have specified an alternate shipping address on the Vendor Form.

Additionally, you can specify separate shipping addresses for sub-quantities of the total needed for any specification. This might be used when the same COM fabric is used on furniture from different manufacturers. You specify multiple addresses on the "Usage" section of the Specification List. (This option is not available unless you have used the specification in more than one object.) If you have either the Purchasing Module or the Orders Export plug-in, items from the same vendor will be automatically split into separate orders according to shipping address.

Note: If you have the Design/Purchasing system, we strongly recommend that you set any alternate shipping addresses on the specifications before creating orders. The presence of alternate or multiple shipping addresses will cause the system to automatically create a separate purchase order for items with that shipping address. Otherwise, all items ordered from the same vendor will be shipped to the single shipping address shown on the order. However, see the next bullet point for a different approach if all items must be on the same order, but shipped to different destinations.

• If you must create a single order for a single product that will be shipped to different locations, you can also create a special dummy vendor to which the order will be "shipped" (not ordered) in which the "address" gives instructions to the vendor. For example, You might create a vendor such as "TBD CBS" and set its four line shipping address to something like this:
  
         VENDOR MUST CALL BEFORE SHIPPING
         FOR QUANTITY AND ADDRESS
         Contact: Jane Smith, 123.456.7890
         Email: JSmith@MyCompany.com
  
  This short-circuits accidental shipping since no shipping address exists on the order. Note: Per the earlier usage note, be sure the project's "Location" field on the Project List screen does not contain a street address. Note: New FF&EZ systems are delivered with a "TBD CBS" vendor that you can adapt with your own text entries. 
• Although you are free to enter an alternate address in any format, the standard formats for address information, including international addresses, are easily available on the internet (search for "international address format"). We strongly recommend that you look these up. In particular, all postal services discourage (and sometimes reject) addresses in which the last line contains any kind of contact, telephone  or "Attention:" information. This should be in the first or second line.