AGLC and other Regional Integration Data Imports - Option to use the regional key field to match records

Ideas & feature requests
1

Importing customer records into Breww is currently far more difficult and error prone than it would be if users could use a Regional Key Field on imports. This important functionality does not exist in Breww.

This feature request is to have a way to import customer records to Breww using the regional key identifier. For Alberta, this means ability to use AGLC License Number as the key import identifier for customer records instead of trying to match name and address information.

The implementation could be done generically so it also works for other regional integrations where a regional key identifier exists.

Please vote to add the ability to use regional key identifiers for data imports.

Issue Description:

We use the AGLC integration for Alberta. When initially loading customer data into Breww, we are supposed to provide client name and address data that exactly matches our provincial database in order for Breww to obtain the key identifier (In our case the AGLC License Number) from the provincial database.

There are likely other regional integrations with a similar issue.

Given:

  1. Because the AGLC License Number is required to be printed on every invoice ever sent in Alberta and every production/tax record ever submitted to the regulatory agency, any existing brewery already has the this data in order for them to operate.

  2. Pre-existing data sets with customer data probably have updated addresses that are unlikely to EXACTLY match AGLC address data, as Breww requires for data migration. For example, ‘Street’ may be in the AGLC database as “St.”, “ST”, “STREET” or something else. Similar for ‘Road’, ‘Place’, ‘Circle’, ‘Avenue’, Unit Number’ etc. Without using fuzzy logic on the match, address matching is a very poor option.

  3. Their is currently no way to use a regional key identifier, such as the AGLC License number, to link data records on import into Breww

Additional details of issues with using the name and address of a customer, which is supposed to exactly match AGLC customer data, are detailed in support ticket ‘BTK-45142’

Suggested Solution, Feature Request:

Add an additional ‘Optional’ column in your importer called something like ‘RegionalKeyIdentifier’ and in the column match-up screen, expose the data field you use for regional identifiers with a descriptor to the effect of “Regional Identifiers: Only use if your regional integration specifies its use”. AGLC integration instructions (and other relevant integrations) would explain that this field could contain your regional key identifier so long as it is in the same format as in the regional Master Database.

For AGLC integrations, this means that the License Number must match the format and content of the “AddressNumber’ in the AGLC Master Licensee file.

Doing this would also solve numerous other AGLC integration issues, such as the existing one I saw in this forum where customer address information is overwritten by AGLC address information, which may be incorrect or incomplete and is also ALWAYS IN ALL CAPS. This is very 1980’s and not what we want to use.

Please, everyone who uses or wants to use Breww with a regional integration, like Alberta users, vote to add the ability to load regional implementation data (such as AGLC data) using the the regional key identifier (such as AGLC License Number).

1 Like
2

Thanks for the suggestion, Ian.

I’m sorry if I have missed something, as I have not been part of your previous conversations, but when you import your customers to Breww, there is a column for “Reference”. If you put the AGLC License Number in this field, then the other AGLC specific imports later on will pick up on this and use this to match the records together.

Does this cover what you’re looking for, and if not, could you please let me know what I’ve missed? Thank you.

3

You are correct. This feature request should be altered to simply requesting that the way to use ‘Reference’ be better documented. After speaking with Conner and obtaining details on how the reference field was supposed to be used, I used it to import our data successfully.

Specifically I would recommend an update to your import information that would be good for both both customers and your help desk.

Currently, the only documentation I could find for the reference field for the data import says

“This is an optional unique reference you can set on an entity to help differentiate between entities with the same name.”

This is, unfortunately, rather ambiguous and perhaps somewhat misleading. Perhaps for the general documentation it could say something to the effect that:

“This is an optional unique reference you can set on an entity for imports with specific integrations. Please see documentation specific to its use if within your integration directions, if it is applicable.”

Then, for 3rd party integrations where it is not applicable, it should explicitly state that it is not applicable to that integration within the integrations documentation.

For AGLC Integration documentation, perhaps you could say the following about importing customer data:

<<<<<<<

When importing the AGLC Licensee Master File, Breww attempts to match each licensee to an existing customer an exact match across:

  • Customer name & Customer delivery address.

  • Specifically, it matches on ‘Delivery address line 1’, ‘Postcode’ and ‘Country’

If your data is unlikely to exactly match on these fields and contains an accurate AGLC Licensee Number, you can instead match on the Licensee Number.

The reference field in in the customer import can be used to cross reference your own customer data with the AGLC Master Licensee List. Use the eight character AGLC License Number from your data to match with ‘AddressNumber’ in the AGLC data file.

The data import will only complete when all license numbers in the Reference field exactly match existing data in the AGLC file. Duplicate or license numbers in the reference field that do not match to AGLC data will result in data migration errors. Because AGLC may update license numbers when licensee’s change ownership or move locations, or eliminate them when licensees cease operations, it is highly recommended that you first check your data for duplicates license numbers and also confirm that all licensees in your data set exist in the AGLC data set.

Note that if you want to import an existing customer that does not exist in the AGLC data set (for example, a customer who only buys non-alcoholic beverages and does not require an AGLC permit), leave the Reference field blank and the customer will import without trying to match to the AGLC data. Similarly if your customer Name and Address will exactly match AGLC data, the match does not require a reference number.

After a successful import, your customers will exist but won’t have their Licensee number’s populated yet. You will need to go to [??? I forget where I did this!!] and ‘Copy Reference Data to Customer’ This is a one-time operation that copies the reference data (AGLC Licensee Number) to the customers license field after imports.

>>>>>>>>

Hope this helps. Cheers!

4

Thanks, Ian. I agree that the documentation could be much improved here, and I like your suggested changes. Thank you for highlighting this.

I’ve added this to the tasks list for the right team to get this done.