Defining lookup indexes for the Find window
iMIS maintains a number of standard indexes that enable you to retrieve customer information quickly.
The customer ID is an indexed field, and all records are stored by their ID. You can locate records by ID at any time. In addition, iMIS keeps alternative indexes such as alphabetical key (combined last name, first name), company sort name (which displays to the right of the Company field in the Customer Portfolio), and the optional Major Key (social security number, license number, etc.).
Having iMIS maintain these keys is like having a filing system that uses multiple filing methods simultaneously: numerical, alphabetic, and alphabetic by company name. You can retrieve a record by entering the ID or all or part of the name key or company name.
In addition to these four standard indexed fields, you can establish up to four more indexes. These user-specified indexes can be based on any field in the customer file including user-defined demographics. For more power, you can designate a list string field as an index, causing index entries to be maintained for each of the codes in a list. You can also specify a formula based on a combination or manipulation of one or more fields. For example, you can specify a customer type/category combination, a set of initials (first letter of first, middle, and last fields), or the month/year of the join date.
If you define any additional indexes, they display as choices when you request a customer look-up (Find, lookup icon, or Ctrl+L) throughout iMIS.
For best results, only create indexes for the key fields for which you plan to conduct daily searches. Every additional index increases the overhead burden on the system and affects performance. For less-critical searches by field, plan to use the ad hoc searching feature of the Find window.
Note: When you create additional indexes on the Customer Setup - Indexes window, you must run the Rebuild Name_Indexes script to update the Name_Indexes table and then change the parameters for report specifications to match the order of your indexes. For more information, see the iMIS Utilities Menu.
Note: Results for user-defined indexes are returned in ID order.
Note: You cannot create a user-defined index using a multi-instance table.