Company name instead of individual name for wholesalers

Hi there, I hope I am using this forum correctly.

We recently opened a webstore that was designed for us by a hosting company. They did the major setup and we uploaded our inventory, pictures etc. We are a company that wholesales women's accessory items though and once we started to get orders we found we had trouble with the way the customer list was formatted. Presently, the list is in first and last name format with the company name being a piece of additional information. Our webhost was able to make the company field mandatory, but hasn't been able to make it so we can see the list with the company name in both the customer list and the order list. For us, this is essential as we don't necessarily know the names of every purchaser at every one of our retailers. We were hoping to have an option where company name could be the primary field so we could see who we were dealing with more easily. Although I know this would be more difficult, if there was also a way to retroactively change anyone who signed up with first and last name as primary and list them by company name that would be much better than having to re-register everyone who has already signed up.

Thanks!

Version 1.4.9.3

We also supply businesses and find it hard to operate the store without a searchable company field in the customer list.

Does anyone know how to make the company field searchable?

Done. I agree with the above statement. Now, merchants can search their customers by Company name.

i am using v. 1.5.2.1 and tried your addition. i have a problem there should be list 50 customers in every page but list only 1 customer name please lokk at the attachment

'column_company' is showing in your screenshot which is the original field name definition meaning that the replacement applied into your OpenCart store from XML is not being applied correctly compared to other users who uses v1.5.2.1 release.

Does this modification also makes it possible to search by company name when adding an order manual?

Not at this time, only customers profile in admin.