AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

To simplify the checkout process, we want to remove phone number from the Account fields. I'm sure I can modify the code to remove it but before I did this blindly, I was wondering:
1.) Is there a configuration option for hiding the phone number field
2.) Why is the phone number a required field? Are there credit card merchants or shippers that require it?
3.) Any drawbacks I should know about?

David

Not sure, but back in the dark ages when I was entering addresses manually, Fed Ex required a phone number to generate a label. I suppose you could just drop yours into the field.

I'm still waiting for additional information on this? Anyone have any more info?

1.) Is there a configuration option for hiding the phone number field

There is no config available to hide phone number. You need to make code changes to hide it.
Check your payment provider requirements to make sure that they require it or not.

Thanks Mazhar. Exactly what I needed to know.