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7.1. New Contact

Contacts are people who may be associated directly with CRM accounts, customers, ship-to addresses, vendors, vendor addresses, and sites. To create a new contact, go to CRM > Contact > New. The following screen will appear:

Create new Contact

When creating a new contact, you are presented with the following options:

Number

Displays the system-defined number used to identify the contact.

Active

Select if you are actively doing business with this contact. Not selecting makes the contact inactive.

Name

Enter the following details for the contact's name:

Title

Select a title from the list of available titles.

First Name

Enter the contact's first name.

Last Name

Enter the contact's last name.

Initials

Enter the contact's initials.

Job Title

Enter the contact's job title.

Voice

Enter the contact's phone number.

Alternate

Enter an alternate phone number for the contact.

Fax

Enter the contact's fax number.

E-Mail

Enter the contact's e-mail address. If the contact has more than one email address, you can enter them by clicking on the arrow and selecting the Edit List option. This will bring up the Contact Email Addresses screen, as shown in the following screenshot:

Contact Email Addresses

If you use the Contact Merge utility to merge duplicate contact records, multiple email addresses can be preserved and displayed on the Contact Email Addresses list. To learn more about the Contact Merge utility, please see Section 9.3, “ Contact Merge”.

Web

Enter the contact's website address.

Note

If a new address is manually entered here, that address will be added automatically to the master list of addresses.

Address

Manually enter address information in the fields below—or use the lookup feature to select pre-existing address information. If a new address is manually entered here, that address will be added automatically to the master list of addresses. For additional documentation related to creating addresses, see Section 8.1, “ New Address”.

Account #

Specify the CRM account the contact is associated with (if any). Contacts may also be attached to a CRM account on the Account master.

Owner

Specify the user who is the owner of the contact (if any).

Notes

This is a scrolling text field with word-wrapping for entering notes related to the contact. Any notes entered on this screen are for internal purposes only.

To add comments to a contact, select the Comments tab at the bottom of the Contact screen. The following screen will appear:

Contact Comments

When adding or reviewing comments, you are presented with the following options:

Verbose Text

Select to display all comments in the list in an expanded view which includes the entire text of each comment. To edit a comment, simply select the EDIT link next to the comment. That link will not be shown for changelog comments, which can't be edited. If the Verbose Text option is not selected, the comment list will display only header level information for each comment.

Comments

Display lists comments related to the record.

The following buttons are available:

NEW

Opens screen for creating a new comment.

VIEW

Highlight a comment and then select this button to reach a read-only view of the Edit screen.

EDIT

Enables you to edit highlighted comments—as long as the comments are not changelog comments. ChangeLog comments are system-generated and may not be edited. The Edit screen is the same as that for creating a new comment—except that when editing, the fields will contain comment information. Double-clicking on a comment will also bring you to the editing screen.

To enter a new comment, select the NEW button. The following screen will appear:

Create new Comment
Comment Type

Select a comment type from the drop-down list to classify the comment. This is a required step. Comment types may be system-defined (i.e., changelog and general) or user-defined, as described in Section 13.2.3, “Comment Types”. Once you have specified a comment type, begin typing your comment in the main text area. The text area features word-wrapping and scroll-bar support for longer comments.

The following buttons are unique to this screen:

MORE

Select to show the complete list (i.e., thread) of comments associated with the record. To hide the list, simply select the MORE button again. The comment thread will show the most recent comment first.

Contact characteristics are user-defined definitions of a contact which may be used to provide additional layers of description. To enter characteristics associated with a contact, select the Characteristics tab. The following screen will appear:

Contact Characteristics

Tip

Use contact characteristics, for example, to record and remember a contact's birthday—or similar personal information.

To create a new characteristic for your current context, select the NEW button from the characteristics list. The following screen will appear:

Create new Characteristic

When creating a new characteristic, you are presented with the following options:

Characteristic

Select a characteristic from the list of characteristics available for your current context. To learn more about how characteristics are linked to specific contexts, please see Section 9.2.2.1, “Characteristic”.

Value

Enter a value to associate with the characteristic.

Default

In some contexts, the Default option will appear. Select if the value entered is the default value for the specified characteristic. Default values will always be listed first where characteristics are used.

To locate where in the application the contact is used, select the Uses of the Contact tab. The following screen will appear:

Uses of the Contact

The uses of the contact list displays information on all contact cross-references, including used-at reference, CRM account number, CRM account name, role, and active status.

To view the documents associated with a contact, select the Documents tab. The following screen will appear:

Contact Documents

When associating documents, you are presented with the following options:

NEW

Select to create a new document and associate it with the current record. You may create the following document types:

Image

Select to create a new image association.

Fixed Asset

Select to create a new fixed asset association.

Maintenance Order

Select to create a new maintenance order association.

Incident

Select to create a new incident and associate it.

Project

Select to create a new project and associate it.

Opportunity

Select to create a new opportunity and associate it.

To Do

Select to create a new to-do and associate it.

EDIT

Enables you to edit associated documents. The Edit screen is the same as that for creating a new document—except that when editing, the fields will contain document information. Double-clicking on a document will also bring you to the editing screen.

VIEW

Highlight a document and then select this button to reach a read-only view of the Edit screen.

ATTACH

Select to associate already-existing documents. The following document types may be attached: contact, account, customer, employee, file, image, incident, item, opportunity, project, purchase order, sales order, vendor, web site, work order.

DETACH

Highlight a document and then select this button to remove the association.

To associate already-existing documents, select the ATTACH button. The following screen will appear:

Attach a Document

When associating already-existing documents, you are presented with the following options:

Relationship

Indicate how the document is related to the current record. The following relationship options are available: related to, parent of, child of, duplicate of.

Type

Specify the kind of document you want to associate. The following document types may be attached: contact, account, customer, employee, file, image, incident, item, opportunity, project, purchase order, sales order, vendor, web site, work order. When associating files, you will also be given the option to save the file to the database.

Tip

There is no file size restriction when saving files to the database. However, excessively large files could cause storage and performance issues.

Document

Use the lookup tool to identify the specific document you want to attach. The data entry options will vary depending on the document type you select.

To view email associated with a contact, select the Email tab. The following screen will appear:

Email

When viewing associated emails, you are presented with the following options:

Email list

Display lists associated emails.

Email body

The content of a highlighted email will be displayed here.

Limit to

Specify the maximum number of associated emails you want to be displayed in the email list. If the list is extremely long, you may experience some slowness when opening the screen.

Load All

Select to load all associated emails into the list.

Search

Enter a string of letters or complete words to search for matches in the list of associated emails. The search will scan through subject lines, To addresses, and From addresses.

The following buttons are unique to this screen:

NEW

Select to send a new email, using the default email program on your computer.

PRINT

Highlight an email and then select this button to print a copy of the email.

REPLY

Highlight an email and then select this button to reply to the email's sender, using the default email program on your computer.

REPLY ALL

Highlight an email and then select this button to reply to everyone associated with the email, using the default email program on your computer.

FORWARD

Highlight an email and then select this button to forward the email to another person(s), using the default email program on your computer.

ATTACH

Highlight an email and then select this button to attach an email associated with a contact in your contact list.

DETACH

Highlight an email and then select this button to remove the associated email from the list.