Getting Started

The minimum number of steps to begin using the Contact management module is briefly described below. Follow these steps for a basic introduction to the structure and use of the application. However, this is not a guide for optimal complete implementation. To achieve that, please consult the other available documentation and online help.

Create an employee

Communication details are based on a contact between a contact or contact person and an employee. After a fresh installation there is one administrator user present in the system with login code "ADMIN". In the page "Contact management > Administration > Employee” new employees can be entered. The following fields are the mandatory fields that must be entered for a new employee.

employee code

The employee code is also the login code of the employee. The maximum length of this field is 50 characters and the code should only contain numbers, letters, hyphens and underscores. The employee code is used throughout the application for the identification and selection of employees. Make sure that the code is a readable, useful code for all users of the system.

employee name

The employee name is the actual name of the employee.

password

This is the password of the employee with which the employee, in conjunction with the employee code, can use to log into the system.

group

The group to which an employee is assigned determines what that person sees after logging into the application. By default, two groups "ADMIN" and "USER" are included.  Which screens employees in a particular group will see can be set in " Contact management > Settings> Authorization Groups".  It is possible to create new groups and to assign pages to it. New groups are created in the screen "Contact management > Administration> Groups”.

contact management privileges

What an employee can do in the main contact management page is based on this setting. By default, this setting is set to the A value. This same setting can be managed from the Contact management privileges page (Contact management > Settings > Contact management privileges). Moving the mouse over the  icon will show a popup explaining the meaning of the A, B and C value. 

Figure 1 Contact management privileges in the employee admin page

Create a contact

In the Contact management module we distinguish between  contacts and contact persons. Contacts are organizations, contact persons are human beings related to that organization. In the other modules we refer to contacts as customers, but this term is too limited for the Contact management module where all kinds of contacts can be managed.

A new contact can be created in the screen " Contact management > Administration> Contacts" and also from the main contact management page (Contact management > Contacts). The following fields are required and must be entered when creating a new customer.

contact code

The contact code is similar in function to the employee code. The maximum length is 50 characters and the code should only contain numbers, letters, hyphens and underscores. Again, the code is used throughout the application for indicating and selecting customers. Make sure that the contact code is a readable, useful code for all users of the system.

customer name

This is the real name of the contact. When sending a mailing (Contact management module) or when creating invoices (Invoicing module) this is the name that will appear in the mailing.

location

This is the city name of the postal address.

Create a contact person

A new contact person can be created in the screen " Contact management > Administration> Contact persons" and also from the main contact management page (Contact management > Contacts). The following fields are required and must be entered when creating a new contact person.

contact

This is a dropdown list of all available contacts created in the previous step. A contact must be selected before a contact person can be created.

surname and first name

The surname and first name are required fields. The initials and surname prefix are optional. Enter the initials when they are known and enter the surname prefix if it applies.

The e-mail address is not a required field, but since this is used to send e-mails based on selections and queries it should be entered when it is known.

Create contact types

Contacts can be associated with one or more contact types. For example, a contact can be a supplier or a customer or both. The contact types used in the Contact management module can be defined in the “Contact management > Admin extra > Contact types” page.

Figure 2 Contact type admin page

Job titles

Just like we have contact types for classifying contacts we have job titles for classifying contact persons. For example a contact person can be the contact for financial issues or for technical issues. The job titles used in the Contact management module can be defined in the “Contact management > Admin extra > Job titles” page.

Figure 3 Job title admin page

Connecting contacts with contact types

To make the connection between a contact and the contact type(s) that applies, there are three pages available. For a single contact the contact admin page and the main contact overview can be used (Contact management > Administration > Contacts and Contact management > Contact overview). For working with more contacts at the same time we have the contact type matrix page (Contact management > Admin extra > Contact types matrix).

Figure 4 Contact type matrix page

Connecting contact persons with job titles

To make the connection between a contact person and the job title(s) that applies, there are three pages available. For a single contact person the contact person admin page and the contact overview can be used (Contact management > Administration > Contact persons and Contact management > Contact overview). For working with more contact persons at the same time we have the job title matrix page (Contact management > Admin extra > Job titles matrix).

Figure 5 Job title matrix page

Contact overview

With the information as described above the central contacts page (Contact management > Contact overview) can be used in full.