Managing Contacts on Accounts

Summary

This article describes working with contacts on accounts including adding, updating and deleting contacts.

Overview Page Detail

The Overview page will list contact information which is saved for the contact type defined on the role as shown below.

Adding Contacts

When creating contacts it is important that you look up the correct account. Clicking on the Contacts page will NOT display a list of your personal contacts but rather contacts associated or attached to the account you are currently viewing.

To add a list of personal contacts to the system you will have to have a personal account within the system. This account is where you would create your contacts list.

Note: Required fields are indicated by a red border. Validation is also applied to these fields. If the label remains red, the value entered is not valid and the form will not be saved. All other fields are optional (black borders) and may be left blank.

To Create a New Contact

  1. Use the Search text box field to find the appropriate account

  2. Click Contacts

  3. Click the Add button at the bottom right of the list

  4. Select the type of contact you would like to add from the popup menu (i.e. Billing Contact, Administrative Contact)
    Note: If no popup menu appears, contact types have not been configured in the system. This can be done by navigating to Setup > Accounts and Roles > Contact Types. Once complete, continue to step 5

  5. Enter the Contact's First and Last name (required) in the fields (Title and Company are optional).

Once you have created your contact(s) it is recommended that you attach contact points to them. Especially if the contact is a Billing contact which requires an email address, otherwise invoices and billing cycles will be interrupted or not accurate for this type of contact. They will also not receive their invoices if your bill run is set to Email Invoices. Also, you can only have one billing contact and one service contact per account as these are used for taxing purposes and other specific functions. All other contacts can be added multiple times as needed.

Deleting Contacts

  1. Use the Search text box field to find an individual's account

  2. Click Contacts

  3. Select the check box next to the contact(s) to be deleted

  4. Click the Delete button

Adding Contact Points

Once a contact has been added to the system it is recommended that contact points (i.e. phone number, address, etc.) be associated with them. This is especially important if you have entered a contact that is of the type "Billing Contact". The system will use this contact's information for invoices and billing of services.

To Add Contact Points

  1. Use the Search text box field to find an individual's account

  2. Click Contacts

  3. Click on the Contact Type link that corresponds to the proper contact name (as shown in the Name column)

  4. On the edit contact page that loads click the Add button under the Contact Points list

  5. Select the type of contact point to be added from the popup menu

    Note: if no popup menu appears then Contact Points have not been configured in the system and assigned to their respected Contact Types. See the 'Creating Contact Point Types' section below for instructions and once complete continue following these steps to add the Contact Points

  6. Enter the values for the contact point in question

  7. Click the Save button

If an Address contact point is added and additional component (Jurisdiction Code) can be assigned to it. This component is used for taxing purposes when using a third party taxing system such as BillSoft Jurisdiction Codes.

Once the contact point has been added, it will look similar to the below image if you were to only add an Address contact point. You'll notice the information below matches the overview page as well at the top of this article.

Creating Contact Point Types

Contact Point Types as indicated above can store any type of contact information you need for a contact (phone numbers, instant messaging handles, login data for web portals, etc.). To add custom Contact Points Types follow the steps below (an EngageIP administrator may be required to perform these steps, depending on your role permissions).

To Create Custom Contact Point Types

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Under the Accounts and Roles heading click on Contact Types

  3. Click on the Name of the Contact Type you wish to add a Contact Point for (for example Administrative Contact)

  4. Under the section Contact Point Types click Add (assuming the Contact Point Type you wish to add is not already in the list)

  5. Enter the Name of the Contact Point Type, for example Portal Login

  6. Enter the Data Type for the Contact Point Type, for example Text

  7. If you wish to require the user to fill in the Contact Point Type details when adding the Contact Type then select Required

  8. If you wish this Contact Point Type field to be displayed when adding a Contact via the Create New Account page, select Show To Add Account. If not checked, you can still add add this information later when adding the appropriate Contact Type to the account

  9. Click Save when finished or Save/New to add another Contact Point Type

  10. Follow the Adding Contact Points section above for instructions on adding your custom Contact Point

Configuring Contact Point Types to Require Unique Data

System wide uniqueness (across all EngageIP accounts under every owner) can be enforced for Contact Point Types in EngageIP 8.5.21.0. To define which Contact Point Types should be unique simply use SQL query below and replace the Contact Point Type Name value with the name of Contact Point Type(s) you wish to be enforce uniqueness on.

Note: Unique Contact Point data is case sensitive, e.g. 'robert' and 'Robert' are different and both can stored in Contact Point data without violating the uniqueness requirement.

INSERT INTO EngageIPOption (Name, VALUE) VALUES ('Unique_ContactPointType', 'Contact Point Type Name, CPT Name 2, CPT Name 3')

Once the unique Contact Point Types have been specified a check will be performed when creating and updating the Contact Points to ensure that the value is unique system wide, if its not an error will be returned.

Updating Contact Point Information

  1. Use the Search text box field to find an individual's account

  2. Click Contacts

  3. Click on the Contact Type link that corresponds to the proper contact name (as shown in the Name column)

  4. Under the Contact Points heading click on the Contact Point Type you wish to edit

  5. On the new page that loads edit the information then click the Save button to update the contact point data

Note: You can also edit the Contact's information (i.e. First / Last Name, Title and Company) by following steps 1-3 above. When you get to the edit contact screen, simply edit the fields at the top of the page and click the Save button.