Contact Management > Setup > Contact Maintenance

Contact Maintenance

You use this program to maintain information about the people (contacts) with whom your organization does business.

Toolbar and menu

Field Description
Edit  
New Add a new contact to the organization.
Delete Delete the currently displayed contact.
Copy Create a new contact, using the details of the current contact.

When you copy a contact, the contact's customers, suppliers and accounts are copied to the new contact.
Create Contact with Same Name Create a new contact with the same name as the current contact.

When you save the new contact, the system checks your settings for duplicate contacts and displays the relevant warning message.
Default Contact Define a Default Contact to which you assign default values for selected fields. This enables you to create a new contact by copying the details from the Default Contact, together with the default field values, and changing the name for the new contact.
Copy Details Update information in selected fields against the contact you are currently maintaining to the same fields for multiple contacts.
Options  
Preferences Define options applicable when maintaining contact information.
Functions When you maintain a Contact, you can use these functions to copy address parts from the Contact or from the contact's related Account, Supplier or Customer to the Contact's addresses. For example, you can copy the Contact's Work - Physical address to the Contact's Work - Postal address.
Copy ... Address Indicate the address part from the Contact or from the Account, Customer or Supplier that you want to copy to the Contact.
To ... Address Indicate which Contact address part you want to update.
Contact Enter the Contact you want to add or maintain.
Details Maintain the Contact Management Name Details for the Contact.

Contact Management Name Details

The fields on this screen enable you to add additional information to the contact name and to split the name into more than one field.

This screen is displayed:

  • when you select to copy the details for a contact
  • when you select the Details option
  • if you selected the option: Automatically show this dialog if the contact name contains two or more names and you enter two or more names in the Contact field.
Field Description
Contact Indicates the Contact you are currently maintaining.
Name details Enter the contact details in the fields provided.
Automatically show this dialog if the contact name contains two or more names Display the Contact Management Name Details screen when you enter two or more names in the Contact field.

Contact Information

Field Description
Full name Indicates the full name as defined against the contact.
Preferred name Enter the name by which the contact prefers to be addressed.
Organization  
Customer Link the contact to a single SYSPRO customer.
Customer list Assign the contact to a list of SYSPRO customers.

This option is also used to unassign customers from the contact.
Supplier Link the contact to a single SYSPRO supplier.
Supplier list Link the contact to a list of SYSPRO suppliers.

This option is also used to unassign suppliers from the contact.
Account Link the contact to a single Account.
Account list Link the contact to a list of Accounts.

This option is also used to unassign accounts from the contact.
IM address Enter the contact's Instant Messaging address.
Map URL

Enter the default Internet website address you want to use for viewing map information for this contact.
Weather URL

Enter the default Internet website address you want to use for viewing weather information for this contact.
Comment Enter any general comment relating to contact information for the contact.

Classification

The fields in this pane enable you to classify the contact according to your requirements.

Preferences

The options on this pane enable you to define the contact's preferred method of communication and other preferences pertaining to communicating with the contact.

Custom Forms

This pane displays any custom form data defined against the contact (see Custom Form Entry).

Use the Custom Form Data Entry program to enter custom form data against the contact.

You can define up to 100 multiple custom forms against each of the following key fields:

  • Contact Management Accounts
  • Contact Management Contacts
[Note]

There is a limit of 999 form fields per key, regardless of the number of forms defined.

Notes and warnings

eSignature considerations

Electronic Signatures provide security access, transaction logging and event triggering. This enables you to increase control over your system changes.

Access to the following eSignature transactions within this program can be restricted at Operator, Group, Role or Company level. You configure this using the Electronic Signatures program.

eSignature Transaction Description
CMS Contact added

Controls access to the New Contact function in the Contact Maintenance program.
CMS Contact changed

Controls access to the maintenance of contacts in the Contact Maintenance program.
CMS Contact deleted

Controls access to the Delete function in the Contact Maintenance program.

Address information

  • If you added or changed the Contact name in the Account Maintenance program and selected to add a new contact, then address information against the Account is entered against the contact by default as follows:

    • the Account's Ship to address is entered against the Contact's Work - Physical address

    • the Account's Sold to address is entered against the Contact's Work - Postal address

    This avoids having to enter the same address information twice.

  • Address information is stored in a structured format, allowing integration to Microsoft MapPoint.

    The Geolocation indicates the geographic location of the address in terms of longitude and latitude and includes a hyperlink to the map directions. An additional hyperlink to Resolve GeoLocation from address is available enabling addresses to be resolved using the long or short name. See also Use short names when resolving addresses (System-wide Personalization).

Copying addresses

  • You can only copy address parts from an Account, Customer or Supplier if the contact is linked to a single Account, Customer or Supplier.

Disabled fields

  • The Account, Customer and Supplier fields are disabled and the word Multiple displayed if you used the Account list/Customer list/Supplier list option to link more than one account/customer/supplier to the contact.

Synchronizing customers and accounts

  • When you assign a customer to a contact and the Customer/Account is linked to an Account/Customer, the contact is automatically linked to the Account/Customer as well. This ensures that contacts remain synchronized for Customers and Accounts.

  • Every contact has to be assigned to at least one customer, supplier or account. Therefore, whether you are adding a new contact or maintaining an existing contact, you will be unable to save the contact's details until the contact is linked to an organization.

  • When you assign a contact to either a Customer or an Account, then if the Customer and Account are linked, the system checks that the contact appears against both the Customer and the Account. If the check fails, then a warning message is displayed and you are given the option of synchronizing Accounts and Customers for the contact at this point.

Contact statuses

  • The following contact statuses are available:

    • Normal - this indicates that the contact is not on hold and is not an employee.
    • On Hold - this indicates that the contact is on hold.
    • Employee - this indicates that the contact is also an employee (i.e. a SYSPRO operator). In the current version of the software, only this status is used. The other statuses are purely documentary.

Hints and tips

Using wildcards when browsing for a contact

  • When browsing for a contact at the Contact field, you can enter a wildcard to only show contacts whose name includes the pattern. For example entering 'John*' and pressing the browse button will only display contacts that start with the name 'John' (any case).

    In a SQL Server environment, you can enter a pattern such as '*TER*' and all contacts with Peter or Terrence or any other with the 2 consecutive characters 'TER' (any case) are displayed.

Application Help Pane

Application Help Panes provide step-by-step instructions for various functions within the program, including a brief overview of what the program does, what setup options are required and how to personalize the program. The intention is that the pane provides information that is uncluttered and easy to navigate.

You can embed an Application Help Pane:

  • in the main SYSPRO menu

  • in any program with panes, if not using roles

  • when adding a role layout in Design Mode.

Inserting Application Help

You would typically follow this procedure to display help for the current program in a customized pane that can be pinned to the program window.

Information includes step-by-step instructions for the various functions available within the program, including a brief overview of what the program does, what setup options are required and how to personalize the program.

  1. Open the program for which you want to insert application help into a customized pane.

    This functionality is only available for a program that has panes.

  2. Right-click any form field.

    You can also click the triangle menu icon that appears in the title area of a pane.

  3. Select Insert Application Help from the context-sensitive menu.

    The application help appears in a pane within your program. You can reposition the pane using the docking stickers or pin it to the program window.

Removing the Application Help pane

If you no longer want to display application help in a pane for your current program, you can simply remove it.

  1. Select the Close icon in the right-hand corner of the application help pane.

  2. Confirm that you want to delete the pane.