14   Contact Management

The Card File is a repository of contact records, known as cards, that you can create for your customers, suppliers, employees and personal contacts. A card lets you store contact information and enables you to track and analyse the transaction history for each individual and business.

Creating a Card

You need to create a card for an individual or business if you want to perform any of the following tasks:

  • record sales and track the amounts owing to you

  • record purchases and track the amounts owing to suppliers

  • print mailing labels

  • record contact details

When you set up your company file, you may have created cards for your customers and suppliers. In addition to these cards, you can create employee cards and personal cards for your friends and relatives.

If you want to create a card for...See
a customer Sales
a supplier Purchases
a employee Inventory
a friend or relative Below

To add a personal card

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List. The Cards List window appears
  2. Click New. The Card Information window appears.



  3. Select the required card type from the Card Type list.
  4. Type the name for the card and press TAB.
  5. If you want to, complete other field in Profile tab.
  6. Click the Card Details tab. In this tab, you can:
    • enter identifiers-these are useful for grouping your cards
    • use custom lists and fields - you can record additional information about the card.
    For information about these tasks, see Customising cards
  7. When you have finished entering the card details, click OK to save the card and close the Card Information window.

Mailing labels

If you print and send cheques, quotes, orders, invoices, statements or personalised letters you may also want to print mailing labels that you can stick on the envelopes. The Print Mailing Labels function in the Card File command centre can be used to print your contact names and addresses on sheets of adhesive mailing labels. You customise the way mailing labels are printed, including their size, the number of labels per sheet and the margins. For information about customising mailing label forms, see Customising forms

To print mailing labels

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Print Mailing Labels. The Review Labels Before Printing window appears.
    TIP : Print invoices and labels simultaneously When you print a batch of invoices using the Print/Email Invoices function in the Sales command centre, you can choose to print a label for each invoice.
  2. Click Advanced Filters. The Advanced Filters window appears.
  3. From the Selected Form for Mailing Label list, select the form template that best matches the size and layout of your labels and label sheets.

    If a suitable form template is not available, you can customise an existing template to suit your requirements. For information about customising forms, see Customising forms.
  4. Make any other selections in the Advanced Filters window as required (for example, you may want to filter your contacts list to only those living within a specific postcode) and then click OK.
  5. Click in the select column next to each contact for whom you would like to print a mailing label.
  6. Ensure you have enough mailing label sheets set up at your printer and then click Print.

Contact log

The contact log enables you to keep a detailed log of all the phone calls you and your contacts make to each other, and any other type of correspondence.

For example, let's say that you call customer A regarding an overdue invoice. You could create a log entry that records the date of the phone call, a summary of the outcome, and the date you will want to recontact them by if their invoice is still outstanding.

When a customer or supplier calls, you can use the contact log to retrieve a complete history of your business relationship with that contact.

TIP : Automatically create contact log entries Log entries can be created automatically for each sale, purchase, payment and receipt you record. For more information, see To automatically create contact log entries.

To view the contact log

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Contact Log. The View Contact Log window appears.
  2. From the Name list, select the contact for whom you want to create a contact log entry and click Use Card.
  3. If you want to view or edit the detail of an log entry, select the entry and click Edit, or click the zoom arrow next to it.

To create a contact log entry

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Contact Log. The View Contact Log window appears.
  2. From the Name list, select the contact for whom you want to create a contact log entry and click Use Card.
  3. Click New. The Contact Log Entry window appears.
  4. Complete the Contact Log Entry window as described in the table below.


Name The name of the contact. To view the contact's card, click the zoom arrow.
Contact Type the name of the person that is associated with this entry. For example, you can record the name of the person you spoke to on the phone. If you have specified a contact person in the contact's card, you can click the down-arrow to choose that person.
Date Type the date you spoke to or wrote to the contact. If you are simply entering an appointment or reminder, you can enter today's date.
Notes Enter any information you want to save about the conversation or follow-up.
Elapsed Time If you want to record the time you spend speaking to the contact, or working on a particular task related to the entry, type the time in hours and minutes. For example, if you spend 15 minutes, enter 15. If you spend 1 hour and 15 minutes, enter 1:15.
Recontact Date If you want to be reminded to follow up the contact, type or select the date you want to be reminded to recontact them. The reminder will appear in the Contact Alert tab of the To Do List on this date. For more information, see To view contact alerts.
Log View all contact log entries for the selected contact.
New Record the current log entry and to create a new entry for this or another contact.

Automatic contact log entries

You can choose to automatically create contact log entries each time you record a sale, purchase or banking transaction. The log entry contains basic information about the transaction, such as the invoice number, cheque number and the amount.

Your company file's size may increase significantly. If you record many transactions and choose to automatically create log entries for them, the size of your company file may increase significantly. If the company file size becomes an issue, you canpurge old contact log entries and other data. For more information about purging information, see Purging information that is no longer needed.

To automatically create contact log entries

  1. Go to the Setup menu and choose Preferences. The Preferences window appears.
  2. Click the Banking tab.
  3. To create an automatic contact log entry for each payment you record, select the Make Contact Log Entry for Every Cheque option.
  4. To create an automatic contact log entry for each receipt you record, select the Make Contact Log Entry for Every Deposit option.
  5. Click the Sales tab.
  6. To create an automatic contact log entry for each sale you record (including quotes and orders), select the Make Contact Log Entry for Every Sale option.
  7. Click the Purchases tab.
  8. To create an automatic contact log entry for each purchase you record (including quotes and orders), select the Make Contact Log Entry for Every Purchase option.
  9. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

More ways to keep in touch

To send an email message to a contact

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List. The Cards List window appears.
  2. Click the zoom arrow next to the name of the contact you want to email. The Card Information window appears.
  3. In the Location field, select the address to which you want to send the email.
  4. If an email address is entered in the field, click Actions and choose Send Email. The Email window appears.
  5. The Email Address field displays the name and email address from the card. You can change these if you wish.
  6. Enter a message and click Send. The email is sent directly from application. A copy of email will send to sender in-box as well.

Grouping your contacts

You can grou and sort your contacts according to common attributes by assigning identifiers to their cards and the appropriate attributes from custom lists you have defined. Grouping contacts using these features makes it easier for you to:

  • filter reports to show only information specific to a group of contacts
  • identify which of your contacts have a particular attribute
    • filter lists so that it's easier for you to send a batch of personalised letters, customer statements and other forms to a group of contacts.

Identifiers

Identifiers are one-letter labels you can assign to cards.

When you create reports or view card lists, you can limit the information to a particular group of cards by selecting the identifiers that you have assigned to those cards.

For example, say you want to identify all clients who are not-for-profit organisations. You could assign them identifier N and when printing sales reports you can choose to filter the report to show only customers who have that identifier.

You can also assign multiple identifiers to a card. For example, say you assign O to your overseas customers and W to your wholesale customers. If you have overseas wholesale customers you can assign them the O and W identifiers. You can then filter a report to only show your overseas wholesale customers by specifying the OW identifiers in the Report Customisation window.

To define identifiers

  1. Go to the Lists menu and choose Identifiers. The Identifiers window appears, displaying a field for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
  2. Enter a description for the identifiers you want to use.
  3. Click OK.

To assign identifiers to a card

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List. The Cards List window appears.
  2. Click the zoom arrow next to the card you want to edit. The Card Information window appears.
  3. Click the Card Details tab.
  4. Click Identifiers. The Select Identifiers window appears.
  5. Click next to the identifiers you want to assign to the card and click OK.

Custom lists

You can set up lists of predefined attributes and assign the appropriate attributes to your cards.

By assigning attributes from a custom list to your cards, you are able to group your contacts to a greater degree than is possible with identifiers.

For example, you could assign all your wholesale customers the W identifier. If you also set up a custom list containing each of your sales territories, and allocate those customers to the appropriate territory, you can then filter reports to only show information about wholesale customers who are within a particular sales territory.

To name a custom list

  1. Go to the Lists menu, choose Custom List & Field Names, and then choose the card type for which you want to create a custom list, for example, Customers. The Custom List and Field Names window appears.



  2. Enter names for the lists you want to create for the card type you have selected in the Name of Custom List fields.
  3. Click OK. The names you have entered will now appear in the Card Details tab of the Card Information window.

To create a custom list entry

  1. Go to the Lists menu, choose Custom Lists and then choose the card type for which you want to create a custom list entry, for example, Customers. The Custom Lists window appears.



  2. Select the custom list for which you want to create an entry.
  3. Click New. The Edit Custom List window appears.
  4. Type the custom list entry's name and then click OK. The entry appears in the Custom Lists window.

To assign a custom list entry to a card

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List.
  2. Click the zoom arrow next to the card you want to edit. The Card Information window appears.
  3. Click the Card Details tab.



  4. Click the search icon next to the custom list field you want to edit and then select the entry that you want to assign to the card.

Customising cards

Custom fields

If you need to record certain information about your contacts, but cannot find a suitable card field for it, you may want to set up a custom field.

For example, you could set up a field to record your customers' birthdays or a field to record the dates of your employees' most recent performance review.

You can set up three custom fields for each card type and label them according to your needs. You can then enter any information you like in those fields.

If you need to, you can show this information in a report by selecting the custom fields in the Report Fields tab of the Report Customisation window.

To set up custom fields

  1. Go to the Lists menu, choose Custom List and Field Names and then choose the card type for which you want to set up a custom field, for example, Customers. The Custom List and Field Names window appears.
  2. Type the names of the custom fields you want to set up for the card type you have selected in the Name of Custom Field fields. For example, you could enter Birthday to record your contacts' birthdays.
  3. Click OK. The names you have entered will now appear in the Card Details tab of the Card Information window.

To enter custom field information in a card

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List. The Cards List window appears.
  2. Click the zoom arrow next to the card you want to edit. The Card Information window appears.
  3. Click the Card Details tab and type the information you want to record in the appropriate custom field.

Card identification codes

If you have assigned identification codes (IDs) such as customer numbers or account numbers to your customers, you can enter those IDs in their cards.

You can also set a preference that will let you select customers by their ID instead of their last name or company name when entering a transaction. Customer search lists will also be sorted by their ID when this preference is set.For more information, see To select contacts using Card IDs

NOTE : The Card ID preference affects all card types If you choose this preference, you have to select all card types by their IDs.

To enter an identification code

  1. Go to the Card File command centre and choose Cards List. The Cards List window appears.
  2. Click the zoom arrow next to the card you want to edit. The Card Information window appears.
  3. Enter a unique code of up to 15 alphanumeric characters in the Card ID field.
  4. Press TAB or click OK to save your changes.

To select contacts using Card IDs

  1. Go to the Setup menu and choose Preferences. The Preferences window appears.
  2. Click the Windows tab.
  3. Choose the Select Cards by Card ID, Not Card Name option.
    You can now select cards by their IDs and your card lists will be sorted by ID instead of by last name or company name.

Reviewing your contact information

There are several tools you can use to review your contact information.

Tool   See
To Do List The Contact Alert tab in the To Do List displays contact log entries with recontact dates on or before the current date. below
Card reports Card reports give you lists of contact information in several formats. below
Find Transactions Find Transactions helps you quickly find all transactions for a contact. Transactions

To view contact alerts

  1. Click To Do List in any command centre. The To Do List window appears.
  2. Click the Contact Alert tab. A list of all individuals and businesses you need to contact appears.
    NOTE : Reminders that fall on a closed day If the recontact date falls on a day that you have indicated as being closed in the Business Calendar (accessible from the Setup menu), the reminder will appear on the business day prior to the recontact date.
    The Overdue column shows how many days have elapsed since the recontact date you specified on the contact log entry.
    To clear a reminder from the list, click in the select column next to the contact log entry and then click Remove.

To print card reports

  1. Go to the Reports menu and choose Index to Reports. The Index to Reports window appears.
  2. Click the Card tab. The list of card reports appears.
  3. Display or print the report that is appropriate to your needs.
  4. Following is a list of the default information displayed in each report. If required, you can customise the reports to display more or less details (for information on how to customise a report, see Customising reports)
Report Description
Card List Summary A list of your contacts with their phone numbers, current balances and identifiers.
Card List Detail A list of some of the information contained in your contacts' cards, including Address 1 and Address 2.
Addresses The contact name, address and phone number entered for Address 1 in each card.
Card Transactions A list of the transactions that have been allocated to your contacts for a selected period.
Contact Log A list of contact log entry details. The total of the elapsed time recorded in the log entries is displayed for each contact.
Identifiers A list of the identifier codes and their descriptions.
Overdue Contacts A list of contact log entries with recontact dates that are dated on or before the day you