What do I need to know about contacts?

In Tracmor, Contacts and Companies are two interlinked sets of information that are the basis for tracking your shipping and receiving transactions. 

This article describes:

Finding the menu options

There are two ways to navigate to finding, adding, editing, and archiving contact information. 

From the top menu, click on Contacts:

Contact_-_top_menu.png

From the side menu, click on Contact>Contacts

contact_-_contacts.png

Note: If the side menu is not visible, click on the square to the left of Global Search at the top of the screen to show/hide the side menu.

menu_show_-_hide.png

Once you click on Contacts you will have access to the options circled in red, which will allow you to: 

  • Access all functions facilitated by the icons in the upper right, as described in detail below
  • Access the complete Contact List, or, filter it to only display the contacts of interest using the Contact Search function

contact_-_show_all.png

Note: If you don't need the search option you can hide it by clicking on the carat symbol (indicated by the red arrow).

contacts_-_hide_search.png

Creating one new contact

To add one new contact, click on Contacts (top menu) and then click on the blue plus icon (upper right corner):

Contact_-_create_contact_icon.png

Or, you can click on Contact>Create Contact from the side menu:

contact_-_create_contact.png

The Create Contact dialog box requires three identifiers to create a new contact: 

  1. Company. If the Company was already created, select it from the dropdown menu. If it has not yet been created, click on the blue plus icon to create one "as-you-go." Both options are circled in red on the right.
  2. Address Name. If the applicable distinguishing identifier (such as headquarters or sales office) was already created, select it from the dropdown menu. If none is available, you can  create one "as-you-go." Both options are circled in red on the right.
  3. First Name. Enter the new contact's first name.

All remaining fields are optional; enter information as needed. Click on Save and you will see the contact added at the top of the Contact List.

contacts_-_create.png

Importing a list of contacts

1. Click on Contacts (top menu) or navigate to Contact>Contacts (side menu), then click on the (green) down arrow icon to begin the import process.

contact_-_import.png

2. From the dialog box, click on the (tan) download icon to gain access to the standard file for importing contact information.

Note: Clicking on the blue icon to the right of the download file icon displays a list of files previously imported.

companies_-_import_companies2.png

3. Open the downloaded file, preferably in MS Excel. Note that the spreadsheet's column headings match the fields in the Create Contact dialog box, and the first three columns - Company Name, Address Name, and First Name are required. 

Important: The Company Name and Address Name for each new contact must have already been created so that the First Name and any remaining new information can be mapped to those identifiers. In other words, you cannot create a Company or Address Name with the standard import file for contacts; you must use the standard import file for Companies.

contact_-_required_fields.png

The remaining fields are optional. If custom fields were added for contacts, these would also be included as a column heading in the standard import file. None are shown below because no custom field was added, but if it had been it would be easy to identify because it would have a Custom Field Name prefix "_cfv."

contacts_-_import__-_optional.png

Save your newly created spreadsheet with a descriptive name.

4. Click on Choose File to navigate to the saved file, and once you have chosen the file and it is listed (instead of No file chosen), click on Upload File.

contacts_-_upload.png

Once the file is uploaded you will receive a status report via the Imported File List. If any contacts were not successfully imported, the number of items not uploaded will be indicated under the column heading “Skipped.

Note: Clicking Undo removes the imported values. This option is only available for the most recent import.

contacts_-_error.png

To determine the error(s) for skipped items, download the file by clicking on the link in the skipped column. In the example above, clicking on the number "1" in red downloads a file with the error message. 

Deleting contacts

You can remove Contacts from the list by archiving them so they can later be retrieved (unarchived) — or — you can delete contacts completely as follows:

  • One Contact at a time while editing
  • One or more Contacts; select contacts to be deleted by clicking on the check box to the left of the contact on the Contact List, or first apply the search function to create a list filtered by First Name, Last Name, Company, archive status, or date created; then click on Apply Filter.

contact_-_search_2.png

Note: Clicking on the box at the top of the Contact Name column (red arrow) in the Contact List selects all items in the list. This is especially useful for "selecting all" in a filtered list.

contact_-_select_all.png

Once your selections have been made, click on the red "trash" icon. You will be asked to confirm the delete request. Once you confirm, the items will deleted.

contacts_-_mass_delete.png

Exporting a list of contacts

If you need a record of your contacts, you can export a list of contact names (first and last names and title) by clicking on the export icon in the upper right corner. The list downloads as an MS Excel spreadsheet.

Note: The spreadsheet is password protected and cannot be edited without the password that Tracmor sent to your account owner admin.

contact_-_export.png

Editing contact information

To edit contact information, click on Contacts (top menu), or navigate to Contact>Contacts (side menu) and then click on Contacts.

Scroll down to the Contact List and click on the contact of interest (all contact names are links).

contacts_-_name_as_link.png

Click on the Contact Name of interest for these options: Edit, Attachments, Delete, and Cancel.

Note: The Company and Address are links to additional information (with additional options to edit those items in their dialog box.)

contacts_-_edit.png

Click on Edit for these options:

contact_-_edit.png

Note: You can add more than one email, for instance, by clicking on the (blue) plus icon to the right of the email field.

Attachments

Click on Attachments to upload related contact files.

contacts_-_attach.png

Click on Choose File to navigate to the file to upload, and once the file name appears instead of [No file chosen], click Submit. The uploaded file will appear as a clickable link in the Attachment List

contact_-_attachment.png

Click on Delete (shown in the grayed out area at the bottom) to remove a contact. Only click on OK if you are sure!

contact_-_delete.png

Mass editing

You also have the option of mass editing three types of information regarding contacts:

  1. Title
  2. Contact description
  3. Custom fields you created (see below)

To mass edit contacts, navigate to the Contact List via Contacts from the top menu or Contact>Contacts from the side menu, and select the Contacts of interest by clicking on the check box the the left of each name. 

Click on the (light blue) pencil icon. 

contact_-_mass_edit.png

Mass edit by clicking on the options to edit (circled in red). Once edited, click on Save to upload your edits.  

contacts_-_mass_edit.png

Archiving contacts

To archive contacts, navigate to the Contact List via Contacts (top menu) or Contact>Contacts  (side menu), and select the contacts of interest by clicking on the check box to the left of each name. 

Click on the (yellow) archive icon to move the selected items into the archive. Archived items are searchable and can be retrieved (unarchived).

contact_-_archive.png 

Adding custom fields

Important: If you do not have admin permissions, you will not be able to add custom fields or carry out the following steps.

Navigate to Settings>Module Field List Settings (side menu, near the bottom).

category_-_custom.png

Ten modules allow custom fields, including Contact and Address. To add a custom field, click on Add Custom Field

custom_-_contact_-_address.png

Related articles

Building the Foundation Quickly - Import Overview

What do I need to know about companies?

What do I need to know about custom fields?

What do I need to know about shipping?

What do I need to know about receiving?

 

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