Managing Contacts

Introduction

Palace Stock Tracker stores all contacts centrally, all addresses used in items, invoices and drops and are "linked" to a contact.

This means:

  • Changing a contact's address will filter down (cascade) into all their invoices, items and drops.
  • There may be a lot of contact records as every address used anywhere in the system has an associated central contact record.

About Addresses

Palace Stock Tracker allows multiple addresses to be added under each contact so if a contact moves house any historical related data remains unchanged while still providing a link to that contact.

 Tip: Altering an address because somebody has moved is a very bad idea! The software will warn you if you attempt to do this and suggest that you add a new address under the same contact instead.

Adding a New Contact

  • Open the Contacts section.
  • Press the New Contact toolbar button.

  • Select the type of contact from the Contact Type box.
  • Enter the contact's address in Address section.
  • If it is known that the contact will be a Gift Aid donor, set Gift Aid Type to "Yes" (this can be changed at any time).
  • When you are done press Save.


Finding a Specific Contact

Contacts can be found using the tabs along the top within the Contacts section.


Find a Contact using The List Tab

  • Press one of the top letter buttons to list all of contacts whos surname begins with that letter.
  • The drop down boxes below allow the Company Name to be searched instead of the surname and/or only a specific type of contact to be displayed.


Find a Contact using the Basic Search Tab

  • Enter part of either the contact's name, company name, address or post code in the Search Text box and press the Search button.

 Tip: For more specific searches you can refine which fields are searched by changing the value in the Search Within drop down box in the Advanced tab.

Find a Contact using the Contact/Donor Number Tab

If you know a contact's contact/donor number, type it into the Contact/Donor Number box and press Find.


Editing or Viewing a Contact's Details

  • Find the desired contact using either of the tabs as described in the previous section.
  • Highlight the contact in the results list and press the Edit toolbar button (or double click on a contact in the list).

The contact's record will now be displayed showing basic details in the top left corner and a list of addresses over to the right. Any notes for this contact can be entered in the large Contact Notes text box.

Where a contact has more than one address the top address is considered their primary/current address. Previous addresses would normally only exist to preserve any links to existing data elsewhere in the system.


Changing the Primary Address

For contacts with multiple addresses the primary address should be at the top of the addresses list. To move another address to the top of the list:

  • Highlight the new primary address in the address list.
  • Press the Move Address Up button next to the addresses list until the desired address is at the top.

Merging Addresses

If a contact has two or more addresses that are clearly the same (but just typed in slightly different ways) they can be merged into a single address.

  • Highlight the address to merge with the top address.
  • Press the Merge with Primary (top) Address button to the right of the addresses list.

Adding a New Address

  • Press the Add Address toolbar button.
  • In the New Address window, enter the new address and press Save.
  • The new address will be added to the top of the contact's Addresses list making it the primary address.

Edit and Existing Address

Note: Do not alter an address if a contact has moved, add a new address instead to preserve existing linked data elsewhere.
  • Highlight the address in the Addresses list.
  • Press the Edit Address toolbar button.
  • In the Edit Address window, amended the details as required and press Save.

Delete an Address

All contacts require at least one address, therefore only non-primary addresses can be deleted.

Note: Deleting an address which is referenced from elsewhere in the system will result in those links being removed and cannot be undone.
  • Highlight the address in the Addresses list.
  • Press the Delete Address toolbar button.

Credit Tab

Credit works like a mini bank account for contacts. This is designed for use with funded customers but could be used in other situations too.

Use the New Credit Transaction button to create transactions to add or withdraw funds.

 Tip: When selling items it is possible to deduct the balance directly from the purchasing contact's credit account while creating or editing invoices.

Donations Tab

The Donations tab contains a list of all items supplied (or donated) by the contact. Double clicking the entries in the list allows each item to be viewed/edited directly.


Invoices Tab

The Invoices tab contains a list of every invoice made out to the contact. Double clicking the entries in the list allows each invoice to be viewed/edited directly.


File Attachments

Each contact can have files attached to their record. Although this feature has been created to store evidence of Gift Aid declaration forms and letters being sent to donors it can be used freely to store any type of file.

Use the File Attachments toolbar button to access a contact's file attachments.

When files are imported into the Attachments Manager they are copied from their original source and stored in the Palace Stock Tracker central data root marked as read-only.

The same applies to images which may be scanned directly from a scanner or captured from a webcam.

Copies of file attachments can be exported at any time. All attachments can be opened using their associated application (in read only mode) with a single click, some file formats can be printed directly from the Attachments Manager.

Attachments can be any type of file (i.e. Word documents, PDF files, images, any custom files etc).


Example Scanned Document Attachment


Example Image Attachment


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