Contacts: the people at your accounts

A contact is one person you deal with: a buyer, an owner, an accounts clerk or a consumer. In most cases the person works at an account. Leads, opportunities, orders, invoices, cases and calls all point to a contact, so they show who you are talking to, while the account shows who you are doing business with. You create contacts by hand, from a lead when you convert it, or automatically as an account's primary contact.

Overview

The Contact record holds the person's name, phone numbers, email and job details. It links to an account through the Account field. Everything that lists "the account's contacts" uses that field: the account's Contact & Address Info tab, and the contact pickers on documents.

Addresses are not kept on the contact. Billing and shipping addresses belong to the account as contact addresses. A contact address can name the contact person at that address.

When to use it

• Record each person you speak to at a customer, so calls, emails and cases can be tied to them.
• Pick the person on a lead, opportunity, order, invoice or case.
• Note people who must not be called or emailed. These flags are records only (see Business rules).

How xMatix handles it

• Where the list is. The usual way in is the account: open it and go to Contact & Address Info, where the contacts list shows the account's people. The full Contacts list is in the CRM app's Settings entry. It is also in the Partner Onboarding Settings app, under Partner Masters. You can also open the App Launcher, type Contacts and choose the entity.
• Name is what you type. The Name field on the New form is the name shown in lists, pickers and documents. xMatix does not build it from first and last name. First Name and Last Name are separate fields on the record page.
• The primary contact. An account can create its own primary contact. This happens when you switch on Create Account Contact on a customer account (see Accounts). The contact takes the account's name and email. While the switch stays on, every save of the account copies the account's name and email onto it again.
• Contacts from leads. Converting a lead can create a contact named after the lead's first and last name. The contact gets the lead's email, and the lead's phone number becomes its Mobile Phone. The contact is linked to the account. See Leads.
• Calls. Incoming and outgoing calls are matched to a contact by phone number. The match uses Phone, Mobile Phone, Home Phone or Other Phone (see Calls and recordings).

Prerequisites

• Your security profile must allow you to view and create contacts (see Permissions).
• The account should exist first, so you can link the person to it.

Procedure

Step 1 — Add a contact from the account

1. Open the account and select the Contact & Address Info tab.
2. On the contacts list, select New. The form opens with the account already filled in.
3. Fill the fields described in Step 2 and save.

The contact appears in the account's contacts list straight away. Contact pickers for that account now offer it.

Step 2 — Create a contact from the Contacts list

1. Open Contacts (CRM → Settings, or search for it in the App Launcher) and select New.
2. At the top of the form, fill:
   • Salutation: Dr., Mr, Ms. or Prof.
   • Name: the person's name as you want it shown. This field is required.
   • Account: the company the person works for. Leave it empty only for a person who belongs to no account.
   • Contact Code: your own reference, if you use one.
3. On the Contact Details tab, fill Phone, Email, Fax and Other Address. Phone and Fax are number boxes, so type digits only.
4. On the Organization Details tab, fill Title, Department and Reports To (another contact). Leave Creation Source empty.
5. Select Save. The contact's record page opens.

If you leave Name empty, the save is refused with "Name is required".

Step 3 — Complete the record page

The record page shows Account, Name, Phone and Email in the header. The Details tab holds Salutation, First Name, Last Name, Contact Code, Account, Phone, Mobile Phone, Email, Fax, Title, Department and Assistant.

Fields on the record page edit in place. Select a value, change it and save. First Name, Last Name, Mobile Phone and Assistant are only on the record page, not on the New form. Fill them here if you need them.

The header's Edit button opens the same form you used to create the contact.

Step 4 — Find a contact

Open Contacts. The standard view, All Contact, shows Name, Email, Phone, Contact Code, Account Name, Created By, Created Date and Modified Date. Search, filter and sort as on any list (see Navigating xMatix). To see one account's people, open the account's Contact & Address Info tab.

Step 5 — Use the contact on documents

On a lead, opportunity, order, invoice or case, the Contact picker offers only contacts whose Account is the account on the document. Pick the account first.

What happens when you pick an account depends on the document:

• Lead, opportunity. If Contact is empty, the most recently created contact of the account is filled in. Changing the account replaces the contact with the new account's latest contact, or clears it if the new account has none.
• Case. A contact you already picked is kept. Otherwise the account's most recently created contact is filled in, with its email and numbers.
• Order, invoice. When the document is saved for the first time, xMatix sets Contact to the account's default contact, replacing any contact you chose. The default contact is the one marked Is Default, or otherwise one of the account's contacts. The contact's Phone is copied as the document's contact number.

Step 6 — Delete a contact

Open the contact and select Delete in the header, or use Delete on the row in a list. Deleted contacts disappear from lists and pickers. Documents that named the contact keep the link. Before you delete an account's primary contact, read Common problems.

Mobile

The field app keeps contacts on the device for offline use, and shows them where a screen needs them. For example, a visit shows the account's primary contact, and a service case can be found by a contact's phone number. The standard mobile menus have no Contacts entry. New contacts are created on the phone through lead conversion.

Fields

Create form

Record page only

Stored but not on the standard forms

The contact also has Home Phone, Other Phone, Assistant Phone and a country code for each number (default +91). It also stores Mailing Address, Birthdate, Description, Lead Source, Pronouns, First Name (Local), Last Name (Local), Is Default, Do Not Call, Email Opt Out and Fax Opt Out. An administrator can add any of them to the layouts. Home Phone and Other Phone are also used for call matching.

Business rules

• Name is required. No other contact field is required, and no field is checked for duplicates. Two contacts with the same name, email or phone are both accepted.
• Primary contact. A customer account saved with Create Account Contact on gets one primary contact, named after the account and with its email. The account's phone is not copied. If the contact is created when the account is first saved, its Account field stays empty. So it is not in the account's contacts list, and contact pickers do not offer it, until you fill its Account field. If it is created on a later save of an existing account, it is linked both ways.
• Name and email sync. While Create Account Contact stays on, each save of the account copies the account's Name and Email onto the primary contact. This overwrites any changes made on the contact.
• One primary contact per account. If the account already points to a primary contact, no new one is created, even if that contact has been deleted.
• Default contact on orders and invoices. On the first save of an order or invoice, the contact is set to the account's contact marked Is Default, or, when none is marked, to any of the account's contacts. Is Default is not on the standard forms and nothing sets it, so in practice this is one of the account's contacts.
• Consent flags are records only. Do Not Call, Email Opt Out and Fax Opt Out are stored, but no part of xMatix checks them before dialling, emailing or adding someone to a campaign. Honour them through your own process or automation.
• Deleting. Deleting a contact hides it but does not clear references to it. Orders, invoices and other documents keep pointing at it. An account whose primary contact was deleted still points to that contact.
• Merge is not available for contacts.

Example

A distributor's sales executive meets the purchase manager of a new customer, Lakeview Provisions.

1. The executive opens the account Lakeview Provisions and selects Contact & Address Info.
2. On the contacts list they select New and enter Salutation Ms., Name Anita Rao, Phone 9876501234, Email purchase@lakeview.example. On Organization Details they enter Title Purchase Manager and Department Purchasing. Then they save.
3. On the record page they fill First Name Anita, Last Name Rao and Mobile Phone 9876509999.
4. Next week Anita calls from her mobile. The call is matched to her contact record and to Lakeview Provisions.
5. The executive raises an opportunity for Lakeview Provisions. Contact is filled with Anita Rao, the account's most recently created contact.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox:

1. Create a customer account Practice Contacts 01 with Create Account Contact switched off.
2. From its Contact & Address Info tab, add two contacts: Trainee One with phone 9000000001, and Trainee Two with phone 9000000002.
3. Create a lead for the account and leave Contact empty.

Expected result: the account's contacts list shows both people, and the lead's Contact is Trainee Two, the more recently created one. Open Trainee One, change Title in place and save. The change appears straight away.

Quick reference

• Add people from the account's Contact & Address Info tab, so the account is filled in for you.
• Name is required and is what everyone sees. First and Last Name are separate.
• First Name, Last Name and Mobile Phone are on the record page, not the New form.
• Contact pickers on documents only offer contacts of the document's account.
• Orders and invoices choose their own contact from the account on first save.
• A primary contact created with a new account must have its Account filled before documents can offer it.
• Do Not Call and the opt-out flags are not enforced.
• Contacts cannot be merged. Delete the duplicate instead.

Permissions

Viewing, creating, editing and deleting contacts follow the access your security profile gives to the Contact entity. The standard Sales, Sales Executive, Sales Manager, Service, Standard User and System Administrator profiles have full access. A user without read access does not see the Contacts list or the account's contacts list. A user without create, edit or delete access does not get New, the edit pencils or Delete. See Security profiles.

Configuration

• Layouts. The New form, the record page and the preview are standard layouts. Use Design Studio to add fields that are stored but not shown, for example First Name and Last Name on the New form. You can also add Is Default, so users can choose which contact orders and invoices take, or Do Not Call and the opt-out flags. See Design a form layout.
• Numbering. The Contact entity has a numbering setting (Contact Document Name Settings, series CON) that is switched off by default. Switching it on replaces the typed Name with a generated code on every new contact, so lists and pickers show codes instead of people's names. Leave it off unless that is what you want. It is under Design Studio → Entities → Contact → Logic → Document Settings.
• Primary contact. Create Account Contact is set per account. See Accounts.
• Where contacts appear. Contacts are in the CRM settings list and in Partner Onboarding Settings. To give users a menu entry elsewhere, add the entity to an app. See Apps, entities and records.
• Call matching. Store phone numbers as plain digits. Spaces or dashes inside the last seven digits stop a call from matching (see Calls and recordings).

Common problems

The account's primary contact is not in its contacts list or in the Contact picker

Cause: the contact was created when the account was first saved, with Create Account Contact on. Its Account field was left empty.

Fix: open the contact (search the Contacts list for the account's name) and set Account in place. It then appears in the account's list and in document pickers.

The contact I picked on an order or invoice changed when I saved

Cause: on first save, orders and invoices take the account's default contact, replacing the one you chose.

Fix: after the first save, set Contact again and save. To control which contact is taken, have an administrator add Is Default to the contact layout and tick it on the right person.

My changes to a contact's name or email were undone

Cause: the contact is the account's primary contact, and the account has Create Account Contact on. Each save of the account copies its name and email back.

Fix: change the name or email on the account, or switch Create Account Contact off on the account.

The Contact picker on a document is empty

Cause: the picker only lists contacts whose Account is the document's account. Either no account is chosen yet, or the account has no linked contacts.

Fix: choose the account first. Then add a contact from the account's Contact & Address Info tab, or set the Account on an existing contact.

A deleted primary contact still appears on new documents, and no new one is created

Cause: deleting a contact does not clear the account's pointer to its primary contact. xMatix does not create a second primary contact, and lead conversion can reuse the deleted one.

Fix: avoid deleting an account's primary contact. Correct its name and details instead. If it has already been deleted, ask your administrator. The account's Account Contact field is not on the standard account layouts.

"Name is required"

Cause: the Name field was left empty.

Fix: type the person's name in Name. Filling First Name and Last Name alone is not enough.

Common questions

Why are First Name and Last Name not on the New form?

The standard New form has a single Name box. That is the name xMatix shows in lists, pickers and documents. First Name and Last Name are separate fields on the record page, filled automatically by lead conversion and portal sign-up. You can fill them after saving. An administrator can add them to the New form in Design Studio. Typing them never changes Name, so keep the two consistent yourself, or decide that Name is the only one your team uses.

Does ticking Do Not Call or Email Opt Out stop calls and emails?

No. The flags are stored on the contact and can be shown on layouts and in reports, but xMatix does not check them. The softphone still dials the number, and campaigns and email still reach the person. If you need these preferences enforced, build that into your process. For example, filter campaign audiences on the flags, or add an automation that warns users. The flags are not on the standard forms, so an administrator has to add them first.

Where do I put a contact's address?

Billing and shipping addresses belong to the account, as contact addresses. Each one can name the contact person at that address, and documents take their addresses from these records. The contact's own Other Address and Mailing Address fields are free text, and xMatix never uses them on documents. Use them only as a note of where the person can be reached.

Can I merge two duplicate contacts?

No. Merge is not available for contacts, and xMatix does not check contacts for duplicates. When you find a duplicate, decide which record to keep, and move documents to it by changing their Contact field. Then delete the other record. Don't delete an account's primary contact this way; see Common problems.

Related topics

• Accounts
• Contact addresses
• Leads
• Calls and recordings
• Contact entity reference
• Account — entity reference