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Set up information for contacts

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When you create contacts you can enter information about them, such as:

  • The industry the contact belongs to.
  • Your business relationship with them.

Before you create contacts and record details about your business relationships, you must set up some of the information that you assign to them. For example:

  • Mailing groups
  • Industry groups
  • Business relations
  • Web sources
  • Organizational levels
  • Job responsibilities

You can set up this information on their pages, or from the Contact Card page by choosing the New action in the drop-down menu for the fields.

This information helps you organize your contacts so they're easier to find when you want to communicate with them. For example, you can find all contacts based on a certain group.

To assign industry groups to a contact

Industry groups indicate the type of industry that your contacts are in. For example, the retail industry or the automobile industry.

Note

You can only assign industry groups to contacts of type Company.

The industry group code defines the type or category of the group, such as ADVERT for advertising, or PRESS, for TV and radio. You can have several industry group codes. Define industry groups on the Industry Groups page.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. Choose the Company action, and then the Industry Groups action. The Contact Industry Groups page opens.
  3. In the Industry Groups Code field, select the industry groups you want to assign.

Repeat these steps to assign as many industry groups as you want. You can also assign industry groups from the contact list by following the same procedure.

After you assign industry groups to your contacts, you can use this information to select contacts for your segments. To learn more, go to Add Contacts to Segments.

Assign mailing groups to a contact

You can use mailing groups to identify groups of contacts that you want to send the same information to. For example, you can set up a mailing group for the contacts that you want to notify about an office move, or a group for sending holiday gifts.

The mailing group code defines the type or category of the group, such as MOVE for office move, or GIFT for holiday gift. You can have several mailing group codes. Define mailing groups on the Mailing Groups page.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. Choose the Mailing Groups action. The Contact Mailing Groups page opens.
  3. In the Mailing Groups Code field, select the mailing group that you want to assign.

Repeat these steps to assign as many mailing groups as you want. You can also assign mailing groups from the contact list.

After you assign mailing groups to your contacts, you can use the information to select contacts for your segments. To learn more, go to Add Contacts to Segments.

Define an alternate address for a contact

You can assign an alternate address where your contact sometimes wants to receive mail and information. For example, their vacation home. You can also assign date ranges that specify when to use each alternate address.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.

  2. Choose the Card action.

    To define that the alternate address applies in a specific period, choose the Date Range action instead.

  3. On the Contact Alt. Address List page, enter a new alternate address and fill in the fields on the Contact Alternative Address page.

Repeat these steps to assign as many alternate addresses as you want. You can specify one or more date ranges for each alternate address.

Assign job responsibilities to a contact

You can add information about the job responsibilities of contact persons to indicate what the contact person is responsible for. For example, IT, management, or production.

Note

You can only specify job responsibilities for contacts of the type Person.

The job responsibility code defines the type or category of the job, such a MARKETING or PURCHASE. You can have several job responsibility codes. Define job responsibilities on the Job Responsibilities page.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. Choose the Job Responsibilities action. The Contact Job Responsibilities page opens.
  3. In the Job Responsibility Code field, select the job responsibility.

Repeat these steps to assign as many job responsibilities as you want. You can also assign job responsibilities from the contact list.

After you assign job responsibilities to your contacts, you can use this information to select contacts for your segments. To learn more, go to Add Contacts to Segments.

Assign organizational levels to a contact

You can use organizational levels on your contacts to specify where they are in their company. For example, top management.

Note

You can only assign organizational levels to contacts of the type Person.

The organizational level code defines the type or category of the organizational level, such a CEO or CFO. You can have several organizational level codes. Define organizational levels on the Organizational Levels page.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. In the Organizational Levels field, select the code you want to assign.

After you assign organizational levels to your contacts, you can use this information to create segments.

After you assign job responsibilities to your contacts, you can use this information to select contacts for your segments. To learn more, go to Add Contacts to Segments.

Assign web sources to a contact

You can use web sources with your contact companies to identify, for example, web sites that you want to use to search for information about the contacts. When assigning web sources, you specify which search engine and search word to use to find the requested information.

Note

You can only assign web sources to contacts of the type Company.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. Choose the Web Sources action. The Contact Web Sources page opens.
  3. In the Web Source Code field, choose the web source you want to assign.
  4. In the Search Word field, enter the search word that you want to use to find the information.

Repeat these steps to assign as many web sources as you want.

Assign business relations to a contact

Business relations indicate the business relationship you have with your contacts. For example, a prospect, bank, consultant, service supplier, and so on.

Note

You can only assign business relations to contacts of the type Company.

  1. Open the relevant contact card.
  2. Choose the Business Relations action.
  3. On the Contact Business Relations page, in the Business Relation Code field, select the business relation you want to assign.

Repeat these steps to assign as many business relations as you want.

After you assign business relations to your contacts, you can use this information to select contacts for your segments. To learn more, go to Add Contacts to Segments.

Copy information from contact companies to contact persons

Some information about contact companies is the same for their contact persons. For example, the address details. On the Inheritance FastTab on the Marketing Setup page, you can specify which fields on the contact card for a company is copied to the contact card for a person each time you create a contact person for the contact company.

When you change the value in one of these fields on the contact company card, the same fields on the contact person card update. The exception is if you manually changed the field on the contact person card.

To learn more, go to Create Contacts.

Use predefined default settings on new contacts

You can use the Defaults FastTab on the Marketing Setup page to specify default values that Business Central automatically assigns to new contacts.

Note

You can also enter a default sales cycle code that application automatically assigns to each new opportunity you create.

The settings for inheritance overwrite the default values you set up. For example, if you have set up English as the default language, but the contact company's language is German, Business Central assigns German as the language code for the contact persons for that company.

Synchronize contacts with customers, vendors, and bank accounts

To synchronize the contact card with a linked customer, vendor, or bank account, fill in the relevant field in the Bus. Relation Code for section on the Interactions FastTab on the Marketing Setup page.

To learn more, go to Synchronizing contacts with customers, vendors, and bank accounts.

Search for duplicate contacts

Business Central can automatically search for duplicates each time you create a contact. Or, you can search manually after you create a contact. Business Central can update the search strings automatically each time you change a contact's information or create a contact. You can specify the Search Hit %, that is, the percentage of identical strings that two contacts must have to consider them as duplicates. You enter the percentage on the Duplicates FastTab on the Marketing Setup page.

When you find a duplicate contact, you can use the Merge Duplicate page to merge it with a contact record that you want to keep. To learn more, go to Merge Duplicate Records.

See also

Managing Contacts
Create Contacts
Managing Sales Opportunities
Work with Business Central

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