Contact
In ERPNext, a Contact is a single individual person and a central location for storing their information and governing communication.
A contact may be linked to one or more entities like a Lead, Customer, Supplier, Shareholder, Sales Partner, or a User. This relationship enables a single, current record for the person along with tracking their association with various parts of your business.
You may also create standalone contacts without referencing them to any specific entity and is useful in storing information of potential leads, personal referrals, or other individuals relevant to your business processes.
To open the Contact list, go to:
1. Creating a Contact
- Go to the list of Contact and click on New.
- Type in the name of the individual, "First Name" and "Last Name".
- Choose the Status to point out whether the contact is that of a Passive contact, one that is Open to a Contact or another that has replied (useful in tracking the engagement).
- Also enter your contact information such as; E-mail Address, Phone Number, Mobile Number and Website if any.
- Record it, save it.
Additional creation options:
- From a Supplier or Customer record, click the "New Contact" button to create and link the contact with that entity immediately.
- If an entity has more than one contact (like a customer or supplier), select 'Is Primary Contact' to determine the best person to call. ERPNext automatically selects the primary contact in transactions like Sales Orders, Quotations, and Sales Invoices.
- To import many contacts at a single instance, use the Data Import Tool with care that your spread sheet is aligned to the ERPNext standard file format allowing easy importation.
2. Features
2.1 Link a Contact to More than One Entity
One-to-One Connection ERPNext offers the possibility of one contact being attached to more than one entity simultaneously. For example:
- A contact can be linked to different Customers (ideal for consultants or shared representatives).
- A contact can be linked to both Customers and Suppliers if they work in different roles for your business. This saves from double entries and offers all communications within the same contact record.
2.2 Invite the Contact as a User
If your ERPNext implementation has Customer Portal or Supplier Portal access turned on, you can invite a contact to be a registered user. This will allow him to log in and view only data pertaining to him—such as quotations, orders, invoices, or tickets.
To do this:
- Click the 'Invite as User' button from the contact page.
- A link to the contact will be sent an invitation email with the login credentials.
- Access rights are managed by choosing the correct User Role and the corresponding permissions.
It can be a useful function to create customer and supplier self-service portals in order to reduce person-to-person push and pull.