Contacts

From aeonscope

Think of it like a "white pages directory" of all contacts your business deals with including customers, suppliers, associates and employees. Contacts are used throughout aeonscope forming your debtors, creditors and employees fields.Once a record has been created for an individual it can be edited as necessary to keep track of changing addresses and telephone numbers, and changing affiliations with your creditors and debtors. Individuals can be connected to companies, and companies with individuals. If an individual changes career or employer they can be disassociated with the original company and associate them with the new company. The information in Contacts is available to everyone in your business. Only one person at a time can modify a contact. Once a modification is made it is instantly available to everyone.

Contents 1 Contacts Icons 2 Contacts Terminology 3 Working with Contacts 4 Searching for a Contact 5 Adding a New Contact 5.1 Creditor 5.1.1 Editing Creditor Terms 5.1.2 Deleting a Creditor 5.2 Debtor 5.2.1 Editing Debtor Terms 5.2.2 Deleting a Debtor 5.2.3 Debtor On Hold 5.3 Employee 5.3.1 Editing Employee Terms 5.3.2 Deleting an Employee 5.3.3 Disabling an Employee 5.4 Sales Representative 6 Addresses 7 Editing/Changing Contacts Details 8 Associations 8.1 Adding an Association 8.2 Removing an Association 9 Contacts Convert 10 Notes 10.1 Reminders 11 Exporting Data

Contacts Icons

Definitions for icons used within the Contacts windows

Contacts Method (telephone, fax, mobile)

Address, (delivery/mailing)

Associations (persons/companies connected to the contact)

Creditor details/terms

Debtor details/terms

Convert contact type, Company/Person

Contacts (Address book)

Contacts Terminology

aeonscope uses the following terminology within the Contacts area:

• Company: a company with a registered business name and ABN
• Person: an individual
• Creditor: a supplier - someone to whom your business pays money for goods or services
• Debtor: a customer - someone who pays your business money for goods or services
• Employee: an individual employed by your company

When you enter a Contact you can indicate the Contacts relationship with your Company. A Company Contact could be a Debtor, Creditor or Both. A Person Contact could be a Debtor, Creditor, Sales Representative or Employee. Defining a Contact as a Creditor, Debtor or Employee will allow you to store their terms of business or rate of pay within the aeonscope database.

Working with Contacts

Launch aeonscope from the icon in the system tray. Select Contacts.

This will open the contacts window.

Searching for a Contact

Clicking on the Lookup/Search button in the Contacts window will open the Contacts Lookup window. This window can be used to enter any of the information you do know about the Contact to locate their record in the aeonscope database. Searches can be conducted using a name or address, or any combination of information in the various fields. Using the radio buttons to select Creditor/Debtor etc will help narrow the search. Click the Go/Start button to begin searching. The results will be displayed in the list below.

To begin a new search, click on the Clear button to clear all fields, and then fill in the relevant fields with the information for the new search.

Double-clicking on the contact in the list will open the Contacts entry for that person/ company.

For more information on getting the most out of Lookups, please refer to the Searching/Lookup page.

Adding a New Contact

Click or press Alt + N. A new window will appear asking you for the details of the new Contact. To prevent duplicate contacts being created, aeonscope performs a duplicate check before the new Contact is added to the database. Type the name of the person or company in the Name field, then change the Contact Type to reflect whether it is a person or company contact you wish to add. Note how the OK button is disabled until the search function has been used.

If there are no matches to the name entered in the Name field, clicking the OK button at the bottom of the window will bring up the following screen:

Use the Contact Method button to add contact details, the Address button to add mailing and delivery addresses, Associations button to associate the new contact with other businesses or persons and the Notes button to include any other relevant information. Flag your new Contact as either a Debtor, Creditor, Sales Rep or Employee.

Creditor

If the relationship with the Contact is a Creditor, check the Creditor box towards the bottom of the Contact Details window. This will prompt a Creditor Details window to open.

Type PPS Percent (or leave blank if none) Use the pulldown menu to select the Terms. Press OK to save Creditor Terms.

Editing Creditor Terms

From the Company Contact Details window click on the Creditor button , or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + C to open the Creditor Terms window. Change the terms of your agreement with the Creditor and Click the OK button to save the new terms and exit.

Deleting a Creditor

To delete a Creditor uncheck the Creditor box towards the bottom of the Company Contact Details window. A warning dialogue box will appear.

Click Ok. The Contact is now no longer flagged as a Creditor within the aeonscope database. Once you delete Creditor details you have to reenter them. They are NOT resaved once you tick Creditor again. Therefore be VERY sure that you wish to delete these details. If a Contact which is marked as a Creditor has any Creditor information created to this number ie any Creditor Invoices, you are unable to delete this information.

Debtor

If the relationship with a Contact is a Debtor, check the Debtor box towards the bottom of the Contact Details window. This will open a Debtor Details window.

If there is a sales representative for this Contact enter their code, or use the Lookup/Search button to open the Lookup window. Set the payment terms and credit limit.

Note: Please confirm with your Accounts Department before offering Credit terms to anyone

For further information in using the Lookup window please refer to the Searching for a Contact section in this document.

Editing Debtor Terms

From the Company Contact Details window click on the Debtor button , or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + D to open the Debtor Terms window. Change the terms of your agreement with the Debtor and Click the OK button to save the new terms and exit.

Deleting a Debtor

To delete a Debtor uncheck the Debtor box towards the bottom of the Company Contact Details window. A warning dialogue box will appear.

Click Ok. The Contact is now no longer flagged as a Debtor within the aeonscope database.

Once you delete Debtor details you have to reenter them. They are NOT resaved once you tick Debtor again. Therefore be VERY sure that you wish to delete these details. If a Contact which is marked as a Debtor has any Debtor information created to this number ie any Debtor Orders, you are unable to delete this information.

Debtor On Hold

If a Debtor's record needs to be placed on hold, open the Company Contact Details window click on the Debtor button , or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + D to open the Debtor Terms window. Check the Hold button in this window, and then click the OK button to save and exit.

Employee

If the relationship with the Contact is as an Employee, check the Employee box towards the bottom of the Contact Details window. This will prompt the Employee Entry window to open.

Enter the Employees Username/aeonscope login in the Username field (or leave blank if this employee will not be using aeonscope), Foreign Id (or leave blank if none), the date they began working for the company in the Date Employed filed, and their hourly rate of pay in the Charge Per Hour field.

This window cannot be saved without entering the Employees Rate Class, Payroll C.C. (Classification Code), Default Process (the code for the task they perform most often), and Default WC (Default Work Center - the location they most often work from). With the exception of Payroll C.C., these fields are all searchable to help you find the correct code. Click on the Search/Lookup button for a lookup window to appear.

The Rate Class, Payroll C.C., list of Processes and Work Centers are all created by a representative from your company. The available options will reflect the types of work your company is involved with.

The Billing Rate area allows your company to keep a record of varying rates of pay - for example the number of raises and employee has had over the period of their employment. The most recent increase in salary should be reflected in the Charge per Hour field.

When you have completed this window clock on the OK button and Save the changes. You will return to the Contact Details window. Once you have entered the new Employee's Address and Employee Terms click OK to save the changes.

This will return you to the Contacts window. Click to Save the new Contact and Exit from the Contacts area.

Editing Employee Terms

From the Company Contact Details window click on the Employee button , or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + E to open the Employee Terms window. Change the terms of your agreement with the employee and Click the OK button to save the new terms and exit.

Deleting an Employee

Note: Employees cannot be deleted if they have time allocated towards Jobs in the database. Please refer to Disabling and Employee To delete an employee uncheck the Employee box towards the bottom of the Contact Details window. A warning dialogue box will appear.

Click Ok. The Contact is now no longer flagged as an employee within the aeonscope database.

Once you delete Employee details you have to reenter them. They are NOT resaved once you tick Employee again.

Disabling an Employee

When an Employee leaves the company their record should be marked as inactive. Find the record for the Employee in the Contacts Database, then click on the Employee Terms button.

Change the Payroll C.C. Code to X and uncheck the Current checkbox. Click Ok to save the changes. The Employee will no longer appear in the list of current Employees.

Sales Representative

If the Contact is as a Sales Representative for a Contact Company (usually a Debtor), check the Sales Representative box towards the bottom of the Contact Details window. No further fields are required to be filled in. aeonscope has the ability to run reports based on Sales Representatives - checking this box flags the Contact to be included in these reports. You may also want to add an Association between the Sales Rep and their Company.

Addresses

For each Contact you may specify both a delivery address and a mailing address. This is particularly useful for Contacts who use a Post Office box for mail, or who have separate premises for administration and manufacturing.

With the Edit Contact Details window open, click on or Alt + A to change or add address information.

The Street address can be up to three lines. This is to allow for apartment numbers, building names and foreign addresses. Press Enter after each line, or use Tab to move into the next field. The Suburb field always defaults to uppercase. If you are unsure of the spelling of a suburb you can use the suburb lookup. You may simply type the name of the suburb in, or click the button to open a Suburb Lookup window. Enter as much of the suburb as you like before clicking the Search button , or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + S to begin the search. Doubleclicking on the correct suburb in the list will input the State and Postcode into the Address window.

The Postcode field will autofill based on suburb selection, you may overtype if you wish. Enter the country. Click on OK to save.

To use the delivery address for mailing, check the Use Delivery Address For Mailing box at the bottom of the Address window.

Editing/Changing Contacts Details

Once a record has been located for a company/person/employee in the Contacts window by either typing in the contact code or using the Lookup/Search button, any of the information associated with that Contact can be altered by clicking on the Edit button

This will launch the Edit People Contact Details or the Edit Company Contact Details windows.

Use the Contact Method button to change contact details, the Address button to update mailing and delivery addresses, Associations button to associate the new contact with other businesses or persons, the Convert button to change a Person to a Company (or vice-versa) and the Notes button to include any other relevant information. To change Creditor Terms use the Creditor button, to change the Debtor Terms user the Debtor button or to change Employee Terms use the Employee button . For more detailed instructions on changing Creditor, Debtor and Employee Terms please refer to the section on Editing Creditor Terms , Editing Debtor Terms and Editing Employee Terms in the Adding a New Contact section.

Associations

Within aeonscope Contacts you are able to associate individuals to a company and vice-versa. This is a useful tool to store relevant details about individuals within a company, such as mobile phone numbers and email addresses. If a person leaves a company and goes to another company you are able to associate that person with the new company without needing to enter their details again.

To view a list of the individuals associated with a company, use the association button from the Company Contact Details window.

For help finding Company Contact record please refer to Searching for a Contact on this page.

This will bring up a list of all people associated with a company.

You can use the Add/Plus button to add a new association. Please refer to section Adding an Association for further details.

To view or edit the details of any of the people from the list of associations, double-click on their name, or highlight the person whose details you wish to see and click the Edit button This will open a new window with a brief listing of the association's details. To see the full listing click on the Search/Lookup button in this new window.

When you have finished, use the Save and Exit button to save your changes and exit from the Associations window.

Adding an Association

To add an Association between a company and a person simply click on the Add/Plus button in the Associations window.

This will bring up an Add Associations window.

From this window you may search for a person using the Lookup/Search button or using the keyboard shortcut Alt + down arrow. For help using Lookup please refer to the Searching Contacts section on this page. If you are certain that there isn't already a record for this new person in your aeonscope database, you can create a new entry by using the Add/Plus button in this window.

When you have finished, use the Save & Exit button to save your changes and exit from the Associations window.

Removing an Association

To remove an association between a company and an individual/person simply click on the Delete button in the Associations window. This will only remove the link between the company and the person, not the record of the person.

When you have finished, use the Save & Exit button to save your changes and exit from the Associations window.

Contacts Convert

aeonscope Contacts allow you to change the status of a contact from a Person to a Company and vice-versa. This is particularly useful if you have accidentally created a Contact as a Person when they should be a company, or if a person begins operating as a business.

To convert a Contact from Person to Company, or Company to Person, click on the Convert button in the Company/Person Contact Details window.

Note: You must remove any Associations from the Contact before using the Convert function. A dialogue box will remind your of this if you attempt to convert a Contact while there are Companies/Persons associated with it.

Notes

The Notes area can be used to store additional information about your Contacts. For example, details about holiday closures, temporary changes to accounting details or sensitive information about why a company or individual my have been placed on hold.

To access Notes click on the Notes button or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + T.

This will open the Notes window. You will notice each of the entries is listed by date and author with a brief description.

To view a note, either double-click on the note in the list, or highlight the note you wish to open and click the View button . Information cannot be Edited in View mode.

To create a new Note, click on the Add button. A new Notes window will appear. The Note Number and your employee details will automatically be entered in the appropriate fields.

Enter the contents of the Note in the Description field. The first line of the Description will automatically become the Subject of the Note.

Choose a Group for the Note to belong to. The Group dictates which members of your company are able to edit the note. Groups are created to reflect the different teams within your company.

To edit a note either double-click on the note in the list, or highlight the note you wish to open and click the Edit button . While in Edit mode you can choose to send the note as a reminder. Please see the section Reminders in this document for detailed information on creating reminders.

For the Notes window you may search for Notes attached to other Contacts. Click the Clear button to clear all fields in the Notes window, the use the Contact Code or Lookup/Search button to bring up the notes connected with another Contact.

Reminders

Notes can be sent as reminders to staff members, using a pop-up window to automatically alert them to the contents of a Note at an appointed time. To send a note as a Reminder, highlight the appropriate Note in the list, click on the Reminder button. The Notes window will open, showing you the entire contents of the Note, which group it belongs to, who created it and when.

To set the Note as a Reminder fill in the Reminder fields towards the bottom of the window. The Recipient is the person you wish to send the reminder to. Either type their name or Employee Number in the Recipient field, or use the Search/Lookup button to find the right person.

The Scheduled field allows you to set the day and time of the Reminder. Either type in the date, or use the Calendar button . Type in the time using the 24 hour digital clock after the date. If you do not specify a time aeonscope will use the default time of midnight to send the Reminder. If the Employee is not logged in to aeonscope at the time the Reminder is scheduled for it will pop up as soon as they log in.

If the Acknowledged button is checked the Reminder will not alert the Employee.

The Type field can be used to differentiate between different kinds of Notes or Reminders. These types are set by the aeonscope administrator for your company, and may include options such as phone message, email, warning, time sensitive, meeting reminder. To view a list of the available options click on the Search/Lookup button. When you have completed all the fields click the OK button to save the Reminder.

At the time scheduled the Reminder will pop-up a window similar to this:

Clicking on the Reschedule button will allow you to reschedule the date and/or time of the Reminder. Clicking Acknowledge will mark the Reminder as Acknowledged and it will not appear again.

If you do not dismiss the Reminder by either Rescheduling or Acknowledging the Reminder, the Reminder window will reappear every 10 minutes.

The Future check box will list all Reminders set for dates in the future to be visible in the list at the top of the Reminder window. You may doubleclick on any of these Reminders to edit or reschedule the Reminder.

Exporting Data

Should you need to export any or all of the Contacts information from your aeonscope database, there is an inbuilt Export function. This could be useful for creating a mailing list of customers. Data is exported from aeonscope in comma delimited (or spreadsheet) format (without formulas).

Note: To be able to Export Data from Contacts you must have the User Privilege CONTACT_EXPORT.

Use the Contacts Lookup window to create a list of names and addresses you wish to export. In the example below we have searched for all the Companies in the suburb of Findon, SA.

When you are satisfied that the list contains all the Contacts you wish to export, click on the Export button. A dialogue box will pop up to ask you to define the information you are looking for.

By default only Code and Name are checked. If you are planning to create a mailing list then you would also want the Mailing Address option checked, however if you need to create a telephone contact list then you would use the Contact Methods checkbox. Associations will list all of the individual Contacts affiliated with any companies in your search. Click OK.

After a few moments aeonscope will launch your spreadsheet program with a new window complete with all the Contacts data requested.