Link Order to Accounts Contact

The Sales and Purchase Ledger Enquiry includes tools to record contacts for your customers and suppliers in a separate database. This new feature allows, when adding sales or purchase orders, to select a contact from the database to link the order to a contact, the order can then be updated with information for the contact (contact name, email etc.) which can be used in place of the standard customer information.

When adding orders you can choose the contact, after selecting the account and confirming the new order reference, from a list of contacts for that account. The operator can select a contact by scrolling up/down the list and pressing <Enter> or double-clicking an entry in the list with the mouse. If you do not wish to assign a contact you can click the IGNORE button or press the <ESC> key on the list.

When updating the order header the contact list is available with <F4-Select> on the contact id input to amend the chosen contact.

Installation

Database Changes

A new data item is required on the Sales/Purchase Order Header file to allow linking to a contact. To add this new item select Installation from the main menu followed by Application Manager and then Restructure A Database. Select the Sales or Purchase Order Processing application. Elect to update the Live Files and then select the Order Header File. The existing data items are then displayed on screen, scroll-down to the next available blank entries and create the following items: File, Item, Name, Type, Description

 SOH/POH CONTACT-ID Y (6) Holds the ID number (record number) of the contact record the system is linked to.

To insert a new item press <Enter> against a blank entry, enter the title as required and press <Enter>, select the item type (using the drop-down list if required), and depending on item type select the size required.

You may also want to define, if not updating existing fields from the contact that the customer normally updates to, items such as contact-name or contact-email. If create these items they are X-type items with a length typically of 40-50 characters.

Once the additional item(s) has been recorded press the <ESC> key and select the UPDATEbutton to save the database changes.When prompted respond ‘Y’ to the prompts to ‘Extract Existing Data to New Database Structure’ and, if appropriate, ‘Copy Table Entries from Old Database to New Database’. Final prompts ask to ‘Remove (.OLD) Database’ and to ‘Carry Out the Same Restructure on the BASE File as Well’ – respond as required.If you select to update the base file you need to manually insert the new items at the same data item positions as on the live file.

Database Profiles

The new CONTACT-ID item needs to be referenced within the Database Profiles. To update the profiles select Installation from the main menu followed by Application Manager and then Set Database Profiles. Select Sales or Purchase Order Processing as required and then select the option screen Header Optional 4.

On the left of the screen is the prompt Contact Record – against this item reference the data item number of the equivalent item created above, <F4-Select> is available if required.

System Profiles

To enable the link to the Contact records and to define any ‘copy’ items from the contact record to the order header database you need to update the system profiles.To update the profiles select Installation from the main menu followed by Application Manager and then System Profiles before selecting the required Order Processing application.

Link orders to Sales (Purchase) accounts contacts – set to enable the system to link a sales/purchase order to an accounts contact. When confirmed a pop-up form is displayed allowing you to define copy items from the contact record to the order header.

Application Screen Layouts

The final implementation stage for this feature is to update the order header entry screen(s) to include an input item for the contact id. To update the screen layout(s) users can sign on as the SYSTEM user-id (or if Premier any user with Installer rights) and right-click on the Order Entry menu option and select Configure Option before selecting the Enter New Order Header Screen.Alternatively users can select the Installation option from the main menu followed by Application Manager and then Application User Facilities. Select the required Order Processing application before selecting Enter/Amend Orders and then Enter New Order Header Screen.

To insert the contact details you’ll first need to add a text label of ‘Contact’ (or similar), to do this use the mouse to position the cursor where required and then type the required text. To insert the data items position the cursor where required and press the <F4-Select> key and choose the contact items required – as a minimum you will want the contact-id item but (if not already in place) you may want to include the items being updated from the contact to allow the operator to amend if required (or manually set if no contact record selected). Set whether items are view-only, mandatory or require uppercase input as required.

Once complete choose File and then Save & Exit. Before exiting completely review the Update Order Header Screen option, if this is set to use the same screen as Add then changes are complete, if not then you will need to duplicate the above change(s) as required.