Contacts

Contact Reports

Quickenerp provides several ways to analyse your contact database:

Contact Analysis (Pivot View)

Go to Contacts > Reporting > Contact Analysis. This pivot view lets you:

• Group by Country, State, City, Tags, Industry, or Sales Team.
• See counts of customers, vendors, employees per segment.
• Track new contacts created over time.
• Export the analysis to Excel for external reporting.

Contact List Export

For a raw data export:

1. Go to Contacts – List view.
2. Set up filters to narrow down to the contacts you want.
3. Click Actions – Export All Records.
4. Choose fields including all custom fields.
5. Export as CSV or Excel.

Contact Duplicate Report

To find and merge duplicate contacts:

• Use the "Duplicate Contacts" filter in the Filters menu to show potential duplicates.
• Select the duplicate records in the list view.
• Click Actions – Merge Contacts.
• Choose the master record that will survive. Quickenerp moves all related records (invoices, orders) to the master.

Customer Portal

The customer portal allows your customers and vendors to log in and view their documents, communicate, and perform self-service actions – all without accessing the Quickenerp backend.

What Portal Users Can Do

Granting Portal Access to a Contact

1. Open the contact record. It should be a Company (not Individual) with a valid email address.
2. Click the Grant Portal Access button in the header.
3. A dialog appears confirming the email and the portal group (typically "Portal"). You can select additional groups:

• Portal – Basic access to documents.
• Public – No login required, only public website content.
• User (backend) – NOT recommended for customers. This grants internal access.

Portal Security

• Portal users see ONLY documents where they are the customer/vendor. They cannot see other customers' data.
• Portal users cannot access the backend interface (the app switcher only shows the portal menu).
• You can enable Two-Factor Authentication for portal accounts if needed.
• Portal sessions expire after a period of inactivity (configure in Settings – General Settings – Security).

Activities on Contacts

Activities represent follow-up actions you schedule against a contact. They ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Activities are visible in the "Activities" kanban view across the entire system.

Types of Activities

• Call – Phone call to the contact.
• Meeting – In-person or virtual meeting.
• To-Do – A general task to complete.
• Email – Send an email.
• Demo – Product demonstration.
• Follow-Up – Generic follow-up activity. You can create custom activity types.

Creating an Activity

1. Open the contact record.
2. Click the Schedule Activity button (bell icon) in the top action bar.
3. Select the Activity Type (Call, Meeting, etc.).
4. Set a Due Date – when this activity must be completed.
5. Set an Alarm – remind you before the due date (e.g. 1 hour before, 1 day before).
6. Enter a Summary – brief description (appears in the kanban activity view).
7. Enter Notes – detailed notes for the activity (discussion points, preparation needed).
8. Assign to – yourself or a colleague.
9. Click Save. The activity appears on your dashboard, the contact's chatter, and the global Activities view.

Marking Activities Complete

From the contact record or the My Activities dashboard:

• Open the activity (click it in the chatter or the kanban card).
• Check the Done checkbox.
• Enter any additional notes about what happened.
• Click Save. The activity is moved to the chatter history.

Communication via Chatter

The chatter at the bottom of each contact record is the communication hub:

• Internal Notes – Type a message and click "Send" to add an internal note. Use @name to notify a colleague. Notes are visible to internal users only (not portal users).
• Email – Click the "Email" button to compose an email to the contact. The email is stored in the chatter. Replies from the contact (via incoming mail) are also attached.
• Log Note – A formal log entry (e.g. "Contract signed", "Support case closed"). Log notes are timestamped and appear in the chatter.
• Attachments – Drag and drop files (PDF, images, documents) onto the chatter. They are stored permanently against the contact.
• Field Tracking – If field tracking is enabled for any contact field, changes appear as automatic log notes in the chatter (e.g. "Email changed from old@email.com to new@email.com by John Admin").

Contact Tags

Tags are coloured labels you assign to contacts for categorisation, filtering, and reporting. They are a simple but powerful way to segment your contact database.

Managing Tags

Go to Contacts > Configuration > Tags. Here you can:

• Create new tags – Give each tag a name and a colour (for visual distinction in kanban/list views).
• Edit existing tags – Change name or colour. All contacts with the tag update automatically.
• Merge tags – If "VIP" and "Very Important" are duplicates, merge them into one.

Common Tag Categories

Using Tags for Filtering

Once contacts have tags, you can:

• Filter – In Contacts list view, click Filters – Add Custom Filter – Field: Tags, Operator: Contains, Value: VIP. Shows only VIP contacts.
• Group By – Click Group By – Tags. Contacts are grouped by their tags. Untagged contacts appear in a separate section.
• Mailing Lists – Create dynamic mailing lists in Email Marketing using tags as criteria (e.g. all contacts with tag "Newsletter" AND tag "Active").
• Reports – In sales/purchase analysis reports, group by contact tags to see performance by segment.

Tags vs Other Categorisation

• Tags – Many-to-many. A contact can have multiple tags. Best for cross-cutting categories (a customer can be both "VIP" AND "Technology").
• Category/Industry – A single-value field on the contact form. One category per contact.
• Sales Team – Determines pipeline ownership, not categorisation.

Bulk Importing Contacts

Use the import feature to load contacts from a CSV or Excel file. This is essential when migrating from another CRM or spreadsheet.

Preparing Your File

The simplest approach is to export a sample file first:

1. Go to Contacts – switch to List view.
2. Click Actions – Export All Records.
3. Select these fields: Name, Company Name, Email, Phone, Mobile, Street, City, State, ZIP, Country, Tags.
4. Check "Export with External IDs" only if you plan to update existing records later.
5. Download the file. Use it as a template – delete the sample rows and add your own data.

Import Field Mapping

Key fields and how to populate them correctly:

Importing with Parent-Child Relationships

To import individuals under existing companies:

1. First, ensure the company contacts already exist in the database (import or create them).
2. Export the companies with External IDs.
3. In your individuals import file, use the "Parent Company (External ID)" column instead of "Company Name" and enter the External ID value.
4. This ensures individuals are linked correctly without ambiguity.

Post-Import Validation

After importing:

• Check the total count matches your source file.
• Spot-check a few records for data accuracy.
• Use the "Duplicates" filter (if available) to find potential duplicates.
• If errors occurred, Quickenerp shows a detailed error log. Download it, fix the rows, and re-import only the failed rows.

Creating a Contact – Complete Walkthrough

Go to Contacts from the app switcher (☰). The default view shows a list of all contacts.

Creating a New Company Contact

1. Click Create. The contact form opens.
2. Contact Name – Enter the company name (e.g. "Acme Corporation").
3. Company Type – Select "Company".
4. Email – The primary contact email. This is used for quotations, invoices, and portal communications.
5. Phone – Primary phone number.
6. Mobile – Mobile number for SMS notifications (if enabled).
7. Website – Company website URL.
8. Address – The primary street address. This can be overwritten on individual invoices/orders. Use the "Edit" button next to the address to enter full details: Street, Street 2, City, State, ZIP, Country.
9. Tags – Start typing to select existing tags or create new ones (e.g. "VIP", "Wholesale", "Newsletter"). Tags are coloured labels for filtering and grouping.
10. In the Sales & Purchases tab:

• Set the Salesperson – Who manages this account.
• Set the Sales Team – Which team this contact belongs to.
• Set the Price List – Applied automatically to new quotations.
• Set Payment Terms – e.g. "Net 30", "Due on Receipt".
• Set the Fiscal Position – Automatically applies correct taxes for this contact's country.
• Set the Currency – If different from your company currency.

• Receivable Account – Override the default accounts receivable account for this contact.
• Payable Account – Override the default accounts payable account.
• Tax ID – VAT/GST/HST number. Used in invoice validation and tax reports.
• Bank Accounts – Add the contact's bank details for electronic payments.

Adding Individual Contacts Under a Company

1. Open the company contact.
2. In the Contacts tab (under the company name), click Add.
3. Create a new individual. The "Company" field is automatically set to the parent company.
4. Fill in the individual's name, job title, email, phone, and mobile.
5. Set their role: "Invoice Contact", "Delivery Contact", or both. This determines which address is used by default.
6. Save. The individual appears in the company's contact list and in all auto-complete dropdowns when selecting contacts.

Recent Contact Features

• Contact Image – Upload a photo or company logo. This appears in the kanban view and on their portal profile.
• Duplicate Detection – When saving a new contact, Quickenerp checks for duplicates by name and email. A warning appears if a similar contact exists.
• Merge Contacts – If you find duplicates, use Actions – Merge Contacts. Choose the master record and which fields to keep from each. All linked records (invoices, orders) are moved to the surviving contact.
• Contact from Email – If an incoming email comes from an unknown sender, you can create a contact directly from the email in the Discuss chatter.

The Contacts Module

The Contacts module (res.partner model) is a core module that cannot be uninstalled. It stores information about every entity your business interacts with: customers, vendors, employees, leads, and other organisations. Virtually every other module references contacts – sales orders, invoices, deliveries, projects, and more.

What a Contact Record Stores

Companies vs Individuals

Quickenerp distinguishes between two types of contacts:

• Company – An organisation (e.g. "Acme Corp"). A company can have multiple individual contacts as its employees/representatives.
• Individual – A person. An individual can be linked to a company. For example, "John Smith" is an individual contact whose "Company" field is set to "Acme Corp".

When you create a contact, you set its type. This determines how it behaves in relationships:

• Invoicing and delivery addresses default to the company's addresses.
• Sales orders are placed under the company name.
• Individual contacts within a company are visible in the "Contacts" tab of the company form.