Contacts

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.
4. Click Grant Access. An invitation email is sent to the contact's email address with a secure link to set their password.
5. The contact clicks the link, sets a password, and can log in at https://yourcompany.quickenerp.com/my.

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).

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.
11. In the Accounting tab:
• 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.
12. Click Save. The contact is created and available across all modules.

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.

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.