Contacts

Contacts Tab

The Contacts Tab displays contact search results and allows contacts to be added, edited or deleted (where users have the rights to do so). Contacts are normally created by connecting HowNow to an External Database but additional contacts, for example suppliers, can also be added manually.

Filters

Active, Inactive or All (both active and inactive) contacts can be selected. This filter uses the Active check box on the Contact Details screen to determine the status of the contact. 

The Apply Filter button displays the Filter Wizard dialog and allows filtering of any or all contact fields. The Filter Wizard allows the list of contacts to be restricted by applying filters on one or more fields in the contact database. For example, the list can be filtered to show only those contacts that are Individuals. You will need some understanding of databases to use this area.

To create a filter:

• Select Apply Filter from the contacts ribbon.
• Press where it shows "Press the button to add a new condition"
• Choose a field name from the first field (these are database field names).
• Choose the appropriate comparison from the Comparison drop-down list.
• Enter a comparison value in the third field. Note: the ‘Is Like’ and ‘Is not Like’ comparisons use the % sign to indicate a wildcard.
• If more than one filter is to be applied, choose ‘And’ or ‘Or’ from the Connection next to the Filter field.
• Repeat the above steps until all the required filters have been applied.
• Click the Apply button to apply the filters and return to the Contact Select dialog.
• For example, to display a list of contacts whose names begins with ‘B’ and who are Individuals, select field Entity Name, comparison ‘Is Like’ and value ‘B%’. Then choose the connection ‘And’, the field name ‘IsIndividual’, the comparison‘Is Equal To’ and the value ‘Y’.

Fetch All Data

This allows you to get all data from your external database, not just those with updates. Please be aware this can take sometime to run.

Contact Repair 

Administrators have access to run a simple repair to reassign records when a contact has changed its name or code. In the Contacts tab click on the Contact Repair button.

If a Contact Name and/or Code is changed, then any Records that are assigned to that Contact will have the old name and/or code. The Records with two different client names will need to be merged. To check all Records for a client use the Code and/or Name option.

Merge records that have the wrong Contact Name or Contact Code using the Duplicates option. Enter the Contact name to move the Records from in the 'Previous Contact' field and the Contact name the documents are to be moved to. The old Client name can then be deleted.

Excel Export 

Export your search results to an Excel file with the use of the Excel Export button. Click the button, choose a folder to save the file into, then give the file a name. You will then be given the opportunity to open the exported file.

Contact Details

While standard fields exist on the first tab of the contact details screen, the other tab contains fields can differ from firm to firm. To access the contact details right-click on a contact in the list and select View. Here is an explanation of the various fields:

Details Tab

• Contact Code: A mandatory unique identifier for the contact or client. It is used to synchronise the contact data between the external database and HowNow.
• Group Name: Optional field to ‘group’ related contacts. If the Group Name field is placed first in the list of drop-down fields, all contacts with the same Group Name will be grouped together in the search list.
• Keep Updated from the External Database: This check box controls whether a contact is updated from the external database or not. If the check box is ticked, every field that is specified in the connection query will be overwritten whenever an update takes place.
• Title: Optional title of the contact. Used by the HowNowTitle and HowNowFullName bookmarks.
• First Names: First name (and optional middle name) of the contact. Used by the HowNowFirstNames and HowNowFullName bookmarks.
• Last Name: Last name of the contact. Used by the HowNowLastName and HowNowFullName bookmarks.
• Salutation: Specifies the contact’s salutation (defaults to first name). Used by the HowNowSalutation bookmark.
• Addressee: If this field is empty, the HowNowFullName bookmark is a combination of the Title, First Names and Last Name fields. If this field contains data HowNow uses it for the HowNowFullName bookmark.
• Is Individual: Specifies that this contact is an individual and not an entity. This setting controls the address block of merge documents. If the contact is an individual, HowNow does not insert an entity name into the document. If the contact is an entity, then the entity name is inserted.
• Entity Name: The name of the entity, if there is one. Bookmark: HowNowEntityName.
• Address 1 to 5: Used by the HowNowAddressX and HowNowFullAddress bookmarks. The HowNowFullAddress bookmark automatically eliminates blank lines.
• Phone: The contact’s telephone number. Bookmark: HowNowPhone.
• Fax: The contact’s fax number. Bookmark: HowNowFax.
• Mobile: The contact’s mobile number. Bookmark: HowNowMobile.
• Email: The contact’s email address. Bookmark: HowNowEmail. This field is used by the Email or Print function in the Records module.

Other Tab

This tab displays the firm-defined contact fields, called user fields. To access these fields in a merge document create a bookmark called HowNowUserField enclosing the field name.

Visibility Tab

This tab allows you to set which Teams can view this contact on the Contact Selection screens on the Records, Jobs or Tasks Tabs or when creating a Record, Merge Letter or adding a new File into HowNow.

To add or remove team visibility from a contact select or de-select the appropriate team.

Setting visibility on a Contact, will NOT:

• Apply the visibility to the existing record documents profiled against the contact.  This may be done manually per record or using Profile Selection for more than one record.
• Automatically set the Visibility when documents are being profiled into HowNow - the user must apply visibility when adding documents on the visibility tab

HowNow Portal Tab

This tab shows the accounts that have access to this contact's documents on the HowNow Portal.

For information about adding accounts and clients to the Portal, please see this article.