Accounts

In CRM, an account is a company with whom you currently do business, or have done in the past, such as a customer, supplier or vendor.

User permission: CRM

Typically accounts are created automatically in Phocas when a new customer is added to your company's ERP system, then added to CRM automatically. If you have permission, you can also manually add accounts and delete accounts that are no longer required.

View a list of all accounts

Click the Phocas menu button > Accounts.

The Accounts screen displays a list of all your accounts. It is a good starting point for reviewing what is going on with an account or updating information relating to an account.

By default, the accounts are listed alphabetically, usually with the following columns:

• Name - Typically the name of the company.

• Number - A code, often internally assigned, to distinguish this company from others.

• Phone - The company's head office phone number.

• Email - The company's general email address.

• Owner - The CRM user who owns the account.

• Primary contact - The person in the company who is most commonly dealt with.

Find an account

On the Accounts screen, you can find a particular account using the filter and search options above the grid or by sorting the list.

• Use the Active filter to switch between viewing active and inactive accounts in the list.

• Use the Owner filter to display only your accounts or accounts that belong to another user (that you have permissions to view).

• Use the Team filter to display accounts allocated to a specific team to which you belong.

• Use the Search box to search for a specific account by name. This performs an is like search on the name column.

• Click a column heading to sort data into ascending or descending order.

Filters remain active until you turn them off, so if you apply a filter and move away from the screen and then return, the filter will remain. To clear any filter you have applied, select All from the dropdown list.

Learn more about filtering and searching in CRM.

View and edit an account record

On the Accounts screen, click the account name (blue link) to open the account record.

You can also open accounts from other screens in CRM (where the account name appears in blue as an active link) and from within Analytics (see below).

An account record contains three standard tabs (Account, Contact and Activity) that each contain several fields. Your administrator might also add custom tabs containing additional fields and/or add custom fields to the Account tab. These tabs are described below.

Some of the data in these account fields will be critical to your business and help you to get the most out of Phocas, while some of the data might never be used.

Add and edit account details in the fields, as required, then click Save in the top right corner.

Example

Suppose your company is giving the Steelfinne Fabrications account to its new account manager, Joe. You need to update this information in CRM.

1. Open the Accounts screen, then type Steelfinne into the search box and press Enter.

2. Click the Steelfinne account name to open the account record.

3. Select Joe User as the new owner of the account.

   
4. Click Save > Close. A message displays at the top of the screen to indicate the account has been successfully modified. Even though this account now has a new owner, this action does not change the owner of any of the account’s existing activities or contacts.

It is possible for your data to be overwritten by an overnight automatic update. If in doubt, talk to your administrator.

Account tab

The Account tab opens by default. It displays basic information about the account, such as its name, owner, contacts and address details. The account owner is the CRM user responsible for the account.

The Account tab contains the following details:

Account details

Field	Field type	Description
Name	Free text	Typically the name of the company. Mandatory field.
Number	Free text	Usually a code number, often internally assigned, to distinguish this company from others.
Owner	Dropdown list	The person who normally looks after this account. Owners are CRM users. The owner of an account can be different to the owner of the associated contacts.
Is Active	Y/N	Active accounts typically include companies that are currently doing business with you. Inactive accounts might be old customers or suppliers who no longer trade with you. Rather than delete the entire account and its history, it is often better to mark these companies as inactive. Use the dropdown box to select Yes (active, default), or No (inactive).
Location	Free text	Typically indicates a region or territory.
Payment status	Dropdown list	In our example, we use payment status to indicate ‘current’ or ‘overdue’. This is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using picklists.

Communication details

Field	Field type	Description
Phone	Free text	Main head office phone number of the company. For direct phone numbers of individuals, see Contacts.
Fax	Free text	Main head office fax number of the company.
Email	Free text	General email address of the company, such as [e-mail]. For direct email addresses of individuals, see Contacts.
Website	Free text	Company website address.
Contact method	Dropdown list	Company's preferred method of contact, such as via phone or email. This is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using picklists.

Address details

Field	Field Type	Description
Street/city	Free text	Street address and city of the account.
State	Free text	State in which the account is based, if applicable.
Postcode	Free text	The zip or postcode of the account.
Country	Free text	The country in which the account is located.
Is mail address	Y/N	Choose ‘Yes’ if the mail address is the same as the street address. Choose ‘No’ if the mail address is different, and enter the details in the section below.

Mail details (if mailing address is different to street address)

Field	Field Type	Description
Street/ City	Free text	Postal street address (or PO box) and city.
State	Free text	Postal state.
Postcode	Free text	Zip or postcode (postal).
Country	Free text	Postal country for the account.

Custom details (fields)

Custom fields are any other fields you see that are not listed in the above tables. Custom fields might be created by administrators. If these fields exist, you can populate them as required.

Contacts tab

The Contacts tab displays the contacts associated with the account. You can add a new contact or set the primary contact. The primary contact is the contact responsible for dealing with your company. A link to the primary contact also displays on the Accounts screen.

Activities tab

The Activities tab displays activities relating to the account, entered either by you or by someone else. You can filter the list to view account activities only or include contact activities.

Custom tabs and fields

You might also see a custom tab and/or additional fields in the main Account tab. These items are set up by an administrator.

View account information stored in Analytics

To view the information about an account that stored in Phocas, such as its sales figures or the products it purchased, you can open Analytics directly from CRM.

Open the account record, then on the Account tab, click the Number link (it turns blue when you hover over it).

Open an account record from within Analytics

Accounts are usually listed in Analytics as dimensions such as Customers, Suppliers or Vendors.

1. Open a database, such as Sales.

2. Click the dimension (such as Customers).

3. Locate and select the customer row (it turns blue), then click the code > Phocas CRM.

Add an account

User permission: CRM > Create Account

There are two ways to manually add accounts.

Add a new account from CRM

On the Accounts screen, click New. Then enter the required account details and click Save. See View and edit an account record above for details on each field.

A message displays at the top of the screen to indicate if the account has been successfully added (or otherwise). If successful, new tabs and buttons display, allowing you to add contacts or add activities to the new account.

Add a new account from within Analytics

1. Open a database (such as Sales), then click the dimension (such as Customers).

2. Locate and select the customer row (it turns blue).

If you do NOT select any rows in the grid before selecting the Add/update account option, it is possible that you could inadvertently add or update all customers in CRM. In this case, you will get a confirmation message displaying the number of rows you are about to include in the integration.

1. Click the Custom Actions button and select Actions > Add/update account.
2. Map the fields in CRM to those in Phocas using the dropdown lists. For example, you might map Phone in Phocas to Telephone in CRM. You can leave fields blank, in which case they will not be included in the export.

   
3. Click Run and click Yes to confirm the number of customers (rows) for which you want to add the account details (see warning message above). A message displays at the top of the screen to indicate if the account was added successfully.

   

Delete an account

User permission: CRM > Delete Account

Deleted items can be restored by administrators.

On the Accounts screen, select the rows of the accounts you want to delete (they turn blue) and click Delete.