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.
Last updated
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.
Last updated
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is possible for your data to be overwritten by an overnight automatic update. If in doubt, talk to your administrator.
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:
| 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. |
| 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. |
Free text | General email address of the company, such as info@company.com. 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. |
| 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. |
| 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.
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.
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.
You might also see a custom tab and/or additional fields in the main Account tab. These items are set up by an administrator.
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 in two ways.
On the main Account screen, select anywhere on an account row (avoiding any links) so that the whole line turns blue and click the Phocas button.
Open account record and click the Number link on the Account tab.
Accounts are usually listed in Analytics as dimensions such as Customers, Suppliers or Vendors.
Open a database, such as Sales.
Click the dimension (such as Customers).
Locate and select the customer row (it turns blue), then click the code > Phocas CRM.
User permission: CRM > Create Account
There are two ways to manually add accounts.
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.
Open a database (such as Sales), then click the dimension (such as Customers).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Click the Custom Actions button and select Actions > Add/update account.
