A customer can have several contacts and folders. The same contact can be linked to several customers. A folder link determines the customer for the folder and the Spots it contains.

Open the correct customer and check your permissions

From the browser's main menu, open Customers → Customers. Open the customer edit form by clicking the customer card or, in the table view, the customer's name or the pencil icon on the row. Check the name and customer number before making changes. If the customer does not exist yet, see the instructions for creating a customer.

You need permission to edit the customer to change its links. To change a contact's own details, you need permission to edit contacts; to create a separate contact record, you need create permission, and to delete one, you need delete permission. A manager's customer permissions also apply to customer contacts. View permission alone does not allow you to save changes.

Carry out the maintenance tasks in this guide in the browser. The Android and iOS customer views display saved customer details and contacts, but they do not have the forms described here for managing contacts and folder links.

Add a new contact to a customer

  1. Open the Customer contacts tab on the customer edit form. It shows this customer's contacts. The separate Contacts tab on the Customers page is the shared contact register.
  2. Below the contact list on the form, select New contact.
  3. Fill in the required First name and Last name fields and enter a valid Email. Phone number and Title are optional.
  4. On the contact form, select Add contact. The contact appears in the list on the customer form but has not yet been saved to the register.
  5. Select Save at the bottom of the customer form. This saves the new contact and their link to the customer.

A contact appearing in the list on an open form does not confirm that they have been saved. If you close the customer form without saving, the additions you made to the list will not be saved.

Link an existing contact

Use an existing contact record if the person is already in the customer contact register. This keeps their details shared across different customers.

  1. Below the list on the customer form's Customer contacts tab, select Add existing contact.
  2. Search for the contact using the search field in the selection list that opens. The search includes the name, email address, phone number and title.
  3. Select the contact and confirm with the OK button. You can select several contacts by holding down the Ctrl key. Double-clicking also confirms the selection.
  4. Select Save on the customer form to save the links.

The same contact cannot be linked to the same customer twice. However, they can be a contact for several different customers.

Edit a shared contact record or remove a link

Open a saved contact's details by clicking their name in the customer's contact list. Save on the contact form updates the shared contact record: the change appears for every customer linked to that contact. This save is separate from saving the customer form. Cancelling the customer form does not undo a change to the contact's details that has already been saved.

The trash icon on a row in the customer's contact list removes the contact only from that customer's list. Confirm the removal and save the customer. The contact remains in the contact register and as a contact for other customers. If the contact had just been added to an unsaved form, the trash icon cancels that addition.

You can also manage a contact on the separate Contacts tab on the Customers page. Open the contact by clicking their name or the pencil icon on the row. In the Connect to the customer field, you can select several customers or remove selections, then save the contact form. When you open the contact from a customer's contact list, this customer selection is locked: change the link from the customer's list or the separate register tab.

On the separate register tab, Create new contact opens a new contact form. Select the required customers in the Connect to the customer field and submit the form using its Create new contact button. Here, saving creates the contact and the selected customer links directly.

The trash icon on a row in the separate register tab deletes the contact record itself and all its customer links. Use it only when the person is no longer needed as a contact for any customer. Deletion requires delete permission and confirmation.

Link a customer to one or more folders

  1. Open the Basic info tab on the customer edit form. Find the Link to collection field in its Basic info section.
  2. Open the field's folder tree and select the folders you want. You can select several folders. Subfolders of a selected parent folder are automatically included in the change and do not need to be selected separately.
  3. Check the current customers of the selected folders and their subfolders, as well as the Spots they contain. If the folder structure already has a customer, the application asks you to confirm that you want to continue. Select Yes only if you intend to replace the previous customer link.
  4. Select Save on the customer form.

Saving sets the customer for the selected folders and all their subfolders. A folder has one customer at a time, so the previous customer is replaced. A Spot's customer is determined by its folder's customer: the customer for the Spots in the folder structure also changes. Spots are not moved to other folders, and the customer's contacts are not added to a Spot's own contacts.

When you remove a folder from the Link to collection selection and save, you remove the customer link. You do not delete the folder or its Spots. After saving, also check the customer selections for the subfolders.

Contracts can prevent the change

You cannot assign a folder or subfolder to a customer if its current customer has contracts. You also cannot remove folders from a customer who has contracts. The check includes the entire selected subfolder structure and is not limited to active contracts. Accepting the folder selection warning does not override this restriction.

If saving reports that contracts prevent the change, check the contracts of the customers concerned before changing folder links. A customer save that ends in an error does not confirm the additions or link changes made on the form.

You can also create a customer link from the folder form. See linking a customer to a folder.

Distinguish between customer type, delivery customer and a Spot's contact

The options in the customer's Customer type field are Consumer and Company. This field classifies the customer; it does not select the billing customer or delivery customer. A folder's delivery customer information and a customer's billing information are separate details.

Settings for delivery customer folders created through an integration are covered in that integration's instructions. For example, LemonERP customer synchronization has its own folder, device card and naming options; see LemonERP connection settings.

A customer contact and a Spot's own contact are separate records and links. A person added to a customer therefore does not automatically appear in the selection list for a Spot's contacts. See managing a Spot's contacts when you want to link a person directly to a device.

Verify the saved result

Wait for the save success notification, reopen the customer and check the contacts on the Customer contacts tab and the folder selections on the Basic info tab. When editing a shared contact's details, also open another customer linked to that contact and verify that the details are correct there.

From the browser's main menu, open Assets, devices, tools → Folder tree → Folder tree and open the selected folder by clicking its name. On the form's Customer information tab, check the Customer of the folder field. Also check the subfolders, especially if you replaced a previous customer. Subfolders are also updated in the background, so reopen the details after a short wait if the change is not yet visible.