Relating Contacts and Accounts to the Universal Tracking Application

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Revision as of 16:02, 3 April 2009 by Cameron (talk | contribs) (Level 2 Contact and Account Relationships)

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Note: The terms Contact and Account can be renamed in Global Settings.
Accordingly, they may have different names in your instance of SmartSimple.
The functionality described below will be the same.


Level 1 Contact and Account Relationships

There are 3 different standard fields that can be used to associate contacts with a Level 1 entity:

  1. Owner
  2. Person
  3. Contacts

There are also 2 standard fields that can be used to associate accounts with a Level 1 entity:

  1. Accounts
  2. Company (often renamed to Branch)
The Owner, Contacts, Person and Accounts fields at Level 1 are all used to control access to the UTA 
if the Security Matrix is enabled


The Owner Field

The standard UTA Level 1 field Owner is used to establish a direct relationship between a single internal person and the Level 1 item. When you add the Owner field to the Level 1 Entity it will be displayed as a combo box defaulting to the current user, but the selected contact can be changed to any internal person.

The Owner Field can also be configured to allow external owners, as well as internal. This can be enabled in the UTA Application Configuration section, in the Level 1 settings section.


The Person Field

The Person field also allows you to make an additional direct relationship between any contact and the Level 1 Entity. The Person field does not allow assignment by role.

Person.PNG


The Contacts Field

The standard UTA Level 1 field Contacts is used to establish a direct relationship between multiple people to the same Level 1 Entity. When you add the Contacts field to the Level 1 Entity it will display as a section in the Level 1 Entity.

This section will display a set of fields in a list view. You control the roles that can be selected to describe the contact’s engagement with the Level 1 Entity. For example, the same contact could be a reviewer in one Level 1 item and a principal researcher in a different Level 1 item. Of if the contact is both a principal researcher 'and the project manager for the same Level 1 entity they can be assigned to the Level 1 twice: once as principal researcher and once as project manager.

File:Contacts.PNG

This feature is further extended providing the ability to define custom fields used to describe the interaction between the person and their engagement in the Level 1 Entity.

For example, if the Level 1 Entity is a “research project” and you anticipate multiple project leaders over time, you would be better to use the contacts section as you could then track the start and end dates along with other information. If you use the Owner field you would not be able to track information around the individual project manager’s engagement with the project.

The fields that are visible in the Contacts section can be controlled using the Contact List View on the UTA Settings page in the Level 1 settings section


The Accounts Field

The Standard UTA Level 1 field Accounts is used to establish a direct relationship between multiple accounts (or companies) to the same Level 1 Entity. Contacts associated with an account can thus be indirectly associated with the Level 1 item via the Account field.

When you add the Accounts field to the Level 1 Entity it will display as a section in the Level 1 Entity.

This section will display a set of fields in a list view. You establish and control a set of “company roles” that can be selected. As with the contact fields, you can define custom fields that describe the interaction between the organisation and their engagement in the Level 1 Entity.

Using the previous example, if the Level 1 Entity is a “project” and you need multiple project partners (companies), then you would use the Accounts feature to track the accounts and specific information about their engagement.

The fields that are visible in the Accounts section can be controlled using the Account List View on the UTA Settings page in the Level 1 settings section


The Company (or Branch) Field

If this field is added to the Level 1 it will be displayed as a pull-down menu of all the internal sub-companies/branches under the parent company/branch.


Creating Roles to be Used in the UTA

Contact Roles

The roles that have already been set-up within SmartSimple for the users of the system can be used, or you can create new roles as follows:

  1. Choose Roles & Permissions from the Configuration Menu.
  2. Click the User Roles link.
  3. Add the roles you wish to be available when assigning contacts to Level 1 entities in the UTA
Uta133.png

These Roles will be available for all UTA. There is no need to set any attributes for these roles as they will only be used to reference contacts with the UTA.

As you save each role, note the UTA Custom Fields tab.

Uta134.png

You use this tab to establish the custom fields that track the relationship between the person in the role for that Level 1.

To select which Roles will be available when adding contacts to a Level 1 record, go to the Application Configuration Page of the UTA, in the Contact Assignment Role Settings section and check the roles you wish to be available.

Account Roles

To create the roles that will be available when adding Accounts to the Level 1 record

  1. Choose Roles & Permissions from the Configuration Menu.
  2. Click the Company Roles link.
  3. Add the roles you wish to be available when assigning Accounts to Level 1 entities in the UTA

To select which Roles will be available when adding Accounts to a Level 1 record, go to the Application Configuration Page of the UTA, in the Account Assignment Role Settings section and check the roles you wish to be available.


Tabs for Contact and Account Lists

  • If you associate a large number of contacts or accounts (companies) to Level 1 items, you can separate the users onto different tabs based on the role they are assigned with (and accounts based on account roles).
  • You can access the feature within the UTA Settings tab - Contact Tabs and Account Tabs hyperlinks in the Level 1 Settings section.
Tabs.PNG
  • You can create as many tabs as required, and associate as many roles with each tab as desired. Tabs can also be deleted through the same screen.
  • If you do not add the Everyone to one of the tabs that you create, the system will automatically display a tab called Everyone which will include all contacts (or accounts) with roles not defined for another tab.
  • If you do not wish to use tabs to separate contacts or accounts simply delete all tabs listed.


Contact and Account Filters

  • You can define who can see which contacts and accounts (companies) at Level 1 based on role membership.
  • To implement these features, navigate to Settings > Application Configuration and within the Security Settings panel, select the check boxes beside Enable UTA Contact Filter and/or Enable UTA Account Filter.
Filter.PNG
  • Once the feature has been enabled for either contacts or accounts, the UTA Contact Filters and/or UTA Account Filters hyperlinks are available under on the UTA Settings page- Settings panel.
Filter2.PNG
  • You can now configure visibility of the contacts/accounts associated with a Level 1 based on User Roles and Account Roles. For example if you have a role called "Candidate" you may want the candidate, when viewing the Level 1, to be able to see who is assigned to the case as the "Manager". To accomplish this you would enter the following settings:
Candidate.PNG
  • If there is another role called "Evaluator", you may want the contacts assigned to the Level 1 as evaluators to see who is assigned to the Level 1 as candidate and as manager. You would create another filter as follows:
Evaluator.PNG
  • Note that because we have not added the "Evaluator" role to the "Candidate" filter, the candidate assigned to the Level 1 will not be able to see contacts assigned to the Level 1 as evaluators.
  • The Account filter works in the exact same manner.

Contact Restrictions

  • To access this feature, click on the Contact Restrictions hyperlink on the UTA Settings tab.
  • The limit can be any number between 1 and 99.
  • You can restrict the number of contacts belonging to a given role that can be associated with a Level 1 record.
    The following would ensure no more than 2 evaluators are assigned to a Level 1 record:
RoleRestriction.PNG
Note: The Message box allows you to specify the error message that will be generated if the specified limit is exceeded.
  • Similarly you can restrict the number of times a given contact can be associated with a Level 1 record.
    Using the following would ensure each contact can only be assigned to the Level 1 record once:
UserRestriction.PNG
  • The following combination would ensure that each contact can be assigned to the Level 1 twice, but only once per role (assuming the roles available are Candidate, Evaluator and Manager):
UserRoleCombo.PNG

Level 2 Contact and Account Relationships

There are 4 standard fields that can be used to associate Contacts with the Level 2 entity:

  1. Owner
  2. Contact People
  3. Assigned People
  4. Company List


The Owner Field (Level 2)

The Owner Field at Level 2 is the same as the Owner field at Level 1, except that external owners cannot be enabled for Level 2.


The Contact People Field

The Contact People standard field works similar to the Person field above, but multiple contacts can be added to the field.

If you wish to assign contacts to the Level 2 record by role (similar to Level 1) you can enable the Multiple Contact List as described below.

Note: if the Contact Links field is also enabled on the Standard Fields page the record will display a hyperlink to the contacts listed in the Contact People field directly underneath the field.


The Assigned People Field

The Assigned People standard field works similar to the Person field above, but multiple contacts can be added to the field.

Note: if the Assigned Links field is also enabled on the Standard Fields page the record will display a hyperlink to the contacts listed in the Assigned People field directly underneath the field


The Account List Field

  • In order to use the Account List field at Level 2 you must first enable Use Multiple Account List under the Level 2 settings on the Application Configuration Page. Then go to the Level 2 Standard Fields list and enable the Account List field by entering a name in the Label field.
  • When editing Level 2 records you will now be able to assign companies to the Level 2 entity by company role, exactly as described for the Accounts field for Level 1 above. The roles


Multiple Contact List

  • If you enable the Use Multiple Contact List checkbox on the Settings > Application Configuration screen you will be able to associate and control contact associations in a similar manner to Level 1 contacts. The roles available at Level 2 will be the same as selected for Level 1 above.
Note: If you have enabled the Security Matrix and are using the UTA Role 
assignments for the matrix instead of the System Role assignments:
It is the role that a contact is given at Level 1 that determines their
access as defined in the Security Matrix. Not the role they are given if 
they are assigned at Level 2.



Contact Restrictions

  • You can limit the total number of contacts that can be assigned to the Contacts Field (or Multiple Contact List if enabled) at Level 2.
  • To enable enter the desired limit into the Maximum Contacts - Maximum number of contacts can be assigned field on the Application Configuration page in the Level 2 settings section.

Custom Fields

In addition to the standard contact and account fields described above, you can create additional Custom Fields to store contacts and accounts related to a case.
The contacts or accounts stored in Custom Fields cannot be used to provide permissions if you are using the Security Matrix, cannot be assigned to roles, nor are they related in any way to the Filter or Restriction features described above.

These fields are: