Method:Classic General Q&A

Re: Correspondence language for customers/contacts

MikeB — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:48:12 GMT

Never mind. After some research, I discovered that the Customer table is a subset of the Entity table (with the same Record IDs) and the Contaacts table is separate, with different Record IDs.

Re: Correspondence language for customers/contacts

MikeB — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:57:16 GMT

I have added lots of custom fields to my Entity/Customer/Contact tables before - I just wanted to double-check which table was best to add the field to, and which child tables would also contain the field.

It's very difficult to make what should be simple decisions on these types of things without documentation or even a simple schematic or hierarchy. Without asking on this forum, how is anyone supposed to know that the Entity table is the master table?

Also, if I add a field to, say, the Customer or Contacts tables, is that field reflected in the Entity table? To me, logic would say no since Entity is the master table, but I can't say for sure.

Please clarify.

Re: Correspondence language for customers/contacts

Method_Greg — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:22:14 GMT

H to showello Mike,
The Entity table is the base for Customers, Contacts, Vendors and Employee. The issue is that an inheritance exists between the parent Entity table and it's children that is not controlled in the interface. Messing with the Entity table can be tricky. I would recommend putting the TagList field on the Customer table. It will not affect the other child or parent tables. Also, you will have the field for transactions which are always linked to a customer or contact. Even if you add the TagList to the Entity table, you would still have to modify the screens to get the TagList field to show.

I hope this helps,

Greg

Re: Correspondence language for customers/contacts

MikeB — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:37:05 GMT

I just want what's easiest to pull when performing actions in activities, sales orders, potential email campaigns, etc. For example, if sending an email to a customer from an activity, I'd like to choose a template based on whether the customer wants the email in English or French. Since the fields used in creating activities (and other things, like sales orders) are based on Subaccounts in the Customer table, I figure it would be easier to place the English/French designation in the Customer table. I've had too many instances where it's been difficult to pull fields from the Contacts table on a screen that's based on the Customer table, and at the very least, having different record IDs for each can make things confusing. Also, I don't thinks there's any difference in the granularity between our Customer and Contact tables anyway.

But I do have a question: if I want a new field like this to the Customer table, is it best to add it to the Entity table? I would like to know what the "base" tables are to add fields. Also, I assume if I add the field to the Contacts table, it won't show up in either the Customer or Entity tables?

Re: Correspondence language for customers/contacts

Method_Greg — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:08:06 GMT

Hello Mike,

You can add your own drop down to a table to use as a flag. I'm thinking it would be easier to put it on the contact table. Then you can use it on a contacts grid.
You can also use tags to flag customers as English or French. Remember if you want to add tags to another table, create a field call TagList on the table.

Hope this helps,

Greg

Correspondence language for customers/contacts

MikeB — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:48:00 GMT

I'd like some customers to receive correspondence from us in French, and some in English. Does that field exist somewhere so that I can flag them as either English or French? Or do I need to add a simple, 2-item dropdown to the Entity and/or Contacts table?

Thanks