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Hi!

I could use some advice on a process, please.

Our company has students who are either adults or children.  When we create a lead, we want it to be the adult who will pay for the service.  But if the adult also has a child who is a student, we need to make sure the child has the necessary information as well.

If the student is an adult, then their Lead screen would collect all necessary information (classes they are interested in, allergies, emergency contact info, etc) we require of a lead.  When they convert to a customer, we would then fill out their customer screen which has even more information (contract type, class enrolled in, contract level, etc).

However, if the actual student is a child (and not the adult), we need to make a separate contact for that child which contains all of the same information as above... only the child isn't paying for the service.

So my question is how to do this.

Do I create a lead for the parent and then "add contact" for the child... but make the Contact screen contain all of the necessary information I would require for both a lead (allergies, etc) and a customer (contract type, class enrolled in, etc) because the child's contact won't become a Customer (because I want the parent to pay for all of the child's services) and therefore we won't have the chance to input this additional info later?

This makes the Contact Screen as complicated as the Customer Screen.  Not an issue, I think... is it?

Any other suggestions?

ADDENDUM:  I attempted to edit the Contact Screen so I could add other information to collect for the child.  However, when I did this, all of my Drop Down fields are not functioning as Drop Down... only as text boxes.  These were added to the Contact Table via Entity.  Is this a problem?  They are showing up just fine as a Drop Down in my Customer screen... but not in my Client screen.

Thank you for your help!

 Hello Meghan, 

   I have thought about this question.  I believe you are on the right track.   The customer would be the one who is paying, either the parent or the adult student.  The contacts would be the attendees for the camp.  The issue is if the primary contact is a camp goer or not.  I would have a field on each contact that you can indicate if they are a camp goer.  That way you can tell between the campers and the parents.  You could have it checked off and then display the fields that are needed to be filled out for campers.  It could be good for reporting purposes as well because it gives you a field in which to filter contacts between campers and non-campers.

    For the adult students who can pay their own way.  You can add them as the company and save therir payment information.  Then when the company is created, your primary contact is created.  You select that contact, select them as a camper and put in the relevant information.  

     You can modify screens so you show one for Lead Contacts and one for Customer Contacts. (ie. When you click on Edit Contacts...)  Each contain fields relevant to the stage the contact is in.  I could see issues with required fields, but it may be workable.

    As for the Entity table, it is a special parent table.  I believe there are relationships behind the scenes that will affect which child tables get what fields.  I would add your information to the contacts table instead.

    It sounds like you really have an interesting project on your hands.  I wish you luck!

   You can also use our customization services.  You can find information from our assisted service here. [ http://method.me/support/assisted-services.aspx ]  

- Greg