Phone

Like an Address, Phone information can be linked to an Individual record or an Organization record.

An individual's phone number may be "Owned" directly by that individual or "Linked" to a related organization.

Owned: A phone number that is specific to that Customer (Individual, Organization, Chapter).
Linked: An individual's phone number that is connected with an organization. However, a Linked phone number does not have to be that individual's Primary Phone Number selection.

Benefits of Linking a Phone Number:

This functionality automatically updates the individual's contact information if there are any changes or updates to the organization's information.
The individual can be linked to several organizations.
The organization is displayed prominently on the individual's Profile Page (telephone numbers child form in the Contact Info tab).

Example: if a company moves to another city and changes phone numbers, you need only change the information of that company, which will automatically afford you the option to update the phone numbers of any employee or related individual with a linked phone number.

Usage

For a phone number to be linked, the individual must have either:

Linked that organization during the initial Add - Individual process.
Added that organization as a Relationship on their Profile Page on the organizations child form in the Relations tab. Only related organizations display in the select contact to link drop-down list on the Edit - Individual Phone window.

Linking a Phone Number

You can Link a phone number WITHOUT Linking the address of the related organization. The Linking functionality for Address, Phone and Fax numbers work independently of each other despite using the same default system option.

To Link a Phone Number on the Add - Individual Page:

Enter an Organization name or click the Look-Up button to select an organization (Tip: click the first few letters of the organization or the wildcard character (%) before you click the Look-Up button to facilitate and speed up the search).
That organization's primary address, phone and fax information will populate the Address Information fields.
Select Linking from the phone linking method drop-down list.
Select a phone number from the phone drop-down list on the left side of the phone section (These drop-down lists are for selecting which of the organization's number you want to link).
The phone number you selected will populate the phone number fields BUT will be read only.

Note:

If you inserted an organization name using the Look-Up button, how the Address Information fields (including Phone Numbers) populate will depend on the system option for the default linking method.

If the system option is set to Default, the phone information will default.
If the system option is set to Phone Linking, the address and phone information will be populated and the fields will be read-only.
If the system option is set to None, the phone information will not default.

Adding a Linked Phone Number

To Add a Linked Phone Number from the Individual Profile Page:

Select the Contact Info tab on the Individual Profile page.
Open the telephone numbers child form and click the Add button.
The Add - Individual Phone window will display.
Select an organization (or individual-see Note) from the select contact to link drop-down list.
Once an organization is selected, the select address to link, with the available addresses for that organization, and address linking method will be activated
Select a phone number from the select # to link drop-down list.
Select Linking from the linking method drop-down list (the window will refresh and the selected phone number will populate the address fields BUT will be read only).
Select an phone type from the Phone Type drop-down list (required).
Select the primary? or unlisted? check box if appropriate (optional).
Click Save.

Note: Individual phone numbers can be linked to other individuals in the same manner. Both individuals must have added that relationship to their Profile Pages for the data to be available for linking.

Important! The steps above are also the same for Linking an existing "owned" phone number from the Profile Page

Editing a Linked Phone Number

The Edit options below are for addresses in the Contact Info tab, telephone numbers child form. You can edit, link, or unlink a Customer's phone number using the basic Edit function in netFORUM. The Add and Edit windows for Individual and Organization phone numbers contain the SAME options.

To Unlink a Phone Number from the Individual Profile Page:

Select the Contact Info tab on the Individual Profile page.
Open the telephone numbers child form and click the edit button on the phone number record you wish to edit.
The Edit - Individual Phone window will display.
Select None or Defaulting from the linking method drop-down list.

Click Save.
The phone information will not change but be displayed as owned on the Individual Profile page.

Note: The phone number is editable prior to saving when the None or Defaulting linking methods are selected.

Technical Information

The phone data can be found in the table co_phone with the 3-character column prefix phn in front of each field, and also co_customer_x_phone with the 3-character column prefix cph.

In the database, the records are linked within the co_customer_x_phone table. The customer record will link to this relationship record for the primary phone record for that customer. See the table co_customer for the customer record.