Address Linking

An individual's address may be "owned" directly by that individual or "linked" to a related organization or individual.

Owned
An address that is specific to that Customer (Individual, Organization, Chapter).
Linked
An individual's address that is connected with an organization or individual. However, a Linked Address does not have to be that individual's Primary Address selection.

Benefits of Address Linking:

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

Example: should a company move across town, you need only change the address of that company, which will automatically update addresses of any employee or related individual with a linked address.

Note: This functionality is NOT recommended for larger organizations with multiple addresses and corporate campuses unless you manage the entire corporate hierarchy.

Usage

For an address 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 in the Edit - Individual Address window.

Linking an Address

The Linking functionality for Address, Phone and Fax numbers work independently of each other despite using the same default system option.

To Link an Address in the Add - Individual Window:

  1. 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).
  2. That organization's primary address, phone and fax information will populate the Address Information fields.
  3. Select Linking from the address linking method drop-down list.
  4. The address information will become read only.


Note: If you inserted an organization name using the Look-Up button, how the Address Information fields populate will depend on the method specified in the system option DefaultLinkingType.

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


Adding a Linked Address

To Add a Linked Address from the Individual Profile Page:

  1. Select the Contact Info tab on the Individual Profile page.
  2. Open the addresses child form and click the Add button.
  3. The Add - Individual Address window will display.
  4. Select an organization from the select contact to link drop-down list.
  5. Once an organization is selected, the select address to link, with the available addresses for that organization, and address linking method will be activated
  6. Select an address from the select address to link drop-down list.
  7. Select Linking from the address linking method drop-down list (the window will refresh and the selected address information will populate the address fields BUT will be read only).
  8. Select an address type from the Address Type drop-down list (required).
  9. Select the primary? or billing? check box if appropriate (optional).
  10. Click Save.
***The steps above are the same for Linking an existing "owned" address from the Profile Page***

Editing a Linked Address

You can edit, link, or unlink a customer's address from the Individual Profile page using the basic edit function in NetForum.


To Unlink an Address from the Individual Profile Page:

  1. Select the Contact Info tab on the Individual Profile page.
  2. Open the addresses child form and click the edit button on the address record you wish to edit.
  3. The Edit - Individual Address window will display.
  4. Select None or Defaulting from the address linking method drop-down list.
  1. Click Save.
  2. The address information will not change but be displayed as owned on the Individual Profile page.


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