This video explains how to create contacts for use in Fusion.
Time: 4:22
There are several places in Fusion where you'll need to input contact names. For instance, whether it's the buyer of a shipment, the trucking company involved, or even the veterinarian who conducted an autopsy, Fusion maintains its own set of shared contacts that all users can access. This keeps your personal contacts on your phone or computer separate from the system-wide directory.
To access the contact list or create new contacts, head over to the Contacts menu. Make sure the Fusion Core's menu bar is currently active. If you're new to Fusion, you can also utilize the Setup Assistant for guidance.
Let's dive into the basics of creating a contact, using "Joe Grant" as our example. First, click on "Add A Person," and you'll see the Contact Edit window pop up. This window allows you to record a wealth of information for each contact, although most people typically input the name and maybe a phone number or email address.
For Joe, we'll input "Joe" in the First Name field and "Grant" in the Last Name field. Then, hop over to the Phone tab and enter Joe's cell number, which in this case is 555-456-7896. If there were additional phone numbers for Joe, you could add them in the same manner. The one marked as "primary" will be displayed alongside Joe's name elsewhere in Fusion.
Now, we have Joe's address, so let's add that too. Move to the Address tab and create a new address, designating it as his work address .
Last but not least, let's include his email address. Navigate to the WWW tab and add an email address there, selecting "Email" as the type. You'll notice this is also a handy place to add other types of addresses, including physical locations.
While we're here, let's briefly explore the Search and Companies tabs. The Search tab allow you to associate categories and/or keywords with a contact, making it easier to find them in the future. For example, you could add a keyword like "Plumber" to easily locate a plumber you worked with years ago but can't remember their name.
The Companies tab is used to link a person with one or more companies and specify their role or title at those companies. If we are editing a company contact, this tab will be adjusted to list individuals associated with that company. To add a company (or person) here, they must already exist as their own contact.
Finally, click "Save" to complete the contact creation process.
If you're just starting out with Fusion, you might have a substantial number of contacts to input. There are a couple of ways to tackle this. One approach is to create contacts for every person and company you anticipate dealing with in Fusion all at once, especially if you have a list handy. This can expedite the process and get it out of the way. Alternatively, you can create contacts on the go as you encounter them. Let's illustrate how that works.
Suppose we have a scale ticket where the seller is "Great Distributors." If Fusion doesn't recognize this contact yet, you can right-click the contact button and choose "Create" to establish it. You'll need to specify that it's a company, which we'll do before clicking "OK."
Input the name, and then you have a choice. You can either fill in their contact details right away or return to it later – it's up to you. For now, we'll save the contact and then start typing their name in the scale ticket. Fusion will recognize it after you type a few characters, allowing you to tab out of the field.
If you ever need to edit a contact, simply locate it in the contact list, double-click on it, make your changes, and then save them. As always, you can find more details in the documentation by clicking the help button, and our support team is always available for assistance.
