ADMIN: Configuring organizations and contacts

User-Defined Fields for organizations and contacts

User-defined fields (UDFs) are custom fields set up by your Autotask Administrator that capture information that is unique to your business. They can be one of the following field types:

• Text (Single Line, Multi Line, or Email)
• Date
• Numeric
• List (Single Select, Multi Select)

You are able to see and update this information based on your security permissions. If you do not have permission to view or update the data, it will be masked with asterisks. If you can view but not edit the data, editing will be disabled. Refer to Viewing protected data.

Also review Managing user-defined fields.

You must complete any required UDFs before you can save the entity.

Market segments

Associating customers with market segments allows you to group and report on customers that have something in common. Using market segments is optional. Refer to Market segments.

Territories and regions

Organizations can optionally be assigned to a territory. Territories are typically defined on the basis of shared geography, sales potential, vertical, channel, or a combination of factors. They are used by sales managers to fairly distribute and manage opportunities. Multiple territories can be part of a region.

Territories and regions are also powerful reporting categories, allowing you to total revenue by territory and region. 

NOTE  Users cannot be directly associated with regions. If your organization uses only one organizational level, you use territories.

Refer to Regions and Territories.

Competitors

This field appears in entities that undergo the sales process. Adding your competitors to Autotask allows you to reference them during the sales process so you can analyze who you win over and lose to.

The primary competitor for an opportunity will depend on the products and services the opportunity includes. It may be different from the primary competitor at the organization level. Refer to Competitors.

Classification icons

Classifications are associated with icons that provide visual identifiers used to categorize and search for organizations. They appear with the organization name throughout Autotask. Refer to Classification icons.

Action types

Action type categorizes the CRM notes and to-dos, and describes the nature of the sales activity. The action type determines whether a note or to-do will appear in Autotask in the Calendar, To-Do, Calendar and To-Do, or in Neither Calendar nor To-Do. Refer to Action types.

Name prefixes and suffixes

This field indicates the gender preference (Mr., Ms., etc.), generation (Jr., Sr.), and professional achievement (PhD) of an individual associated with your local organization (where they are called resources) or an organization in your Autotask instance (where they are called contacts). The list of Name prefixes and suffixes is configurable.

Organization Categories

Organization Categories allow you to control what fields and elements are displayed on the Organization page, how they are grouped, and in what order. They determine what default values automatically fill in those fields and allow you to limit selections in drop-down lists.

Refer to Managing categories.

Organization Dashboards

On a view on the Organization page, you can view organization-related data presented in graphs and widgets. On the Organization Dashboards page, you create and manage the dashboard tabs that appear on the Organization page. Refer to Creating and managing organization dashboards.

Countries

This field appears in entities that are associated with an address. Autotask includes a standardized list of country names. On the Countries page, you can deactivate all countries you are not doing business with and select a default country. Refer to Managing your Countries list.

Address formats

Address formats determine the selection and positioning of address fields within Autotask and on customer-facing documents such as quotes, statements of work, invoices, etc. They can be associated with countries. Refer to Address formats.

Alternate Send From Email Addresses

On this page, you can configure up to five alternate send-from addresses for each organization in your Autotask instance. Refer to Alternate Send From Email Addresses.

After you have prepared your Autotask instance, you are ready to import legacy data. You can import the following entities:

• Organizations and contacts together
• Organizations only
• Contacts only
• Organization locations

For information on importing organizations and contacts, and other legacy data, refer to Importing or updating data.

Since you have the rare opportunity of a fresh start with a clean Autotask instance, we recommend the following:

1. Export your current data sources into a CSV file and combine them into a single file
2. Remove duplicates and records that are obsolete
3. Copy missing data from other rows
4. Make sure account managers, territories, etc. are correct and up to date