Companies and contacts

Add customers, suppliers, shipping companies, people, and leads.

Companies and contacts are the directory for a deal. A quotation always needs a customer company. A contact is a person.

One person can belong to more than one company. One company can have more than one person.

Examples:

  • A buyer who works at two firms: add the person once, then link both companies. Mark one company as primary. That primary company is the default customer when you log an opportunity from this person.
  • A factory with a sales manager and a production contact: add both people and link them to the same supplier company.

You set the links on the contact (full profile) or on company detail. You can change which company is primary later. Deals still use the company you pick on the quotation, invoice, or project. The primary company is only the default.

See also the screen guide: Companies and Contacts. Marketing overview: Companies and Contacts.

Company types

Type Use
Customer Buyer on quotations, invoices, and projects
Supplier Factory or vendor. You can score suppliers.
Both The company buys from you and also supplies you
Shipping Carrier on a shipment. Required when you log freight on a project.

Add a company

  1. Open Companies, or use + → Company (or Supplier, or Shipping company).
  2. Fill the name and type.
  3. For a solo buyer with no legal firm, turn on personal company. The name often matches the person.
  4. Save.

New customer and both companies start as a lead. Suppliers do not. You can clear lead by hand at any time. Exreach also clears lead when an invoice for that company becomes accepted or paid.

Add a contact

  1. Open Contacts, or use + → New contact for the full profile.
  2. Link at least one company. Mark one company as primary.
  3. Save.

Use + → New lead when you only have a person and not a full company yet. See below.

New lead

A first enquiry often has a name, a phone, or a WeChat ID. You may not have the legal company yet. That is expected.

  1. Use + → New lead (or Contacts with the fast create sheet).
  2. Enter the person.
  3. Leave Company empty if you do not know the firm. Exreach then creates a personal company from the contact name and links it. If you already know the customer, pick that company instead.
  4. Optional: log an opportunity in the same sheet.

When the real company details arrive, open the linked company and fill the name, legal name, address, and other fields. If this is a registered firm (not a solo buyer), turn off Personal record on that company.

Personal companies

Use a personal company when the buyer is an individual, or when a lead has no company details yet. You can hide personal companies with the list filter. Bank details for a solo buyer live on that company, not on your organization.

Supplier scores

On a supplier (or both) company, you can score quality, price, communication, reliability, compliance, and overall (1 to 5), plus flags such as factory visited and samples ordered. Scores show on the Suppliers tab.

Next

Create an opportunity or go straight to a quotation.