With the recent release of QuickBooks 2013 there has been a great deal of excitement over the “new” ability to manage multiple contacts per customer record. For years QuickBooks users have been squeaking by using just one contact name field, when in many cases we want to store several names and respective phone numbers, email addresses, etc. for each customer record.
You might kick yourself when you realize that the ability to manage multiple contacts was actually introduced back in the 2012 release – You probably just never saw it!
In the 2013 version, it’s a little easier to find:
Whichever version you are using, when selecting the additional contacts option you are brought to a very useful screen where you can select the fields you wish to display, and are able to enter the corresponding information for each of your contacts:
NOTE: When upgrading to version 2013, you will want to make note of how the information is transferred from the older version to the 2013 version. If you have text in your Contact field, a new contact will be created within the customer record. Additionally, if you have any text in the Alt. Contact field, a 2nd contact will be created for that Customer.
While you had only one field to store a bunch of data before, you now have many fields, but QuickBooks will not know how to piece that data apart, so it has moved everything into the First Name fields. If you have more than 25 characters, the text will overflow into the Last Name fields. So once your upgrade is complete, there may be some cleanup work to do to get the information to appear the way you would like.
The ability to manage multiple contacts in QuickBooks is a terrific feature that is often overlooked. Now go check it out and make use of these helpful fields!