Adding a Contact
To add a contact click on the Add New button near the top of the screen. This will enable all fields for editing.
The first item to choose is whether this is an active or inactive contact; chances are they will be active. Next you’ll want to choose whether the contact is an owner, operator, vendor or any combination of the three. You do not need to enter the contact three different times to mark them as an owner, operator, and vendor simply check the appropriate boxes. You’ll also want to specify whether this contact is a grain buyer by either checking or unchecking the grain buyer check box. Next, you’ll need to enter a code for the contact. This is a user defined code, so it can be any combination of alpha or numeric characters, as long as it is unique (don’t worry, the program will double check the uniqueness for you). AgWare does recommend keeping a consistent coding system in place for database integrity. Next you’ll start entering the information about your contact. Simply tab or click through the remaining fields in the personal section. Please note that the Payee Name is the name that will appear on checks for this contact, so it is important to fill in this section. Also, be sure to fill out the Fed ID/SSN field, this field must contain nine characters to be valid for tax reporting.
Then, you’ll want to make sure you fill out the primary address fields as well as the secondary address fields if applicable. You’ll notice when you enter an email address, it will turn into a blue hyperlink. If you double click on the email address, it will open a new email message using your default mail application.
In the tax information section, you’ll want to check whether you want to print a 1099 for this contact (when the time arises) and whether this is a reportable business type. You’ll also want to choose the tax type for your contact. There are three options O, M, and F; O is for Owner which means that the owner is the payer – all payer information will be pulled from the owner record; F is Firm which means that the Firm (management company) is the payer – all payer information will come from the firm record and the firm’s Federal Identification Number and Phone Number entered during generation; M is Mixed which means the owner is the payer – the owner’s name and Federal Identification Number will be used, and the firm’s Address and Phone Number information will be used. If the tax type is left blank, it will be treated as a tax type of O.
The Calculate Reportable Income button will show the yearly reportable income for the contact.
The last section to fill out for a new contact is the account section. This data is for informational purposes only. The Account ID is an old AccuTech field that was left in the contact section for prior users, we feel there is no reason to enter any information in this section. Account Type is used to identify the type of trust, such as “Personal Trust” and “Guardianship”. Territory refers to the farm territory. Relationship manager is the trust officer responsible for the farm owner’s trust, and investment authority type indicates how much investment a management firm is allowed to make on behalf of an owner. The office code identifies the office associated with an owner.
*Important Note: When setting up contacts you will need to set up the firm as a vendor contact for auto-fee transactions.
Viewing/Editing a Contact
To view/edit a contact, click on the drop down at the top of the section. This will show you a list of all contacts in the database. The default for the drop down list is to display all active and inactive contacts. You can limit this by checking/unchecking the desired box to the right of the drop down. This drop down also filters as you type so if you know the name or code of the contact you are wanting to view, simply type it in the respective field of the drop down and the list will update as you type.
Once you’ve selected a contact all available data will appear in the respective fields below. You can easily edit this information by simply clicking in the desired field, changing the data, and clicking the save button.
When viewing contact data, we also have an area to the right of the information fields that display’s pertinent information about the selected contact.
For example, if the contact you chose is an owner and they own various portions of multiple farms that information will be noted in the box. We only show owner and operator data in this informational Contact’s Roles box.
Find Contact
On the top tool bar you can choose the Find Contact button. This will take you to the find contact window which allows you to search for a particular contact by social security number, state, address, or any other means. You can then double click on the contact’s row to open the view/edit window for that contact. A contact in red text indicates that contact is marked as inactive.
