The Contacts App lets you organize and manage your company's relationships with customers, vendors, and leads by creating and maintaining contacts for each. Method lets you maintain records of the names, phone numbers, emails and job titles of every person you do business with.
Changes you make are synced between Method and QuickBooks, however, there are certain cases where Method purposefully does not sync to QuickBooks:
Customer Leads: Leads are not synced with QuickBooks but stay within Method. This keeps your QuickBooks clean.
Multiple Contacts: Method allows you to have an unlimited number of contacts for each customer. This is not true for all versions of QuickBooks. Other than the first and initial contact, any further contacts created in Method are not synced with QuickBooks.
Note: For more information on the difference between contacts and customers, please view our article "What is a Contact".
Viewing a Contact
Selecting a contact within your contacts list takes you to a screen where you can view them.
The contact screen is split. It will list both the contact and the customer it is associated with. (Note, if this were a vendor, it would display Vendor Details. Note that throughout this document, we will use the customer as an example.)
Above is a screenshot of a contact. Let's go into detail for each section.
Contact Details - The details for the contact attached to the customer. Again, for more information on the difference between contacts and customers, please see our article What is a Contact?
Customer Details / Customer Lead Details - The details for the Customer or the Customer Lead.
App Ribbons - The customer will have a number of interactions and transactions associated with them. They are available to view by selecting the different tabs.
Contact Header
The header at the top gives information about the contact and the customer it is associated with.
Main Contact: This specifies if the contact is the Main contact or not for the customer. Method will create one contact whenever a customer is created. This contact is known as the Main Contact and is the only contact that syncs with QuickBooks. Other contacts created in Method will not sync to QuickBooks.
Company: This field holds the company name for the customer.
Edit: Edit the details for the contact, but this doesn't include the details for the customer.
Tags: Contacts can be categorized by tags. Customers cannot be tagged.
Portal Link: The Contacts Portal allows the customer to view and pay their transactions. This is a personalized portal link just for this customer. They are still able to use your account's main portal link. For more information about setting up portals, see Account Settings - Portal.
Customer Details - QuickBooks Online Accounts
The Customer Details section shows information about the customer associated with the displayed contact.
Assigned To: This is the Method User the customer is assigned to.
Name in QuickBooks: The display name as it will show in QuickBooks when Method syncs. This is a different field and not the same as the company name, even if the values are the same.
Show more: When expanded, this will show:
Shipping address
Status
Terms
Sales Tax Code
Campaign
Notes
Edit: Allows you to edit the details of the customer.
Customer Details - QuickBooks Desktop Accounts
The Customer Details section shows information about the customer associated with the displayed contact.
This field is pulled in directly from QuickBooks. Note, this is ONLY available for the US versions of QuickBooks Desktop.
Sales Rep: This is the Sales Rep assigned to the customer.
Price Level: If a Price Level set, it will show here.
Name In QuickBooks: The display name as it will show in QuickBooks when Method syncs. This is a different field and not the same as the company name, even if the values are the same.
Show more: When expanded, this will show:
Shipping address
Status
Terms
Sales Tax Code and Sales Tax Items
Notes
Edit: Allows you to edit the details of the customer.
Customer Lead Details
If a customer hasn't been converted, then they are a lead and will not sync to QuickBooks. The details are similar to a normal customer, however, these lead fields will also be showing.
Lead Status
Open: The lead hasn't been evaluated as Qualified or Unqualified
Qualified: The lead is a good fit for the services you offer, or has expressed interest in your services.
Unqualified: Opposite of Qualified, Not interested or not a good fit .
Lead Rating
Cold
Warm
Hot
Lead Source: A number of options will be available to choose from. You also have the ability to create your own.
App Ribbons Section
On the right is a panel that takes up the majority of the screen, and this panel will hold related interactions and transactions. All the tabs shown are from installed apps the Method user has access to. Clicking the More ▼ will display more apps to choose from. The Other Contacts tab will display other contacts that are associated with the customer.
Selecting a tab on the top will show the related records from that app. For example, selecting the Opportunities tab will show you all the opportunities for this customer.
In the above image, the Activities Open tab is selected, and it shows two open activities for Meghan Wright.