One the the first tasks a new user in ChilliDB will take on is most likely to be the creating of a new organisation in their system. The process for doing so is fairly straightforward, however to guarantee the organisation record is collecting the data that is required, there are a few things we need to consider. This article will look at those considerations and step users through the creation of an organisation in ChilliDB.
Considerations Before Creating an Organisation
Are your organisation categorisations set up? Categorisation is a key part of record creation in ChilliDB. Every record you create will require categorisation. As such, before you create an organisation, you will want to make sure you have the organisation categorisations you require in place so they can be applied to the new records you are creating. If you haven't yet set up these categorisations in your system, please read our 'ChilliDB Admin Essentials: Customising Reference Data' article first to learn how to do so.
Are the necessary fields in place? To collect the data you require for your organisations, the fields allowing you to do so will need to be in place first. If this is not the case, please read our 'ChilliDB Admin Essentials: Creating Custom Fields' article on creating custom fields to learn how to set up sections and fields in ChilliDB.
Note: if you have a IT admin person, or a dedicated ChilliDB system admin person, at your organisation, check with them first before adding any categorisations or custom fields to your system.
Creating an Organisation
Once the relevant categories and fields are in place, a user is able to start adding organisations to their system. To create a new organisation record in ChilliDB, first click on the Organisations main menu item, and then select 'Create'.
This opens a new window to enter the details for the new organisation.
Fields of note on the Organisation creation page:
Categorisation: as mentioned above, this is a key component of any record creation in ChilliDB. Any available organisation categories will be listed here in dropdown form.
Name: enter the organisation's name here.
Abbreviation: abbreviated organisation name (if applicable)
Web address: organisations webpage
Status: organisation's status. This is a system field, and the options are 'Active' or 'Inactive'.
Add phone:Ā personal or business phone details can be entered in this field. Users are able to enter more than one type of phone number here.
Add address: this is where you add the organisation's address details. When this link is clicked, a new section opens that enables the user to enter the relevant details for the organisation.
Note: if 'Full Address Lookup' is enabled, users will be able to start typing the address they are looking to add in this field, and then they will be prompted with the options available for the full address in a dropdown menu that match the details they have entered.
If you don't see the 'Full Address Lookup' field when entering an address: navigate to the System main menu item; select 'System Management'; then select 'Manage ChilliDB Optional Features' from the options presented. One the next screen, find the option called 'Full Address Lookup' and click on the 'Enable' button to add this option to your address detail entry.
Note: if an address can't be found via the Full Address Lookup function, users have the option of ticking the box next to the 'Manual Entry' field and entering the address details themselves.
Add email: an organisation's business &/or personal email addresses can be added here. It's important to note that if you are intending on adding organisations to a distribution list, they must have an email address listed against their name for you to do so.
Add fax: this field operates in the same way as the email field above.
Is member: this field indicates whether an organisation is a member of a membership package in ChilliDB. If they have been added to a membership package, the field will display 'Yes'. If they are not a member of a package in ChilliDB, then it will display 'No'. This is a system-managed field and cannot be edited by users.
Primary Contact: this field is only visible once the initial details have been added to the organisation record and saved. This field allows the user to indicate who the main contact is at an organisation. To do so, after saving, click 'Edit' and the 'Primary Contact' field will then be available to populate with data.
To add a primary contact to an organisation, click 'Find' and search for the contact you wish to add. Then click 'Done' to designate the contact you have found as the primary contact.
Viewing an Organisation
Once an organisation has been created and 'Save' has been clicked, users are taken to the organisation record display page. This is the same page that is accessed via an organisation search to view organisation details. The organisation display page features two sections containing information about the organisation:
i) Organisation Record Details: this is an overview of the information that you entered when creating the organisation.
ii) Organisation tabs: this section features a row of tabs that either pull in information recorded against the organisation in other modules (sections) in ChilliDB; or that allow you to add further information to the organisation. The advantage of having certain types of information collected in tab format is that a user can create multiple instances of the same type of data. For example, when creating notes for an organisation, it gives us the ability to create a note on a given date and have that note stored against the organisation. We can then go back and create a different note on a different date and have both notes stored as separate instances against the organisation. Normal fields do not allow you to do this.
The Contacts; Notes; Messages; Events; Survey; Distribution List; Membership; Cases; and Donations tabs automatically pull information into the organisation record when that organisation has been associated with any of these modules elsewhere in the system.
The File Attachments (upload documents); Resources (indicate resources allocated to an organisation with a note); Standards/Requirements (set standards/requirements for the organisation); Roles (indicate organisational roles); and Relationships (link organisation to other organisations they are connected to) tabs allow the user to add further information to the organisation record.
The History tab shows the organisation record's history - e.g.: changes made and so on.
Note: users are able to create their own tabs in custom fields by adding a new section and setting its Section Appearance to 'Grid'. For more information about this, please see the Custom Fields article.
Using The Edit Feature And Actions Menu On The Organisation Details Page
The ChilliDB organisation details page features two further options for interacting with the data contained in the organisation record. These are found in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
1) The Edit feature: users can click the 'Edit' link to change/add any details related to the organisation. After the link has been clicked once, it changes to an 'Expire' option in the organisation edit screen.
2) The Actions Menu:
This menu features a number of different ways of interacting with the organisation details screen:
i) Create Like: creates a copy of the organisation record
ii) Send Survey: allows the user to send an existing survey to the organisation.
iii) Create Quick Link:Ā allows users to add the organisation record to their quick links options. For more on adding quick links, see our Quick Links Guide
iv) Flag:Ā gives the option for the user to flag an organisation in a certain colour. Users can add extra flag colours in the Reference Data section and allocate meanings to each colour.
v) Manage Sensitivity: functions in the same way as the 'Sensitivity' field when creating an organisation.
vi) Print: prints the organisation details page.
vii) Reports: gives users access to the 'Note Details for Organisation' report, which allows them to view notes linked to the organisation in report format.
vii) Tab Management: allows users to reorder the organisation tabs and also, if desired, change the name that is displayed via the 'Alias' field.
We hope you have found this organisations set up article useful. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
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