Client Correspondence

The Correspondence feature allows you to keep track of communication with Clients or Vendors. Correspondence records may be either Email or Note history. This feature can help you to manage relationships with your Clients and Vendors by recording conversations and email messages as well as setting follow up reminders and task notices via the integrated Planner.

1. Open the Correspondence window

Navigate to Sales ➤ Correspondence

Open the Correspondence window

2. The Correspondence window

  • Company Name: The name of the Client or Vendor company.
  • Last Name: Last name of the Contact.
  • First Name: First name of the Contact.
  • Type
    • Email
    • Note
    • Continuing Memo
    • Correspondence
    • Reminder
  • Subject: A brief description of the record contents.
  • Created By: The AcctVantage User who created the record.
  • Create Date: The date that the record was created.
The Correspondence window

3. Creating a New Correspondence Record

Choose whether this will be an Email or Note Correspondence.

Notes are used to record any non-email communication you may have with your Clients and Vendors. A note may be a single phone call or a running dialogue of several conversations. Using the Notes system in conjunction with the Planner makes for a powerful and effective relationship management tool.

Creating a New Correspondence Record

3.1. Email Correspondence

Company

  • Client/Vendor:  Select the appropriate button for the new record.
  • Name: Enter the name of the Client or Vendor Company.
  • Type: This is non-enterable for Email records.
  • Contact: The name of the individual receiving the Correspondence.
  • To: The email address or addresses you are sending to.
    • This will automatically be populated with the Contact’s email address.
    • By default, AcctVantage will enter the email address from the Client/Vendor record if no Contact is entered, or if the Contact does not have an email address on file.
    • You can also click into this field to enter email addresses manually. Multiple addresses must be separated by a semi-colon (;) character.
  • Sent At: This will display the time and date that the email was sent. It will display Not Yet Sent if the email has not yet been sent.
  • Send: Clicking this button will deliver your Email.

Message

  • Subject: A brief description of the Email’s contents.
  • Body: Enter your message here. This field will support up to 32,000 characters. Click the clock icon to stamp the Message Body with the Time, Date and User.
  • Attachments: Clicking in this field will display a dialogue window for you to select a file to send as an attachment to your email. Attachments are not saved as a permanent part of the email record, but  the record will display the file name.
Email Correspondence

3.2. Note Correspondence

Company

  • Client/Vendor:  Select the appropriate button for the new record.
  • Date: The date the Correspondence Note was created.
  • Time: The time the Correspondence Note was created.
  • Type
    • Note: A Note could be a record of a phone conversation or other dialogue with your Contact or could simply be an observation that will be helpful to remember.
    • Continuing Memo: Continuing Memos are helpful to track a series of conversations or phone calls. Use the Time Stamp feature to separate your calls.
    • Correspondence: Correspondence records are used to paste the text from sales letters, thank you notes, etc. to keep as a permanent record.
    • Reminder: Use Reminder records to record notes about a particular item to follow up on.
  • Name: Enter the name of the Client or Vendor Company.
  • Related Sales Order: The Sales Document ID if the Note is related to a Quote, Order, Invoice or Credit Memo.
  • Contacts: The names of the Contacts at the Client or Vendor company with whom you have corresponded.
  • Contact Methods: The preferred method(s) of communication for the selected Contact.

Message

  • Subject: A brief description of the Note's contents.
  • Body: Enter your message here. This field will support up to 32,000 characters. Click the clock icon to stamp the Message Body with the Time, Date and User.
Note Correspondence

An Example of How to Use Correspondence History

Suppose you are an account executive and need to make a call to check on a sales lead. You open up the Correspondence record in which you want to enter the information regarding this call. This could be a record that you call Sales Call.

After opening the record, you scroll back in the history and refresh your memory regarding your last conversation. Since AcctVantage can stamp the date and time on each entry, you know exactly how long ago you spoke to this Client.

Now you place a call to the Client. When they answer, click on the Time Stamp icon. AcctVantage enters the Date, Time and User in the Detail field. As you speak to the Client, you make some notes in the Detail field. The Client informs you that they are very seriously considering a large order with your company. They have heard that you have just introduced some new Products are wondering if they could get some literature on these products. You make a note in the Detail field and decide to set a task for someone in Marketing to send out Product information to this Client.

When you hang up the phone, you click the Note icon in the bottom of the screen to bring up the Task dialog box. In the Subject field, you type Please Mail New Catalog then you select the name of your Marketing director from the Assigned To list. You click OK to save the assignment record.

Now you decide to also give yourself the task of checking back with the Client in a few days. You create another new task record. When a blank record appears, you type Check back with Client in the Subject field, and make sure you are shown in the Assigned To list. Then you click on the arrow next to the Due Date field to select the date when you want the task to appear on the Planner calendar. When finished, you click OK to save the task.