Add, validate, delete, and edit contacts in a record

Depending on the type of record you are creating, there are various ways to add contact information. You can enter new contact information, use existing owner or licensed professional information, copy existing contact information, search for contacts, and add reference contact information. The validation setting of the Contact section determines which methods are available to you.

If the Validate button displays in the Contact section, you must validate the section against reference contacts after adding a contact. For more information, see Validate a contact.

If the Contact Address sub section displays in the Contact section, you can add, look up, or remove contact addresses of the contact. You must enter required contact addresses. For more information, see Add contact addresses for a contact.

To search for and add reference contacts

1. Do any of the following:

   • Navigate to the Applicant or Contact section for entering single contact data.

   • Navigate to the Contact section that is for entering multiple contact data but you have not added any contact to and select the Search button to open the Contact list window.

   • Navigate to the Contact list section.

2. Select Search.

3. Complete any fields that display and select Submit.

   You can either search by contact standard fields, activities, or contact addresses. For a description of the fields, see Applicant and contact fields and Contacts details.

   Note: Civic Platform ignores the contact type when performing the search, and returns all the reference contacts that meet the other criteria settings.

   If you are adding a contact in a single contact section, there is an “Add Contact” icon next to each contact.

   If you are adding contacts in a multiple contacts configuration, each contact has a check box, enabling you to select one or more contacts to interact with.

4. If the search results contain the contact(s) you want to add:

   • In the single contact section, select the icon next to the contact you want to add.

     If available, you can select the Associated Contact link next to the contact to view the contacts associated with the selected contact, and select the icon beside the contact you want to add.

   • In the multiple contact section and in the contact list section, choose the contacts you want to add and select Select.

     To view records that are associated with the selected contacts, select the desired contacts, then select Search associated. Select the contacts that you want to add and select Select.

5. If the search results do not contain the contact(s) you want to add:

   • Select Close matches to retrieve close match contacts. For more information on close match search, see Look for close matches.

   • Select New in reference to create a new reference contact. After you complete the fields in the popup Contact New Form (see Contacts details), select Submit.

   When you see the contact(s) you want to add in the search results list, perform Step 4.

6. If the selected contact(s) has multiple contact addresses, you can select the contact addresses to add from the contact address look up form by selecting the desired contact addresses, then selecting Select.

   If the selected contact has only one contact address, Civic Platform adds the selected contact to the record with that contact address.

7. You can also add contact address(es) for the contact in the contact address sub section. See Add contact addresses for a contact.

8. Confirm that the contact type for the newly-added contact is correct. If not, select the type you want from the list.

To populate the contact section with existing owner, licensed professional, or contact data

1. After adding an owner, a licensed professional, or a contact to the corresponding section of the application intake form, do one of the following:

   • Select the As lic. prof button if the contact you want to add is a licensed professional you added in the licensed professional section.

   • Select the As owner button if the contact you want to add is the same as the owner you added in the owner section.

   • Select the As contact button and select an existing contact.

     Note: If your contact section supports multiple contacts, the As contact button is available only on the contact entry form.

     Civic Platform populates the contact section with information from the existing owner, licensed professional, or contact.

2. Add contact address(es) for the contact in the contact address sub section. See Add contact addresses for a contact.

To add a new contact manually

1. Do one of the following:

   • Navigate to the applicant or contact section for entering a single contact.

   • Navigate to the contact section for entering multiple contacts, select Search, then select New.

   • Navigate to the contact list and select New.

     Note: If a Validate button displays in the application or contact section, you must search for an existing reference contact to add it to the section and then validate your choice. You cannot add a contact to the application by entering contact information manually.

     Civic Platform displays the contact entry form.

2. Complete any fields that display (see Record fields and sections).

   Note: If you are working with the multiple contact section or the Contact list section, Civic Platform saves any new information you enter as a new reference contact in the database.

   If you are working with the single contact section, Civic Platform does not save the data as a reference contact. Instead, Civic Platform links the new contact to the application.

3. Add contact address(es) for the contact in the contact address sub section. See Add contact addresses for a contact.

After you specify the contact type for a contact, you can add contact addresses for the contact in the Contact Address sub section. The heading of the Contact Address sub section might display a warning message telling you that Civic Platform requires certain contact address types for a contact. You must enter contact addresses for the required contact address types before you can save the record successfully.

Before you add contact addresses to a contact that you added to the record by looking up reference contacts, be aware that your change might affect the contact addresses in the associated reference contact or another related record contact. Specially:

• If you create a new contact address or edit a contact address in the record contact, Civic Platform adds or updates the contact address in the reference contact as well;

• If you remove a contact address from the record contact, the contact address still exists in the reference contact.

• If you deactivate a contact address in the record contact, the contact address changes to inactive in the reference contact and also the record contacts which link to the same reference source.

• If you deactivate a contact address in the reference contact, the contact address changes to inactive in all the record contacts which link to the reference contact.

• The primary contact address in one record contact can be non-primary in another one, although the two contact addresses share the same reference source.

To add a new contact address manually

1. In the contact entry form of the contact you want to work with, select New in the contact address sub section.

2. The address you are adding might require validation:

   Note: Even if the Validation button displays, you might only need to validate addresses of certain type and in certain countries. You can first select the address type and country/Region, and try the Validate button to know where you are from the response message. For example:

   • The “Address validation is required” message means that the address requires validation.

   • “No validation data source is defined” message means that you are creating an address that requires no validation;

   • “Failed to connect to the validation data source” message means that the address requires validation but Civic Platform cannot connect to the validation source defined by your administrator.

   • If the address you are adding requires no validation, complete the fields as described in Contacts details.

     Civic Platform leaves the Validated field empty.

   • If the address you are adding requires validation, complete the following steps:

     1. Specify the Address Type and Country/Region fields, and complete a few more fields as described in Contacts details.

     2. Select the Validate button.

        Civic Platform displays the Contact Address Validation List, with the matching addresses from the external validation source.

     3. To add an address from the list, choose the desired address, then select Select.

        Civic Platform populates the contact address fields with the information from the selected address, and sets the Validated field to Yes.

     4. If you do not want to accept any of the validated addresses, select Cancel.

        Civic Platform sets the Validated field of the address to No.

3. Select Submit to save the contact address to the current contact.

To look up and add a contact address from the reference contact

1. Open the contact form for the contact you want to work with.

2. Select the Look Up button in the Contact Address sub section.

   Civic Platform displays the Contact Address Look Up Form. The contact address list contains the contact addresses with address type that is both active and associated with the contact type.

3. Select the contact addresses you want to add for the contact. If the address type of a listed contact address is a required field for the contact, Civic Platform selects the address by default.

4. Select Select.

   Civic Platform adds the selected contact addresses to the current record contact.

   Note: When you make changes to a contact address that a user added by using the look-up function, Civic Platform updates to the reference contact accordingly.

To edit a contact address

1. Select the Contact Address ID link of the contact address that you want to edit.

2. Modify the fields as desired. For a description of the contact address fields, see Contacts details.

3. Select Save.

   Note: When you make changes to a contact address that a user added by using the look up function, Civic Platform updates to the reference contact accordingly.

To remove or deactivate a contact address

1. Select the contact address that you want to remove or deactivate. Note that you cannot remove or deactivate the primary contact address.

2. Select Remove to remove the contact address from the current record contact, or select Deactivate to deactivate it first.

   • If you remove a contact address from the current record contact, Civic Platform does not remove the contact address from the source reference contact in the reference contact page.

   • If you deactivate a contact address, you can enter an end date for the contact address, which defaults to the current date, and the contact address status becomes Inactive.

   • If the contact address you are deactivating is the primary contact address in one or more records, it requires you to define a new contact address besides specifying the end date for the selected address.

     For information on defining a new contact address, see Create, associate, or delete reference addresses for a contact .

When you have multiple contacts on a record, you can set a primary contact to indicate whom to contact regarding the record.

To set a primary contact

1. In the Contact list section, identify the contact you want to set as primary, and mark that contact in the Primary column.

2. Select Set primary.

Depending on your agency administrator’s settings for the Contact section, you might need to validate contacts. If the Contact section displays the Validate button and the section is not complete, then the validation is a required action before you submit the record.

For the Single contact or Applicant section, Civic Platform checks if the contact is valid against the reference database. For the Multiple contact section, Civic Platform not only checks if the contact is valid against the reference database, but also checks if you have added contacts of the required types to the application.

If the contact information entered is not valid against the reference database, you can create a reference contact and add it to the record.

The image below shows an intake form with two Contact sections, the first with a Validate button and the second without a Validate button.

To validate a contact

1. Do any of the following:

   • Navigate to the Contact section for entering a single contact and add a contact.

   • Navigate to the Contact section for entering multiple contacts and add a contact.

   • Navigate to the Contact list section and select the contact you want to validate.

   For more information about adding a contact, see Add a contact.

2. Select Validate.

   Civic Platform validates the contact information against the reference database.

   • If you looked up the record contact from reference, the validation is always successful. You can jump to step 5.

   • If you manually entered the contact information, the validation checks whether there exists close-match reference contact(s) by checking all the common fields, except Contact Type, between the information you entered and the matching reference contact(s).

     • If there is only one matching reference contact, Civic Platform directly adds the reference contact information to the record. You can jump to step 4.

     • If there is none or multiple close match reference contacts, Civic Platform lists all the close match reference contacts for you to select and add as the record contact. You also have the option to create a new reference contact.

3. In the Contact list window, do one of the following:

   • Select the reference contact that you want to add from the contact list.

   • Select New to create a new reference contact. After you complete the fields in the Contact new form, select Submit. After you see the contact in the contact list, select it to add the contact.

4. If the selected contact(s) has multiple contact addresses, you can pick the contact addresses to add in theContact address look up form by marking the check boxes besides the contact addresses, and selecting Select. If you select a contact address and select Deactivate, the contact address no longer displays in the Contact address look up form.

   If the selected contact has only one contact address, by default, Civic Platform adds the selected contact to the record with its contact address.

5. Confirm that the contact type of the newly-added contact is correct. If not, select a type in the Type list.

6. Make necessary changes to the newly-added contact if you want. Depending on your agency’s configuration, your changes might also write to the reference source when you submit the record.

If your agency configures the Contact section as a contact list, you can delete individual contacts from the list before submitting the application.

To delete a contact

1. Navigate to the Contact list section of the application intake form.

2. Select for each contact you want to delete.

3. Select Delete.

If your agency configures the Contact section as a contact list, you can view and edit the details for each contact. You can also change the contact type from the Contact list section directly.

To edit a contact

1. Navigate to the Contact list section of the application intake form.

2. To change the contact type only, select the desired option from the Contact type list.

3. To edit contact details, select the contact that you want to edit.

4. Update the fields as needed. For a description of the fields, see Record fields and sections.

5. Add or edit the contact address in the Contact Address section. For more information on contact addresses, see Add contact addresses for a contact.

6. Select Save.