Chapter 10: Create New Contractor, Company or Person
Create New Company, Contractor or Person
BluePrince allows you to create new Persons, Contractors and Companies so that you can represent all of the people that interact with your jurisdiction's Community Development Offices. To create a person record from the BluePrince Main Tool Bar, click the New Contractor button. A side bar opens with Person, Contractor and Company buttons (see Figure 87). Click on the appropriate button and the corresponding form will open. The data entered for Persons, Contractors and Companies is very similar and only a limited number of required fields are necessary.
Figure 87 - Sidebar Menu for New Contractor Button
Required Fields
When creating a New Company, only the Company Name is required (shown in purple with underlining in Figure 88). When creating a New Contractor or New Person, the First and Last Names are required. Once you enter data the Save button is available but if you press Save before you have completed all the Required Fields, an error message will be displayed and you will be unable to save the record.
Figure 88 - New Company Form
Data Entry
To save time, you can find out if the Company, Contractor, or Person already exists before entering any other data by clicking the Exists button. A Message Box indicates if the Name does not exist. If the Name already exists, you may chose from a number of options:
- View Details (of the existing name). This will display a list of all matches. From this screen you may view the specific details for each entry.
- Try Again. This will allow you to try a different spelling or different name
- Use Anyway. This will allow you to continue creating a New Contractor record.
The purpose of these options is to help prevent duplicate entries in the database.
Hint: All of the Name fields with non-blank values are used to identify if the Name exists. As an example, all of the Names listed below are considered unique. If 2) through 10) were in the database already, and you checked if 1) Sam Smith, Exists? BluePrince will tell you that Sam Smith does not exist.
1) Sam Smith
2) Sam G Smith Sr
3) Sam Smith Jr
4) Samuel Smith
5) Sam Smith Sr
6) Samuel G Smith
7) Sam G Smith
8) Samuel G Smith Jr
9) Sam G Smith Jr
10) Samuel G Smith Sr
Any editable field, including the Custom tab, can be populated prior to saving, except for those on the Account, Licenses, Memberships, Attachment, Notes and Contractors (Company Only) tabs. Data on these tabs can only be entered on existing records. You must Save the New Person, Company or Contractor and click Edit Mode before entering that data. When data entry is complete click the Save button to save the Company, Contractor or Person in the database.
Common Data
The Person, Company and Contractor Forms contain common data fields that can be entered on a New form:
Address - The Address fields are designed to reduce duplication. Enter any of the values as are needed. You may enter a partial address or none at all. Note that you will always have a partial address of City and State if you enter no other information because these are pre-populated for you based upon your configuration settings.
Phone - Click Change to bring up the Add Phone Number form. Select the type of phone from the drop down list. Enter a number and description (if desired). The phone numbers appear on the search results form when you look up contractors. Click Save to store the changes.
Email - On the Email tab you can enter an Email address and Web Site URL for the Person, Company or Contractor. Clicking the Send Message button will open your email program with the email address filled in the recipient field. Clicking the Launch Site button will open your internet browser with the Web Site URL.
Extras - The Extras tab currently only allows you to enter a Tax Payer's ID Number for the Person, Company or Contractor.
Custom - Any custom fields that have been configured, required or not, will appear in the Custom tab. All required fields must be filled out when a new record is created, but you can come back to this tab and edit any fields later. You can also perform a Search based off any of these custom fields.
Contractor Specific Data: The following fields are specific to the Contractor and can only be entered after a "New" Contractor has been Saved:
Contractor's Trade - Enter a trade or any description you wish by typing into the Trade box. This field appears on the search results form when you look for Contractors.
Assign Contractor to a Company - If the contractor works with a company, you can make that association in the Contractor's Company group box. Enter a company name, or partial name and the wild card character (*). Click the Assign button and BluePrince will search for the name you provided. An Assignment form is displayed listing all the matches in your search. Select the row of the one you want and click the Use button. This selects the record from the database and returns to the Contractor form, filling in the Contractor Company field.
Modify Information
Change Data
To add, change or delete Person, Contractor or Company data you must retrieve the record you want using the Search form. Please see the appropriate section of the Chapter 4: Searching. Existing Person, Contractor or Company records are also accessible from the Permit, Company and Property forms, but here limited fields are editable.
Once you have found the correct Person, Contractor or Company you must open the appropriate form and click the Edit Mode button to make your changes. When you do so, all editable fields will change to have a white background. The following paragraphs describe data entry for a Person, Contractor or Company that already exists in the database. Except for Account Details, you must be in Edit Mode to make the changes below.
Accounts
The Account tab only exists when BluePrince accounting is being used. Accounts are automatically created for all Persons, Contractors and Companies, but the account number is blank. On the Account tab, click the Details button to add an Account Number on the Account form. It is not necessary to click Edit Mode before accessing Account Details, however a New Person, Contractor or Company must be Saved before the Account can be accessed.
To enter or change the Account Number, press Edit Mode on the Account form and enter the account number. Any combination of letters and numbers may be used, but the number must be unique. If the Account Number is not unique, a message is displayed when you attempt to Save the form. Press Save and then Close to save your change and return.
Licenses
To Create a New License, select the Licenses tab and click the New button to open the License Entry dialog. Select the License Type you are creating from the Type drop down. The License Number is the only required field and it must be unique. If it is not, a message is displayed indicating the problem when you attempt to save the data. A License Class and Description are optional and depending on your configuration the Expiration Date may be automatically set or manually set.
Clicking the Renew button allows that license to be refreshed with a new Expiration Date and if a renewal fee is configured a fee will be created on the Contractor or Company Account Form.
To Change or Remove a License, select the Licenses tab and select the License you want to change or remove in the table. Click the Remove button to remove the License and the Details button to open the License Entry dialog. Click Edit Mode and make your changes. Click Save and Close to save your changes and return.
Memberships in Professional Organizations
BluePrince can be configured with a list of Contractor Organizations. This allows you to easily identify any Person, Contractor or Company as a member of that organization. To Create a Membership, select the Memberships tab and click the New button. This opens the Contractor Memberships dialog where you can check off the Memberships you want to add. Click Save and the memberships you selected now appear in the table on the Memberships tab. To remove a Membership, select the Memberships tab and select the membership you want to remove in the table, then click the Remove button.
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