HaloITSM Guides

Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform

Guides > Customer, Site and User Records

Customer, Site and User Records

In this guide we will cover:

- Customers Area

- Creating a New Customer

- Changing Customer Tab Layout

- Tabs Against Customer/Sites/Users

- Customer Lists

Admin Guides:

General Settings (Users)

Related Guides:

The Customers area is used to store information about your customers, sites and users as well as set some customer/site/user specific settings and preferences. In this lesson we will delve into the functionality of this area.

Customers Area

To access the customer list we must first navigate to the customers area via the navigation bar on the left hand side, this is indicated by the person icon, shown in Fig 1.

Fig 1. The Customers area.

This area is labelled 'Customers' by default (the default may vary depending on the Halo product you are using) but this can be changed. To change this head to Configuration > Users > General Settings and enter the desired label for this area in the field "Label for the Customer/Site/User management area".

Fig 2. Label for the Customer/Site/User management area text field.

Next click onto "Customers" (this will probably be the default view already) this screen provides an overview of your customer records. You can search your existing records or create new ones here.

Fig 3. Customers list.

It should be noted that you can search on the address when searching for clients/sites.

Clicking into an existing customer record will take you to the screen below.

Fig 4. The Details Tab on a Customer

By default customer, sites and users are all stored under the 'Customers' module, however, if you would like them split out into their own modules enable the setting "Split the Customers area into Customers/Sites and contacts" in Configuration > Users > General Settings.

Fig 5. Split the Customers area into Customers/Sites and contacts checkbox.

Creating a New Customer

Clicking the "New" button shown in the top right corner of Fig 3 takes you to a blank customer record to fill in. Here you are asked to provide details such as the main site, any associated notes, their timezone and a main contact for them.

Fig 6. New Customer screen.

Simply press save and you have created a new customer!

Changing Customer Tab Layouts

Screen Layout profiles can be configured to change what tabs show on your customers, to do this head to Configuration > Advanced Settings > Screen Layout Profiles > change entity to 'Customer'.

Fig 7. Screen Layout Profiles list.

Edit, and in the "Tab layout" tab, setting the "Tab layout" dropdown to "Custom" will show a list of tabs underneath which you can configure.

Hovering over one in the list will show the dots icon to the left of the name. This will allow you to drag and drop the tabs to change the order.

Fig 8. Customising tab layout.

Clicking the pencil icon will show this "Display" dropdown. Here you can set if you want to hide or show the tab, or if you want the information to show in a sidebar instead of a separate tab.

Fig 9. Changing tab display.

You can then go back to the Advanced Settings main page and select your new screen layout profile on the dropdown. The profile selected here will apply to all agents, however this can be customised/overridden per agent under their agent preferences.

Fig 10. Default Customer Details screen layout.

Note: Screen layout profiles can also be customised for users and sites, just change the entity to 'user' or 'site' when creating the new screen layout profile.

There are multiple tabs which all hold different information relating to the customer in question, we will go through what each tab is used for.

Tabs Against Customer/Sites/Users

Details Tab
Delineates all the key information for that particular customer, for example their active status. This can either be displayed as it's own tab or be pinned to the right hand side of the screen by the dropdown in Fig 9.

Fig 11. Details tab as a pinned sidebar on a customer.

Overview Tab
This will show an "Overview" of the customer's/site's/user's activity, including the number of open tickets against the client in question.

Fig 12. Overview tab.

CRM Notes Tab
This will show you any notes held against that customer, these notes are typically created by the account manager. This is used to manage customer relations.

Fig 13. CRM Notes tab.

Sites & Users Tab
This will show you a list of all of the customer's sites and users, from here you can also create a new site/user for that customer. You can toggle between viewing a list of the users or sites here using the toggle in the top left.

Fig 14. Sites & Users view filter.

Selecting a user/site line will bring up the user/site profile. You can create a new user/site by using the 'New' button found on the top right hand side.

Hovering over the three dots in the top right corner will allow you to toggle between the views, you can choose between viewing sites/user in tile view or list view. Here, you can also toggle whether the list shows inactive sites and users.

Billing Tab
This tab will cover the customer specific billing features, along with the standard billing rules for the customer (this tab is only found against the customer).

The first setting shown can be enabled to exclude this customer from accounting integrations i.e. Sage, Xero, Quickbooks Online, etc. When this is enabled information such as invoices and orders will not be pushed to the accounting integration, even if this customer has a linked account with the integration. The third party customer name will display the name of this customer as shown in the accounts integration.

A default currency can be set per customer.

Fig 15. Default Billing Settings within a customer.

The 'Tax settings' section will determine the tax rates used for this customer, this will override any product tax rates set.

The 'PDF Templates' section allows you to choose the various PDF templates used for this customer, this will override any global settings.

A significant portion of the billing configuration in Halo relies on the billing rules associated to a customer, these determine how each action is billed i.e. what level of support is covered by an agreement vs what support is charged at an hourly rate on a PAYG basis.

Tickets Tab

This tab shows all the tickets for this customer/site/user. The dropdown in the top left can be used to filter what tickets appear in this list. The three dots in the top right can be used to toggle the type of view used here, a custom column profile can also be configured and applied here.

The 'New' button can also be used to raise a new ticket for this customer.

Fig 16. Tickets tab.

Note: When using this tab under a site or user this will only show the tickets for that site or user.

Sales Tab

The opportunities tab is much like the tickets tab, however it only shows sales tickets. Sales tickets are defined by ticket types that have the 'Use' field set to be 'Sales'.

Fig 17. Sales tab.

Appointments and Tasks Tab (Customer only)

This tab shows all the open/upcoming appointments and tasks that agents have with this customer.

Fig 18. Appointments and Tasks tab.

Selecting the appointment/task will open the appointment/task details and you will be able to edit it from here.

Assets Tab

This tab will show all the assets under this customer/site/user, an asset can be selected to open up the asset profile in the Assets module.

Using the three dots in the top right, the view of the asset list can be changed (between tile and table view). This list can also be exported to CSV and assets can be imported from here using a CSV file/spreadsheet.

Fig 19. Assets tab.

Activity Tab

This tab shows all the recent activity for this customer/site/user, this includes any new actions on tickets for this customer/site/user. The activity is sorted by time, with the most recent activity at the top of the list. Selecting an entry in the activity field will take you to that action on the associated ticket.

Fig 20. Activity tab.

Agreements Tab (customer and site only)

This tab shows all the agreements this customer/site has. New agreements can be created here using the 'New' button, site specific agreements (i.e. agreements that will be billed to this site) will need to be created under the site.

Fig 21. Agreements tab.

Pre-Pay Tab (customer only)

Here, you can configure Pre-pay for this customer, Pre-pay is set on a per customer basis so for any customers using Pre-pay this needs to be configured here.

Fig 22. Pre-pay tab.

Periodic History (customer only)

This shows the pre-pay history for this customer for each period (the period is determined by the 'recurring period' selected in the pre-pay tab). This includes the number of pre-pay units added, expired, used and how many remaining for each period. This area is useful in monitoring the customer's pre-pay usage, tracking patterns in usage so you can optimise their experience. For example, if the customer tends to use most of their pre-pay hours at the start of the quarter, and then none for the rest of the quarter you will know a 'Quarterly' recurring period will be more in line with their usage as opposed to monthly.

Fig 23. Periodic History tab

Recurring Invoices (site and customer only)

Here, you can see all recurring invoices for this customer/site along with some key details on each recurring invoice. Agents who do not have permission to access invoices will not be able to see this tab. An invoice can be selected to edit it. New invoices (both standalone and recurring) can be created here using the 'New' button.

Invoices Tab (site and customer only)

Here, you can see all invoices for this customer/site, both paid and unpaid. Agents who do not have permission to access invoices will not be able to see this tab. An invoice can be selected to edit it. New invoices (both standalone and recurring) can be created here using the 'New' button. Invoices are rarely created in this way as items/labour being invoiced will almost always be linked to a ticket and are therefore created in the 'Ready for invoicing' area of the 'Invoices' module.

Quotations Tab (customer only)

This tab will show all quotes for this customer, ordered by expiry date by default. The list can be filtered by each column by selecting the funnel in the column header, results can be sorted by a particular column by double clicking in the header for this column.

The list can also be filtered to only show quotations assigned to you, hover over the three dots in the top right and select 'Show mine only' to do this. New quotes for this customer can also be raised here using the 'New' button but quotes are typically raised from the Quotes and Orders module or through an opportunity ticket.

Sales Orders

This tab will show sales orders for this customer ordered by date by default. The list can be filtered by each column by selecting the funnel in the column header, results can be sorted by a particular column by double clicking in the header for this column.

The list can also be filtered to only show sales orders assigned to you, hover over the three dots in the top right and select 'Show mine only' to do this. New sales orders for this customer can also be raised here using the 'New' button but quotes are typically raised from a quote in the Quotes and Orders module or through a ticket.

Software Licences (customer and user only)

Here you can see all the software licences assigned to this customer/user as well as create new licences. Selecting a licence will allow you to edit the licence details.

Software History Tab (users only)

Here, you can see any changes made to a user's software, such as software added or removed.

Subscriptions (customer only)

Here you can see all the subscriptions assigned to this customer as well as create new subscriptions. Selecting a subscription will allow you to edit the subscription details.

Documents Tab

Here you can manage documents for the client/site/user.

Scheduled Tickets

Here you can see all the scheduled tickets that are due to be created for this customer.

Service Catalogue (customer and user only)

Here you can set which services this customer/user has access to. To give this customer/user access to a service add the service to the 'service access' table.

You can also set which services this customer/user is subscribed to. To subscribe them to a service add the service to the 'Subscribed Service Catalogue' table.

Knowledge Base Tab (customer only)

Here, you can see which knowledge base articles the users under this customer have access to. This is for reference purposes, to actually give/remove article access this will need to be done on the article itself.

Settings Tab

Here, you can customise the behaviour of tickets, billing and emails for each individual client. These are mostly self explanatory in their functions but we will run through a few of the key setting areas.

Popup notes - Here you can configure a pop-up note to appear for agents on this customer's/site's tickets. To do this add to the table and type the note you would like to appear in the 'Note' field. There are some additional settings against each note, such as the dates this note appears in and whether it can be dismissed permanently.

Override Organisation details - If any of the fields are populated here, these will override the organisation level setting for this customer only.

Email Defaults - Here you can set email defaults for this customer, these will override any global defaults set.

Knowledge Base - Here you can set FAQ lists that this customer can view.

Under site settings you can set the domain name for a site, this should be the email domain users at this site have. This is used in conjunction with a couple of email settings such as 'Only send acknowledgements to email addresses that match a Site's domain name' (under configuration > email). In order for these settings to take effect a site domain needs to be set here.

API Access Tab (customer only)

Here, you can allow this customer access to Get and Post to your Halo API. Allowing them to create and manage tickets using your API.

Site Contacts (site only)

Here, you can assign users to be a site contact. Site contacts are used for notifications, notifications can be configured to send to the site contacts you set here, useful when you would like to only alert key users at a site to an event. If a site contact is assigned but no notifications are configured the contact will be sent a notification each time a new ticket is logged for this site (this is the default notification). If any other (custom) notification has been configured to send to a site contact the default notification will be ignored and only the custom notification will be used.

Site contact types can be configured (under configuration > users > site contact types), this allows you to configure notifications based on the site contact type. For more information on setting up notifications see the following: Notifications.

Change History Tab (users only)

Here you can see any changes made to this user's profile such as a preference or permission change.

Preferences (user only)

Here you can set various preferences this user has, these are mostly self explanatory but we will run through some key preferences.

Customer level notifications - This sections allows you to choose what notifications this user receives for customer level events. Useful if you would like certain users to be alerted to ticket activity for their customer.

Site level notifications - This section allows you to choose what notifications this user receives for site level events.

Popup notes - Here you can configure a pop-up note to appear for agents on this user's tickets. To do this add to the table and type the note you would like to appear in the 'Note' field. There are some additional settings against each note, such as the dates this note appears in and whether it can be dismissed permanently.

Approval Processes - Here you can set if this user can delegate approvals, if so who to. More information on approval delegation can be found here.

Miscellaneous - Key setting here is 'linked agent', this is only used if this user is also an agent in your Halo. This determines the user account the agent will log in to the portal with. When creating a new agent profile they will automatically be created a user profile that is linked to their agent. This field is only used if you need to change the linked agent. An agent can be linked to multiple user profiles but will need a unique log in for each one.

Permissions Tab (user only)

Here you can set what they user has access to. We will run through some key permissions.

Web Access Level - This determines the tickets this user can see in the portal. If set to 'No access' the user will not be able to log into the portal. If set to 'This users tickets' they will only be able to view tickets they have raised in the portal. If set to 'Customers tickets' they will be able to see all tickets assigned to a user under the same customer as them, etc.

Assets Access Level - This determines the assets the user can see in the portal. This works in the same way a 'web access level'.

Service Access level - This determines the services this user can access, the user will be able to see services that have the number chosen here, or lower, with 1 giving the highest level of access. A number will need to be assigned to each service to determine what service access level the service comes under.

This User can partake in approvals - This does not need to be checked for a user to partake in approvals. However, when the approver in the approval process is set to be 'choose from a list of approver users...', only the users with this box checked will appear.

This User is an important contact - When checked this user will have a star icon against their profile which will make them stand out to agents in ticket lists.

Customer Lists

You can also create custom lists for viewing the customer area in a way that works well for you.

Click "Create a new list" in the Customers area.